Tales of the Ouija

IT NEW MY FEARS

Some people say it's static electricity or some natural effect, while others claim one of the participants is always pushing it. But I know all too well that Ouija boards do work, and that they are not something to be taken lightly.

My best friend at the time, Kaci, and I went through a stage where we'd mess around on the Ouija board all the time. We used to ask the same old, "Who am I going to marry?" "How many kids will I have?" "Who's got a crush on me?" type of questions.

It was all just in fun.

One day we were at Kaci's dorm, and there were a couple other people on the board with us. For some reason, the "spirit" we were speaking with took a dislike to me. It refused to answer any of the questions I asked it, or even acknowledge I was present. I gave up and removed my fingers from the oracle.

Kaci asked the spirit why it didn't like me, and it spelled out: BIG HALO. It knew I was a Christian and it caught what I jokingly called my "Jesus aura."

After a little while, I put my fingers back on and began to ask it various questions about God; I had to test its spiritual knowledge. The spirit knew, without me saying it, that I didn't believe it was a ghost or a deceased person, and when asked, it admitted to being a demon or one of the angels that fell at the beginning of time. I actually began to argue with the demon about God, which, let me warn you, is not a good idea!

It began to taunt me with parts of my family's past that only I knew. Of its own accord, it made reference to my dead grandfather, who beat and molested my mother throughout her childhood.

It was just to upset me. It worked, of course, and I had to leave the room. I felt like I'd just fought a spiritual war, and I was disturbed by the outcome.

That experience didn't stop me from playing again in the future. I was just always careful to stay as far away from the topic of religion as possible.

It wasn't long before I began being "haunted" at home -- far away from Kaci's dorm. I believe that by using the Ouija board, I opened myself up to little demon visitors that followed me home. I can't blame it on any one instance; I think just using it in general opened the door to the nether realm.

Let me explain that I've had a recurring nightmare since I was a child. In it, I'm always in a room that is pitch black. There is a light switch on the wall that glows in the dark. No matter how many times I flip the switch on and off, the light never comes on. Usually there's someone after me or something evil that makes it imperative that there be light in this certain room for my very survival. I always panic, then wake up. I've never in my life been as scared as I am in those dreams.

I've told Kaci this before, in one of our many discussions of our worst fears. There must have been a demon listening, too, because they used that very scenario to get to me.

One night, I was going downstairs to where my bedroom was, and I tried to turn on the light using the light switch at the top of the stairs. It didn't work, no matter how many times I tried. I immediately started to freak out. I walked shakily down the stairs to use the light switch at the bottom. That one didn't work either. All the other lights in the basement worked except for the the ones for the hallway. The next morning, I asked my older brother, whose bedroom was also in the basement, if the lights worked for him. He said yes and looked at me like I was crazy. I told him what happened, but he didn't have any better of an explanation for it than I did.

On another night, I was again going downstairs, and I noticed a light on in the family room at the end of the hallway. I walked back to see where the light was coming from, and saw that the light was on in the furnace room in the very corner of the family room, with the door to the furnace room closed. I didn't think too much of it; I just figured someone had to go in there for some odd reason and forgot to turn the light off. I asked my parents, then my little sister, as they were the only ones home that day, and they all claimed they hadn't gone in there in months. That creeped me out almost as much as the light switch experience. Who -- or what -- was messing with the lights in the basement?

Then it happened again. This time, my friend Nicole was spending the night and we were going downstairs to go to bed. Once again, neither light switch in the basement hallway worked, but all the rest of the lights down there did. Now I was really frightened. I could have called the first time a fluke, some kind of wiring glitch that prevented those lights from working for a few minutes. Now that it had happened again, I knew this wasn't caused by anything natural; something otherworldly was behind it. I tried to stay calm for Nicole's sake. I remarked, "That's weird," and tramped down the stairs and into my room like nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

The third time it happened, I'd had enough. I finally fessed up and told my mother everything. She told me about playing with the Ouija board when she was younger, and that as a result she started to experience astral projection. She had these recurring out-of-body experiences for years, until she went to a Christian conference and heard her situation explained as being the result of having opened oneself to the demon world.

You wonder where you actually are during this out-of-body experience? It's believed that you're actually in the same dimension the demons travel in, like you're walking around in their world. You can imagine that this isn't the safest place to be, even for a short while. The cure? A sort of exorcism performed on yourself. She explained it to me, and told me that would be my answer as well.

She took me into my room in the basement and held both of my hands in hers. She told the demons to leave in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. She repeated it a couple times, then prayed for my protection and comfort. And I was never bothered again. It was that easy. Going forward, I've stayed far far away from anything that has to do with the occult. I know now it isn't just an innocent toy. If you use the Ouija board or would like to try it, I can't stop you, I can only advise you to be careful! ~ Jaynie F.