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Neighbor kids had a Ouija board when I was about 10, and I never thought it was evil, but just a goofy party game, the way they were using it.

Then many years later, the year before I became a believer, I was at a friend’s apartment with another friend. The other two were talking about how they’d like to consult a Ouija board about some very personal issues concerning other people we knew, but they didn’t have one. So they decided to improvise, writing the numbers and letters on cut up index cards, and using an upside down coffee cup as the pointer (or whatever it’s called. lol) The three of us took turns pairing up by rotation.

This is where it got creepy. We started getting some really sinister answers, plus the damn thing was moving really fast, which, of course led to us accusing one another of pushing it. And the denials. At one point, I was so certain that the friend I was paired with was moving it that I took my hands off it altogether. And I peeked. The friend had evidently got the same idea, and had taken her hands off it just as I happened to be looking. What I saw was the coffee cup moving around, all by itself!

From that point on, I had had quite enough of Ouija boards, or their homemade facsimiles...

What I saw was the coffee cup moving around, all by itself!

From that point on, I had had quite enough of Ouija boards, or their homemade facsimiles...

This "toy" has been sold as an innocent parlor game for years.

There was a scene on "Downton Abbey" with some of the downstairs staff taking turns with the board, then a couple staying behind and experiencing what you described above: "I wasn't moving the board, were you?" The scene took place shortly after the sudden death and funeral of Matthew's fiancee Lavinia and shortly before his proposal to Lady Mary. "May they be happy" was the supposed message from the spirit guiding the board. Trying to make it look benign in use.

From that point on, I had had quite enough of Ouija boards, or their homemade facsimiles...

Your instincts are sound. Obey them. Ouija boards are not a game. They open doors. We don't know what's on the other side of those doors, waiting for an invitation to come through.

I had an experience with a Ouija when I was around 9 or 10... my neighbors had one and there were three of us messing around with it. They had never been able to make it work. They added me to the mix and we were getting entire stories out of the thing. We did this for about three days. What I remember is that it kept fixating on the youngest girl. It would ignore questions and ask questions back about her. It started getting creepy. It asked, "Why is she afraid of me?" and I think her sister responded something like, "Because she doesn't know if you're real," and it came back with, "Would it help if she could see me?" And everyone freaked out and took their hands off the stylus except me... I know I wasn't moving the thing, but I felt it move under my hand like electricity, so I jumped back as well.

After that, I went home and told the story to my mother, expecting her to laugh at us. I will never forget her turning away from cooking dinner and looking straight at me and saying, "I do not want you to ever touch one of those things again. That is not a toy."

My sisters (well, one of them) had a Ouiji board. I always thought it a kind of crock of malarkey, but I never really did anything with it either. They would get together and try to find out which boy liked who and yada yada. I was maybe too young to even care about that aspect of things.

Basically, I never experienced anything good or bad with it, but I didn’t touch it but once or twice, with a skeptical mind.

As the youngest of 5, I was skeptical of everything that my older siblings did or said.