Does it work? Tales of the Ouija Board

The Ouija Board is an interesting object. Many a person has found themselves infatuated with this Parker Brothers talking board. While it has been regarded as a harmless parlor toy, others have talked about demonic possessions they have experienced. Now I am by no means saying this toy works… nor do I believe it doesn’t work. Through my experiences, I have seen things and other times, I believe it is someone who is just moving the cursor. It is a game after all, and maybe the trickster isn’t the person you contacted, just the person sitting across the table from you.

In the past, I have been fascinated by this board and have used it a few times for fun and recreation. Heck, I even played the Ouija Board with my Grandma, who giggled the whole time because she thought my Grandpa, who had passed away several years earlier, had contacted her. The board was acting funny and playing what we thought were tricks, resembling my trickster of a grandpa.

When we first got our Ouija Board it was because we believed our house was haunted by a young girl named Julia. My younger sister spent many hours in a closet talking to what we believed was an imaginary friend. After a few weird incidences, none of which I actually experienced, we always said the weirdness in our house was because Julia was playing games. Often times, we would play on the Ouija Board to talk to Julia. Never once did we find out how she died or where she was from or even who she really was. Of, course, we also never took any of this seriously.

Up until one point in particular, I always considered the Ouija Board to be just a game. I actually thought the reason it moved was because if you thought hard enough about the answer, your mind could actually move it. In fact, several times, I could actually predict the answer without even having my fingers touching the cursor. I just thought real hard what I thought the answer should be and then it would be correct.

One night, my opinion changed. My aunt was in the hospital on her deathbed. We had gotten the call earlier in the day that it was time for us to say goodbye. I was bummed out because even though I was really close to my aunt, (she had babysat me most of my young life), I couldn’t go to the hospital because I had to stay home and watch my little sisters. My parents didn’t believe it was appropriate to bring them to the hospital so I didn’t get to say goodbye. Instead, I got to have a friend over to help me babysit while my parents and older sister got to go to the hospital and wait for my aunt to pass.

While my sisters were upstairs playing quietly to themselves, my friend and I decided to pull out the Ouija Board and play for awhile. We turned on the radio and popped in an Enya CD. We turned down the lights and lit a few candles. The mood was set. We were sitting at the table in the dining room ready to start.

We got the board moving and answering questions. Typical stuff that teenagers want to know… like “What is the name of the man I am going to marry?”, “What am I going to be when I grow up?” and “Does that boy in Science class have a crush on me?” Important stuff. We continued to ask the questions and get answers.

Suddenly, the board started acting weird. While our fingers were still on, it continued to spin in circles faster and faster, almost so fast our hands were whipping off to the side. Being teenagers, we ignored this and continued anyway. All of a sudden, the cursor went to 7. It stopped. We put the cursor back to the middle of the board, thinking it was broken. As our fingers grazed it again, it went back to 7. We looked at each other weirdly and I said, “What is the number 7 supposed to mean?” Suddenly, the music turned off.

I looked at the CD player, which has been giving us issues for awhile, and shrugged it off to just another scratched disc and problems with the player. We sat in silence continuing with the board, which kept going to the number 7. Out of nowhere, the music came back on. It blared loudly and we both turned to look into the living room. The CD player had fast forwarded itself to track number 7. With our hands still on the cursor, the board spelt out Ha Ha. A chill ran threw my entire body.

The chill left my fingers tingly and my body numb, but we continued on with the Ouija Board, not thinking this board was anything evil… after all, it was just a toy! We continued to ask the board questions and get the answers. We were trying to think of another question, both of us sitting in silence with our fingers still lightly placed on the cursor, when it started to move. First to the R… than an I… N… G… than back to R…. I…. N…. G. It had spelled out Ring Ring. What was that supposed to mean! It then said… Answer the Phone. We laughed it off. Obviously, the phone was still sitting on the receiver, quit as it was all afternoon. The board spelt out Ring Ring a second time and before either of us could say anything, the phone on the wall rang. We both jumped at the sound.

I got up and ran to the phone. I was pretty sure this was the phone call I had been dreading all night. It was my dad on the other end. My aunt had finally passed away. After struggling with cancer for several years, the disease had finally taken her. The board had known seconds before the phone rang that the call was coming.

My aunt’s death tore me apart. I always regret that I wasn’t able to go to the hospital and say my goodbyes. In away, I feel like I did get a goodbye. Before I even got the call, the board warned me. Maybe that was my Aunts way of saying goodbye to me. This was the only time the board has ever worked for me.

Like I said earlier, I don’t believe this toy works, but at the same time I don’t believe it doesn’t work either. While this experience wasn’t necessarily a bad one filled with demonic possessions, I haven’t really gotten the board to do anything else since then. I am grateful that nothing bad has ever happened on one of our Ouija adventures, but I am still skeptical that these toys are the gateway to something unknown. Now, if it was a homemade Ouija Board… that is a whole different world. You couldn’t pay me enough to touch one of those!