A Night to Forget

A Ouija board came to light in the mid 1800’s when spiritualism and channelling was becoming more popular, it came in the form of a board game.

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The name Ouija comes from the French and German words for yes, “oui”and “ja” there are many types of Ouija board an can be made from a wide range of materials. The boards all have the letters of the alphabet and numbers from 0-9 also the words goodbye or farewell, and yes and no printed on them, and comes with a pointer that has a coaster within it for free movement around the board. The person or people using the board would lightly place a hand on the pointer and ask questions to a spirit, the spirit would reply by moving the pointer to the appropriate letter spelling out the answer, a question with a yes no answer, the pointer would move to them in the same way as with the numbers a year of death or date of birth would provoke the pointer toward them.

The Ouija board was thought to help the dead talk to the living, there has been no scientific proof that it really works and it was sold and still is widely available to day in many countries as a board game. Even though there is no solid proof that we can contact the dead with a Ouija board there are ever increasing claims over the years that it works just like my experience to add to the claims.

There is one thing I can tell you about the Ouija board it is not a game!

My best friend was getting married for the second time to the same person I might add. They got married on a shoe string and had promised themselves one day they would have a proper wedding, the full works, this included a hen night. The planning started as soon as my best friend found they could afford this dream wedding. I remember her saying to me I want my hen party to be a night to remember. This hen party turned into a weekend away and two weeks before the wedding we were on our way to her mum and dad’s cottage in the lake district, there were ten of us all together, we planned to have a really girlie weekend and of course to have a few drinks. The first two nights in the cottage were a blast and we all pulled our bedding into the living room and spent our nights on the floor. On the last day we went exploring, came back had something to eat and arranged the nights activity’s yes you guessed it more drinking while doing each others hair and make up, nails and having a laugh. Everything was going well, one of my friends was shouting from up stairs, what’s this, we all went up to see what she was on about we all went just to be nosey really. She was stood with something in her hands a large flat box with no name on it only a picture on the top, she swore she had not been searching my best friends closets, the box was on the floor at the bottom of the bed, we all looked at it and knew what it was, we all thought the same thing what was my best friends mum and dad doing with a Ouija board. We all talked about it and decided to give it a go it will be a laugh. We opened the box and pulled out the contents, opening the folded board and finding the wooden pointer burst into fits of laughter, well we had had a few drinks. We switched of the lights and lit the candles that hung on the wall in the living room and settled ourselves as best we could. I placed my hand on the pointer four of us followed, what shall we asked a few puns came out like is there any body there a few giggles later we all stopped and blamed each other for moving the pointer to the word yes. Everyone looked at each other and went cold we believed each other we did not move the pointer. Settling back down we agreed to ask another question, this time it was can you see us, our hands were moved to the word yes once again. One of my friends had jumped up and turned on the lights and we all sat there in total silence. We could not sleep that last night in the cottage knowing we were not alone how could anyone say the Ouija board was a game I will never know. Everything went well with my best friends wedding and we never spook about our last night in the cottage ever again until now that is.