The Ouija Board

There have been quite a few discussions about Ouija boards lately so now feels like the appropriate time to share a true story which happened about 15 years ago.

Despite being the typical teen a lot of people knew that I was different because they had witnessed a lot of weird happenings around me and trying to find some answers to these strange occurrences lead me to try many things including the Ouija board.

I didn’t see it as a quest for truth or anything of the sort, just something I’d do for shits and giggles, despite the fact that shit would actually always happen. I would have epic parties and tons of people would ask me to conjure up some spirits, most of who got stoned out of their minds while I got everyone relaxed with some meditation techniques and then invited spirits into my home. There would always be some kind of small paranormal incidents the house became famous for it. For example, once we heard children playing with the dog, we could hear it run throughout the kitchen upstairs and very faint laughter, people were already spooked by this but they got scared shitless when someone pointed out the fact that the dog was in the basement with us. Then the most unlikely of person joined one of our Ouija board sessions. This certainly wasn’t the kind of girl that I’d imagine being into paranormal stuff. She was kind of preppy without the snobby attitude and really down to earth. She was also a grade ‘A’ student who never did drugs and probably had never even gotten drunk once in her life. Still, she was incredibly open minded, even enthused, about the séance and at some point she got to join in with me.

As soon as her hand touched the pointer the atmosphere changed and I kept having huge chills running through my body, I knew that something was up. We had definitely some sort of connection and by the look on her face it was undoubtedly clear that she felt the same. Her line of questioning started but these weren’t simple questions; they had to do with things that I had been wondering about myself, this girl knew a lot and certainly had experiences similar to mine. She invited me over to her home not long after this session. It was a beautiful home in a rich district of the city but as soon as I walked in an intense feeling of uneasiness came upon me. It didn’t feel right but I still didn’t mention anything about this. I remember sitting in the kitchen discussing music, since we were considering playing a concert together, when all of a sudden I notice that one of the cupboards was just open and it definitely wasn’t moments before. I pointed towards the cupboard and she just gave me a weird look while her boyfriend smiled and simply said, oh that happens sometimes.

I finally got to talk to her about this and she had so many stories to share which were very similar to mine. She mentioned a presence that always followed her into her room at night and she could actually see footprints in the thick carpet which started from the living room then up the stairs way and into her room, all the way into the corner of her closet. They had louvered closet doors and she felt this presence peering at her all through the night, it really freaked her out. This is why she insisted on using the board to communicate with spirits again, she wanted some answers. We started using the board on a regular basis, meeting up as many times as we could. There were some undeniable truths but there was also a lot of crap, it was always hard to tell if it was actually working. It seemed I was more interested in proof while she was more interested in knowing and understanding what was going on, not that I wasn’t interested in that either, though.

Over the course of a month or two everyone started noticing changes in both her appearance and behaviour. She had gone from wearing vividly bright dresses to dark clothes, she missed a lot of classes, her grades had dropped and she withdrew herself and seemed a lot more reserved. It seemed as though all she could think about was the board, all she talked about was what had been revealed to us and kept putting everything in question. At this point I suggested that we just call it quits for a while but she really wasn’t too pleased with that but still promised to stay away for a least a few weeks. That night I had a dream, or more of a vision, she was sitting with a group of friends trying to contact spirits with the board. When I woke up I phoned her, asked her why she was still playing, I remember that she got extremely freaked out when I started naming everyone that was there with her. The next day she explained how it wasn’t even working and how she needed me. She asked if I would join her for one session but declined and asked her again to quit using the thing but I knew she wasn’t going to give up on it so I said “Alright, one last time and if we don’t get any proof that this thing even works we cut it up and throw it in the river” then added “and this time we’re playing in the graveyard”.

The plan was simple, we got to the graveyard and I’d ask if the person was buried here, get the name and see if it actually existed. There were quite a few people there, a dozen or so who she had invited. She thought that the spirit could draw the energy from all the people around and gain enough strength to actually bring strong proof. When I suggested my plan she firmly agreed to it, she had everyone in a circle around the board and at some point they were even touching it. Our fingers rested against the pointer and then I felt a sudden weight on my fingertips and the thing started to move around spelling out random letters.

We explained our ‘system’ to the spirit which was to go up the center of the board between each word while someone wrote down what was said and it seemed to understand. Her first question was “Why are you here?” and it spelled out “gawd beetrade me”, then I asked for its name and it spelled out “H Jalbert”, then I asked in which direction his tombstone was and it pointed down in the corner of the graveyard. A friend and I started walking, row by row, trying to find this person but no stone bared that name in that direction, we couldn’t even find that name anywhere in the whole place so I went back and told her that I had one final plan, to hold the board with one hand and the pointer with the other and to have it guide us to the site.

We picked it up, started to make our way down the hill when I spotted a tombstone way down the hill in the distance and shivers went right through my body. I had been there and there was definitely no one by that name, I was sure of it and yet it felt as though I knew there was something there. I brushed it off, wanting my mind to be completely clear and objective. I looked away from that area and was trying to look up towards the sky, sometimes tripping since I wasn’t even looking in front of me. The thing turned sharply and at this point huge shivers kept surging through my entire body, it wasn’t out of fear I really didn’t know what it was from. Then, while slowly pacing towards the end of the row I felt the board slip out of my hands as I hit the ground. My mind went haywire with visions and I was overwhelmed with emotions. I quickly looked at my friend but she was gone, running back up the hill screaming. My ears were ringing, my eyes were watery and I couldn’t talk, much less walk over to her and yet that’s all I wanted to do. Then I noticed the tombstone, it was marked “Henri J. Albert”.

We explained our ‘system’ to the spirit which was to go up the center of the board between each word while someone wrote down what was said and it seemed to understand. Her first question was “Why are you here?” and it spelled out “gawd beetrade me”, then I asked for its name and it spelled out “H Jalbert”, then I asked in which direction his tombstone was and it pointed down in the corner of the graveyard. A friend and I started walking, row by row, trying to find this person but no stone bared that name in that direction, we couldn’t even find that name anywhere in the whole place so I went back and told her that I had one final plan, to hold the board with one hand and the pointer with the other and to have it guide us to the site.

We picked it up, started to make our way down the hill when I spotted a tombstone way down the hill in the distance and shivers went right through my body. I had been there and there was definitely no one by that name, I was sure of it and yet it felt as though I knew there was something there. I brushed it off, wanting my mind to be completely clear and objective. I looked away from that area and was trying to look up towards the sky, sometimes tripping since I wasn’t even looking in front of me. The thing turned sharply and at this point huge shivers kept surging through my entire body, it wasn’t out of fear I really didn’t know what it was from. Then, while slowly pacing towards the end of the row I felt the board slip out of my hands as I hit the ground. My mind went haywire with visions and I was overwhelmed with emotions. I quickly looked at my friend but she was gone, running back up the hill screaming. My ears were ringing, my eyes were watery and I couldn’t talk, much less walk over to her and yet that’s all I wanted to do. Then I noticed the tombstone, it was marked “Henri J. Albert”. I finally gathered my senses with the help of some friends and walked up to her. Everyone was just starring at her with this look of terror on their faces, I kneeled down to tell her that I understood what had happened when I noticed her eyes... they were completely black. Someone gave me a flashlight but her pupils were unresponsive. She was talking to herself completely incoherent, laughing, crying, screaming and making no sense at all, we had to get her out of there.

She was in no state to drive her car so some of her friends decided to drive her car for her and I decided to walk with another one of my friend. While walking my other friend kept asking me what had happened and I told her that I felt that spirit in me, I saw this person’s life and what it was that he wanted me to do, he wanted me to speak to his wife to apologize for some things he had done. We stopped in at this small restaurant, we were sitting towards the back area and I was describing what I had felt and seen, then told her that I thought that perhaps this entity was still in my friend when all of a sudden I notice her jaw drop, I quickly turned around and standing there in the back of me is my friend with a blank look on her face, “I came to pick you up, I’ll drive you two home” was all she said. I asked her how she knew where we were, since it was impossible for her to know, but she just reiterated “I’ll drive you two home!” then noticed her eyes were still as black as when we had left her.

We got up and got in the car, she said she was fine to drive but once we started moving she started talking to her hand, laughing hysterically, burning red lights and not doing her stops. She was actually driving to her house which was on the other end of town but we didn’t dare say anything. She drove into her driveway got out of the car and said “I’m so sorry...” and left there. This would be the last time she would ever speak to me.

Throughout the entire week everyone said they felt a presence and shit kept happening to everyone that was there, from weird phone calls to chairs moving by themselves, everyone was terrified. I remember talking to the friend that walked home with me. She was saying that nothing had happened to her and just then the light in her room went out. ...And shit would always happen every time someone would mention Mr. Jalbert.

The girl seems alright now but she still avoids me. Just the look in her face when she looks at me, it’s as though I am a bad memory to her. All the activity really stopped after his wife passed away.

Throughout the entire week everyone said they felt a presence and shit kept happening to everyone that was there, from weird phone calls to chairs moving by themselves, everyone was terrified. I remember talking to the friend that walked home with me. She was saying that nothing had happened to her and just then the light in her room went out. ...And shit would always happen every time someone would mention Mr. Jalbert.

The girl seems alright now but she still avoids me. Just the look in her face when she looks at me, it’s as though I am a bad memory to her. All the activity really stopped after his wife passed away.