Ouija

You never know who you're talking to...

They say that you should never play with a ouija board. Nothing good can come from it, because you can never really be sure who is talking to you from the other side.

Ouija boards are also called spirit boards, and they are used to communicate with the dead. A lot of people avoid ouija boards at all costs, but there are some that enjoy the thrill of them. 

There are only two parts of the ouija board: the board itself, and the planchette, which is what moves around the board to determine what the spirit is saying.

The Rules

There are, of course, rules that you must follow when using a ouija board. 

You always move the planchette to 'Goodbye' after every question. If you don't, there is a chance that something can make its way out of the board. 

You also shouldn't use the board in your home (I have broken this rule). 

Another rule is that you shouldn't let the planchette count down through the numbers. This means that there is a evil spirit, and they are trying to escape from the board.

Personal Experiences

I've never had anything terrible happen to me as the result of using a ouija board. I have had one for many years, but I've only used it a handful of times. I never try to use the board alone... I always make sure that someone else is with me. 

It is a strange experience to use a ouija board, especially because other people are with you. We ask basic questions (Is there someone with us? How did you die? What is your name?). Whenever the planchette starts to move, it never makes much sense. The words that it is spelling out seem like gibberish. 

Because of this, it is difficult to say whether the board actually works. It could be that someone in your group, whether willingly or not, is pushing the planchette gently. 

However, there have been times when I've used a ouija board with friends, and doubted their honesty. I was convinced that someone was moving the planchette, that there was nothing really there. I asked my friends to take their fingers off of the planchette, with mine the only one touching it. The planchette continued to move.

Thoughts 

I don't know if ouija boards actually work. I would like to think that they do, although the thought is terrifying. From my experiences with it, it is hard to say. At times I have felt like something was there with us, and other times nothing would happen. 

I have tried to follow the rules of the board, but even still, I  know that using the board can be dangerous. Somehow, knowing that it is dangerous is part of the thrill of using it.

Other links 
Ouija Board Rules
The Ghost Walks News
Thought Catalog's Ouija Board Stories

The Trails to Dead Man's Hollow

The woods can be a dangerous place...

Not far from where I live, there is an area in the woods that they call Dead Man's Hollow. The area itself is peaceful, but its name says otherwise. It's along the trails near McKeesport, Pennsylvania. I can reach it by walking through the woods behind my sister's house. 

It's a wooded area now, but years ago there used to be factories on the spot. Today, all that's left of those factories are ruins. You can explore these, but you must be careful of where you step.

 

The Hollow's History 

 

They say that Dead Man's Hollow got its name from exactly that: dead men. In 1874, a man was found hanging from a tree in the hollow. Other reports say that a gunfight took place here, the results of a robbery gone wrong. 

Murder isn't the only problem at Dead Man's Hollow. Other incidents have occurred there, such as a fire. One of the factories in the hollow, The Bowman Brick Factory, burned down in 1898.

A Friend's Story

 

A girl that I knew told me about some of the strange things that have happened to there. She said that she was wearing a cross around her neck, when out of nowhere it was pulled up into the air, slightly choking her. Others say that you can hear unexplained noises in the hollow. 

In Dead Man's Hollow, looks can be deceiving. The tranquility of the hollow masks its darker past. The hollow is most likely haunted by some unknown spirit, trapped there by a long-forgotten fight, but the beauty of the place makes you look the other way.

I have yet to experience anything in Dead Man's Hollow other than the calming presence of nature. It's strange to think that a place that has had such a terrible past can be calming. That's all part of the charm of the place. Even though I have not had a ghost encounter here yet, I am hoping to change that.

 

Related Links:

Allegheny Land Trust

Dead Man's Hollow 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Friend's Ghost

I am not the only one with ghostly encounters. It is a topic that my friend and I bring up frequently. We exchange stories, listening to all of the weird things that happen to each other. Today I am going to tell you one of her ghost stories. 

The Knock at the Door

Her uncle died about two years ago, and at the time, he had been living with her and her mother. They were very close, and his death weighed down on her. 

Several months after his death, she was at home by herself, talking on the phone with her aunt. They were deep in conversation, and out nowhere, someone started knocking on her bedroom door.
It startled her, because she had assumed that she was home alone. She thought that her mother had come home, so she opened the door. Of course, there was nobody there.

She looked around her mother's room, down the stairs, the living room, the kitchen, but no one was there. She was still by herself. 

She wasn't too panicked by this strange occurrence. She had a feeling that it was her uncle, trying to contact her from the other side.

Another Look at the Penitentiary

I know that I've already talked about the West Virginia Penitentiary, but that place was so massive that it deserves another look. There is much more that I can say about this dark prison.

The Hole

We went down into the area called The Hole. This is where the boilers were kept. It was here that R.D. Wall was murdered in 1929. Wall was an inmate at the prison, and he spent a lot of time in The Hole tending to the boilers. Several inmates believed that Wall was a snitch, so one day they went down there and murdered him. 
 

The Hole

Our guide told us the story of a group of people that went down there one night. They sat in a circle on metal chairs, trying to contact Wall. A loud crash startled them, and they ran upstairs, knocking all of the chairs over in the process. When they went back down, the chairs were all upright, back in their neat circle. 

Being down there made me nervous. You could feel the room's dark past pressing in around you. In the corner of the room, there was a short, narrow hall that led to a tiny, round area. There was a single metal folding chair here. Others told us that when they went back there, they heard noises around them, even voices. I agreed to go back there, but only if my friend Nicole came with me. 

The Hole

We sat there, squished together on that single chair, with me on the left and her on the right. We were back there for about ten minutes, sitting in the pitch black cubby. We asked questions to the dead air to see if we could get a response. I don't know if I imagined it, but I thought that I heard breathing near my left ear. 

The Gift

We decided to leave around five in the morning. We checked out, they unlocked the door, and we made our out to freedom. We got in the car, and right before we left my sister said, “I have something for you."

She handed me a small, white piece of rubble. She had taken it from inside the prison. My first thought was "Take it back!" I didn't want anything from that place to follow me home, and taking something from there was an easy way to make that happen.

I kept that piece, though. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like any spirits followed me home through that tiny piece of rubble. I now keep it on my dresser, as a reminder of that night. 

The Piece of Rubble

Personal Ghosts

My Own Haunted House
  
So far, I’ve described my experiences at several different haunted locations. It’s one thing to go and visit somewhere that is supposed to be haunted. It’s different when one of those places turns out to be your home.

I enjoy going to haunted places. I like learning about the history of these locations, discovering what happened there and why a spirit might be stuck there. I enjoy the thrill of the whole experience. However, I do not like thinking that my own home is haunted. I don’t mind going out to look for ghosts, but I don’t want them to follow me home. It’s unnerving to think that you’re always being watched, that there’s something lurking over your shoulder.

I believe that my house has been haunted for a long time. My friend likes to tell me this often… she doesn’t like to go in the basement at night. All of the doors down there give off the impression that something is going to come bursting out of them. I can’t blame her… I try to avoid the basement late at night too. 

I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard unexplained noises throughout my house. The strange feelings about the house increased after the death of my brother.

The Visitor

It was about a year after my brother died. I was a senior in high school at the time, so I walked myself home from the bus stop. I came home, and it was the usual routine. Kicked my shoes off on the hard, plastic mat. Dropped my book bag on the floor. Opened the fridge, looking for a snack. Then my mother came into the kitchen, demanding to know where I've been. I was confused... I was at school all day, and had only just arrived home, which is what I told her. 

She gave me a strange look, and said that she heard me come in ten minutes earlier. She heard someone do the same things that I did... open the door, kick off their shoes, and open the fridge. No one else was home at the time, so she assumed that it was me. 

I don’t know if my mother imagined it, or if there was something else in the house with her at the time. Both explanations seem possible. It could be that my brother was there with her, watching over her.