Sorry George

This story is shared as an actual occurrence, nothing more...and a scary one at that! Let’s go back to 1970...several grade-school aged girls, friends of mine, and my little sister, ready for some spooky fun...

Now, as anyone who has ever fiddled around with a Ouija board knows, kids love to "cheat". My pals were no exception; we’d always have somebody push the planchette right over to "Yes" if the question was in regards to that person’s latest romantic crush, etc.

One evening, we decided to put a stop to this silliness, and implemented a system that would seemingly make it very difficult, if not impossible, to cheat.

One person was selected as the "Reader", who manipulated the planchette. She was tightly blindfolded, and seated opposite the "right reading" orientation of the board. The rest of us were the "Watchers", assigned to write down what was said, and the remaining person was the "Questioner", seated facing the "Reader".

It got quiet as we sat in the dimly lit room, the only noise being the soft, sliding sound of the planchette under the "Reader’s" fingers. The "Questioner" asked if there were any spirits about who wished to make "contact". Nothing happened at first, but then, the planchette spelled out, letter for letter, "y", "e", "s". (Note: the planchette did not travel directly to the completely spelled-out "Yes", which is printed on the board.) We didn’t say a thing to the "Reader"; she didn’t seem to have any trouble spelling upside down and blindfolded, or so it seemed...had our little experiment failed, or was something odd starting to happen?

Next, the "spirit" was asked to identify itself, which it promptly did, "George Raugh". "George" went on to spell his communications with some difficulty, as it appeared he had minimal education. This was getting very strange. The messages were becoming more complicated, much more than someone blindfolded could easily spell upside down! Aside from murmurs and the scratching of the Watchers’ pencils, no other sound was heard as "George" continued unburdening himself with a very sad story.

His whole family, himself included, died rapidly of "a vomiting fever". (cholera?) He told of the house growing cold and dark as he was the last family member left alive, and he had become very ill. He told of "curtains blowing, wind tearing them, can’t get up"...won’t anybody come?"

By now, we were getting very nervous and frightened.

Suddenly, the planchette startled us, moving very rapidly (At this point the blindfolded "Reader" seemed to have lost control of it completely!) It spelled, "SINNERS STOP THIS, SINNERS STOP THIS!"

So of course, we did immediately, after bidding "George" a hasty goodbye. We then discovered that the clear plastic disc which holds the metal pointer had dislodged itself from the center of the planchette and had been scratching across the surface of the board!

We put the board back in the box and never played again. Sorry, George!