15 replies to this topic

[Jeff Belanger]

Dear Ghostvillagers,

H-E-L-L-O, W-E-L-C-O-M-E T-O T-H-E J-U-L-Y N-E-W-S-L-E-T-T-E-R. Which is exactly how these communiqués will look one day after I pass on and need to send these newsletters to you you via a Talking Board, better known by the brand name, Ouija Board. In the paranormal community, there are few subjects as polarizing as the Talking Board. To some, it's just a child's game you can buy at your local toy store; to others it's a valid spirit communication device; and many more believe it's a dangerous portal that offers something from the other side a direct path into you.

I credit the Ouija Board with getting me interested in the paranormal in the first place. I was ten years old and living in Newtown, Connecticut. One of my friends lived in a 250-year-old house and we would bring the Ouija Board along on our sleep-overs. Ever the skeptic, we attempted blindfolding the users to see if the board would still work, we tried using it solo, and with everyone resting a finger. The Planchette glided across the board, messages were spelled out, and we were gripped with what we believed to be genuine spirit communication.

As I got older and more integrated into the paranormal community I listened to the cries of those who claimed these devices built of cardboard, paper, and plastic were inherently evil. I understood the arguments that Judeo-Christian clergy made quoting Deuteronomy which claims it's an abomination to adopt the ways of people from other lands. Or to put it a bit softer as one Rabbi friend of mine said, "We have our own ways of spirit communication. Ways within our religion. Those are acceptable. There's no need to go elsewhere."

Belief plays such a huge part of any spirit communication. You need to believe that your questions and messages are being heard, and you need to believe that the response you're getting is coming from the other side. I've often bristled at people who suggest Ouija Boards are dangerous, but dowsing, EVP, or automatic writing is perfectly safe. I don't personally understand the difference besides the medium being used. Talking Boards are a fascinating subject with a rich history in both popular culture and the occult. This month we're going to share our experiences, offer the pros and cons, and explore the subject a little deeper.

This month's topic is sponsored by: UNIV-CON SEVEN -- UNIV-CON SEVEN wants to represent the field of the paranormal community in a way that is more personal. Each guest and attendee will experience and learn from UNIV-CON differently from the other. We invite you to take a journey through the unknown and experience the paranormal field in a new perspective. http://www.univcon.org

Supernaturally yours,

Jeff Belanger
Ghostvillage.com

[Brigitte]

Hello! I'm a noob to the board but this topic just generated so much interest. I wanted to add my experiences with ouija boards and pose some of my own questions.

First off, I am 25 years old South Texas Latina with a MA in English and I work in a library. I've been interested in the paranormal all my life and was even in a paranormal society for a brief time in high school but left due to the lack of skepticism of some of the members. Okay, enough of that.

Not five years ago, my sister-in-law and I were playing with one of those Milton-Bradley Ouija boards. I had never had success with boards as a kid but wanted to give it a shot. My sister-in-law (who I'll now refer to as Nadia) had had much success using boards and supposedly contacted her dead uncle who had drowned when a child. She believes in the powers of the board because of this. So we settle down one day and begin to ask questions and, to my astonishment, it worked. It worked the next day as well, actually, before I decided it was best to put it away "just in case." I'll get into that later. I'll also get into our relationships with each other and the board later because it is also significant.

The first time we made contact, it was at her house. It didn't cooperate too much. Instead of answering many of our questions, it made repetitive motions in a figure eight. It also went repeatedly through all the letters going first, to A then Z, B then Y, C to X, etc. until it finally stopped in the center. The board also went repeatedly to the word "good bye" which only increased that day with our continued use. We were able to get one answer out of it though. Sensing that it didn't want to talk to us, we asked if it even wanted to talk. It went to "No" and then "good bye." But after that, the three things that I mentioned above kept happening in these sweeping movements that had me more interested than concerned.

The next day we decided to play with the board at my condo. This was because of a fear Nadia had that spirits may connect themselves to the house and decide to hang out for awhile. We had much more success at my condo. The spirit we contacted actually said that he was the one we contacted the previous day but I have my suspicions since he was much more talkative now. He did do the figure eights and alphabet patterns, just like yesterday, but he answered our questions too. We communicated for hours. He said he was my guardian or guide, of sorts, and was always with me. He said we all have guides, so ya'll should have one too. I ended up just calling him a "guide" because that's what "Sam" is called in Most Haunted. I figured that show's Sam is a lot like my own guide, who called himself Toro--the Spanish word for bull. Even that name makes me suspicious since many images of the devil or of even spirits are bull-like and what not. Now, I'm not Catholic but I was raised as such and, growing up as a Latina in South Texas, we have a strong yet overly cautious perception of the spirit world. We believe but we are often in question as to whether certain spirits are simply passed souls or if they are evil, in nature. As our session grew longer, I began to get more concerned that what we had contacted wasn't the former. I'll get more into that later.

So the guide said that he was a passed spirit--actually someone in my family tree who was killed by brothers for inheritance purposes and buried out at some Texas ranch nearby and never found. This corresponds with stories my mother has told me of my ancestry on her side, only the spirit had said that he was from my paternal side, not maternal, so I have my questions there. A few times, Toro actually made small mistakes like that and I just don't know what to make of it. Majority of what he said was dead-on, though, no pun intended. He said that he was not a good person when he was alive and wanted to redeem himself with God by being my guide. So, supposedly, Toro is always with me--even when I'm in the bathroom (I told him not to do that anymore and he agreed). He said that he tries to help me with many of my choices but that I don't always listen to him. He didn't like my then-boyfriend (I didn't like him much either) but then he said he didn't like my cats (and THAT made me a little peeved).

After a while, my brother came over to watch what was happening. He was reading the Bible a great deal in those days and he wanted to ask some "test" questions to see how accurate the spirit was and to try and determine what kind of spirit he was. I took a break from the board and allowed my brother and Nadia to use it together at this time. Toro amazed my brother, to say the least, when he was able to answer questions about his dead friends and other things he had never shared with Nadia. So this proved, to him, that the "spirit" wasn't his wife and that it was genuine. But once that was proved, he needed to figure out what kind of spirit Toro actually was. It was then that all of the spirits' views of God and death came open.

I want to talk here a little bit about his perception of God and death. He had said that he wanted to redeem himself with God as my guide, but as the session grew longer, it was obvious to detect a great deal of resentment this spirit had towards God. That made us a little cautious. I think he even went so far as to state an intense dislike for him. I will throw in here that I'm not religious--I was raised Catholic so I'm aware of the Catholic ways but I've rejected them as my own values and, instead, have a laid-back and open-minded concept of God and spirituality. As for death and the after-life, Toro was not fond of it at all. He said Hell is worse than we can imagine, for one thing, and that he, himself, was not in Heaven. I am not sure what plane he's in though--whether he really is in Hell, Purgatory, or just wondering around here on Earth (which is what I suspect). But, then again, what and where is Hell or Purgatory? Can it be here on Earth and is it a requirement to latch on to the living in the form of a guide for redemption with a God you don't really care for?

After my brother detected his dislike for God, he concluded that the spirit must be a bad one and suggested we not use it anymore. We took his advice. I don't know if Toro is just an angry spirit of a bad distant relative of mine or if he was something evil posing as a guide. When my brother asked his questions relating to God, he believed that he must have been an evil spirit who may not have been able to "act" so well there and exposed himself. I want to know what ya'll think on this one.

Here is some other stuff I want to inquire about:

1) The board only worked when Nadia was at the board. As long as she had so much as the tip of a pinky finger on the planchette, it worked. It wouldn't work if my brother and I did it without her or her digits. When we asked about it, it said that boards wouldn't work (for me) unless Nadia was using it too--that we were connected somehow, but the power of connection lay with her. Does anybody know anything about this?
2) What is it with the figure eights and alphabet patterns? I've looked at other message boards and they conjecture that it is several different things, from bad omens that a spirit is trying to create a permanent gate into our world to a ritual done that conjures evil spirits. I just don't know. I've heard that you are to try to stop the planchette from moving if it starts making these movements. I didn't know it then, but I haven't exactly sensed anything out of the ordinary in any of my or my family's residences since so I don't think any "doors" were open.
3) Does danger grow if you use it more? We stopped using the board because we were afraid the spirit would grow more powerful the more we allowed it to communicate with us. This also corresponds with some of the testimony I've heard on other boards on the subject.
4) Have any of you identified any of your own "guides" and, if so, what are your relationships with them?

I couldn't really fit this part anywhere but I feel like sharing this anyways:

Toro stated that I had only seen 3 ghosts or so in my lifetime but said I would see several more. That makes sense since I like to stay on the Queen Mary when I visit California and search the ship for haunts and stuff like that. It then said my brother had seen closer to 20 or 30 ghosts already but that he wouldn't see them anymore. This corresponds with our parents' house and the occurrences there. We moved out at 18 but, while there, my brother always said he saw things in his room which scared the crap out of him. A priest who was blessing the house actually asked if someone died in my brother's room when he got to it (but that's not possible since we built the house). My room was safe. I had no experiences of SEEING things though I often got in trouble when my brother or dad thought they would see me wandering around the halls at night. They would see long-haired and gowned silhouettes which would seem like me since I had long hair and wore nightgowns. But I was never a sleep-walker. Supposedly, many Karankawan indian remains have been found around the area and many neighbors reported seeing indian spirits so it may be some of that. With my Mexican features, I can look a little Karankawan, I suppose. Anyways, the stuff that happened at my parent's house is another thread so I'll digress here.

Thanks for letting me share and I look forward to hearing your responses!

Brigitte

[pentangle princess]

Brigitte, on Jul 15 2008, 12:30 PM, said:

Hello! I'm a noob to the board but this topic just generated so much interest. I wanted to add my experiences with ouija boards and pose some of my own questions.

First off, I am 25 years old South Texas Latina with a MA in English and I work in a library. I've been interested in the paranormal all my life and was even in a paranormal society for a brief time in high school but left due to the lack of skepticism of some of the members. Okay, enough of that.

Not five years ago, my sister-in-law and I were playing with one of those Milton-Bradley Ouija boards. I had never had success with boards as a kid but wanted to give it a shot. My sister-in-law (who I'll now refer to as Nadia) had had much success using boards and supposedly contacted her dead uncle who had drowned when a child. She believes in the powers of the board because of this. So we settle down one day and begin to ask questions and, to my astonishment, it worked. It worked the next day as well, actually, before I decided it was best to put it away "just in case." I'll get into that later. I'll also get into our relationships with each other and the board later because it is also significant.

The first time we made contact, it was at her house. It didn't cooperate too much. Instead of answering many of our questions, it made repetitive motions in a figure eight. It also went repeatedly through all the letters going first, to A then Z, B then Y, C to X, etc. until it finally stopped in the center. The board also went repeatedly to the word "good bye" which only increased that day with our continued use. We were able to get one answer out of it though. Sensing that it didn't want to talk to us, we asked if it even wanted to talk. It went to "No" and then "good bye." But after that, the three things that I mentioned above kept happening in these sweeping movements that had me more interested than concerned.

The next day we decided to play with the board at my condo. This was because of a fear Nadia had that spirits may connect themselves to the house and decide to hang out for awhile. We had much more success at my condo. The spirit we contacted actually said that he was the one we contacted the previous day but I have my suspicions since he was much more talkative now. He did do the figure eights and alphabet patterns, just like yesterday, but he answered our questions too. We communicated for hours. He said he was my guardian or guide, of sorts, and was always with me. He said we all have guides, so ya'll should have one too. I ended up just calling him a "guide" because that's what "Sam" is called in Most Haunted. I figured that show's Sam is a lot like my own guide, who called himself Toro--the Spanish word for bull. Even that name makes me suspicious since many images of the devil or of even spirits are bull-like and what not. Now, I'm not Catholic but I was raised as such and, growing up as a Latina in South Texas, we have a strong yet overly cautious perception of the spirit world. We believe but we are often in question as to whether certain spirits are simply passed souls or if they are evil, in nature. As our session grew longer, I began to get more concerned that what we had contacted wasn't the former. I'll get more into that later.

So the guide said that he was a passed spirit--actually someone in my family tree who was killed by brothers for inheritance purposes and buried out at some Texas ranch nearby and never found. This corresponds with stories my mother has told me of my ancestry on her side, only the spirit had said that he was from my paternal side, not maternal, so I have my questions there. A few times, Toro actually made small mistakes like that and I just don't know what to make of it. Majority of what he said was dead-on, though, no pun intended. He said that he was not a good person when he was alive and wanted to redeem himself with God by being my guide. So, supposedly, Toro is always with me--even when I'm in the bathroom (I told him not to do that anymore and he agreed). He said that he tries to help me with many of my choices but that I don't always listen to him. He didn't like my then-boyfriend (I didn't like him much either) but then he said he didn't like my cats (and THAT made me a little peeved).

After a while, my brother came over to watch what was happening. He was reading the Bible a great deal in those days and he wanted to ask some "test" questions to see how accurate the spirit was and to try and determine what kind of spirit he was. I took a break from the board and allowed my brother and Nadia to use it together at this time. Toro amazed my brother, to say the least, when he was able to answer questions about his dead friends and other things he had never shared with Nadia. So this proved, to him, that the "spirit" wasn't his wife and that it was genuine. But once that was proved, he needed to figure out what kind of spirit Toro actually was. It was then that all of the spirits' views of God and death came open.

I want to talk here a little bit about his perception of God and death. He had said that he wanted to redeem himself with God as my guide, but as the session grew longer, it was obvious to detect a great deal of resentment this spirit had towards God. That made us a little cautious. I think he even went so far as to state an intense dislike for him. I will throw in here that I'm not religious--I was raised Catholic so I'm aware of the Catholic ways but I've rejected them as my own values and, instead, have a laid-back and open-minded concept of God and spirituality. As for death and the after-life, Toro was not fond of it at all. He said Hell is worse than we can imagine, for one thing, and that he, himself, was not in Heaven. I am not sure what plane he's in though--whether he really is in Hell, Purgatory, or just wondering around here on Earth (which is what I suspect). But, then again, what and where is Hell or Purgatory? Can it be here on Earth and is it a requirement to latch on to the living in the form of a guide for redemption with a God you don't really care for?

After my brother detected his dislike for God, he concluded that the spirit must be a bad one and suggested we not use it anymore. We took his advice. I don't know if Toro is just an angry spirit of a bad distant relative of mine or if he was something evil posing as a guide. When my brother asked his questions relating to God, he believed that he must have been an evil spirit who may not have been able to "act" so well there and exposed himself. I want to know what ya'll think on this one.

Here is some other stuff I want to inquire about:

1) The board only worked when Nadia was at the board. As long as she had so much as the tip of a pinky finger on the planchette, it worked. It wouldn't work if my brother and I did it without her or her digits. When we asked about it, it said that boards wouldn't work (for me) unless Nadia was using it too--that we were connected somehow, but the power of connection lay with her. Does anybody know anything about this?
2) What is it with the figure eights and alphabet patterns? I've looked at other message boards and they conjecture that it is several different things, from bad omens that a spirit is trying to create a permanent gate into our world to a ritual done that conjures evil spirits. I just don't know. I've heard that you are to try to stop the planchette from moving if it starts making these movements. I didn't know it then, but I haven't exactly sensed anything out of the ordinary in any of my or my family's residences since so I don't think any "doors" were open.
3) Does danger grow if you use it more? We stopped using the board because we were afraid the spirit would grow more powerful the more we allowed it to communicate with us. This also corresponds with some of the testimony I've heard on other boards on the subject.
4) Have any of you identified any of your own "guides" and, if so, what are your relationships with them?

I couldn't really fit this part anywhere but I feel like sharing this anyways:

Toro stated that I had only seen 3 ghosts or so in my lifetime but said I would see several more. That makes sense since I like to stay on the Queen Mary when I visit California and search the ship for haunts and stuff like that. It then said my brother had seen closer to 20 or 30 ghosts already but that he wouldn't see them anymore. This corresponds with our parents' house and the occurrences there. We moved out at 18 but, while there, my brother always said he saw things in his room which scared the crap out of him. A priest who was blessing the house actually asked if someone died in my brother's room when he got to it (but that's not possible since we built the house). My room was safe. I had no experiences of SEEING things though I often got in trouble when my brother or dad thought they would see me wandering around the halls at night. They would see long-haired and gowned silhouettes which would seem like me since I had long hair and wore nightgowns. But I was never a sleep-walker. Supposedly, many Karankawan indian remains have been found around the area and many neighbors reported seeing indian spirits so it may be some of that. With my Mexican features, I can look a little Karankawan, I suppose. Anyways, the stuff that happened at my parent's house is another thread so I'll digress here.

Thanks for letting me share and I look forward to hearing your responses!

Brigitte

Figure 8's and alphabets that spirit is bad news. 8's mean the spirit is evil and the alphabet is the spirit trying to escape. This is the same with numbers.


Nadia is most likely more spiritually advanced and that could be why the board only works with her.

Okay using the board just gets you addicted to it, danger doesn't grow. Its pot luck with the spirits, demons and djinns that appear on the board.

Guides, well i had a guide, we accidentally contacted him. On ouija we never asked his name. A few months later i had a bad situation in life and i felt a presence behind me. It made me feel better and stopped me crying. This ghost and i started to become really good friends we communicated all the time and he protected me. Soon i found his name was elliot. Just a few months ago elliot said he was leaving me forever, and i have a guess why. A week before i said that i found out he was a demon. I was so scared when i found out. I haven't heard from him since.

Rules/and about ouija:
* Never play alone!

* Never let the spirits count down through the numbers or go through the alphabet as they can get out of the board this way.

* If the planchette goes to the four corners of the board it means that you have contacted an evil spirit.

* If the planchette falls from a Ouija board, a spirit will get loose.

* If the planchette repeatedly makes a figure eight, it means that an evil spirit is in control of the board.

* If you should get an evil spirit, quickly turn the planchette upside down and use it that way.

* The board must be "closed" properly or evil spirits will remain behind to haunt the operator.

* Never use the Ouija when you are ill or in a weakened condition since this may make you vulnerable to possession.

* The spirit of the Ouija board creates "wins" for the user, causing him to become more and more dependent on the board. Addiction follows. This is called "progressive entrapment."

* Evil spirits contacted through the Ouija board will try to win your confidence with false flattery and lies.

* Always be respectful and never upset the spirits.

* Never use the Ouija in a graveyard or place where a terrible death has occurred or you will bring forth malevolent entities.

* Witchboards are so named because witches use them to summon demons.

* The very first Ouija boards were made from the wood of coffins. A coffin nail in the center of the planchette window served as the pointer.

* Sometimes an evil spirit can permanently "inhabit" a board. When this happens, no other spirits will be able to use it.

* When using a glass as a message indicator, you must always cleanse it first by holding it over a burning candle.

* Ouija boards that are disposed of improperly, come back to haunt the owner.

* Ami gets a hand.A Ouija Board will scream if you try to burn it. People who hear the scream have less than thirty-six hours to live. There is only one proper way to dispose of it: break the board into seven pieces, sprinkle it with Holy Water then bury it.

* If you must use a Ouija board, make your own. Arrange the letters and numbers, into a circle so whatever is trapped within that circle can't escape.

* If you place a pure silver coin on the board, no evil spirits will be able to come through.

* NEVER leave the planchette on the board if you aren't using it.

* Lecherous spirits from the Ouija board will sometimes ask young women to do rather . . . ah, odd things. Ignore them and always remember that your Ouija partner (i.e. boyfriend) has nothing to do with this.

Three things never to ask a Ouija board:

* Never ask about God.

* Never ask when you are going to die.

* Never ask where the gold is buried.

Here is a cautionary tale that has been around for a long, long time. The point is (obviously) to warn a potential Ouija user that spirits are a deceitful lot. One gets the idea that they may not be too smart either.

We were having a Ouija session one evening and we contacted a friendly spirit who told us all about himself when he had a body. We asked him several questions about his life and family, to which he cheerfully responded. Next we asked him when he died and he said, "1948." He also mentioned that he liked talking to us and that he felt safe with the living. We then asked him the year of his birth. To this question he replied, "1955." We looked at each other, confused, and asked, "You mean you died BEFORE you were born?" The message indicator circled the board wildly for a moment then spelled out,

"O - O - P - S"

—then stopped and refused to move, effectively ending our session for the night.

Hope this was some help. Personally i like doing ouija even though it can be very dangerous. I do get scared of it and try to avoid it but now and again i like to play with a board. I usually make my own.

[Brigitte]

So how were you able to determine that your guide was evil? And why are we to never ask about God? And is it guaranteed that an evil spirit will come in if the figure eight is created?

Edited by Brigitte, 15 July 2008 - 02:30 PM.

[Mark London]

pentangle princess, on Jul 15 2008, 06:29 PM, said:

Brigitte, on Jul 15 2008, 12:30 PM, said:

Hello! I'm a noob to the board but this topic just generated so much interest. I wanted to add my experiences with ouija boards and pose some of my own questions.

First off, I am 25 years old South Texas Latina with a MA in English and I work in a library. I've been interested in the paranormal all my life and was even in a paranormal society for a brief time in high school but left due to the lack of skepticism of some of the members. Okay, enough of that.

Not five years ago, my sister-in-law and I were playing with one of those Milton-Bradley Ouija boards. I had never had success with boards as a kid but wanted to give it a shot. My sister-in-law (who I'll now refer to as Nadia) had had much success using boards and supposedly contacted her dead uncle who had drowned when a child. She believes in the powers of the board because of this. So we settle down one day and begin to ask questions and, to my astonishment, it worked. It worked the next day as well, actually, before I decided it was best to put it away "just in case." I'll get into that later. I'll also get into our relationships with each other and the board later because it is also significant.

The first time we made contact, it was at her house. It didn't cooperate too much. Instead of answering many of our questions, it made repetitive motions in a figure eight. It also went repeatedly through all the letters going first, to A then Z, B then Y, C to X, etc. until it finally stopped in the center. The board also went repeatedly to the word "good bye" which only increased that day with our continued use. We were able to get one answer out of it though. Sensing that it didn't want to talk to us, we asked if it even wanted to talk. It went to "No" and then "good bye." But after that, the three things that I mentioned above kept happening in these sweeping movements that had me more interested than concerned.

The next day we decided to play with the board at my condo. This was because of a fear Nadia had that spirits may connect themselves to the house and decide to hang out for awhile. We had much more success at my condo. The spirit we contacted actually said that he was the one we contacted the previous day but I have my suspicions since he was much more talkative now. He did do the figure eights and alphabet patterns, just like yesterday, but he answered our questions too. We communicated for hours. He said he was my guardian or guide, of sorts, and was always with me. He said we all have guides, so ya'll should have one too. I ended up just calling him a "guide" because that's what "Sam" is called in Most Haunted. I figured that show's Sam is a lot like my own guide, who called himself Toro--the Spanish word for bull. Even that name makes me suspicious since many images of the devil or of even spirits are bull-like and what not. Now, I'm not Catholic but I was raised as such and, growing up as a Latina in South Texas, we have a strong yet overly cautious perception of the spirit world. We believe but we are often in question as to whether certain spirits are simply passed souls or if they are evil, in nature. As our session grew longer, I began to get more concerned that what we had contacted wasn't the former. I'll get more into that later.

So the guide said that he was a passed spirit--actually someone in my family tree who was killed by brothers for inheritance purposes and buried out at some Texas ranch nearby and never found. This corresponds with stories my mother has told me of my ancestry on her side, only the spirit had said that he was from my paternal side, not maternal, so I have my questions there. A few times, Toro actually made small mistakes like that and I just don't know what to make of it. Majority of what he said was dead-on, though, no pun intended. He said that he was not a good person when he was alive and wanted to redeem himself with God by being my guide. So, supposedly, Toro is always with me--even when I'm in the bathroom (I told him not to do that anymore and he agreed). He said that he tries to help me with many of my choices but that I don't always listen to him. He didn't like my then-boyfriend (I didn't like him much either) but then he said he didn't like my cats (and THAT made me a little peeved).

After a while, my brother came over to watch what was happening. He was reading the Bible a great deal in those days and he wanted to ask some "test" questions to see how accurate the spirit was and to try and determine what kind of spirit he was. I took a break from the board and allowed my brother and Nadia to use it together at this time. Toro amazed my brother, to say the least, when he was able to answer questions about his dead friends and other things he had never shared with Nadia. So this proved, to him, that the "spirit" wasn't his wife and that it was genuine. But once that was proved, he needed to figure out what kind of spirit Toro actually was. It was then that all of the spirits' views of God and death came open.

I want to talk here a little bit about his perception of God and death. He had said that he wanted to redeem himself with God as my guide, but as the session grew longer, it was obvious to detect a great deal of resentment this spirit had towards God. That made us a little cautious. I think he even went so far as to state an intense dislike for him. I will throw in here that I'm not religious--I was raised Catholic so I'm aware of the Catholic ways but I've rejected them as my own values and, instead, have a laid-back and open-minded concept of God and spirituality. As for death and the after-life, Toro was not fond of it at all. He said Hell is worse than we can imagine, for one thing, and that he, himself, was not in Heaven. I am not sure what plane he's in though--whether he really is in Hell, Purgatory, or just wondering around here on Earth (which is what I suspect). But, then again, what and where is Hell or Purgatory? Can it be here on Earth and is it a requirement to latch on to the living in the form of a guide for redemption with a God you don't really care for?

After my brother detected his dislike for God, he concluded that the spirit must be a bad one and suggested we not use it anymore. We took his advice. I don't know if Toro is just an angry spirit of a bad distant relative of mine or if he was something evil posing as a guide. When my brother asked his questions relating to God, he believed that he must have been an evil spirit who may not have been able to "act" so well there and exposed himself. I want to know what ya'll think on this one.

Here is some other stuff I want to inquire about:

1) The board only worked when Nadia was at the board. As long as she had so much as the tip of a pinky finger on the planchette, it worked. It wouldn't work if my brother and I did it without her or her digits. When we asked about it, it said that boards wouldn't work (for me) unless Nadia was using it too--that we were connected somehow, but the power of connection lay with her. Does anybody know anything about this?
2) What is it with the figure eights and alphabet patterns? I've looked at other message boards and they conjecture that it is several different things, from bad omens that a spirit is trying to create a permanent gate into our world to a ritual done that conjures evil spirits. I just don't know. I've heard that you are to try to stop the planchette from moving if it starts making these movements. I didn't know it then, but I haven't exactly sensed anything out of the ordinary in any of my or my family's residences since so I don't think any "doors" were open.
3) Does danger grow if you use it more? We stopped using the board because we were afraid the spirit would grow more powerful the more we allowed it to communicate with us. This also corresponds with some of the testimony I've heard on other boards on the subject.
4) Have any of you identified any of your own "guides" and, if so, what are your relationships with them?

I couldn't really fit this part anywhere but I feel like sharing this anyways:

Toro stated that I had only seen 3 ghosts or so in my lifetime but said I would see several more. That makes sense since I like to stay on the Queen Mary when I visit California and search the ship for haunts and stuff like that. It then said my brother had seen closer to 20 or 30 ghosts already but that he wouldn't see them anymore. This corresponds with our parents' house and the occurrences there. We moved out at 18 but, while there, my brother always said he saw things in his room which scared the crap out of him. A priest who was blessing the house actually asked if someone died in my brother's room when he got to it (but that's not possible since we built the house). My room was safe. I had no experiences of SEEING things though I often got in trouble when my brother or dad thought they would see me wandering around the halls at night. They would see long-haired and gowned silhouettes which would seem like me since I had long hair and wore nightgowns. But I was never a sleep-walker. Supposedly, many Karankawan indian remains have been found around the area and many neighbors reported seeing indian spirits so it may be some of that. With my Mexican features, I can look a little Karankawan, I suppose. Anyways, the stuff that happened at my parent's house is another thread so I'll digress here.

Thanks for letting me share and I look forward to hearing your responses!

Brigitte

Figure 8's and alphabets that spirit is bad news. 8's mean the spirit is evil and the alphabet is the spirit trying to escape. This is the same with numbers.


Nadia is most likely more spiritually advanced and that could be why the board only works with her.

Okay using the board just gets you addicted to it, danger doesn't grow. Its pot luck with the spirits, demons and djinns that appear on the board.

Guides, well i had a guide, we accidentally contacted him. On ouija we never asked his name. A few months later i had a bad situation in life and i felt a presence behind me. It made me feel better and stopped me crying. This ghost and i started to become really good friends we communicated all the time and he protected me. Soon i found his name was elliot. Just a few months ago elliot said he was leaving me forever, and i have a guess why. A week before i said that i found out he was a demon. I was so scared when i found out. I haven't heard from him since.

Rules/and about ouija:
* Never play alone!

* Never let the spirits count down through the numbers or go through the alphabet as they can get out of the board this way.

* If the planchette goes to the four corners of the board it means that you have contacted an evil spirit.

* If the planchette falls from a Ouija board, a spirit will get loose.

* If the planchette repeatedly makes a figure eight, it means that an evil spirit is in control of the board.

* If you should get an evil spirit, quickly turn the planchette upside down and use it that way.

* The board must be "closed" properly or evil spirits will remain behind to haunt the operator.

* Never use the Ouija when you are ill or in a weakened condition since this may make you vulnerable to possession.

* The spirit of the Ouija board creates "wins" for the user, causing him to become more and more dependent on the board. Addiction follows. This is called "progressive entrapment."

* Evil spirits contacted through the Ouija board will try to win your confidence with false flattery and lies.

* Always be respectful and never upset the spirits.

* Never use the Ouija in a graveyard or place where a terrible death has occurred or you will bring forth malevolent entities.

* Witchboards are so named because witches use them to summon demons.

* The very first Ouija boards were made from the wood of coffins. A coffin nail in the center of the planchette window served as the pointer.

* Sometimes an evil spirit can permanently "inhabit" a board. When this happens, no other spirits will be able to use it.

* When using a glass as a message indicator, you must always cleanse it first by holding it over a burning candle.

* Ouija boards that are disposed of improperly, come back to haunt the owner.

* Ami gets a hand.A Ouija Board will scream if you try to burn it. People who hear the scream have less than thirty-six hours to live. There is only one proper way to dispose of it: break the board into seven pieces, sprinkle it with Holy Water then bury it.

* If you must use a Ouija board, make your own. Arrange the letters and numbers, into a circle so whatever is trapped within that circle can't escape.

* If you place a pure silver coin on the board, no evil spirits will be able to come through.

* NEVER leave the planchette on the board if you aren't using it.

* Lecherous spirits from the Ouija board will sometimes ask young women to do rather . . . ah, odd things. Ignore them and always remember that your Ouija partner (i.e. boyfriend) has nothing to do with this.

Three things never to ask a Ouija board:

* Never ask about God.

* Never ask when you are going to die.

* Never ask where the gold is buried.

Here is a cautionary tale that has been around for a long, long time. The point is (obviously) to warn a potential Ouija user that spirits are a deceitful lot. One gets the idea that they may not be too smart either.

We were having a Ouija session one evening and we contacted a friendly spirit who told us all about himself when he had a body. We asked him several questions about his life and family, to which he cheerfully responded. Next we asked him when he died and he said, "1948." He also mentioned that he liked talking to us and that he felt safe with the living. We then asked him the year of his birth. To this question he replied, "1955." We looked at each other, confused, and asked, "You mean you died BEFORE you were born?" The message indicator circled the board wildly for a moment then spelled out,

"O - O - P - S"

—then stopped and refused to move, effectively ending our session for the night.

Hope this was some help. Personally i like doing ouija even though it can be very dangerous. I do get scared of it and try to avoid it but now and again i like to play with a board. I usually make my own.

Hi

Whilst I think some of the rules apply for the Ouija Board, I dont necessarily agree with the majority of what you are stating.

Where did these rules come from, were they in with the box ?

I do not believe for one minute that these rules are true at all about certain things like the four corners, No.8 etc.

Please dont think Im knocking you, I am not.

For me I have used them regularly and in the correct controlled manner.

A good read though

Mark

[Belfry_Bat]

Although I haven't used a Ouja Board for many years, the last time I used one convinced me that it really wasn't something I ever wanted to do again. While in high school, my friends and I had some rather meaningful experiences with the board. It usually told us just what we wanted to hear---mainly about the boys we were interested in, and yes we would marry the one we wanted! Which, by the way, none of us did! Some years later, two friends and I decided to use the board and we were asking questions of a much more serious nature. I don't know if the location we were in had anything to do with the spirit we contacted, but we were in an older home that many years before had been a church. This time the planchette moved with so much force behind it, one of my friends and I believed that our other friend was moving it. He denied this of course, but we still felt he was doing it, so we made him take his hand off and we tried it on our own. It continued to move in the same fashion. We were asking it questions and at some point I ask something about my deceased fiance. The response was that he was there and wanted to talk. I wanted to talk too, and ask several questions that the responses really touched my heart---until we ask it who the spirit was in control of the board. Once again, it moved with so much force, it was almost scarey. It spelled out a well known name to us of a long deceased person known for his activity working in the realms of what we considered the "dark side". At that point, chills ran up my spine and apparently my friend's spines as well, and all of us agreed that we didn't want to go on. This was so many years ago, but it still gives me the creeps, and I have never picked up another board.

[m.a.l.]

Mark London, on Jul 15 2008, 02:39 PM, said:

pentangle princess, on Jul 15 2008, 06:29 PM, said:

Brigitte, on Jul 15 2008, 12:30 PM, said:

Hello! I'm a noob to the board but this topic just generated so much interest. I wanted to add my experiences with ouija boards and pose some of my own questions.

First off, I am 25 years old South Texas Latina with a MA in English and I work in a library. I've been interested in the paranormal all my life and was even in a paranormal society for a brief time in high school but left due to the lack of skepticism of some of the members. Okay, enough of that.

Not five years ago, my sister-in-law and I were playing with one of those Milton-Bradley Ouija boards. I had never had success with boards as a kid but wanted to give it a shot. My sister-in-law (who I'll now refer to as Nadia) had had much success using boards and supposedly contacted her dead uncle who had drowned when a child. She believes in the powers of the board because of this. So we settle down one day and begin to ask questions and, to my astonishment, it worked. It worked the next day as well, actually, before I decided it was best to put it away "just in case." I'll get into that later. I'll also get into our relationships with each other and the board later because it is also significant.

The first time we made contact, it was at her house. It didn't cooperate too much. Instead of answering many of our questions, it made repetitive motions in a figure eight. It also went repeatedly through all the letters going first, to A then Z, B then Y, C to X, etc. until it finally stopped in the center. The board also went repeatedly to the word "good bye" which only increased that day with our continued use. We were able to get one answer out of it though. Sensing that it didn't want to talk to us, we asked if it even wanted to talk. It went to "No" and then "good bye." But after that, the three things that I mentioned above kept happening in these sweeping movements that had me more interested than concerned.

The next day we decided to play with the board at my condo. This was because of a fear Nadia had that spirits may connect themselves to the house and decide to hang out for awhile. We had much more success at my condo. The spirit we contacted actually said that he was the one we contacted the previous day but I have my suspicions since he was much more talkative now. He did do the figure eights and alphabet patterns, just like yesterday, but he answered our questions too. We communicated for hours. He said he was my guardian or guide, of sorts, and was always with me. He said we all have guides, so ya'll should have one too. I ended up just calling him a "guide" because that's what "Sam" is called in Most Haunted. I figured that show's Sam is a lot like my own guide, who called himself Toro--the Spanish word for bull. Even that name makes me suspicious since many images of the devil or of even spirits are bull-like and what not. Now, I'm not Catholic but I was raised as such and, growing up as a Latina in South Texas, we have a strong yet overly cautious perception of the spirit world. We believe but we are often in question as to whether certain spirits are simply passed souls or if they are evil, in nature. As our session grew longer, I began to get more concerned that what we had contacted wasn't the former. I'll get more into that later.

So the guide said that he was a passed spirit--actually someone in my family tree who was killed by brothers for inheritance purposes and buried out at some Texas ranch nearby and never found. This corresponds with stories my mother has told me of my ancestry on her side, only the spirit had said that he was from my paternal side, not maternal, so I have my questions there. A few times, Toro actually made small mistakes like that and I just don't know what to make of it. Majority of what he said was dead-on, though, no pun intended. He said that he was not a good person when he was alive and wanted to redeem himself with God by being my guide. So, supposedly, Toro is always with me--even when I'm in the bathroom (I told him not to do that anymore and he agreed). He said that he tries to help me with many of my choices but that I don't always listen to him. He didn't like my then-boyfriend (I didn't like him much either) but then he said he didn't like my cats (and THAT made me a little peeved).

After a while, my brother came over to watch what was happening. He was reading the Bible a great deal in those days and he wanted to ask some "test" questions to see how accurate the spirit was and to try and determine what kind of spirit he was. I took a break from the board and allowed my brother and Nadia to use it together at this time. Toro amazed my brother, to say the least, when he was able to answer questions about his dead friends and other things he had never shared with Nadia. So this proved, to him, that the "spirit" wasn't his wife and that it was genuine. But once that was proved, he needed to figure out what kind of spirit Toro actually was. It was then that all of the spirits' views of God and death came open.

I want to talk here a little bit about his perception of God and death. He had said that he wanted to redeem himself with God as my guide, but as the session grew longer, it was obvious to detect a great deal of resentment this spirit had towards God. That made us a little cautious. I think he even went so far as to state an intense dislike for him. I will throw in here that I'm not religious--I was raised Catholic so I'm aware of the Catholic ways but I've rejected them as my own values and, instead, have a laid-back and open-minded concept of God and spirituality. As for death and the after-life, Toro was not fond of it at all. He said Hell is worse than we can imagine, for one thing, and that he, himself, was not in Heaven. I am not sure what plane he's in though--whether he really is in Hell, Purgatory, or just wondering around here on Earth (which is what I suspect). But, then again, what and where is Hell or Purgatory? Can it be here on Earth and is it a requirement to latch on to the living in the form of a guide for redemption with a God you don't really care for?

After my brother detected his dislike for God, he concluded that the spirit must be a bad one and suggested we not use it anymore. We took his advice. I don't know if Toro is just an angry spirit of a bad distant relative of mine or if he was something evil posing as a guide. When my brother asked his questions relating to God, he believed that he must have been an evil spirit who may not have been able to "act" so well there and exposed himself. I want to know what ya'll think on this one.

Here is some other stuff I want to inquire about:

1) The board only worked when Nadia was at the board. As long as she had so much as the tip of a pinky finger on the planchette, it worked. It wouldn't work if my brother and I did it without her or her digits. When we asked about it, it said that boards wouldn't work (for me) unless Nadia was using it too--that we were connected somehow, but the power of connection lay with her. Does anybody know anything about this?
2) What is it with the figure eights and alphabet patterns? I've looked at other message boards and they conjecture that it is several different things, from bad omens that a spirit is trying to create a permanent gate into our world to a ritual done that conjures evil spirits. I just don't know. I've heard that you are to try to stop the planchette from moving if it starts making these movements. I didn't know it then, but I haven't exactly sensed anything out of the ordinary in any of my or my family's residences since so I don't think any "doors" were open.
3) Does danger grow if you use it more? We stopped using the board because we were afraid the spirit would grow more powerful the more we allowed it to communicate with us. This also corresponds with some of the testimony I've heard on other boards on the subject.
4) Have any of you identified any of your own "guides" and, if so, what are your relationships with them?

I couldn't really fit this part anywhere but I feel like sharing this anyways:

Toro stated that I had only seen 3 ghosts or so in my lifetime but said I would see several more. That makes sense since I like to stay on the Queen Mary when I visit California and search the ship for haunts and stuff like that. It then said my brother had seen closer to 20 or 30 ghosts already but that he wouldn't see them anymore. This corresponds with our parents' house and the occurrences there. We moved out at 18 but, while there, my brother always said he saw things in his room which scared the crap out of him. A priest who was blessing the house actually asked if someone died in my brother's room when he got to it (but that's not possible since we built the house). My room was safe. I had no experiences of SEEING things though I often got in trouble when my brother or dad thought they would see me wandering around the halls at night. They would see long-haired and gowned silhouettes which would seem like me since I had long hair and wore nightgowns. But I was never a sleep-walker. Supposedly, many Karankawan indian remains have been found around the area and many neighbors reported seeing indian spirits so it may be some of that. With my Mexican features, I can look a little Karankawan, I suppose. Anyways, the stuff that happened at my parent's house is another thread so I'll digress here.

Thanks for letting me share and I look forward to hearing your responses!

Brigitte

Figure 8's and alphabets that spirit is bad news. 8's mean the spirit is evil and the alphabet is the spirit trying to escape. This is the same with numbers.


Nadia is most likely more spiritually advanced and that could be why the board only works with her.

Okay using the board just gets you addicted to it, danger doesn't grow. Its pot luck with the spirits, demons and djinns that appear on the board.

Guides, well i had a guide, we accidentally contacted him. On ouija we never asked his name. A few months later i had a bad situation in life and i felt a presence behind me. It made me feel better and stopped me crying. This ghost and i started to become really good friends we communicated all the time and he protected me. Soon i found his name was elliot. Just a few months ago elliot said he was leaving me forever, and i have a guess why. A week before i said that i found out he was a demon. I was so scared when i found out. I haven't heard from him since.

Rules/and about ouija:
* Never play alone!

* Never let the spirits count down through the numbers or go through the alphabet as they can get out of the board this way.

* If the planchette goes to the four corners of the board it means that you have contacted an evil spirit.

* If the planchette falls from a Ouija board, a spirit will get loose.

* If the planchette repeatedly makes a figure eight, it means that an evil spirit is in control of the board.

* If you should get an evil spirit, quickly turn the planchette upside down and use it that way.

* The board must be "closed" properly or evil spirits will remain behind to haunt the operator.

* Never use the Ouija when you are ill or in a weakened condition since this may make you vulnerable to possession.

* The spirit of the Ouija board creates "wins" for the user, causing him to become more and more dependent on the board. Addiction follows. This is called "progressive entrapment."

* Evil spirits contacted through the Ouija board will try to win your confidence with false flattery and lies.

* Always be respectful and never upset the spirits.

* Never use the Ouija in a graveyard or place where a terrible death has occurred or you will bring forth malevolent entities.

* Witchboards are so named because witches use them to summon demons.

* The very first Ouija boards were made from the wood of coffins. A coffin nail in the center of the planchette window served as the pointer.

* Sometimes an evil spirit can permanently "inhabit" a board. When this happens, no other spirits will be able to use it.

* When using a glass as a message indicator, you must always cleanse it first by holding it over a burning candle.

* Ouija boards that are disposed of improperly, come back to haunt the owner.

* Ami gets a hand.A Ouija Board will scream if you try to burn it. People who hear the scream have less than thirty-six hours to live. There is only one proper way to dispose of it: break the board into seven pieces, sprinkle it with Holy Water then bury it.

* If you must use a Ouija board, make your own. Arrange the letters and numbers, into a circle so whatever is trapped within that circle can't escape.

* If you place a pure silver coin on the board, no evil spirits will be able to come through.

* NEVER leave the planchette on the board if you aren't using it.

* Lecherous spirits from the Ouija board will sometimes ask young women to do rather . . . ah, odd things. Ignore them and always remember that your Ouija partner (i.e. boyfriend) has nothing to do with this.

Three things never to ask a Ouija board:

* Never ask about God.

* Never ask when you are going to die.

* Never ask where the gold is buried.

Here is a cautionary tale that has been around for a long, long time. The point is (obviously) to warn a potential Ouija user that spirits are a deceitful lot. One gets the idea that they may not be too smart either.

We were having a Ouija session one evening and we contacted a friendly spirit who told us all about himself when he had a body. We asked him several questions about his life and family, to which he cheerfully responded. Next we asked him when he died and he said, "1948." He also mentioned that he liked talking to us and that he felt safe with the living. We then asked him the year of his birth. To this question he replied, "1955." We looked at each other, confused, and asked, "You mean you died BEFORE you were born?" The message indicator circled the board wildly for a moment then spelled out,

"O - O - P - S"

—then stopped and refused to move, effectively ending our session for the night.

Hope this was some help. Personally i like doing ouija even though it can be very dangerous. I do get scared of it and try to avoid it but now and again i like to play with a board. I usually make my own.

Hi

Whilst I think some of the rules apply for the Ouija Board, I dont necessarily agree with the majority of what you are stating.

Where did these rules come from, were they in with the box ?

I do not believe for one minute that these rules are true at all about certain things like the four corners, No.8 etc.

Please dont think Im knocking you, I am not.

For me I have used them regularly and in the correct controlled manner.

A good read though

Mark

hey guys....
i agree with mark...who made the rules,and where did they come from?
i have used the ouija board for 30 years and never had any bad so call spirits,and i use the board mostly alone.
i think when you use the board a lot of it is comman sense..

m.a.l.

[pentangle princess]

The rules are from the museum of talking boards online, i emailed them and they said some came from the box and some from various sources. I believe the alone thing because a very dear friend of mine suffered from using the board alone. She used it alone and ended up getting possessed by something. She was then locked away in a psychiatrist ward. Its a really sad story she always looked out for our family.

To be honest even reading this creeps me out i am afraid of ouija in alot of ways.
My guide- well you know when you just get that feeling something isn't right? Well we all got it so we called a pro around our home. He said there was great evil in the home, a type of demon. I was shocked. He then pointed at me and at first i thought he meant me and i was like give me a break but then he said- "this demon is connected to you...have you been doing ouija in this house?" then it struck me. It was very shocking.

And the god thing, i really don't know. Possibly because religion is something powerful and close to people and maybe because no evil could no about god and its like using gods name in the presence of evil. Sorry i don't know.

[Gaelin]

Hmm... Those "rules" don't make much sense to me. Nearly every spirit I've contacted via the Ouij has made some sort of pattern with the planchette. I attribute it to restlessness mostly, but also an identifying characteristic. It's my garauntee that the spirit is indeed the one I think it is. One of my boards has a resident spirit who can be grumpy and violent occasionally, but he's not a bad guy and he lets others talk quite often. I kind of think of him as a gate guard; in more than 10 years, he's the most malevolent spirit I've come in contact with. He listens though, when he gets angry and I tell him to go away, he does. Sometimes he tries to trick us into thinking he's someone else, but the pattern gives him away every time and he fesses up. His pull is strong enough to push the planchette off the board and his pattern is "U Yes Me No."

Brigitte: Your Toro sounds like my U Yes Me No. In regards to your inquiries, I can usually Ouij with most people, but results vary. My best friend and I get great results nearly every time, clear messages, good energy, easy fluid movements. Strangely, our board is the one with the resident grump and he is not fond of my best friend. He has thrown the planchette at her a couple of times and made a couple threats, so the board lives with me now. Another close friend and I have tried several times, but it just doesn't work for us. She's sensitive, but our energies just don't work together at all. The planchette becomes almost leaden and wanders over blank areas aimlessly. *shrugs*

I don't think the danger multiplies at all as long as users use it responsibly. I know there are people who would argue that using a Ouija board is reckless and there is no safe way to use it, and I think in part, they are correct. These boards are a door, or at the very least, a window, into something potentially dangerous. That said, I've never had any problems or known of anyone who had any serious problems result from using a Ouija board. I always begin a session telling myself that the board is a tool of communication and that I will not get upset from anything said (sometimes I do get a little upset, but that's usually my cue to end the session). I also tell myself that I am made of stronger stuff and won't tolerate any bad behavior. Then I tell the board that I'm only interested in communicating with spirits who want to talk and have only good intentions.

I have spoken to spirits who claimed to be guides of friends and who were very helpful, one Nathaniel, one whose name I do not recall. I was also given the name of an "angel" who is with me, but will not speak to me. Lastly, I spoke to my Grandmother, who correctly predicted a family argument and my great uncle's subsequent death, and I was lucky enough to be contacted by a man I loved who died unexpectedly at the age of 18. It was my birthday, and through the planchette's movements, he sang to me my favorite song (that I sang to myself over and over after his death) before telling me Happy Birthday and goodbye.

I wish you the best of luck if you decide you wish to continue use of the board. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[pentangle princess]

I really liked my guide shame he left.......
I think its 8's that are evil. Anything else is fine i guess.
here you go:
http://www.museumoftalkingboards.com/

Going kind of off topic here has anyone seen the film witch board~? I think thats what started "DON'T OUIJA ALONE"

but i hear from allot of people don't ouija alone so i kinda follow that rule. The rule that scared me was the one about burning a ouija board. Could that be true....i doubt it but scary stuff. Its completely stupid concept that a board could scream...being a wooden object and all but i guess it could happen. I googled scary ouija and it comes up with some true storys. This is a good site for people who want any ouija storys:
http://www.nationalg....com/ouija.html
I found the first one interesting. Heres an extract for those who don't want to bother with the link:

Quote

One day, during lunch, I found myself a lone in the school courtyard. So I decided it was a great time to play with the Ouija (as usual, by myself). This time wasn’t the same as the other times. I couldn’t get any straight answers from the board. When I demanded a name, it said it was the devil. I didn’t believe that and stopped playing it. I thought it was just some spirit goofing around trying to scare me. As I was putting the board away, a large rock was thrown at my back. I turned to look but no one was around. There was just a building surrounding me and there was no way for anyone to hide from me. I stood there looking for a long time wondering why and how that had happened. I couldn’t see anyone but I could feel someone watching me. That day started getting weirder and weirder. I felt jumpy for no reason and the hair on the back of my neck kept standing…while I was at school surrounded by people. Although I was surrounded by people, I felt a lone and scared. Like they weren’t really there and I was having a horrible dream.

Do you think satan himself could go onto a ouija board??

[OMPRDave]

Years ago I was spending a night over at a friend's house in the neighborhood. For whatever reason, his father asked us if we wanted to try the OUIJA board they had.

There were four of us there; myself, my brother, my friend, and his dad. His father was a school principal and also a local historian on Native American culture, but what I remember most about him was his ability to tell really good ghost stories. As we all sat around the board with our fingertips on the planchette, I can remember telling myself that he was going to go into some scary story or another.

As things progressed, the planchette began moving, and, being as skeptical of stuff then as I am now, I lifted my fingers just enough so that they floated over it. It continued to move to the questions his father asked, and two things I remember vividly are the initials of the "spirit" coming through and how he died. The initials were T.D., and he had burned to death in a barn fire on the property. Everything else that came through was pretty garbled and meaningless, and I didn't really believe what did come through.

The next day we were at home and my brother brought up the stuff the board had talked about, and my mother seemed really interested. She told us that there used to be the remains of an old barn across the street until the current homes there were built, including my friend's house. She wasn't sure if anyone had died in it as it had burned many years before she moved into our neighborhood as a kid. She guessed it had burned around the turn of the 20th century. Her revelations made it a little more of an oddity than the night before.

Another weird twist came when my friend and I were playing in the small brook behind his house. We used to go there to search for freshwater clams to use for fishing bait, and while scouring the creek bed I found the remains of an old clay pipe. After I got it all cleaned up, I found two initials on the bowl - T.D.

I am not sure if OUIJA boards enable us to speak with departed people or if they do in fact allow evil entities to enter into our homes and lives. I have heard of plenty of cases from very reputable sources that claim that they can, but to me I think it's more on the part and intent of the user. If you believe that you are indeed conversing with the dead, then perhaps these entities come in after you've used it. I don't think they are any more able to manipulate the planchette than they are the keys here on my keyboard. The results from the one time I used a OUIJA are indeed very perplexing, and I do agree that some form of real study needs to be performed to see if the users are physically responsible for moving the planchette, as well as measuring for possible changes in the environment while the session is being conducted just like is done on an investigation of a haunted location.

Oh, as a side note, I had a OUIKA under a glass table top of my old coffee table for years. Nothing bad ever happened, and I only had one presonal experience while living in the apartment it is was in.

Dave

[OMPRDave]

Years ago I was spending a night over at a friend's house in the neighborhood. For whatever reason, his father asked us if we wanted to try the OUIJA board they had.

There were four of us there; myself, my brother, my friend, and his dad. His father was a school principal and also a local historian on Native American culture, but what I remember most about him was his ability to tell really good ghost stories. As we all sat around the board with our fingertips on the planchette, I can remember telling myself that he was going to go into some scary story or another.

As things progressed, the planchette began moving, and, being as skeptical of stuff then as I am now, I lifted my fingers just enough so that they floated over it. It continued to move to the questions his father asked, and two things I remember vividly are the initials of the "spirit" coming through and how he died. The initials were T.D., and he had burned to death in a barn fire on the property. Everything else that came through was pretty garbled and meaningless, and I didn't really believe what did come through.

The next day we were at home and my brother brought up the stuff the board had talked about, and my mother seemed really interested. She told us that there used to be the remains of an old barn across the street until the current homes there were built, including my friend's house. She wasn't sure if anyone had died in it as it had burned many years before she moved into our neighborhood as a kid. She guessed it had burned around the turn of the 20th century. Her revelations made it a little more of an oddity than the night before.

Another weird twist came when my friend and I were playing in the small brook behind his house. We used to go there to search for freshwater clams to use for fishing bait, and while scouring the creek bed I found the remains of an old clay pipe. After I got it all cleaned up, I found two initials on the bowl - T.D.

I am not sure if OUIJA boards enable us to speak with departed people or if they do in fact allow evil entities to enter into our homes and lives. I have heard of plenty of cases from very reputable sources that claim that they can, but to me I think it's more on the part and intent of the user. If you believe that you are indeed conversing with the dead, then perhaps these entities come in after you've used it. I don't think they are any more able to manipulate the planchette than they are the keys here on my keyboard. The results from the one time I used a OUIJA are indeed very perplexing, and I do agree that some form of real study needs to be performed to see if the users are physically responsible for moving the planchette, as well as measuring for possible changes in the environment while the session is being conducted just like is done on an investigation of a haunted location.

Oh, as a side note, I had a OUIKA under a glass table top of my old coffee table for years. Nothing bad ever happened, and I only had one personal experience while living in the apartment it is was in.

Dave

[Atropa belladonna]

one of the rules listed by:
pentangle princess "If you place a pure silver coin on the board, no evil spirits will be able to come through."
How do you know a silver coin will stop an evil sprit?, What if it were a solid silver ingot, would that work too?

In all honesty I still have a great fear of a Ouija Board. I'm not even sure why.
Even as a child I would shy away from them.

[Kira]

Hi Pent Princess, I'm a bit confused. I went to the Ouija Museum site and on the FAQ page much of what you listed as rules were actually just questions that the makers of the website answered very sarcastically. They say it is safe to use alone and nothing about how you should dispose of it except to give it to them. Forgive me if I found my information in a different part of the site than you. I'm in no way trying to put you down, I just don't want to confuse and scare people any more than they already are about the board. I am on the fence on them. I don't think I would feel comfortable using one, however if I was with Mark London I'd have no fear!!!

[Kira]

I found it, the info posted about comes from the Ouija-stitions part of the website. IE: superstitions about the talking board.