victim Bridget Bishop came through loud and clear. My favorite part of the evening was that the film crew's equipment kept breaking down, something that I had warned them would happen, and it did so in spite of the crew's response to my warnings that “this stuff never breaks down.” Bridget had other plans, apparently.
Sadly, Cryptique is no longer produced, but Bob remains the world's foremost Ouija historian and continues to educate the curious about this fascinating parlor game.
My Own Experiences with the Ouija Board
I have fond childhood memories of Ouija boards, playing with my friends when the adults weren't paying attention. My mom hated them, and even threw away one that I had bought with my allowance. Like many moms, she had bought into the hype. She probably should have known I would turn out like I did when I was saving my weekly five dollars towards Ouija boards instead of comic books. When I began to study the Craft in my late teens, the Ouija made a return. My mentor Shawn Poirier and I sometimes used the board together, but it wasn't until Cryptique that the Ouija became a much larger part of my life.
In 2005, Shawn and I offered a Ouija workshop at Contact , a paranormal conference held at the Houghton Mansion in North Adams, Massachusetts,by author and ghost hunter Ron Kolek. After an enlightening workshop where Shawn and I both shared our perspectives on the board, he and I sat to use it. This notorious mansion is haunted by a number of people associated with the house who had died during accidents and suicide. The word S-W-O-R-D kept coming out on the board, and experts at the house told us that a sword had been missing from the home for some time. It was at that point that I began to slip from consciousness. I had been feeling very tired that day and should not have been using the board in that state. I began to feel like every muscle in my body was no longer under my control, some outside force directing my movement. Worse, my mind felt as though a dark, malevolent consciousness was layering itself over my own. I was quite scared! Luckily for me, Shawn was there to force whatever spirit was doing this away and bring me up out of the blackness. This was the closest I have ever come to possession and, to this day, I am extremely careful to only work with the spirits when I'm not tired. I'll still use a Ouija board, but tend to shy away from trance mediumship, preferring to remain in total control of what's going on around me. While the visionary state necessary to psychic work will relax you, being deeply relaxed is not the same as being tired. In the latter state, you place yourself in more danger of spirit meddling.
Perhaps my favorite experience using the Ouija board was when I first met paranormal author Rosemary Ellen Guiley. She was staying at an historic home here in Salem while researching a book. She asked me come over to conduct a Ouija séance to contact my departed friend, Shawn Poirier. I brought Robert the skull, my yew wand, and an old Ouija board of Shawn's that I figured might help in contacting him. Rosemary had a device I had never seen before called a ghost box, which cruises through the spectrum of radio waves looking for voices of the dead. She intended to use it after we used the Ouija, but I suggested we combine the two. I figured, what the heck—if Shawn decided not to come through the board, maybe I could hear him on the box. I try to always have a Plan B. The planchette zipped quickly around the board to spell out answers to our questions. But more exciting were the times when the planchette pointed to “yes” or “no” and the ghostbox spoke those words at the very same time! We also experienced poltergeist effects manifesting throughout the room, including loud bangs and popping noises.
Rosemary and I felt the results were the product of a combination of factors: the place, with its haunted history; the instant rapport between the two of us; and the combined
Sadly, Cryptique is no longer produced, but Bob remains the world's foremost Ouija historian and continues to educate the curious about this fascinating parlor game.
My Own Experiences with the Ouija Board
I have fond childhood memories of Ouija boards, playing with my friends when the adults weren't paying attention. My mom hated them, and even threw away one that I had bought with my allowance. Like many moms, she had bought into the hype. She probably should have known I would turn out like I did when I was saving my weekly five dollars towards Ouija boards instead of comic books. When I began to study the Craft in my late teens, the Ouija made a return. My mentor Shawn Poirier and I sometimes used the board together, but it wasn't until Cryptique that the Ouija became a much larger part of my life.
In 2005, Shawn and I offered a Ouija workshop at Contact , a paranormal conference held at the Houghton Mansion in North Adams, Massachusetts,by author and ghost hunter Ron Kolek. After an enlightening workshop where Shawn and I both shared our perspectives on the board, he and I sat to use it. This notorious mansion is haunted by a number of people associated with the house who had died during accidents and suicide. The word S-W-O-R-D kept coming out on the board, and experts at the house told us that a sword had been missing from the home for some time. It was at that point that I began to slip from consciousness. I had been feeling very tired that day and should not have been using the board in that state. I began to feel like every muscle in my body was no longer under my control, some outside force directing my movement. Worse, my mind felt as though a dark, malevolent consciousness was layering itself over my own. I was quite scared! Luckily for me, Shawn was there to force whatever spirit was doing this away and bring me up out of the blackness. This was the closest I have ever come to possession and, to this day, I am extremely careful to only work with the spirits when I'm not tired. I'll still use a Ouija board, but tend to shy away from trance mediumship, preferring to remain in total control of what's going on around me. While the visionary state necessary to psychic work will relax you, being deeply relaxed is not the same as being tired. In the latter state, you place yourself in more danger of spirit meddling.
Perhaps my favorite experience using the Ouija board was when I first met paranormal author Rosemary Ellen Guiley. She was staying at an historic home here in Salem while researching a book. She asked me come over to conduct a Ouija séance to contact my departed friend, Shawn Poirier. I brought Robert the skull, my yew wand, and an old Ouija board of Shawn's that I figured might help in contacting him. Rosemary had a device I had never seen before called a ghost box, which cruises through the spectrum of radio waves looking for voices of the dead. She intended to use it after we used the Ouija, but I suggested we combine the two. I figured, what the heck—if Shawn decided not to come through the board, maybe I could hear him on the box. I try to always have a Plan B. The planchette zipped quickly around the board to spell out answers to our questions. But more exciting were the times when the planchette pointed to “yes” or “no” and the ghostbox spoke those words at the very same time! We also experienced poltergeist effects manifesting throughout the room, including loud bangs and popping noises.
Rosemary and I felt the results were the product of a combination of factors: the place, with its haunted history; the instant rapport between the two of us; and the combined
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