Special Report
The Ouija Board: A Portal to the Spirit World? By Karen Frazier
I
have a confession to make. I had never played with a Ouija board until very recently — just a few weeks ago as a matter of fact. Ouija boards have never held a lot of curiosity for me. In my mind, they were merely a child’s game. Sure, I’d heard all of the usual urban legends about Ouija boards. As a matter of fact, I can still clearly recall the first Ouija board urban legend I heard when I was about seven. The Stuff of Urban Legend It seems that three teens were playing with a Ouija board one night in the basement of a church. All night long, the Ouija board responded to their questions one after the other. And then came the fateful question. “Is one of us going to die soon?” the three teens asked the Ouija board. Slowly, the pointer (also known as the planchette) drifted to YES. The teens felt a chill. “Which one?” they asked. And then they waited. And waited. But the Ouija board, it appears, was done for the night. Finally, the teens gave up and put the Ouija board away. Then, one of the teens went to the bathroom, and there on the bathroom door — in what appeared to be blood — was his name. Freaked out, he returned to his friends. They tried to scrub his name from the door, but it wouldn’t go away. Later, the church even attempted to paint over it, but the red name
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Paranormal Underground
Talking boards, such as the Ouija board, have been around since the mid-1800s. They arose from the spiritualist practice of table tipping.
remained on the door. It remained on the door until a month later, when the teen whose name on the door died in an automobile accident. Then, his name disappeared from the door, never to return. The next Ouija board story I remember hearing came when I was in college. A girl claimed that her cousin had been playing with a Ouija board when the door to her closet flew open and all of her hangers flew out of the closet and pelted her in the head. Since then, I’ve heard all kinds of stories about the Ouija board. People trying to discard Ouija boards, but the
August 2010
boards keep turning back up. Ouija boards leading to demonic infestations. Ouija boards accurately predicting death and mayhem. Ouija Goes Hollywood Ouija boards aren’t just the stuff of urban legend, however. Hollywood has used the Ouija board as a critical plot point in several horror movies over the years — usually the board makes its appearance just before demonic possession takes place. Consider the recent movie release Paranormal Activity, in which the world’s coolest-looking Ouija