Some believe that Ouija boards are controlled by spirits or – perhaps – demons seeking communication with the living world (or clamoring to escape). Others think that the planchette is purely pushed by subconscious activity or a shit-disturbing living participant. But no matter how you feel about the legitimacy of paranormal activity, you’ve got to admit that the stories are fun to read.

I’ve perused the internet (my favorite thing) to bring you 9 true tales of personal Ouija experiences. So settle down, light some candles, and prepare to be spooked.

And if you’ve got experiences of your own you’d like to share, please tell us in the comments!

“I got my board after months of harmless paranormal activity in my house. When I contacted something, the planchette started doing figure eights across the board, which is a huge NO NO — that means something demonic was present. I didn’t touch it for months. When I tried again, I asked where the spirit was in the room. My vision went spotty, I saw a vivid image of my head jerking back, and the words, “with you,” were whispered into my ear by something I couldn’t see. I sold the board.”

via The Hauntist

“Happened to my best friend when she was a teenager. She and a few of her friends took the board to an old church one night. For reference two of the party had dated and then broken up. I don’t remember their names so I’ll call them C.J. (F) and J.P. (M). My friend sat down with C.J. and another girl with the board. Everyone else just sat around and watched. Before long they made contact with something and started asking it questions. My friend asked it “who here do you love the most?” The eye turned and pointed to CJ. She then asked who it hated the most. The eye pointed to JP, CJ’s ex. JP got pissed off and started to walk away. He had to pass them to leave and as he did the eye pulled away from their hands and the board turned on its own so that the eye was always pointing to JP. The board wasn’t a cheep cardboard one. It was an old, heavy wooden one and would have required very visible effort to move smoothly. For curiosity’s sake they had him walk in a circle around the board and it turned in a complete circle several times, always following him with no one touching it. They packed their shit, noped the fuck out of there, and never used the board again.”

via Reddit

“One summer my friends and I met the spirit of a boy named Jake through my board, and my friends kept antagonizing him to prove he was real. We were in the basement when the board said to go to my room. There we found crayons had been knocked over onto my floor, and a notebook on my bed opened up with the name JAKE scrawled out in big letters. All of us had been together in the basement the entire time, and no one else was home. Our friend said we needed to break the board into pieces and ‘stop the evil,’ so we did”

via Buzzfeed

“My friend had mentioned that she had one, so I asked her to pull the board out so I could check it out. At first she said no, but then agreed to do it as long as she didn’t have to participate. After she had the board set up I asked “Is there anyone in here”….nothing. So, being a dumb teenager I said “If anything is in here and not talking, you’re a coward.” The board was put away after that.

Fast forward about a week later … I wake up on a stereotypical “Stormy Night.” Thunder and lightning, wind and rain, the works. I look around to see why I woke up and couldn’t see a thing, and decide to try and fall back asleep. After laying there for about 30 seconds I hear from downstairs “Get the boy” in a very raspy, wispy voice. I open my eyes and listen……nothing. Start to go back to sleep…”GET THE BOY,” it was MUCH louder this time. Then my downstairs door SLAMS shut. I freak the F*ck out because nobody slept down there and we had no drafts. Nothing really happened after that…I learned my lesson.”

via Reddit

“My dad bought an old house when I was in high school, so of course I had to try a ouija board. My friend and I played in a room upstairs, and the rotary phone started to click, like the receiver was being tampered with. Weeks later, I was home alone watching TV downstairs when I heard the phone clicking upstairs again. We had another phone in the living room with a red light that would come on if the line was being used, and every time it clicked upstairs, the light came on beside me. Later that night as I tried to sleep, I felt hands on my shoulder start to rock me back and forth. I assumed I was dreaming… but then I heard humming. It was TERRIFYING. We moved out of that house, but I still have nightmares.”

via Buzzfeed

“Perfect story. 100% true. About 15 years ago, My sister had some friends over one night. They were in the basement watching some scary movie. They had an Ouija board. They started cussing at it and calling it “shit” and “fucking fake”. It stopped responding so they began watching the movie again.

All of a sudden, all the lights and electricity goes out. They start screaming. Then the tv comes on all static and is blaring noise. They were yelling and crying. Then, the tv shuts off and comes back on to just a black screen. The words, ” This is not a game anymore” roll across the screen in all white. After, the tv shuts off and and they are in complete darkness. They run out of the house.

Afterwards, they go back to the house and our dog hid and when they found it, all it did was bark and look very angry at them.

Insane.”

via Thought Catalog

I have no evidence, and I do not care if you don’t believe me. I’ve used a board with results, and let something into my home. And have been physically assaulted by this entity.

It started out with that feeling like you’re being watched, and doors closing, and footsteps on the hardwood when you were home alone. And progressed slowly into being kept awake by something shaking the bed, or pulling off your covers. Sometimes even whispering your name. The board would disappear for days on end, then show up in places you never would have put it. I became obsessed with it. Then it was a black mass in the corner of the room. Or the silhouette of a man watching you from the doorway. After that it escalated pretty quickly. I had my hair pulled. Fingers pricked. Scratched. Choked. Held down in bed while this thing whispered in my ear in what could have only been Latin….. We had our house blessed and the bad thing hasn’t shown back up. Just the normal occurrences now. But I will never again play with one of those boards.

via Thought Catalog

“A bunch of us gather at a party one time and of course someone took out the board to play. Well most of us knew how the board worked, you know that whole be respectful, no cell phones say goodbye etc. Well, it turns out to be that the main person who actually bought the board didn’t know so she forgot to say goodbye to the board at the end of the session. After that when the house was almost empty, we started to hear knocking and a baby crying from the basement door. We were all scared but managed to get the courage to go towards the door, when we got there nothing and no one was there. It creeped me out and she learned to say goodbye.”

via The Ghost Diaries

In 1930, a 66-year-old Seneca Indian woman named Nancy Bowen, a tribal healer on the Cattaraugus Reservation near Buffalo, bludgeoned another woman to death with a hammer and shoved chloroform-soaked paper down her throat. The woman was Clothilde Marchand, whom Bowen had never met. But a recent Ouija board session had identified her by name as a witch who was responsible for the death of Bowen’s husband the previous year. Conveniently, the planchette even provided the witch’s home address.

via Cult of Weird

Want more spooky stories? Check out our 31 Scary Story Nights series!

Featured image via Cult of Weird