(play at your own risk) warning: do not play this game if you suffer from mental illnesse, for safety.⚠️
Alternately called Doors of the Mind or Black Door, White Door, and well, any other combination of colors, you can think of, Red Door, Yellow Door takes two to play, but it’s perfect for an audience of scared young people late at night so it’s no surprise that it’s made a resurgence in recent years. The rules are simple, but the outcome could be dire, or so the urban legends claim.
One player is the guide, and the other is the subject. The guide sits on the floor, cross-legged with a pillow in their lap. The subject will then lie on the ground with their head in the guide’s lap and their hands raised in the air. The guide should, at this point, begin to massage the subject’s temples in a circular motion chanting, “Red Door, Yellow Door, any other color door” over and over again, joined by any witnesses to the game.
As the subject slips into the trance, they will find themselves in a room in their mind and at that point, they should lower their arms to the floor signalling the guide and any witnesses to stop chanting. The game has officially begun. The guide will, at this point, begin to ask questions of the subject in order to get them to describe the room. Any witnesses at this point should be silent so that there is no sound except for the voice of the guide and the voice of the subject answering the guide’s question.
Here are some examples of the type of questions the guide should ask:
“What color are the doors?”
“How do you feel about the purple door?”
“Open the purple door and go through.”
The guide might ask what colors the doors to the room are, how they feel about the doors, and instruct them to go through varying doors into other rooms. The subject is encouraged to answer all questions honestly until the guide decides to end the game, but there are some warnings and signs of danger to keep in mind.
According to Scary for Kids:
• If you encounter people in the room, it may be best not interact with them. They may be evil and try to trick you.
• If you find yourself in a room full of clocks, leave immediately. Clocks can trap you.
• You can go wherever you want, but it is safer to go up than down.
• Light things and light colors tend to be better than dark things and dark colors.
• If you should find yourself trapped in a room, you must try to wake up. If you don’t, you might be trapped forever.
• If you die in the game, you will supposedly die in real life.
• If you encounter a man in a suit who makes you uncomfortable, end the game immediately.
• If the guide is having a hard time waking the subject from the trance, they should shake them roughly to bring them into wakefulness.
Supposedly, the whole point of the Red Door, Yellow Door, seemingly, is to explore the inner workings of your own mind, and to also understand that there are also dark sides to everyone. Some of the things you might encounter inside the game may be those very things about yourself that you don’t wish to face.
