We're supposed to share true ghost stories. Mine isn't worth telling around a campfire late at night, but it is totally unexplainable, at least by the accepted rules of reality as it stands right now.
It happened when I was in fifth or sixth grade. I had a slumber party, and my mom introduced something none of us had seen before: A Quija Board.
Now, I wouldn't know that this thing was supposed to be evil or help people contact spirits until many years later. My young self and my friends mainly asked it things like how many boys liked us and who we would marry (Chris Fields, never met him).
But that night, that first night, Mom picked two of my friends at random and set them cross legged in front of each other. She told them to put their fingers on the plastic platform with the window in it and ask the board how many kids she had. The platform moved directly to five. But that was wrong, we all said. She only had two kids. Mom said nothing, just directed two more of my friends to sit down and repeat the process. The board said five again. Then my mom revealed, "I had three miscarriages before I had Jennifer." She was the only one in the room who knew that fact.
Okay, so you won't lose any sleep tonight over this one, but it did really happen. I was there.
Maybe not, but it is still a unexplained phenomenon ....
ReplyDeleteMichael
I played with one of those at a friends house when I was younger. It was creepie.
ReplyDeleteQuija boards are creepy; though I've never had one work for me. I don't think they're supposed to be evil though ... it's just you never know who you're asking, it could be a passed on relative or something much more malevolent (I love that word, but so rarely get to use it).
ReplyDeleteGlad you participated and shared this story.
Ooo, that is eerie. I used to play with my friends all the time around 5th-grade or so, but we always moved the piece to get the answer we wanted. I think....
ReplyDeleteIf you get a chance, I'm hosting a Halloween Haunting at my blog "Substitute Teacher's Saga" from 10/28-11/1 if you want to join in. There are prizes!
I played the Ouija board and would never allow my kids to do it. Like Quinn said, you never know who will answer.
ReplyDeleteNancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author
You're mom rocked! I've played with a Ouija board before and felt creeped out, almost like it was a portal from to the underworld. I heard once when I was younger that if you use one, all windows and doors should be shut to prevent any spirits from leaving before the game is done and the ghosts are shut off. Interesting idea, wonder if it's true.
ReplyDeleteI like this posting. I'm still very impressed with your mom. When I started playing Dungeons & Dragons in high school my mom thought I was devil worshipping *shaking head*. Lol! Thank you for participating, this was great.
N. R. Williams- About not letting your kids use it...I was thinking the same thing as a mom when I wrote this. I also wish I could ask my mom what she was thinking as she did this to us...she obviously believed in the board at some level but didn't believe it could be harmful since she let us use it all the time.
ReplyDeletePatricia- Yes, my mom did rock...in many ways I didn't appreciate until I was much older and didn't think to tell her until after she was gone.
ReplyDeleteI have never played with a Ouija board, I guess I was always afraid of what might follow me around if I did. Very creepy!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteIt told the truth each time, so hardly mere coincidence. Still creepy, though.
best
F
I remember when my mom introduced me to my first Ouija board. I haven't taken it out of my closet for years...spooky thing.
ReplyDeleteI rather enjoyed this story. It's so eeire.
Thanks for sharing :)
I remember my first Quija board. Nothing that exciting ever came out of mine but me and my girlfriends definitely had some fun with each other.
ReplyDeleteNot scary, but still eerie. Did you know that Ouija boards were introduced as a harmless commercial parlour game in the 1890s? It was not until WW1 that it started becoming associated with the occult.
ReplyDeleteJ. C.- Yes, when people started to tell me Quija was evil, I just kept thinking, it says Parker Brothers at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteBut whenever my sister and I got on it together when we were older it would move wicked fast. She lived by a cemetery, and one Halloween we did it. I could have sworn it was trying to yank away from my hands...we were always told never to use the board alone (Excorcist style) or you could end up with a spinning head and spewing pea soup like her. That Halloween night with my sister made it clear to me that it might not always be fun and games.
That is a little chilling. I still think Ouija boards are scary though my common sense says it's a hoax.
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to try a Ouija board, but have been a little bit chicken. This story validates my superstitious reservations.
ReplyDeleteLydia- I don't have a clear explanation of how it works or what it is doing exactly, but I've used the board with enough different people to know it's not a hoax. My pet theory is that most of the time it moves because of the joint consciousnesses of the users...though that doesn't explain the incident with my mom, which is why I say "most" of the time.
ReplyDeleteRebecca- If your curious, I'd suggest trying the board with a positive person who you have a strong/close connection with and ask the board a few harmless questions about you (like when you'll sell your first book), not anything about who/what is answering. Just keep it light.
I only agreed to try to contact a spirit one time. When we were done, my friend joked that, "Only you would manage to contact a friendly ghost."
How lovely! Ah, the wandering laptop. I feel that.
ReplyDeleteMy dad specifically banned me from ever using these things. Yes, I believed in ghosts, but I kind of thought these boards were just fake. But because my dad made me promise, and he was serious about it, I kind of wonder. See, his mother sees dead people, and although my dad almost never talks about it, he hears stuff that normal people will never hear. I don't know which is scarier, seeing or just hearing...
ReplyDeleteI think just hearing would be worse...I'd make myself crazy questioning everything I heard.
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