Several years ago, my younger sister had an experience with a ouija board. Actually, it wasn't a single experience, but several. And eventually it continued beyond the ouija board.
Mary, my younger sister (this isn't her real name, but I'm not sure she would be happy if I posted her real name), was about fourteen years old when this happened; I was sixteen or seventeen. Our family (me, my mom, my two sisters, and my older sister's friend, who lived with us for a few months) lived in a very small apartment. Mary and I shared one bedroom, our older sister and her friend shared the other bedroom, and my mother usually slept on the pull-out bed of the sofa. The weekend it all started, though, my older sister and her friend were away somewhere, and Mary had gone to a slumber party with about twelve of her friends. She told me the next day that they had been playing around with a ouija board.
Mary was really excited about this experience. She had been afraid to participate at first, she said, and wouldn't even put her hands on the planchette. Finally, for some reason, she joined in, and they started talking to what they thought was a group of spirits. These spirits were all male, and gave names like Ben, John, James--typical, nondescript names like that. They said through the board that they had all known each other in past lives. I forget the whole story, but apparently, whatever was communicating with them through the board had convinced the girls that they and this group of male spirits were soulmates, and meant to be together. I don't know how they expected to be together, or what else happened, but that's what Mary told me.
Later that night, Mary said that "the boys" (I don't know what else to call them) had left, and they had stopped playing with the ouija board, but had left it out with the planchette sitting on top. At one point, someone happened to glance over in that direction, and saw that the planchette was moving by itself in sideways figure eights, like the symbol for infinity. Now remember, I wasn't there, so I can't say for sure whether or not this actually happened. My sister swears it did, though. The girls went over to the board and asked the name of the entity or whatever that was moving the planchette. The pointer moved to the number "6." That was the only name it would give. Again, I don't know exactly what happened after that. It had scared my sister so badly that she wouldn't tell me. But she said that eventually it went away, and they talked to "the boys" again.
Mary was telling me all this because she knew that I loved ghost stories, and she thought I would get a kick out of it. Instead, I was a little worried. I had heard from other people who had used a ouija board, and had bad experiences with it. I asked her if she thought she would do it again, and she said they had another party planned for that weekend. They had a party like that every weekend for a month, or maybe two. Eventually, Mary stopped telling me about what happened at these sessions because of my reaction. I had started saying right out that I thought that whatever they were talking to was lying to them, and that they should all stop, and get rid of the board. It was seriously scaring me.
It was at about this time that Mary started asking me to leave the light on at night. At first I thought it was because she wanted to read, but after a while I realized that it was really because she was scared. She didn't want to be in the dark, even though I was just across the room. It used to be that I was up later every night than she was, but Mary started staying up all night. I found out later that she'd had a few experiences that she wasn't sure were dreams, and that she was now honestly afraid to go to even close her eyes. At first, having the light on at night helped. I had one of those four-level lamps that turned on and off when you touched the metal base. I often stayed up late at night with the lamp on the lowest level, studying or reading to unwind. Now we left the lamp on all night.
Unfortunately, even the light didn't seem to help after a while. Whenever our older sister was gone, and my mother was sleeping in her room, Mary usually crept downstairs after a while, where the lights were brighter, and turned on the T.V. for company. She didn't like to go downstairs when our mother was sleeping there, because she didn't want her to know what was going on. But she stopped going to the ouija parties, and asked me to pray for her. Although I hadn't been to church more than twice a year (on Christmas and Easter) since I was ten or eleven, I prayed as hard as I could. I don't even remember exactly what I prayed, but eventually Mary told me that she thought it was over. Of course, I had to ask, "WHAT is over?"
That's when she finally got up the nerve to tell me everything that had happened. The things that happened at night that she really didn't think she had dreamed. And even a couple of things that she saw during the day.
The first thing that happened was the mirror. There was a full-length mirror hanging at the end of the upstairs hallway. I'd never really paid much attention to it--I hated to look at myself full-length. Mary and my other sister, though, usually stood in front of it to do their hair in the morning. Mary said that one morning, she had felt that someone was watching her. Then she noticed a sort of black shape reflected in the mirror, as if someone were standing behind her. Of course, when she looked behind her, there was nothing there. Every time she looked back at the mirror, the shape seemed to take a more solid form. She said that the closest thing she could think of was a monk in a black hooded cassock. Typical image, right? But it scared her enough to stop using that mirror to do her hair in the morning.
The second event that scared her enough to want the light on at night was another feeling of being watched. I had already turned off my lamp and gone to sleep, but Mary had woken up briefly. She told me that it wasn't like one of those "Old Hag" experiences--she said she could move just fine, but that she saw another black shape at the foot of her bed. Then she felt a hand grip her around the ankle and tug her leg. She said that she actually slid down the bed a foot or so. Then she flung the covers off and spent the rest of the night downstairs. She said she felt safe downstairs, for some reason. The light was brighter, and the T.V. made enough noise to dispel the eerie feeling.
The final even that made her realize that she'd gone too far happened downstairs, where she had gone for yet another sleepless night. She said that she distinctly felt the cushion next to her sink, as if someone had sat down. She could see the imprint of someone's rear and thighs in the cushion next to her, and felt a heavy arm settle around her shoulders. She swears she was wide awake. I believe this was the same night that something finally happened that I personally observed. Remember the lamp I was talking about? Well, sometimes it would turn itself on in the middle of the night. No particular reason. I was never near enough to have brushed it accidentally in my sleep. I would just wake up and it would be on--usually on the lowest level, but sometimes on the second or third level. I actually witnessed this a couple of times. It probably happened because of power surges. But on this particular night, the lamp did not just turn itself on and stay on. It kept cycling through the four levels, and then would go off. A few seconds later, it would happen again. This went on for about twenty minutes. Although I didn't know exactly what was going on with Mary, the thing with the lamp scared me. I unplugged it and brought it down to the dumpster the next day. I just told my mother that I had accidentally broken it.
This has been my only experience with anything remotely paranormal. I love to read about it, but that's as close as I really like to get. Thanks for reading this far.