Spiritualism and the Paranormal

[ The following story is a first-hand, cautionary account about the Ouija board and does not promote it’s casual use. It is NOT a game. It is NOT a toy. If you decide to use the board, please take spiritual precautions such as saying a prayer before use. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! All names are fictitious to protect the identities of those mentioned in the story. ] Within a few weeks of using the board , we had already noticed odd goings-around. We had contacted several spirits, but the one we happened to encounter the most was a Filipino nanny of sorts who we called “Ya-Ya”. We knew that just invoking her name brought us some sort of “bad luck”. My cousin who didn’t actively participate in our sessions came down with a case of sudden fatigue believed to have been brought on after seeing a shadow person. But, we weren’t expecting what was yet to come. My Aunts Have an Accident While we spent the after resting from berry picking, my aunt Pat and my aunt Lena went to downtown Port Orchar...

[ The following story is a first-hand, cautionary account about the Ouija board and does not promote it’s casual use. It is NOT a game. It is NOT a toy. If you decide to use the board, please take spiritual precautions such as saying a prayer before use. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! All names are fictitious to protect the identities of those mentioned in the story. ] After contacting Ya-Ya we used the board less and less often. What we thought was fun and a curiosity at first start started to become serious. Yet, because of that same curiosity, we would ask Ya-Ya questions if something were to happen that we could not explain. One such reason was when one of the other cousins, who was not participating, came down with “something”. Background Although the Philippines is for the most part Christian and predominantly Catholic, each region’s animistic and shamanistic folk beliefs still continue until the present day. Aside from being religious, Filipinos tend to be very superstitious as well....

[ The following story is a first-hand, cautionary account about the Ouija board and does not promote it’s casual use. It is NOT a game. It is NOT a toy. If you decide to use the board, please take spiritual precautions such as saying a prayer before use. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! All names are fictitious to protect the identities of those mentioned. ] During one summer when I was in middle school, my cousin from New York, Wilma, came to visit with her mom. They were staying at another aunt’s house in Port Orchard, Washington, where our Auntie Pat ran a berry farm. The early  part of the season was raspberry season, so my cousins and I would stay at Auntie Pat’s to pick berries. Considering that I have over twenty cousins around my age, this was free labor for my Aunt Pat. And, it was a good time to bond with the lost of them. In addition, it was a good time to get to know Wilma. Previously, I had met Wilma briefly when they first immigrated to the US in the late 1980’s be...