In the spring of 1994, my sister visited her friend Alyssa who was attending a university in Florida. They started using the Ouija board in a dorm room on a nice sunny afternoon. Without warning the power went out in the entire building. A few days later, my sister and a few friends went to a relative’s condo to use the board. The girls asked, “Is there anyone here?” to which the board replied yes. When asked who was there, it replied “Z”, the same one they had spoken with in previous encounters. They proceeded to ask Z if there was a message for anyone in the room. Z replied yes, and when asked for whom, Z spelled out my sister’s first name. When asked from whom the message was from, Z replied that it was our father whom had recently passed away. Z spelled out the message, “grabba”. She hadn’t heard that word in a long time. It was our father’s nickname for her when she was little. Nobody in that room knew that piece of information except for my sister and she was not on the Ouija board.

That summer, Alyssa was back home visiting family and using the board with my sister in my mother’s home. One evening they were talking to Z at night in my sister’s bedroom which is located on the second floor. Things were going well when my sister caught a glimpse of a silhouette in the window. Immediately following that the shade in the bathroom rolled up and made a snapping noise. They put the board away immediately.
 
A month later I was home on leave from the Marines Corps for a few weeks. My sister told me of the Ouija stories and I wasted no time asking her to use it. We asked a few times, “Is there anyone here that wishes to speak to us?” After a few times, the planchette moved to “yes” and I was obviously skeptical, but exhilarated nonetheless. We asked who was there and it replied, “Z”. I wanted to know who Z was and why he/she/it apparently liked my sister. Was it a spirit, a demon, or just our subconscious?

We asked Z many questions about himself and learned that Z was a little boy either 9 or 11 years of age when he died in an accident. Obviously we have no way of really knowing this, but his spelling was poor at times and he liked to play games with us. Several times we would be at the board for 10-20 minutes asking for Z and finally he would arrive. When we asked what took so long, he replied, “I was playing” or “I was sleeping.” We asked more questions like is there a heaven and a God? Z replied yes to both.

What I found interesting is that sometimes Z would try to spell out something and we couldn’t make out the words. We would ask him to try again, but he couldn’t do it. After several times, the planchette would move very fast as Z’s frustration grew. We had to calm him down several times and walk him through it like a game of 20 questions. At first we thought this was weird, but then we remembered that he was just a kid and spelled like one too! Looking back, I find this to be absolutely fascinating.

One evening, my sister invited Alyssa over to use the board. I was still skeptical and wanted a little proof that this was indeed real. While my sister and Alyssa used the board, I wrote down a number on a piece of paper and folded it up. I asked my sister to have Z tell us the number. Z guessed a number and my sister asked if that was his guess. Z would reply “no” and my sister would start the process over again. After several times, my sister grew weary of these games and told Z that if he didn’t give her the number, she would put the board away. Z promptly came back with the correct number and I revealed it to them for proof. Something simple like that really gave us the chills.

After my vacation was up, I headed back to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and was thinking about the Ouija a lot. A few weeks later I was talking to my sister who was totally freaked out and excited at the same time. The previous morning, my sister left for work and my mom was cleaning on the main floor in our house. She went to vacuum the stairs that lead up to the bedrooms. In a brief moment my mother saw a little child run from her room across the hallway. My mother saw it clear enough to see that it was a boy who had blonde hair and was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

What I failed to mention so far is that my mom was not aware that we were using the Ouija board. She knew nothing of Z, nothing of his age, nothing of his sex, nothing at all. When my sister told her about the Ouija board, my mother was very upset and wanted the board out of the house immediately. My sister got on the board with Alyssa to try and contact Z to see what was going on. When they asked if anyone was there, the board spelled out repeatedly, “Z is out.”

Months later, my mother visited her friend Mary, who has psychic abilities. During her reading, Mary asked my mom if her kids were using the Ouija board in the house! All of us were shocked that would know this. She said to stay away from the Ouija because it’s evil. She said the only way to use the board again was to have it blessed with holy water. She is a religious woman by nature so this could be biased.

After that incident though, my sister’s experience with the board was different in that it was unpleasant. She tried using the board a few times with her friends, but it would either not work or it say that the board was evil. One evening she was using the board in the TV room and bugs kept crawling out from everywhere. She stopped using the board till I eventually returned home a few years later in 1996.

We made one last attempt to get the board working. My friend and I even went to the local church and had a priest bless some water for us. He asked what is was for and we told him. The look on his face was priceless and he replied, “Do you believe in that stuff?” All I could do was smile. Well we tried the board once again and it was responsive this time, but slow and barely usable.

Some time later, my sister and I tried one last time at night alone thinking this would help. We asked if anyone was there to which a reply came, “No.” I said there has to be someone here because someone said “No.” We asked again and this time it said “Yes!” Expecting Z, I asked who was there and it spelled out my grandma’s name. We were shocked because my grandma has passed away a few years prior in our home. We asked her why the board wasn’t working to which she replied, “evil.” She then said good-bye and would continue to do so anytime we tried using it.

We eventually threw the board out and haven’t used one since.