What do you make of this then?

[The23rdman]

Okay, get your brains around this:

When I was 18 and my sister 16 we had a big party. My mum being a bit of a party animal invited herself too. Several hours into the party she decided that she'd show off her psychic skills and try and contact someone via a ouija board. She used to be quite reckless with her ability and this was one of those times. I wasn't aware of what was happing as I'd pulled a very cute blonde, but that's another story! I can downstairs a hour or two later to find her and several other people doing the fingers on the glass thing around the whole dining room table. Turns out she had contacted a dead biker, Wurzel, who was a friend of one of our friends. He was utterly convinced it was him and was crying a lot whilst this was happening. Only Si at the party knew Wurzel who had died a few years before after his bike hit a tree. It took a long time before Wurzel let them cut the connection and it wasn't fun for anyone involved. There were a lot of scared teenagers after that.

Anyway, we forgot about this (it was normal for weird stuff to happen in our house) until a week or so later I had the following experience. I came home from the pub (okay, I know this makes my testimony unreliable!) and went to bed. I'd just lay down when I heard our cat scratching at my bedroom door. I got up to let her out but she wasn't there. I ask my mum and sister if Sue was in with them and they said no. Okay, I must be nuts, I thought, and went to bed. Exactly the same thing happened as soon as I got into bed and turned the light off, but this time it was accompanied by footsteps and, rather more chillingly, breathing by my ear and the bed shaking. It would be a slight understatement to say I was a touched freaked out by this and shot out of bed and into my mums room (we all run to mummy!). I told her and my sister, who had joined us in freaking out, what had happened and we all decided it prudent to camp down in her room with the lights on!

For the rest of that week stuff just went missing. I refused to go into my room except in the day, but found things gone regularly. My mum started to put two and two together and suggested it might be Wurzel. After consulting another psychic she trusted it was suggested that she try automatic writing. The idea is to hold a pen in two fingers by the end with just enough pressure to keep the tip on the paper. Not enough to move it and make more than a faint mark and definitely not enough to write. You then open up and ask if anybody's there (corny, I know). What happened from there provided us with entertainment for a week. Wurzel (for that is who it claimed to be) just started writing to us. His spelling was terrible, but he was moving that damn pen and writing like he was holding it. The look on my mums face when it started happening was priceless and I wish we'd had camera phones back then! We just asked him questions and chatted quite matter of factly for a couple of hours every night until...

The last night we decided we'd try and find out what it was like where he was. He'd been very evasive about talking about it stating there were people with him and he couldn't talk about it. The last night we kept prodding and prodding and he started to get a bit flustered and upset. He said there was someone here who was angry at us asking him about it. At that point the pen just went mental and scrawled “IT'S NICE OVER HERE” before running hard across the page, jumping up and banging down a full stop. That scared the crap out of all of us and my mum said it really didn't feel very nice at all. We stopped. I actually cannot recall what happened after that so I'd have to check with my mum and sister.

Now, for years I've tried to make sense of this and approach what happened with a truly skeptical mind-set. I'm fairly sure my mum would have been unable to write like “Wurzel” did and I've been unable to replicate it. I'm also pretty sure she wouldn't have played us in any way. As far as she is concerned it was genuine and I've no reason to doubt that. As for what was happening I really do not know, but I am open to all interpretations.

 

[viv1969]

I wish I had something outstanding to say; some kind of fundamental truth or advice.
Sadly, I do not. All I have is a similar experience in that what was a ouija game turned out to mean a lot more to those taking part than was first anticipated, and, frankly, has not really been discussed since then.

Needless to say, having been a part of that, I won't have anything to do with ouija now. Just a little too freaky for me.

I seriously hope you get the answers you're looking for.

 

[donut]

how long ago did this all happen Dean ? and if it was a long time ago what has made you suddenly think of it all again ?

 

[The23rdman]

I wish I had something outstanding to say; some kind of fundamental truth or advice.
Sadly, I do not. All I have is a similar experience in that what was a ouija game turned out to mean a lot more to those taking part than was first anticipated, and, frankly, has not really been discussed since then.

Needless to say, having been a part of that, I won't have anything to do with ouija now. Just a little too freaky for me.

I seriously hope you get the answers you're looking for.

Yeah, it is a freaky thing and many find that out. I'm not really looking for answers here, but opening it up to discuss.

how long ago did this all happen Dean ? and if it was a long time ago what has made you suddenly think of it all again ?

20 years ago. I'm thinking about it now because I've been talking a lot with believers and with skeptics and wanted to write it down. There's a conspiracy thread running here in which I said I'd bring something up that pseudoskeptics might find hard to explain.

 

[andy_fozzy]

I so want to believe this, but all the time a person is in control of the pencil (or glass, or whatever) how can you be totally satisfied they are not getting you at it?

(Sorry I know I'm talking about your mum here, and I didn't intend offence).

 

[The23rdman]

I so want to believe this, but all the time a person is in control of the pencil (or glass, or whatever) how can you be totally satisfied they are not getting you at it?

(Sorry I know I'm talking about your mum here, and I didn't intend offence).

Because, as I said, she was hardly holding the pen. My sister and I are not gullible fools and were teenagers at the time (what teenager takes everything their parents do as gospel??) and we were constantly watching what she did like a hawk. Also if it was a prank my mum exhibited skills we never knew she had and she's kept up the pretence for two decades!

Like I said, I don't know what was happening and tend to think it's some kind of unconscious PK activity, but I am pretty sure it was not possible for her to write. You could see the bottom of the pen move!

 

[TriggerHappy]

How much of a link did your mum have to this type of 'supernatural' type stuff, and how much have you been exposed to growing up?

 

[The23rdman]

How much of a link did your mum have to this type of 'supernatural' type stuff, and how much have you been exposed to growing up?

Weird stuff happened a lot.

 

[Lynton]

have you been on those mushrooms or that blue mould in the back of the fridge again?

 

[andy_fozzy]

Lol Lynton!!!


The reason I said what I did is that i long to believe in the supernatural/ghosts/life after death etc, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot ever find any 'proof'. I've spent many many hours surfing the net looking for that picture or video that cannot be explained. And it just doesn't exist.
Never seen or witnessed anything remotely supernatural myself, so until then, I guess I'm pretty much sitting on the fence!

Hope I didn't offend you.....

 

[The23rdman]

Lol Lynton!!!

The reason I said what I did is that i long to believe in the supernatural/ghosts/life after death etc, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot ever find any 'proof'. I've spent many many hours surfing the net looking for that picture or video that cannot be explained. And it just doesn't exist.
Never seen or witnessed anything remotely supernatural myself, so until then, I guess I'm pretty much sitting on the fence!

Hope I didn't offend you.....

How could you offend me? I have no idea what was happening either.

 

[The23rdman]

have you been on those mushrooms or that blue mould in the back of the fridge again?

There are more things in heaven and earth...

Blue mould is one of them.

 

[Doog]

Now I'm talking about over 35 years ago, but a similar story to your also happened to me. There was no psychic involved just a party of teenage friends. I was looking in on this, just watching from the sidelines. A girl who's mother had recently died by a matter of weeks had made contact with her. Of course it led to tears. For someone to have pushed pulled or orchestrated the questions and the glass would have meant that one of these close friends was very cruel indeed. I've still no explanation for the ouija board and I don't believe in after life or spirits and ghosts, but the next thing to happen that night has left me dumbfounded all these years. As the sceptics round the table started to accuse one another of upsetting our friend I asked them, as a way of confirming truth or manipulation, to ask 'the spirit' what my fathers middle name was. These people had no way of knowing this, he had died many years previous when some of them were still toddlers. I expected a stationary glass. Far from it. As soon as the question was asked it immediately spelt out his middle name. No hesitation and with perfect spelling.:shrug::shake:

I don't know, probably never will, I can't explain it, something does happen though.:shrug:

 

[Lynton]

There are more things in heaven and earth...

Blue mould is one of them.

I must confess to being a similar age 18-19 and a group of about 8 of us all messed around with a ouigi board.... started moving around and was a bit scary at the time (again 20 yrs ago)

I am sure somehow it is something being dragged back from the subconscious somehow... :shrug:

 

[Yellowbelly]

A thousand or so years ago when I was a student, a group of us started messing about with a ouija board over several nights. We amused ourselves heartily until one night the regular contact we made and who we had been asking fairly mundane questions (and getting some vague and some inexplicable replies) seemed to get a bit tetchy.

Like a red rag to a bull, we thought it was fun to goad this "entity" and insult it. The glass went around the board at a crazy speed until it shot off the board high into the air and shattered into smithereens without touching anything. My mate received a small cut to his bonce from a shard.

The silence in the room was palpable, I think we were all in mild shock. Oddly, we never bothered with the ouija board again. Oh, and unlike the OP, we had not touched a drop!

 

[neil_g]

like the recent derren brown show people are very open to suggestion to explain "supernatural" events

 

[viv1969]

Blue mold. Forgot about that.

 

[Ploddles]

And next you'll believe that all magicians can do 'real' magic. After all you have seen it with your own eyes, recorded it and played it back in slow motion etc and still not seen anything untoward....

Dynamo can walk on water.
David Copperfield really did make the Statue of Liberty disappear.
et al
et al
et al

 

[u8myufo]

Dean, I will never forget tghe time my Aunty and Uncle came to our house once when I was about 16. It was mid evening and someone suggested doing the ouija but just by using numbers and letters in a circle written down on paper, I was just sat watching the four of them. After a short while they had so called contacted someone, although they all thought it was my Dad messing about as usual. My Dad swore it was not him and came away from it letting the other three carry on. After a number of questions asked trying to decide who it was they were in contact with, they worked out it was a bloke my Dad knew when he was is the TA in Africa. This bloke actually was killed in an accident. My Dad knew him quite a few years before he met my Mum and did not have any real cause to mention him to her either. After deciding it was getting a bit freaky they packed it in. Now my Uncle is nearly 7ft tall and built like a brick s***house, him and his wife left later that evening. Normaly he would religiously park the car in the garage which was about a 100 yrds or so away in a block of garages. Later that evening we had a call from my Aunty, my Uncle had dropped her off at the house and then proceeded to go and park the car. He had burst back into his house looking pretty shook up, he had just stopped the car halfway to the garages and left it there with the key still in the ignition. To this day he has still never mentioned to anybody what happened :shrug:

 

[qlite50]

Why did I stumble upon this thread?! Now I can't go to sleep!

 

[new2me]

I'd love to know what these spirits are doing. Are they shacked up in compartments watching telly, waiting for a bell to ring indicating that someone who knew their old next door neighbour's 2nd cousin is playing on a ouija board? Or are there just a few naughty spirits that hang around their old house and pretend to be the caller's old next door neighbour's 2nd cousin?

Never experienced anything like this, but I cant dismiss it either :shrug:

 

[The23rdman]

Now I'm talking about over 35 years ago, but a similar story to your also happened to me. There was no psychic involved just a party of teenage friends. I was looking in on this, just watching from the sidelines. A girl who's mother had recently died by a matter of weeks had made contact with her. Of course it led to tears. For someone to have pushed pulled or orchestrated the questions and the glass would have meant that one of these close friends was very cruel indeed. I've still no explanation for the ouija board and I don't believe in after life or spirits and ghosts, but the next thing to happen that night has left me dumbfounded all these years. As the sceptics round the table started to accuse one another of upsetting our friend I asked them, as a way of confirming truth or manipulation, to ask 'the spirit' what my fathers middle name was. These people had no way of knowing this, he had died many years previous when some of them were still toddlers. I expected a stationary glass. Far from it. As soon as the question was asked it immediately spelt out his middle name. No hesitation and with perfect spelling.:shrug::shake:

I don't know, probably never will, I can't explain it, something does happen though.:shrug:

That's just it. It's unexplainable with any kind of rational answer. Fascinating though.

I must confess to being a similar age 18-19 and a group of about 8 of us all messed around with a ouigi board.... started moving around and was a bit scary at the time (again 20 yrs ago)

I am sure somehow it is something being dragged back from the subconscious somehow... :shrug:

I've also suspected it is some kind of unconscious PK, but when answers are revealed about stuff nobody can know you have to wonder. Collective unconscious?

A thousand or so years ago when I was a student, a group of us started messing about with a ouija board over several nights. We amused ourselves heartily until one night the regular contact we made and who we had been asking fairly mundane questions (and getting some vague and some inexplicable replies) seemed to get a bit tetchy.

Like a red rag to a bull, we thought it was fun to goad this "entity" and insult it. The glass went around the board at a crazy speed until it shot off the board high into the air and shattered into smithereens without touching anything. My mate received a small cut to his bonce from a shard.

The silence in the room was palpable, I think we were all in mild shock. Oddly, we never bothered with the ouija board again. Oh, and unlike the OP, we had not touched a drop!

Scary!

like the recent derren brown show people are very open to suggestion to explain "supernatural" events

If that head in the sand explanation helps you sleep at night then go for it. for what it's worth I consider Derren Brown to be a pseudoskeptic.

And next you'll believe that all magicians can do 'real' magic. After all you have seen it with your own eyes, recorded it and played it back in slow motion etc and still not seen anything untoward....

Dynamo can walk on water.
David Copperfield really did make the Statue of Liberty disappear.
et al
et al
et al

Why? Stage magic is an act. Are you suggesting my mum set up the whole thing to terrify her children? That kind of response to the unknown is worth of a pseudoskeptic badge.

Dean, I will never forget tghe time my Aunty and Uncle came to our house once when I was about 16. It was mid evening and someone suggested doing the ouija but just by using numbers and letters in a circle written down on paper, I was just sat watching the four of them. After a short while they had so called contacted someone, although they all thought it was my Dad messing about as usual. My Dad swore it was not him and came away from it letting the other three carry on. After a number of questions asked trying to decide who it was they were in contact with, they worked out it was a bloke my Dad knew when he was is the TA in Africa. This bloke actually was killed in an accident. My Dad knew him quite a few years before he met my Mum and did not have any real cause to mention him to her either. After deciding it was getting a bit freaky they packed it in. Now my Uncle is nearly 7ft tall and built like a brick s***house, him and his wife left later that evening. Normaly he would religiously park the car in the garage which was about a 100 yrds or so away in a block of garages. Later that evening we had a call from my Aunty, my Uncle had dropped her off at the house and then proceeded to go and park the car. He had burst back into his house looking pretty shook up, he had just stopped the car halfway to the garages and left it there with the key still in the ignition. To this day he has still never mentioned to anybody what happened :shrug:

Ooo! I'd love to know what he thought he saw or experienced.

 

[The23rdman]

I'd love to know what these spirits are doing. Are they shacked up in compartments watching telly, waiting for a bell to ring indicating that someone who knew their old next door neighbour's 2nd cousin is playing on a ouija board? Or are there just a few naughty spirits that hang around their old house and pretend to be the caller's old next door neighbour's 2nd cousin?

Never experienced anything like this, but I cant dismiss it either :shrug:

From a believers perspective I understand that Ouija boards are considered tools that contact the lower astral planes where disembodied entities are generally a bit thick and trouble makers. The chavs of the astral planes, I suppose. Make of that what you will.

 

[neil_g]

If that head in the sand explanation helps you sleep at night then go for it. for what it's worth I consider Derren Brown to be a pseudoskeptic.

Likewise if that blinkered attitude helps you stay awake at night listening to every noise then knock yourself out.

The DB program is worth a watch. Seriously.

 

[joesmith]

"lower astral planes where disembodied entities"
Who comes up with this s***?!

 

[joescrivens]

These kind of stories always make me chuckle. I don't believe in any of this and I've been in a position where some stuff happened and others swore blind it was a ghost etc. when in actual fact it was nothing more than a breeze, shadow and some very open minds.

 

[joesmith]

These kind of stories always make me chuckle. I don't believe in any of this and I've been in a position where some stuff happened and others swore blind it was a ghost etc. when in actual fact it was nothing more than a breeze, shadow and some very open minds.

"Keep an open mind – but not so open that your brain falls out"

 

[The23rdman]

From a believers perspective I understand that Ouija boards are considered tools that contact the lower astral planes where disembodied entities are generally a bit thick and trouble makers. The chavs of the astral planes, I suppose. Make of that what you will.

Likewise if that blinkered attitude helps you stay awake at night listening to every noise then knock yourself out.

The DB program is worth a watch. Seriously.

Neil, you either didn't read my op properly or already made your mind up about what is possible. I have no belief in the afterlife, but I remain open-minded and aware that universe has not all be figured out by reductionist fundamentalist materialists.

"lower astral planes where disembodied entities"
Who comes up with this s***?!

Not me, but there are people who put a lot of stock in it. Rather than dismissing out of hand I prefer to keep an open mind. Do you know everything? Have you got the mysteries of the universe all sown up? I'm very glad you feel safe in your box.

 

[The23rdman]

These kind of stories always make me chuckle. I don't believe in any of this and I've been in a position where some stuff happened and others swore blind it was a ghost etc. when in actual fact it was nothing more than a breeze, shadow and some very open minds.

"Keep an open mind – but not so open that your brain falls out"

Neither of you really understand what an open mind means, do you? I knew there would be responses like this from people to entrenched in consensual reality to consider that something interesting might be happening.

Personally, I'd like to know how this stuff happens and what energies are involved. I have a lot of respect for scientists who put themselves in the firing line to study this stuff and very little for small-minded pseudoskeptics who dismiss anything they cannot understand out of hand.

 

[joescrivens]

Do you know everything? Have you got the mysteries of the universe all sown up?

I do, but if I revealed them to you, then I'd have to kill you

 

[joesmith]

Not me, but there are people who put a lot of stock in it. Rather than dismissing out of hand I prefer to keep an open mind. Do you know everything? Have you got the mysteries of the universe all sown up? I'm very glad you feel safe in your box.

Apple spelled backwards spells gullible. Remember to keep your mind open about it, it might be true!!


I remember when there were some complaints about that program Most Haunted, as they got a place where something happened completely wrong. Ofcom just said something on the lines of "It's a fictional program, we don't expect people to actually believe anything they say..."

 

[joescrivens]

Neither of you really understand what an open mind means, do you?

I have an open mind when it comes to some things, although as Meatloaf once said "I won't do that!"

But all this assisted writing stuff is a bit silly isn't it. don't you think it's a coincindence that a live human has to be the one to hold the pen, or to move the thing around the board, people start pushing and writing.

Think about it, you are essentially saying that a spirit has the ability to move stuff from your room and steal it - oh but they can't pick up a pen or move the piece of wood or glass around a board on their own

Sorry but thats far too convienient.

 

[neil_g]

Neil, you either didn't read my op properly or already made your mind up about what is possible. I have no belief in the afterlife, but I remain open-minded and aware that universe has not all be figured out by reductionist fundamentalist materialists.

You asked what we made of it, that's what I make of it

I'd like to think I'm fairly open minded, I believe that the human mind was/is capable of a lot more higher level ability (such as mind reading etc). But things that go bump in the night, no. Like I say the human mind is very easily manipulated by suggestion around these things.

 

[The23rdman]

I do, but if I revealed them to you, then I'd have to kill you

Sounds fair enough.

I actually have another anecdote to share in this field that I find even more difficult to reconcile, but as it happened to my mum and sister I thought I'd share this first. It'll give all the pseudo's a chance to mock and point the finger again anyway.

 

[antihero]

have you been on those mushrooms or that blue mould in the back of the fridge again?

hahaha....only just stumbled on the thread and was just about to ask if Dean is now off those shrooms!

 

[The23rdman]

Apple spelled backwards spells gullible. Remember to keep your mind open about it, it might be true!!


I remember when there were some complaints about that program Most Haunted, as they got a place where something happened completely wrong. Ofcom just said something on the lines of "It's a fictional program, we don't expect people to actually believe anything they say..."

If you keep your head down there long enough you might find some buried treasure.

I have an open mind when it comes to some things, although as Meatloaf once said "I won't do that!"

But all this assisted writing stuff is a bit silly isn't it. don't you think it's a coincindence that a live human has to be the one to hold the pen, or to move the thing around the board, people start pushing and writing.

Think about it, you are essentially saying that a spirit has the ability to move stuff from your room and steal it - oh but they can't pick up a pen or move the piece of wood or glass around a board on their own

Sorry but thats far too convienient.

I'm NOT saying that, ffs. Did you read it? I have no idea what happened, but if you think it's a doddle to hold a pen by the very tip in two fingers very lightly and then write go ahead. Try it.

You asked what we made of it, that's what I make of it

I'd like to think I'm fairly open minded, I believe that the human mind was/is capable of a lot more higher level ability (such as mind reading etc). But things that go bump in the night, no. Like I say the human mind is very easily manipulated by suggestion around these things.

I guess you had to be there.

Watch this space and rationalise the next anecdote.

 

[antihero]

I guess with hindsight it's a shame your mum didn't contact a hot horny blonde instead of a sweaty biker, then you might not have minded a vibrating bed

 

[neil_g]

Out of interest, why start a thread asking if anyone believed and then criticise anyone that doesn't?

 

[joesmith]

If you keep your head down there long enough you might find some buried treasure.

You don't often find treasure in reality unfortunately, but you should give it ago anyway.

 

[joescrivens]

I'm NOT saying that, ffs. Did you read it? I have no idea what happened,

But the fact you are posting it here and talking about everyone who interprets it that nothing actually freaky happened "as head buried in the sand" clearly shows that you are leaning to this being some kind of ghostly going on.