In the realm of mysterious phenomena, few artifacts hold as much intrigue as the Ouija board. It is a seemingly innocent-looking board game that has long been a gateway to the unknown.
I would never use one or recommend this method of communication. Too many negative accounts have been shared with me, and most paranormal experts I have interviewed have been adamant that it could create very unwelcome situations with unknown entities.
But amongst the many ominous accounts I have read on this topic, I found the following shared experiences, occurring decades apart, to be the most thought-provoking regarding the possible source of energy that is capable of creating messages through a wooden board and planchette.
ME
“When I was a youngster, I spent much of my time with my cousins, who lived next door. While playing in their basement one day, we discovered an old Ouija board mixed in with some other board games on a shelf in the coat closet.
I was only about 10, and the youngest of the bunch, but I can still vividly remember all this. I had no idea what an Ouija board was, but my eldest cousin filled my head with scary thoughts as she described how ghosts communicate with the living by spelling words on the board. I thought she was just pulling my leg. But no one else was laughing, and we all stared at the old board nervously, unsure of what to do with it.
We decided we better wait for my aunt to leave the house to run an errand or two because we all suspected she wouldn’t let us kids get involved with anything like that. It took a few days before that opportunity finally presented itself, and as soon as we heard her call out that she’d be back soon, we all dashed down to the basement to get that Ouija board and give it a try.
It was decided that the two eldest kids should try it out first. My two cousins each placed their fingers on the heart-shaped thing used to spell out words, while another had a pad of paper and pencil to record any messages received from the beyond.
“Would anyone like to talk to us?” both cousins repeatedly asked. Nothing.
Just as they were about to give up, the heart-shaped piece suddenly skidded across the board. I skeptically looked at both cousins and their fingers to see if they had caused it, but they looked more shocked than anyone.
“Who’s there?” they both called out.
It spelled out “ME” over and over again.
When asked if “ME” had a message for us, the heart-shaped piece spelled the word: “DEER.”
That single-worded message made no sense to us.
“Is this Bambi’s mother?” someone asked, with nervous laughter, and I remember I found that to be pretty funny, too, and much-needed comic relief.
But it then spelled out DEER once more, even faster than before, and made a few circular motions before indicating “Good Bye” and skidding off the board onto the tabletop. No one knew what to make of that.
My aunt still wasn’t home yet, which was odd to us, but we lost our nerve to continue using it until she returned, so we put the board back downstairs where it had been stored with the other games. An unease hung in the air.
After getting that strange Ouija board message, my eldest cousin grew increasingly nervous about her mother’s well-being. She finally telephoned her mother’s friend to see if she was still there. Her mom planned to stop there on her way home, but she still should have been back quite a while ago.
My cousin was told that her mom hadn’t been there yet, and the friend was also concerned. Before cell phones, it was impossible to contact my aunt directly, so her friend decided to drive along the route my aunt would have taken to find her and ensure everything was okay.
What felt like a long time passed before the friend arrived back at my cousins’ place, with their mother sitting in the passenger seat of their car. We were all very relieved to see her, but she seemed shaken, and we didn’t understand why she wasn’t in her own car.
The first word out of her mouth explained it — and made us all gasp at the same time.
“Deer!” she said and tearfully explained her collision with two of them. Extreme damage had been caused to her vehicle, now needing to be towed from a deep ditch at the side of the road where her friend had finally found her in a daze from the concussion she’d suffered in the accident.
Deer. We all looked at each other with wide eyes – that was the same word spelled out to us on the Ouija board that day. It might have taken much longer to find and help my aunt if my cousin hadn’t felt so uneasy about her well-being after getting that message.
Was it really a spirit who spelled out that message to us? Who knows. Something sure did, and my cousins always swore they hadn’t manipulated the board in any way. Could my frightened aunt (referring to herself as “Me” as she always did) have somehow telepathically communicated to us when her collision occurred just as we received that Ouija board message about DEER? It remains an intriguing mystery.”
YOU
“For as long as I can recall, arachnophobia had a terrifying grip on my life. Just a glimpse of a spider in a picture or movie paralyzed me with fear. So you can imagine how I felt in my parents’ Island farmhouse, where it wasn’t uncommon to encounter giant wolf spiders. That was my biggest fear, and it would trigger full-blown panic attacks and even made me dread going home for family gatherings after I’d moved away.
Despite seeking various forms of professional therapy over the years, the arachnophobia persisted, and it really did create a dark cloud over my life.
One evening, well into my thirties, a few of my closest friends joined me for dinner. They were well-acquainted with my spider phobia and its detrimental impact.
After dessert, one of my friends produced an Ouija board and planchette for an impromptu séance. We dismissed it as a silly game but decided to indulge our eccentric friend, who believed that night’s full moon was an ideal time for a paranormal encounter.
As we sipped our wine and stared at the board, the planchette remained still.
But the carefree atmosphere took an unexpected turn when a message finally began to be slowly spelled out: “SPIDERS— ARE — JUST — ANOTHER — BUG.”
I angrily asked my friends if they were trying to scare me by mentioning spiders, but they insisted they would never do that. They encouraged me to take control of the planchette alone to ensure it wasn’t a joke, and I hesitantly placed my fingers upon it while my friends observed.
To my amazement, the planchette immediately began moving again, much stronger now and seemingly of its own accord. It quickly spelled out again: “SPIDERS ARE JUST ANOTHER BUG.”
My heart was racing, but I gathered the courage to ask: “Who is giving me this message?”
The planchette immediately spelled a simple yet profound response: “YOU.”
Laughter erupted around me, but tears welled up in my eyes because I knew it was not a joke. I realized that the message I needed to understand was coming from myself. The notion that “spiders are just another bug” was so simple but served as a revelation, challenging the irrational fear that had held such an overwhelming power over my life.
I wasn’t afraid of any other bug. So, just thinking of spiders as being like any other bug somehow reduced and eventually eliminated the power of that irrational fear.
That experience of my subconscious manifesting this message through an Ouija board defies explanation, but it did mark a turning point in my life. The simplicity of the message resonated so deeply, offering the exact perspective I needed that had eluded all past professional interventions.
I acknowledge that the events surrounding my Ouija revelation may seem implausible, but the impact on my arachnophobia was undeniably real. That simple but specific message said to be from myself to myself, somehow proved to be the key I needed to confront and eventually conquer that lifelong phobia.”
For over a century, Ouija boards have captivated the imaginations of those drawn to the supernatural. But whether attributed to mystical forces or one’s inner power, it’s not a direct hotline to the spirit of your choosing, and the results can be unpredictable.
It’s essential to always consider the potential emotional and psychological effects when interacting with the unknown. Despite some viewing it as a mere game, tampering with the supernatural through a Ouija board should always be approached with care as the boundaries separating the seen from the unseen demand thoughtful reflection before being crossed.
Do you also have an exciting and mystical tale to tell? Whether you’ve experienced a haunting, a mysterious cryptid sighting, or a brush with the inexplicable, please share it with Canadian author Dorah L. Williams at dorahlwilliams@gmail.com
Your story, too, could be featured in an upcoming column of Mystical Manitoulin!
