Have any of you guys ever played around with Ouija?

[FDRrocks]

I'm thinking of driving to Gettysburg on Sunday with my girl to see if we can't give ourselves a good scare.

Any cautionary words? :)

[murielm99]

1. Oujia boards are not toys.

Throw it away!

[KitchenWitch]

2. Better yet, Burn it! Seriously!

[FDRrocks]

3. Whats with this, though?

Obviously they are just mass-produced pieces of wood. Is it just that is gives spirits a channel? Are there any instances of spirits possibly following people home?

edit: I've always been the kind of person that has to touch the hot-stove to learn the lesson.

[Zuni]

13. Yes, there are. People who do not know what they are doing

can get mixed up with some real unpleasant characters, and have a lot of trouble getting away from them

[Prodemsouth]

4. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Did I scare you! have fun!

[jellybelly]

5. It only works if someone's drunk

so they can wobble and move the pointer

[jpgray]

6. If no one moves their hands, it gets really boring.

Because nothing will happen.

[FDRrocks]

8. That's what I figure....

It's prolly gonna be really dumb, but I've been looking for an excuse to go back to the battle site.

[radfringe]

18. bring a camera instead

snap a few random pics and then see what really shows up on the prints

there a show on travel channel about haunted places -- they have done Gettysburg -- pics taken by "regular people" were shown -- most often it showed those floating orbs

but who knows -- my partner and I are going to try to do a day trip out there this spring/summer -- and yep, I'm bringing my camera

[FDRrocks]

22. I reality cannot believe the ords...

I mean they are just orbs. Photos have to be processed, and they can be messed up. On top of that I've read of dirty lense pictures being mistaken as ghostly sitings.

I am extremely skeptical of the supernatural. That is why I wanna go sit in the middle of Gettysburg and have an honest to god Ouija session. I need to know.

I've read so many ghost stories.... and the dominating common thread is youth. Most of the experiences related occurred to the person under the age of 10. I even have my own tale.

[radfringe]

24. I know what you mean about the orbs

could be just dust specks illuminated by a camera flash.. but then again... who knows

I lived in a house that had a reputation of being haunted.. some weird stuff went on there. No orbs but plenty of other stuff

one night I had gotten home from work late, I was still wound up, so I decided to sit in the kitchen next to the wood stove and read. The door to the mudroom opened, I figured I didn't latch it right -- got up and shut it.

sat down, door opened again. Got up, latched it again -- checked it by jiggling -- yep, it was shut and latched.

again the door opened -- this time I thought maybe an outside door was open, and wind was causing the problem. Went out and checked -- outside doors were all locked, windows in mudroom were locked. latched the mudroom door again, sat back down and the door popped open AGAIN

now I figure maybe loose/creaky floor boards caused the door or doorframe to shift -- so I go back, latch the door and walk slowly heavily back to my chair to test the loose floor board theory. Door stayed shut, but a couple minutes after sitting down the door opened again.

I got up and headed for the door -- outloud I said "If you are going to use the door, please shut it behind you." the door shut on it's own...


--------

one of my roomates woke in the middle of the night to see a little girl standing at the foot of his bed. A few days later as we were moving things up into the attic, we found a painting of a little girl, my roommate said "That's the girl I saw the other night"

--------

there were also several areas of the house you did not want to be in -- the front hall and stairs, a second floor bedroom, and a couple of loft areas over the barn/garage

[FDRrocks]

25. That's another common thread...

Is that alot of the actual vision encounters happen while the ghost-ee (if you will) is in bed or asleep.

My own personal experience involved a dream, in bed, before the age of 10. I mean, I can be spoken to in my sleep by people without being woken. They will wake me with a question or something, and I'll just answer it to get rid of them, and forget it. In my opinion, the opine of anyone recently awoken is not reliable.

[Modem Butterfly]

27. On that topic..

A friend of mine used to call me at all hours during a time he was having some difficulties at work and in his personal life. We were both nightowls at the time, so I didn't mind this. One night, about 11, I checked my caller ID and realized I'd missed a call from him a couple of hours earlier. I called him and he answered, sounding kind of sleepy. I told him he sounded like I woke him up, so I'd let him go and we'd talk tomorrow. He said, "Okay, tomorrow. Love you Mom. Dad too," He called me the next day and said that his mother had called late the previous night, and when he called her back that day she acted like she hadn't called him.

[radfringe]

29. would have agreed with you

but he described what the girl looked like -- and it matched the painting we found later.. and none of us had been up in the attic until that day

other occurances -- a wicker chair in the living room would move back when you passed close to it -- like someone getting up from the chair to give you room to pass -- no it wasn't a rocking chair -- and it seemed to happen most often at/near sunset

a roommates stereo would start playing by itself -- he kept a stack of LP's on the the spindle, and they would just start playing -- when you would go upstairs to his room to shut it off, it would stop by itself -- needle arm would still be on the record, but the stereo would be off

could hear running up and down the stairs at night, footsteps up and down the hall

another roomate was home alone one day -- he was sitting outside on the patio and heard dishes/pots/pans rattling loudly in the kitchen. Thinking one of us came home from work early - he went into the house -- no one was there. This happened several times over the next couple of hours.

fresh roses brought into the house would be dead and black the next morning...

sometimes our dogs would wake from a sound sleep and growl at a door, then you would sometimes hear somebody moving around parts of the house -- this we figured could be critters (mice etc) but the "movement" sounds were awful loud to be a mouse unless it was wearing heavy shoes

[Modem Butterfly]

30. Racoons and/or Opossums sound like that

Just FYI. Older houses often have larger vermin in the attic. I know mine did (and from the sound of it, I think they might be back).

[radfringe]

31. yep

but it doesn't account for the dead roses, stereo going on by itself

[Modem Butterfly]

32. Power spikes and mold infestations

We had an outlet that would cause whatever was plugged into it to turn on and off with power spikes. Lamps, TV (once at 2 AM the TV came on by itself during some horror move and we woke to the sounds of screaming from the living room!), stereo. It was a serious fire hazard, so we had the wiring disconnected.

Certain mold blooms will turn flowers and veggies black in short order as well. We had that problem in our kitchen actually, it was a serious pain in the ass. The mold gave Will a terribe sinus infection, but other than not being able to keep food out I didn't notice it.

NOTE: I am not saying you have mold or crappy wiring (well, check the wiring because that can be very dangerous). I'm just giving an alternate explanation.

You know, sometime next year our house will be torn down and turned into a subdivision. Between the large vermin, mold, and freaky wiring, I'm starting to not feel so bad about that!



:)

[radfringe]

33. mold and roses

sounds like a good name for a band, heh?

ok, I understand that -- but why just roses? other fresh flowers and plants were just fine

and with the roses it was just a matter of a few hours -- don't think mold could do that

[Modem Butterfly]

34. Hot house flowers are much more delicate

Most roses are grown in hot houses, making them quite delicate. Also, hard water will wilt flowers quickly - I have to use filtered water in any flowers that I bring into the house, particularly any white flowers. And orchids? Forget it. They yellow and fade within hours.

Again, just offering another explanation, not necessarily the right one.

[Cooley Hurd]

26. If you're able to conjure up the souls of Confederate soldiers...

...please tell them the war's over.:D

[Kire]

7. I did Ouija in a Haunted House on Halloween

all of the crosses people were wearing were broken by the end of the night

[johnnie]

9. A good scare?

I'll give you my thoughts. There are many things that aren't fun to play with.
Take a camera and a tape recorder, but don't think it is a joke. Trust me....from experience, it's not all fun and games.

[FDRrocks]

10. Will do!

Care to share your experience, in the meanwhile?

Actually, I only have access to a tape recorder. :(

[johnnie]

11. Well, real quick

I have things that are around me that can't be explained. I have had two famous "ghostbusters" that can't figure out what is happening.
Besides that, they can be very harmful. It is very exciting to find souls from beyond, but it can also be very harmful if you don't know what you are messing with.
If you want to get voices from there, take you tape recorder and ask questions. They will answer. Just ask them stuff like"Who is here?", "How are you feeling?". Things like that.
If you need more info you can PM me.

[bettyellen]

12. be careful, it can be weird... my cousin and i used to and i don't know if

she was pushing that thingy. i peeked and it looked and felt like as jumping around the board a lot. supposedly i was living on a farm in france and the mother of five kids.
But the weird thing was all of them were reincarnated to become my older brother and sisters in my present life. it said i followed them to this life.
i don't feel to motherly though, so go figure. maybe i got it out of my system in france!

[FDRrocks]

15. In a way I almost want to have a terrifying experrience....

There really is too much ambiguity when it comes to spirituality. I'm not sure if it'd be worse to live with a demon, than to wonder if they even exist.

[Archae]

14. Nope.

Have fun playing with it, knowing it is a a full load of crapola that any spirits or such is connected to it.

http://skepdic.com/ouija.html

[FDRrocks]

16. Blindfolded Ouija!

Holy crap! I never even thought of that! *smacks himself in the forehead*

[Solly Mack]

17. I've played with the game since childhood...still have one

still play from time to time for shits and giggles

fun way to scare yourself

[mitchum]

19. Have a vintage one sitting on the coffeetable right now

Evil? Malevolent? It's mass produced by Parker Brothers for christsakes!
What next, the dark side of Etch-A-Sketch?

[Solly Mack]

20. Well, you know, if you close your eyes and just let your hands draw

freely, you'll get a bunch of squiggly lines. Honest!

[radfringe]

21. if you rotate the knobs backwards

it draws pics of the devil... :evilgrin:

[radfringe]

23. a couple of scarey/funny stories

years ago I worked at a mental institution -- night shift (11pm-7am)

one night my friend and co-worker were assigned to the 3rd floor ward -- we were sitting in the break area discussing ghosts, psychic phenomenon, automatic writing etc

it was a warm summer night, so we had the window open to catch a breeze. Ward was quiet.

then there was a knock on the window -- from the outside -- we jumped

turns out it was an attendent from the adjacent ward -- he had gone out on the balcony for some air, locked himself out, heard our voices so knocked on the window to ask that we open the door for him...

------------

another time I was assigned to another ward for the night. I was reading Amityville Horror, turns out theother attendent was also reading it.

After checking on the patients we set up a couple chairs in a large open area that gave us full view of the ward. We settled down to read. Every once in a while, the other attendent would give a shudder and tell me where she was in the book -- we'd discuss it a bit and go back to reading.

Suddenly there was a SCREAM -- we almost wet our pants. Once of the patients was having a nightmare. We settled her back down for the night, put our books away and discussed the weather...

[Modem Butterfly]

28. Confession Time

Okay, when I was young and silly (teeny-bopper years) I played with the Ouija board a lot. My friends and I would spend hours with the thing. Of course, it never told us anything we weren't expecting, even the scary stuff. One day I realized that it really was just us moving it, however subconsciously (and I do think it was subconscious).

If you really want to experiement with the Ouija board, place the planchette on the board and ask the spirits to move it. If they can move it with people's hands on it, they should have no problem moving it without such obstacles.

Will and I collect old Ouija boards. I know that's a strange hobby for a couple of atheists, but some of those old boards are really quite beautiful. It was a problem the last time we moved however- the movers refused to even come into our guest room until we removed them from the house ourselves. They also refused to move Will's old RPG stuff.

:D

[amazona]

35. nah the scare factor is overblown

You will hear all kinds of scare stories, a lot of them started by the Baptists in years gone by -- or at least I heard these stories from Baptists in the 60s so it's pretty hilarious to hear them from pagans in the 90s and the 00s -- but you are not going to be taken over by a "lost soul" if you play with Ouija, the elementals are not going to take over your mind and make you a drug addict, and the gateway to hell will not open up in your summer home in the mountains.

Most likely, you will get nothing or a nonsense message. Sometimes you actually do get some good or at least entertaining information.

If you actually feel that you have encountered evil, just burn a white candle, visualize white light, and the problem is over never to return. I light a white candle from the beginning and visualize white light, spirit, God, whatever you want to call it, around me before I get started. And it works out just fine. Don't visualize forcing any spirit to send you a message. Visualize that you are sending a friendly invitation to a friendly spirit who wants to explore this game with you. Don't make it a power play, and you won't attract trouble. It is just like attracting the right kind of person at a party, really.

Don't fill your mind with fear and negativity. Just have a blast. Yes, there will be a few spooky shivers, but if anyone is really hysterically fearful, the fun is gone, so just do it another time when the fearful person is not present. But, chances are, you will just be playing a silly game and get a few giggles.

Caution is OK but I haven't found it necessary to go overboard. To hear some people tell it, just having a Ouija board on a shelf is enough to damn you to the seven circles of Hell. Just not my experience.