Context: The experience comes from the Informant’s father when he was younger, around the age of 12 or 13, and takes place in Costa Rica. This story was shared with her by him. It focuses on the Ouija Board, which is used to communicate to spirits and there have been many memorates of bad experiences.

Text:

Informant: “I told you the ouija board story, right?”

Collector: “What? No! What happened?”

Informant: “My dad’s uncle would constantly use the ouija board to reach out to past family members and communicate to them and one day decided to invite my dad along, who was a preteen at that time, with his cousins and they were saying it worked and they were already in conversation in one. My dad joined and they were asking questions to the spirit and the spirit would answer accordingly to appear as the family member. The spirit would also answer questions that only they, like my dad and his uncle, knew the answer to. As they continued communication the spirit would reach out more often every time they played. As a teen my dad thought it was a game and/or that he was actually speaking to his family member until strange things started to happen every time they would finishing talking to the spirit such as things falling on him and things breaking (cups, vases, etc.). He never thought much into this until one day, before the uncles and cousins had invited him to talk to the spirit that day, there was a liquid that spilled on his shoes and melted it and he did not know what the liquid was but it was some sort of acid liquid and this happened before the ouija board. He was scared but dimissed it and puts the shoes on and goes to play with the uncles. And my father didn’t tell anybody what happened with the shoe and when they were using the ouija and talking to the spirit, it starts communicating through the board and asks a question which was “What happened to the shoe?” All the uncles were confused and that’s when my dad knew the spirits were taunting him about the shoes and this spirit attacked him. After the question, my father realizes that all the coincidences were actually the spirit attached to him even though they had said goodbye. My father never addressed what happened to my uncles or the spirit but rather instead stopped going to any of the ouija talks with the spirit. The uncles asked why he wasn’t joining and the spirits also asked. My father never responded and told them that he didnt want to play anymore in which they laughed and continued to play themselves. Later on they found out that the spirit was not their family member because they asked for its name and they gave the wrong name and they knew it was a random spirit.”

Analysis:

I think this memorate only strengths the belief of the bad things that can happen when one uses the Ouija board and sharing these stories adds to the collective belief of using the ouija board with caution and fearing the attachments the spirits can make and how dangerous they can be. The informant mentioned that because of this story her dad never touched the board again and they never did either and honestly, I will even more not miss with the board after hearing this story. I think the sharing of these stories and people still wanting to have this experience also reveals how curious people are with spirits, entities, demons, and just the supernatural in general and seeing what happens when you are able to channel and communicate with them. I think because spirituality is always one of those things were you have to see it to believe it that it draws and fascinates so many different cultures around the world. Also, I think the idea of communicating with the dead or past love ones and this idea that they are always with you is another persisting aspect of why people trade their ouija board memorates.