Together We Laugh with Ouija
/My family members are superstitious and refused to help me try my new Ouija board.
It glows in the Dark
"I feel uncomfortable with you keeping that in the house."
"This is how things start in horror movies—from people messing with those things!"
"No thanks. That actually give me the creeps."
It was as if everyone shared an unspoken agreement to censor the term Ouija board.
What is a Ouija board?. The game itself consists of a wooden pointer (planchette) and a board inscribed with the alphabet, numerals, and esoteric symbols. Ouija is similar to a method of divination called Fu-Ji that arose during the Song dynasty (960-1279) in China. Besides Ouija, other contemporary forms of Fu-Ji are popular in the East, such as Die-Xian in China and Kokkuri-san in Japan. However, the notion of using writing as a medium of communication with the unknown is a universal facet of human culture.
Everyone refused, so I did what anyone else would've done: use every approach at my disposal. I trivialized playing the game, belittled the confidence of others, and begged for their cooperation until three people agreed to join me.
It would have been much easier to convince them if I had bought the superior girls version of this game. Unfortunately, Toys R Us did not have one in stock.
Yes?
Oui.
Over the weekend, I met up with my brother and two of my cousins. We waited until twilight to set up the board in the basement. We dimmed the lights, lit some candles around us, and placed our fingers on the planchette.
For the first 20 minutes, nothing happened. The marker stayed in one place, so we made small talk. Then the planchette inched towards the letter x and spelled out xyhulu. The next several responses were also garbled gibberish. Eventually, the Ouija session devolved into everyone spelling out inappropriate words or teasing each other through questions and answers.
The only coherent messages we received were the words: bin, salt, pop, and rack.
Did we summon a ghost? I doubt we did. My results wasn't similar to the stories I've read; it was devoid of creepy messages or predictions about the future. However, it was a good time full of tension and laughs. I'll probably try this again in the future during small gatherings.
Photo credit: William Au
WILLIAM AU
William Au is a student in the Professional Writing program with a love for storytelling that spans every medium of expression. His free time is spent sleeping, partaking of new experiences, and indulging in books and films. He helps run the Video Game Club at Algonquin College and collects children's books
