My first experience

titch2k6

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Greetings all.

I just thought I would share with you my very first 'official' paranormal experience. This is the one experience that changed everything for me, as far as my beliefs go, and kicked off an 8-year stint as a Spirit Board medium.

Although I had experienced some strange things as a child in our family home at the time, which I still have very vivid memories of to this day, I was a complete skeptic when it came to ghosts and other paranormal stuff. I just had not witnessed, nor experienced, anything in my adult life that made me think about the subject at any great length. That was until an event that occurred in 1994.

I was based in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the United Nations Protection force during the war there. Soldiers, being soldiers, do almost anything to keep themselves amused (and keep their minds off the things they were seeing on a daily basis) and I came in one day from a patrol around Novi Travnik to find my ISO container accommodation unit full with fellow soldiers, along with a close friend, who for the benefit of this I will call 'Bob', sat at a makeshift table with a Spirit Board. We were told that Bob was going to do a seance and amused by it all, we eagerly sat down to watch what was going to unfold.

Bob kicked off his session with three other soldiers around the board with him and within a few minutes, had made contact with something on the board. That 'something' turned out to be Joanna, the girlfriend of 'Jim' (not real name) who had passed away in a car crash (she was hit by a drunk driver) a few months prior to his deployment and was one of those sitting at the board. Now Jim was obviously a little upset through the interaction, but the rest of us observing found it highly amusing and again, soldiers being soldiers, were shouting banter to the four men at the table and the 'fake' presentation they were performing. They took this all with a pinch of salt initially, but as time went on, they were quite visibly getting annoyed with our outbursts......

It finally came to a head with Bob losing his cool amongst jeers of "I saw him push the glass!" - mainly from me! He instructed Jim to leave the board, after excusing him, go into the next unit, write something on a bit of paper, place it in an envelope, seal it and then come back. Jim shot off and returned a few minutes later with envelope in-hand and was instructed by Bob to place it on one corner of the board. Bob continued for a few minutes more, to the backdrop of more jeering and banter from my direction, before turning to me and inviting me onto the board. Wanting to prove the whole thing as a set-up, I jumped at the chance and sat next to Bob. He then pulled another 3 men from the jeering crowd and invited them to join in place of the guys already on the board. After the swap, Bob gave me a few basic dos and don'ts before LEAVING THE BOARD HIMSELF.

There were now four complete skeptics sat around the board with fingers on the glass. Under prompts from Bob, now sat on a bunk across from us, I started asking questions to Joanna.

The first time the glass moved, honestly, I felt like I messed myself - along with the other 3 guys on it. The crowd, seeing our reactions, realised that everything was not as it seemed and a silence fell upon the unit for the first time that night. After a further period of communication, I was confused, unnerved and unsure of what was going on. Most of all though, I was intrigued. But Bob was about to pull the final act that would make me question what I thought about the paranormal forever......

Under suggestion from Bob, we asked if Joanna could see what was on the paper sealed within the envelope and on the corner of the board, to which she replied 'Yes'. We asked her to spell out what the message was, to which she responded 'Frends forever' - and no, I did not make a spelling mistake. You see, Jim was slightly dyslexic and when we opened the envelope, that was EXACTLY how he had written it on the paper - I will never forget it. You could have heard a pin drop...........

Eleven skeptics walked into that unit that night - 15 believers walked out!

Anyway, a long story short, I found out after that Bob was Wicca and did Spirit Boards on a regular basis. So of course, I spent as much of my free time with him, until I left the Army in 1998, and learned what I could about Spirit Boards from him. I then spent further time with people he had introduced me to in civvy street during periods of leave and learned more. I went on to conduct regular Spirit Board sessions myself for 8-years after.

As I stated earlier, my views and beliefs did a complete U-turn following this event. I have experienced and witnessed too many unexplainable things during my 8-year period as a Spirit Board medium, many of which throws the theory of the ideomotor effect out into the trash. I myself repeated Bob's 'little example' on occasions to show people that the sessions were no hoax, with the occasional visit still from Joanna, who was only too happy to communicate with me further.

I hope to be able to share some more of my experiences with you in the not too distant future.
 
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Well, Titch, this is gonna be one of my "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME" moments here on the forum. Not because I believe they don't work, but because so many people get in trouble with the boards because they have not been trained properly and see it as a toy instead of a tool. You appear to have had training with it and may safely be able to operate one.

As a Wiccan trained board operator myself, I have put down the board for my own reasons. So I know they work. The how and who is still in debate, imo. On this forum, we warn against the use of Ouija and Spirit Boards, once again, because the majority of people simply shout out "Who's there? Come on in!" and find themselves in a world of trouble. I do know several other trained people in the boards who also give out safety warnings on their use, including Karen Dahlman, who is by far one of the most experienced in board work other than the late Rosemary Ellen Guiley.

Just wanted to let you know where we as a forum stand on the usage of them for the ordinary person. My warning to others about "playing" with them can be found here:

 
I don't know much about ouija boards except I have never seen any good come from their use, I've seen a lot of bad results. I doubt you can talk to passed loved ones through these, they are more likely to be imposters jumping in to taunt or bring misery and mayhem.
 
Well, Titch, this is gonna be one of my "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME" moments here on the forum. Not because I believe they don't work, but because so many people get in trouble with the boards because they have not been trained properly and see it as a toy instead of a tool. You appear to have had training with it and may safely be able to operate one.

As a Wiccan trained board operator myself, I have put down the board for my own reasons. So I know they work. The how and who is still in debate, imo. On this forum, we warn against the use of Ouija and Spirit Boards, once again, because the majority of people simply shout out "Who's there? Come on in!" and find themselves in a world of trouble. I do know several other trained people in the boards who also give out safety warnings on their use, including Karen Dahlman, who is by far one of the most experienced in board work other than the late Rosemary Ellen Guiley.

Just wanted to let you know where we as a forum stand on the usage of them for the ordinary person. My warning to others about "playing" with them can be found here:

TBH with you Debi, I NEVER tell or advise people to use/try a Spirit Board, even if they do know what they are doing. I was a user for eight years and stopped in 2003. I still get asked why I do not do seances anymore and have been requested more than once to do private sessions but I have refused. Why? Even after all the training I went through and all the protection used, opening and closing sessions correctly, I had a REALLY bad experience with a group involving a very negative spirit. The draw on the board was so strong that SIX of us were struggling to control it. We were also getting things spelt backwards, with Latin coming through as well (took my scriber ages to translate). It ended in the glass being used at the time imploding on the board. This thing did not explode or shatter but literally went in on itself. Never experienced anything like it, and to be quite frank, never want to again......

This is why I went into a more investigative role and been much happier since :)
 
TBH with you Debi, I NEVER tell or advise people to use/try a Spirit Board, even if they do know what they are doing. I was a user for eight years and stopped in 2003. I still get asked why I do not do seances anymore and have been requested more than once to do private sessions but I have refused. Why? Even after all the training I went through and all the protection used, opening and closing sessions correctly, I had a REALLY bad experience with a group involving a very negative spirit. The draw on the board was so strong that SIX of us were struggling to control it. We were also getting things spelt backwards, with Latin coming through as well (took my scriber ages to translate). It ended in the glass being used at the time imploding on the board. This thing did not explode or shatter but literally went in on itself. Never experienced anything like it, and to be quite frank, never want to again......

This is why I went into a more investigative role and been much happier since :)
This is why, despite training, I put the board down and never touched it again many years ago. There are very powerful "things" out there best left alone! Glad to hear we're both on the same page, Titch.
 
Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your experience. I am glad it served to open your beliefs to the paranormal. There is more to life than what meets the eye.
 
:ghost:When looking for something different to do one wet afternoon my then girlfriend suggested we have a seance. I had always had an open mind to the paranormal so a seance seemed a good idea. It was a simple ouija board on the dinner table and a upturned glass. I began with the first question. "is there anyone here" . I really did not expect an answer and we did not get one. So after waiting for about 10 minutes we decided the whole thing was futile and rather silly.

Suddenly there was a cool almost icy presence in the room. Ridiculous as we had no windows open as it was mid winter.

The following conversation is as close to word for word as I recall.

"Why has it become so cold" I asked my girlfriend. Did you leave a window open?"
"No" she replied.

Several minutes passed as we both put on another sweater. Then back in the room, my girlfriend exclaimed rather angrily "what did you do that for"
I replied "did what".
"You pinched my shoulder".
"I never did. I was away from you all the time"
She smirked and said "sure you were".

Then a chair moved across the room. We both froze and my girlfriend screamed. Then as quickly as the manifestations came they left. The room was back to its earlier warmth and we were both left mesmerized by what had just happened.

Without a word of lie we experienced something other worldly that day.
 
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:ghost:When looking for something different to do one wet afternoon my then girlfriend suggested we have a seance. I had always had an open mind to the paranormal so a seance seemed a good idea. It was a simple ouija board on the dinner table and a upturned glass. I began with the first question. "is there anyone here" . I really did not expect an answer and we did not get one. So after waiting for about 10 minutes we decided the whole thing was futile and rather silly.

Suddenly there was a cool almost icy presence in the room. Ridiculous as we had no windows open as it was mid winter.

The following conversation is as close to word for word as I recall.

"Why has it become so cold" I asked my girlfriend. Did you leave a window open?"
"No" she replied.

Several minutes passed as we both put on another sweater. Then back in the room, my girlfriend exclaimed rather angrily "what did you do that for"
I replied "did what".
"You pinched my shoulder".
"I never did. I was away from you all the time"
She smirked and said "sure you were".

Then a chair moved across the room. We both froze and my girlfriend screamed. Then as quickly as the manifestations came they left. The room was back to its earlier warmth and we were both left mesmerized by what had just happened.

Without a word of lie we experienced something other worldly that day.
Hi Spectre, and welcome to the forum. Thanks for telling us of your first paranormal experience, it allows us yet another opportunity to foot stomp the dangers associated with the Ouija Board.


We look forward to hearing more of your experiences within the paranormal. I encourage you to introduce and tell us about yourself in the "Getting to know you" thread.

 
Without a word of lie we experienced something other worldly that day.
You are at the right place with this as most on here have experienced the paranormal on different levels and always interested in other's experiences. Also looks like you are from my home town, I live up the mid north coast now, welcome to the forum Dr.