The Seance and a Ouija Board

The mystical Ouija

I have seen many television shows about bad things happening to those who use a Ouija Board. I have also read articles and talked to people who had scary experiences with this item. I owned one as a child and thankfully was protected from what happened to others.

I received the Ouija Board for Christmas when I was 10. Television commercials promoted it as a fun mystical children's game. I did not know at that time that the Ouija had been around since 1890 in various forms.

I had no idea it was used to summon the dead. To me my sister and two brothers it was a game of pretend. We were Christian children who had been baptized and prayed to Jesus.

Looking back I believed we were protected from any evil connected with the game. The four of us attempted to play once or twice and asked silly questions. We were not seeking spirits or trying to communicate with the dead.

The planchette never moved on it's own so I put the board back in the box and set it on a trunk in the upstairs hallway. There were a few times when I was alone I had a slightly ominous feeling when I went near the box. It was as though I was being drawn to it.

I opened the box a few times and looked at the board but it I had this strong feeling of foreboding. I knew in my spirit that I should not use this game so I didn't.

I threw the Ouija Board away and did not have the troubles that others have shared. It did not return and nothing supernatural happened. The seance was different.

The Seance

When I was 16 I worked at the local elementary school along with about ten other teens. The brick building was only one year old and sat adjacent to the original wooden structure which was bout 30 years old.

The girls ate lunch in the library in the basement of the old building. One day one of my cousins spoke about the library allegedly being haunted. She said we should join hands and call forth Mr. Redd.

He had lived in our neighborhood, attended our church and drove a school bus. He had also been the janitor at this school. There were eight of us and we joined hands forming a circle.

We began chanting "Mr. Redd, Mr. Redd" over and over and within minutes we heard a large crash from the back of the library. There was no one back there because the boys were in a different side of the building.

We began running to toward the door screaming "In the name of Jesus, go back." We don't know what made that crash and we did not stick around to find out.

After we made it to the upper level we were out of breath and began laughing but we did not set foot in the library again. Thankfully nothing followed us but I was shaken when I got home.

Again I believe we were protected. Do I wish I had something more spooky to share about the Ouija Board and the seance? Absolutely not. Lyrics from Stevie Wonder's song Superstition comes to mind. "When you believe in things you don't understand you suffer.