I developed a fascination with spirits my first year at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, a campus notorious for its abundance of ghost stories. I began using a Ouija board with friends and we mostly sat around and asked silly questions. As I got into it more and more, I got more serious.
This year, I moved into a campus apartment and I had some strange experiences. On occasion I noticed a figure walking in the hallway outside my bedroom door, and one night my roommate had come home, but had to ring the doorbell because the chain on the door had been put in place. Me being the only one in the apartment at the time, I began to suspect spiritual activity. One of my roommates felt the same way and brought his Ouija board from home so I could attempt to find out who was in our apartment. The door locking hadn’t stopped. It happened several times and one night I found the two locks and the chain all in place while I had been in the front room the entire time.
The Ouija board sat and collected dust for a long time, but I finally found a friend willing to give it a go. We found out that a 16 year old boy was in my apartment and was continually locking the door to protect me from the “Old Man” who he deemed “bad”. We proceeded to have a nice chat, and said good night to him.
The next night proved itself to be far less pleasant. My friend came over again to chat with Henry, but Henry was far less eager to chit chat. Instead of answering a question, he chose to warn us and tell us not to go to the library that evening (He even spelled out the name of the library, which is a long, complicated, Norwegian name). After not speaking too much with Henry, I kneeled down to change the music we had been listening to, and suddenly my friend said my name, and pointed to the planchette which was now resting on the floor. I put it back on the board, and continued to scroll through my iPod. My friend said my name again and suddenly the planchette came flying toward me and hit me in the back. I asked the board who was causing this, and it was the aforementioned Old Man.
Thoroughly jolted by the experience, my friend and I decided it was best to have a cigarette break outside. My friend went into the kitchen where she had left her things, and called my name once again. Her books were strewn about the floor along with some other
objects that had been on the table. We put them back, and went outside. When we came back in, the kitchen was in more disarray, as objects were overturned, a mug was flipped over, my friend’s notebook was in the sink and now a pair of scissors was on the floor along with some water bottles. What really caught my attention was that the roll of paper towels had been removed from its holder and set neatly next to it. Other objects had been removed from various locations and set on the counter.
To take our minds off of the situation, we decided to watch a DVD. While I was fiddling with the DVD player, the DVD remote slid across the floor and hit me, and shortly after that, the TV remote flew off the coffee table and landed a couple of feet away.
After getting our wits together, we pulled the Ouija board out again and we found ourselves talking with the Old Man himself, who explained he was doing these things for fun and to scare us. We asked to talk with Henry, and Henry told us to keep our door locked and to “believe”. He promised to help, and since then nothing else has moved, but it’s an experience I won’t soon forget.
From: “Ethan Schwartz” ethanpschwartz@yahoo.com
To: obiwan@ghosts.org
Subject: My experience
Date: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 6:58 AM