THE OUIJA BOARD HAUNTINGS

 

A planchette used for automatic writing

  It is Time to discuss Ouija Boards and the possibility of spirit contact, so go get your favorite beverage and a snack and sit down and we will look into this phenomenon. Most everyone has either used or seen others use the board. The Ouija board came from the practice of planchette writing that spawned from the American 19th century obsession with spiritualism. . Spiritualism[ the belief that the dead are able to communicate with the living] had been around for years in Europe but only Hit America in those dark days after the Civil war with so many wishing to contact lost loved ones. The idea of Communicating with the dead became common and it wasn’t seen as bizarre or weird then. As it turned out "mediums" were consulted to perform séances to contact dead friends and relatives and even famous and historical figures. The Ouija Board was an easier way one could contact spirits and get quick answers rather than consulting a medium.


 Many versions of spirit boards and planchette existed but a man named William Fuld patented the design we know today .wishing to mass produce and market it as a game he did not know what to call it at first .Fuld got out a board and “The talking board named itself " Fuld proclaimed . "We didn't know what to name it, so put the question up to the board and it spelled out O-U-I-J-A ''. later the rights were sold to Parker Brothers after Fuld was killed in a freak accident.

A New fangled glow in the dark version

 
 The Board these days has somewhat lost its original intention of Spiritualism and has become associated with Scary paranormal and Demonic activity. Hollywood has helped reinforce this notion .To my knowledge the first film to do this was THE EXORCIST, the character Regan who becomes possessed by a demon, found a Ouija Board in a closet.After using it alone ,unexplained thumps and noises are heard in the attic at night. Soon she starts to display odd behavior and this culminated in a full on possession that required priests to come and do an exorcism.
  So Is there any reality to the idea that the board is a real gateway to some unknown realm? Is it possible negative forces can pass through and enter your house, Turning your nice home into a place where sinister things lurk?

 Whether or not there is anything to this phenomenon I personally recommend not ever using them for two basic reasons 1 -if it is not real and you don’t believe in it you are essentially wasting your time and could be doing something more productive, 2 -If it is real you could be toying with unknown forces beyond your control and you don’t want to do that either.
 Here is a personal experience of mine,I haven’t used one of the Boards in years but when I was a kid I did mess around with one briefly as did my sister and her friends .Growing up in Kentucky in the 70’s and 80’s I spent a lot of time reading and thinking about strange things. I had heard the grownups over the years discuss fantastic occurrences they personally experienced ,like seeing strange lights in the hills, hearing voices while alone in a dark Theater or phantom horse hooves on a mountain road .All the stories seemed true, all of them seemed difficult to explain ,This had an effect on my imagination and interest in the supernatural over time so I was bound to become curious about the Ouija when I dug it out of the closet one day.
   I recently talked to a woman who grew up on my street who used to hang out with my sister a lot and she told me they used to play the Ouija board and hold séances in our house .I don’t know what specifically happened but She said to this day she was ‘’scared to death of Ouija boards ’’and shunned any aspect of the Occult. This makes sense now as I must have been twelve or thirteen when I found it stuffed away in a closet somewhere [most likely not too long after they had cast it aside].I must admit I don’t remember anything creepy happening in the house much before this time period. Now Growing up in a big old white house built before the Civil war you might even expect a few Ghosts but The Strange occurrences that have taken place in that house could fill a book. Many I cannot explain and, stranger still is the fact they took place over a long period of time and in most cases a few years apart with nothing unusual happening in between. I will go into some of this later in part 2, but here is what happened that day when I used the board.

  I could use the Board very well by myself and the planchette seemed to move about as if levitating. I was getting interesting answers and decided finally to ask the presence I was speaking with what it's name was. It quickly spelled out T-O-D-D. This thoroughly creeped me out and I quickly packed it all back where I had found it and did not use it the more.

  I never told anyone about this and so now let us move up a few years. I was a teenager and now driving my Chevy pickup and going to a few parties here and there. I went to a party with friends to a house one weekend night and went into the kitchen where they had drinks and snacks. I saw two girls with the a standard parker brothers Ouija Board on the kitchen table . I stood by and watched as they were asking questions and the planchette seemed to move with ease as they both placed hands on it. As I watched ,I at one point suggested they ask the entity what its name was .As they did this my eyes widened as I watched the them spell out T-O-D-D.