A Hasbro made board game that is for ages 8+ and sold at Toys R Us supposedly can contact the spiritual world. Seems strange, doesn't it? For those of you who don't know what the Ouija Board is, it is a board that contains letters, numbers, yes, no, and goodbye.
A planchette is placed on the board and all the participants place fingers lightly on the planchette and ask questions. If the energy is high and you become "connected" with someone from the spirit world, you may get answers by the planchette moving from letter to letter creating words or even sentences. The ideomotor effect describes the movement of the planchette as the subconscious mind taking over and moving your hands without you knowing, spelling out what you want the board to say. Some say the ideomotor effect is responsible for the movement of the planchette, while others say it is the connection with the spiritual world. Regardless of what you believe in, I've had some negative experiences myself messing around with the Ouija board. Ideomotor effect or not- it still gives me chills just thinking about it.
I had some friends over for my 17th birthday in November, and since the Halloween mood was still in effect, we wanted to freak ourselves out a little bit. We went in the dark utility room in the basement of my house with the glow in the dark board and tried to connect to the spirit world through the board. With many people around the board, the energy was high and the board seemed to be communicating with us. It said, "Happy birthday, Lexi." Nothing too freaky because it definitely could be someone else moving the planchette, but then it said, "Let me into your world." This is the first time we saw the demonic side of the board... so we ran out of the room and forgot to say goodbye to the board, which is the number one rule!
Another time, two of my friends were over my house and one of them believes she has a spirit that follows her. I have two beds in my room, and the three of us were on one of the beds doing the Ouija board, while her phone was on the other bed. Rule number two is NEVER ask the spirit to show itself, so, naturally, we asked it to show itself. Nothing happened, which brought a wave of relief over us, and I went back to being skeptical about the board, until the phone that was on the other bed in the room went off, Siri saying "I didn't get that." This was back when Hey Siri wasn't a thing yet, and you couldn't just talk and she would respond. You physically had to hold the home button on an iPhone and then she would answer. The friend who is haunted owned the phone, of course. The whole ghost thing doesn't phase her anymore, so she went to her phone and sure enough it was on Siri saying, "I didn't get that." Creepy, right?
The next morning we did it again in the daylight because we were less scared when it was bright out. The three of us sat around the board on the floor of my room. One of my friends was facing the door to my bedroom, and the other friend and I had our backs to the door. We asked it to show itself (don't forget you're not supposed to do this EVER). We kept asking and we got no response at all. The board kept going to the number eight which means the "spirits" are angry. Nothing happened again with the board so we decided to give up. The night before with Siri must have been a coincidence. The friend facing the door looked up at the door and her face dropped- but she didn't say anything, she just looked back down at the board and the planchette started moving with our fingers on it. It went so fast I couldn't keep up with the letters so I just looked away and let the planchette take control. Out of nowhere, my friend screams, "SAY GOODBYE." We figured something was wrong so we rushed and said goodbye. Then, the friend informed us that she saw a shadow walk past the door behind us, but didn't want to scare herself or us so she thought nothing of it and kept quiet. The board began to spell out: (her name) just saw me. We freaked out and ran out of the house and went to Dunkin and threw the board in my trunk.
A few weeks later I was hanging out with the haunted friend and another friend and we were so intrigued and confused about the Ouija board that we wanted to do it again. My three-legged yellow lab was in the room with us at the time. We were on my bed and my dog was laying on the ground sleeping. We asked the spirit to show itself and nothing happened again. But, all of a sudden my dog woke up and jumped at the bed growling, looking behind us. Remember now, he has three legs and was old- he can't really do that ever. But he did, he growled and barked and all his hair was standing up looking behind us. That was it for that night we said goodbye to the board wicked fast and all slept in a tiny bed scared out of our mind. I don't know about them, but I didn't get much sleep that night.
This last story scared me the most because I actually saw what happened and I actually experienced it. My boyfriend and I were doing the Ouija board in the spare room one night. The whole house was dark, it was about 10:00 at night. Again, we asked "the spirit" to show itself. The only response we got was no. Over and over again, no. Annoyed, we decided to say goodbye and go watch a movie. All of the sudden the fitted sheet on the king size bed we were sitting on flew up over the board and a shadow walked passed the door that made the room pitch black. We booked it out of the room into my dad's room but forgot we didn't say goodbye yet so we ran back in and said goodbye and that was the last time to this day we used the Ouija board.
For a while after, we never felt alone. I always liked to believe that they wouldn't sell something that could actually connect with the other side at Toys R Us, but maybe I was wrong. Whatever the case may be, everyone who have played with my board have left feeling uneasy.
You make the decision: ideomotor effect or spirits?
