Elevators

[Nebulous]

Do you like elevators?

How often do you use elevators?

Why do people keep pressing the button to call the elevator, even though that doesn’t make the elevator come quicker?

Do you always try to squeeze in even if the elevator looks full?

 

[Animedragon]

I use elevators, or lifts as we call them in the UK , whenever they are offered as an alternative to climbing stairs especially long flights of stairs! At railway stations using the lift can be safer than going up the stairs as there's always the risk of being knocked over by someone coming down in a great rush so as not to miss their train.

People who press the buttons repeatedly are usually stressed out or impatient, or both. 

I never try to squeeze into a crowed lift, I'll wait for another one.

One of the buildings I worked in had weird lifts, there were no buttons inside the lift car, there was a panel on the lift landing and you entered the number of the floor you wanted and then waited for a lift with your number on it to arrive. Sometimes it was a bit noisy and it was hard to hear the announcement of which lift was yours.

My local hospital had a Paternoster Lift which scared the daylights out of me so I never used it when I visited. For those who don't know what a Paternoster lift is, it's a continuous belt of lift cars that never stops moving, there's no doors so you jump into the lift as it passes your floor and jump out again when you reach the floor you want. Timing your jump is everything. When the lift car boxes reach the top, or bottom floor they go over a loop and carry on in the opposite direction. It's apparently perfectly safe to stay on and go over the loop but it's discouraged.  The thing is still in the hospital but it's sealed off as Paternoster lifts were deemed too dangerous. 

[Sakura]

I usually use stairs lately if that's an option, only because for the past couple years I've been working out every day and anytime I get a chance to do anything like run up and down stairs a few times, I'll take it.

I don't mind elevators though, I like riding in glass ones and watching the view as you go up. I definitely won't get in a crowded one though. 

[animechat]

I didn't like to much and many times I got stuck  in elevator that's why walking better up...

[Animedragon]

One place I worked in had rather fast lifts and when I found myself as the only occupant I tried to jump just as lift started down, if I got the timing right I sort of floated for a few seconds before gravity realised what I was up to and put a stop to my little game.

[Digimon_Sommelier]

I don't like elevators.

[Animedragon]

1 hour ago, Digimon_Sommelier said:

I don't like elevators.

They have their ups and downs that's for sure.

[Clayton]

Urban legend or portal to another world? The Elevator Game purports to blur the lines of reality for players, if they follow the rules and don’t make a potentially fatal mistake. One disturbing case has caught the attention of believers – and skeptics.

◊

 

The last known video of Elisa Lam alive showed her in an elevator in the Cecil Hotel. Days later, her body was found in the hotel’s water tank. To this day, nobody knows how she died or how her body got there.

 

The video is strange, to say the least. Unsettling if you watch it a few times. No one could make sense of what exactly happened to Elisa Lam until conspiracy theorists and paranormal fanatics zeroed in on one dubious explanation: an urban legend called the Elevator Game. 

 

What Is the Elevator Game?

The Elevator Game  – or “The Elevator to Another World” – is not for the faint of heart. Originating in Korea and Japan, it’s essentially a step-by-step ritual that is believed by some to blur the lines of reality. Although the exact dates of its origin are unknown, the game probably hasn’t been around for very long, and some posts regarding game outcomes date back only to 2011.

 

Not surprisingly, the popularity of the Elevator Game has been powerfully influenced by online accounts of it. And, as too often happens, it has become even more widely known as the alleged cause of a tragedy: the death of Elisa Lam. 

 

(Source: North Carolina Department of Labor)

 

We’ll explore the case of Eliza Lam a little later, but first let’s take a look at the rules of the game. 

 

How to Play the Elevator Game

There are many steps to playing (and surviving) the Elevator Game, and, as we’ve been warned, it’s imperative that you follow them precisely and in the exact order. In this game, you will need at least one “player” and an elevator in a building with a minimum of 10 floors. Here’s how to play: 

 

• Step 1: Let’s say you’re the player. You enter an elevator, alone or with another player. No outsider can enter the elevator with you, nor can you leave at any point. If you do exit the elevator, you must start over.

 

• Step 2: Then, you ride the elevator from floor to floor in a specific sequence: up to the 4th floor; down to the 2nd floor; up to the 6th floor; back down to the 2nd floor; up to the 10th floor; and then down to the 5th floor. Remember not to get off at any of the floors.

 

• Step 3: When you get to the 5th floor, if you encounter a mysterious woman, DO NOT look at her and do not answer or interact with her in any way. The consequences of engaging with her are said to include the possibility of never returning to the real world.

 

• Step 4: Now, push the button to descend from the 5th floor to the 1st floor. Here’s where they say things could get crazy: If the elevator operates normally and takes you to the 1st floor, exit immediately and do not look back or talk to anyone. But if, instead of taking you from the 5th to the 1st floor, the elevator begins to go up . . . well, congratulations, you’re being allowed into another world. Or so they say. Alternatively, you might resist the urge to freak out, and instead simply press the emergency button and wait for the Fire Department to arrive with help.

 

So, now you know how to punch your ticket to this portal to another world. Elevator Game believers say all sort of things might happen at this point. Things might look different. It might be dark and spooky, and the power might be out, and no one else will be around. Some players have even claimed that they looked out the window and saw only a red cross in the distance. You might even lose consciousness, they say.

 

If you’re like me, though, probably the thing you’d want most in that situation is to know how to get home. Well, Elevator Game aficionados have an answer for how to return, too.

 Steps to Return Safely From the Other World

The way home has several steps, all of which players say you must follow exactly, lest you get stuck in that other world. Here they are: 

 

• Step 1: To get back to our world, the rules say you must get on the same elevator you rode before. Finding it might be a problem, but intrepid believers advise that you keep searching until you find it.

 

• Step 2: Once you enter the elevator again, move from floor to floor in exactly the same sequence you did originally: 4-2-6-2-10-5. 

 

• Step 3: Upon reaching the 5th floor, press the button to the 1st floor. 

 

• Step 4: If the elevator starts ascending again, quickly press the button for any other floor before you reach the 10th floor. Or, as I’ve suggested before, you can simply press the emergency button, have a seat, and wait for help to arrive. I hope you don’t suffer from claustrophobia.  

 

So, now that we’re safe back home, maybe it’s time to consider the notorious case of a young woman who some believe was playing the game when she met her untimely end. 

The Mysterious Case of Elisa Lam

So, what are we to make of what happened to Elisa Lam?  Here’s what we know.

 

Elisa was staying at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, but her parents became concerned when they didn’t hear from her on the day she was supposed to check out. They notified the authorities, and an investigation ensued. Police couldn’t find any trace of Elisa, except for an eerie video of her behaving erratically in the hotel’s elevator. 

Elisa Lam (Credit: LAPD Flyer Photo)

 

In the video, Lam is seen stepping into and out of the elevator several times, seemingly talking to someone who wasn’t there, frantically pushing many of the elevator buttons, making gestures with her hands, and looking around in a paranoid fashion. Through all of this, the elevator stayed in place and its doors never closed. After Elisa’s body was discovered, naked and dead, in a water tank on the hotel’s roof, theories abounded. Was she experiencing some kind of psychotic episode? Was there someone nearby but not captured by the security camera? Was Elisa playing the Elevator Game? 

 

The Cecil Hotel has been the site of more than a dozen murders and suicides since its 1927 opening. 

 

Although Lam’s autopsy was inconclusive in determining her manner of death, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office found that she probably drowned by accident. The police went a little farther and highlighted the fact that Elisa suffered from bipolar disorder, leading investigators to believe Elisa’s death was a classic case of a mental breakdown leading to a tragic end.

But of course, Elevator Game believers weren’t going to buy such a rational – if incomplete– explanation. Not surprisingly, Elevator Game believers were convinced that Elisa was playing the game. She must have broken the critical rule not to interact with the woman in Step 3, they said. Worse, she might have been transported to another world at that point – and been prevented from returning alive to her normal world. 

 

As for hard evidence, the believers don’t have any more than the LAPD. So, what are we to think? Maybe someone will find something on her computer that shows Elisa was into the Elevator Game. Or maybe an investigator will figure out how her body got into the water tank. But for me, neither theory is completely satisfactory.

 

In the meantime, when I need to get from the street to the upper floor of a building, I’ve got no problem taking the elevator – except maybe on Halloween.

 Ω

[Sakura]

On 9/6/2023 at 7:25 PM, Clayton said:

Urban legend or portal to another world? The Elevator Game purports to blur the lines of reality for players, if they follow the rules and don’t make a potentially fatal mistake. One disturbing case has caught the attention of believers – and skeptics.

◊

 

The last known video of Elisa Lam alive showed her in an elevator in the Cecil Hotel. Days later, her body was found in the hotel’s water tank. To this day, nobody knows how she died or how her body got there.

 

The video is strange, to say the least. Unsettling if you watch it a few times. No one could make sense of what exactly happened to Elisa Lam until conspiracy theorists and paranormal fanatics zeroed in on one dubious explanation: an urban legend called the Elevator Game. 

 

What Is the Elevator Game?

The Elevator Game  – or “The Elevator to Another World” – is not for the faint of heart. Originating in Korea and Japan, it’s essentially a step-by-step ritual that is believed by some to blur the lines of reality. Although the exact dates of its origin are unknown, the game probably hasn’t been around for very long, and some posts regarding game outcomes date back only to 2011.

 

Not surprisingly, the popularity of the Elevator Game has been powerfully influenced by online accounts of it. And, as too often happens, it has become even more widely known as the alleged cause of a tragedy: the death of Elisa Lam. 

 

(Source: North Carolina Department of Labor)

 

We’ll explore the case of Eliza Lam a little later, but first let’s take a look at the rules of the game. 

 

How to Play the Elevator Game

There are many steps to playing (and surviving) the Elevator Game, and, as we’ve been warned, it’s imperative that you follow them precisely and in the exact order. In this game, you will need at least one “player” and an elevator in a building with a minimum of 10 floors. Here’s how to play: 

 

• Step 1: Let’s say you’re the player. You enter an elevator, alone or with another player. No outsider can enter the elevator with you, nor can you leave at any point. If you do exit the elevator, you must start over.

 

• Step 2: Then, you ride the elevator from floor to floor in a specific sequence: up to the 4th floor; down to the 2nd floor; up to the 6th floor; back down to the 2nd floor; up to the 10th floor; and then down to the 5th floor. Remember not to get off at any of the floors.

 

• Step 3: When you get to the 5th floor, if you encounter a mysterious woman, DO NOT look at her and do not answer or interact with her in any way. The consequences of engaging with her are said to include the possibility of never returning to the real world.

 

• Step 4: Now, push the button to descend from the 5th floor to the 1st floor. Here’s where they say things could get crazy: If the elevator operates normally and takes you to the 1st floor, exit immediately and do not look back or talk to anyone. But if, instead of taking you from the 5th to the 1st floor, the elevator begins to go up . . . well, congratulations, you’re being allowed into another world. Or so they say. Alternatively, you might resist the urge to freak out, and instead simply press the emergency button and wait for the Fire Department to arrive with help.

 

So, now you know how to punch your ticket to this portal to another world. Elevator Game believers say all sort of things might happen at this point. Things might look different. It might be dark and spooky, and the power might be out, and no one else will be around. Some players have even claimed that they looked out the window and saw only a red cross in the distance. You might even lose consciousness, they say.

 

If you’re like me, though, probably the thing you’d want most in that situation is to know how to get home. Well, Elevator Game aficionados have an answer for how to return, too.

 Steps to Return Safely From the Other World

The way home has several steps, all of which players say you must follow exactly, lest you get stuck in that other world. Here they are: 

 

• Step 1: To get back to our world, the rules say you must get on the same elevator you rode before. Finding it might be a problem, but intrepid believers advise that you keep searching until you find it.

 

• Step 2: Once you enter the elevator again, move from floor to floor in exactly the same sequence you did originally: 4-2-6-2-10-5. 

 

• Step 3: Upon reaching the 5th floor, press the button to the 1st floor. 

 

• Step 4: If the elevator starts ascending again, quickly press the button for any other floor before you reach the 10th floor. Or, as I’ve suggested before, you can simply press the emergency button, have a seat, and wait for help to arrive. I hope you don’t suffer from claustrophobia.  

 

So, now that we’re safe back home, maybe it’s time to consider the notorious case of a young woman who some believe was playing the game when she met her untimely end. 

The Mysterious Case of Elisa Lam

So, what are we to make of what happened to Elisa Lam?  Here’s what we know.

 

Elisa was staying at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, but her parents became concerned when they didn’t hear from her on the day she was supposed to check out. They notified the authorities, and an investigation ensued. Police couldn’t find any trace of Elisa, except for an eerie video of her behaving erratically in the hotel’s elevator. 

Elisa Lam (Credit: LAPD Flyer Photo)

 

In the video, Lam is seen stepping into and out of the elevator several times, seemingly talking to someone who wasn’t there, frantically pushing many of the elevator buttons, making gestures with her hands, and looking around in a paranoid fashion. Through all of this, the elevator stayed in place and its doors never closed. After Elisa’s body was discovered, naked and dead, in a water tank on the hotel’s roof, theories abounded. Was she experiencing some kind of psychotic episode? Was there someone nearby but not captured by the security camera? Was Elisa playing the Elevator Game? 

 

The Cecil Hotel has been the site of more than a dozen murders and suicides since its 1927 opening. 

 

Although Lam’s autopsy was inconclusive in determining her manner of death, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office found that she probably drowned by accident. The police went a little farther and highlighted the fact that Elisa suffered from bipolar disorder, leading investigators to believe Elisa’s death was a classic case of a mental breakdown leading to a tragic end.

But of course, Elevator Game believers weren’t going to buy such a rational – if incomplete– explanation. Not surprisingly, Elevator Game believers were convinced that Elisa was playing the game. She must have broken the critical rule not to interact with the woman in Step 3, they said. Worse, she might have been transported to another world at that point – and been prevented from returning alive to her normal world. 

 

As for hard evidence, the believers don’t have any more than the LAPD. So, what are we to think? Maybe someone will find something on her computer that shows Elisa was into the Elevator Game. Or maybe an investigator will figure out how her body got into the water tank. But for me, neither theory is completely satisfactory.

 

In the meantime, when I need to get from the street to the upper floor of a building, I’ve got no problem taking the elevator – except maybe on Halloween.

 Ω

 

I played this game with a friend last year to see if anything happened after we found out about it lol Nothing happened but it scares the hell out of you because your mind is freaking you out wondering about the what if's. We also played Hitori Kakurenbo (hide and go seek alone) which a few weird things did happen and I'm never doing that again >.> 

[Animedragon]

Fun fact: Elevatophobia is the fear of elevators, or lifts, and apparently its more common than people realise.

[Clayton]

16 hours ago, Sakura said:

 

I played this game with a friend last year to see if anything happened after we found out about it lol Nothing happened but it scares the hell out of you because your mind is freaking you out wondering about the what if's. We also played Hitori Kakurenbo (hide and go seek alone) which a few weird things did happen and I'm never doing that again >.> 

Well as they say in Pirates of the Carribean, if you want to find the lost places you have to get lost. Try it in a building you're unfamiliar with. I suspect the pattern doesn't matter so much as you not being sure where you actually are. 

[Animedragon]

3 hours ago, Clayton said:

Well as they say in Pirates of the Carribean, if you want to find the lost places you have to get lost. Try it in a building you're unfamiliar with. I suspect the pattern doesn't matter so much as you not being sure where you actually are. 

I think there's two types of being "lost".

1. Where you don't know where you are.

2. Where you know where you are, but don't know how to get to where you want to be.

Before I got a Sat-Nav I often got lost in both ways! (I have no sense of direction)

[Clayton]

The more lost you are the easier it is to find places nobody else knows about. That's why weird stuff often happens in the dark or in mazes of forests and the like. It can probably be explained in quantum physics and perception shaping reality, but as I'm sure you know reality as we know it is a figment of imagination that we place over something we can't actually understand. For example your eyes should not on any level be able to see light. Wave your hand in front of your face fast enough and it looks see through. In fact the light particles should tear through us like tissue in a sandstorm. Dark matter is theorized to exist because within a few recent years people noticed that while the galaxy and stars swirl like a gear, the inner part moves at the SAME SPEED as the outer rim, when it shouldn't, making them think something else much, much bigger than the matter we see if affecting the universe. However if the universe is a figment of the imagination then the reason the inner area of the "gear" does not move differently than the outer is because we didn't think about it or notice until after we established what we think of as the current speed. 

So basically if you want to travel to other places in a universe made of primal chaos, you can skip the warp speed stuff and just go somewhere where you can't tell which direction you are going or how to find your way and there's a better than average chance you'll just wander there since you only hold  a place in the universe if you know what it is and believe in it. People do disappear all the time you know. 

[Key Visual]

There is a great DEF CON talk on elevators.

 

 

[Digimon_Sommelier]

On 9/6/2023 at 3:31 PM, Animedragon said:

They have their ups and downs that's for sure.

I see what you did there.

[Clayton]

Don't forget the great glass Wonkavator

 

 

NBot to mention secret elevators

 

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Clayton