What To Do With a Self-Lighting Candle

I picked up the Spark self-lighting candle last year on a whim and now I have no idea what to do with it. What would you do with one? —MM

Damn, man, that’s a pretty expensive whim.

This is probably not something you’re going to want to hear about your $175 self-lighting candle, but due to the fact that it’s not completely examinable, it can’t really be your primary effect. Yes, if you were performing a proper show with boundaries that are accepted and respected by the audience, then sure, you could present the trick as, “I’m going to light this candle with my mind.” And you’d get away with it, at least to the extent that they wouldn’t know there’s anything questionable about the candle (but they’d probably suspect there is).

In an amateur performing situation, if you say, “I’m going to light this candle with my mind?” They’re just going to say, “Cool… Can I see the candle?”

So, for that reason, I think the candle has to be used as atmosphere, not the main effect.

Here’s the sort of thing I would probably do with it…

Imagine you’re doing some sort of seance effect with a person or two at a table. The lights are dimmed. Off to the side of the table is this candle, but it’s not really part of the undertaking, it just happens to be on the table with some other stuff.

Attached to the planchette, you have a length of thread that is dangling off into your lap. It’s not “invisible thread,” it’s something a little stronger than that. But it’s something that is not noticeable in the dim light.

Everyone puts a hand on the planchette. You call out to a spirit to come join you at the table. Nothing happens.

You wait a good solid minute in silence, but still nothing.

“Spirit, if you’re with us, please make your presence known.”

Now, off to the side, without people focusing on it, the candle lights.

You pull back from the planchette and move your focus to the candle. “What the-? Oh, hell no. Fuck this.”

Now, as everyone is looking at the candle, you jerk the thread on the planchette, causing it to fly off the table (and breaking the thread in the process)..

So it’s two effects that are happening in the periphery, sending everyone’s attention ping-ponging back and forth. I find this sort of thing works especially well for spirit manifestation types of effects. If we’re all looking at the deck when it cuts itself, that may come off as creepy or it may come off as a magic trick. But if I turn away and start talking to you and the deck cuts itself over my shoulder, when I’m not paying attention, that’s going to have a different feel to it. It’s going to feel less like it was my doing, and possibly more like it was another entities.

Now, people still may want to look at the candle, yes. But because it wasn’t the focus of your attention initially, you may be be able to do something seemingly natural that would allow you to clean up. So, what might I do if a candle really lit itself unexpectedly? Apparently as the result of some spirit/demonic activity? Well, I’d blow it out. And if I was really freaked out, maybe I’d toss it in the trash. Of course, you don’t really want to toss a still smoldering candle directly in the trash, so maybe I’d go to the kitchen and run it under the faucet first. And it would be it the course of that reasonable action, when I’m out of sight from the others, that I would switch in an ungimmicked candle. Then I’d toss that ungimmicked one in the trash where people could see.

Of course, switching something while out of the room isn’t an effective clean-up if your premise is, “I’m going to light this candle with my mind.” You just can’t get away with being that bold. But if the candle lighting wasn’t your intention (apparently) then you have more leeway in how you deal with things.

You might say, “Okay, I can see it working in that situation. But that’s not the sort of thing you could just do casually or frequently.”

True. But I’m just trying to come up with a use for your $175 candle. I never recommended buying the thing in the first place.

Okay, here’s another way I’d use the candle…

If I just met a woman I was romantically interested in and we were back at my place hooking up, when things were still in the make-out and groping stage, I’d pause and grab her hand and have her rub her palm against mind, creating some friction. Then I’d take that '“energy” and gesture as if I was sending it out of my palm, where it would light a candle across the room. Then I’d turn off the lamp, so the room was lit only by that candle, and we’d get back into it.

It’s kind of a risky maneuver. Hopefully she’ll think it’s a slick maneuver. But there’s also the chance she thinks, “Am I hooking up with a guy who owns a remote-controlled candle?” That’s a thought that’s been known to dry up even the most turned-on females.