Flashback post: "All IN THE OUIJA Board FAMILY: A OUIJA INTERVIEW"

About 3,000 years ago, (okay, more like over 16 and a half years ago)... I (John) interviewed Freddy about his Ouija experiences on my John Fears Horror Blog, which eventually was renamed Fears & Frights - The Horror Blog of John Fears Torres.

Warning: Tangent Alert ahead...

At that time, I used to go by the pen name of John Fears. I came up with that name, not only because it fit with my favorite genre, but because the letters in Fears represented the two most important people in the world to me. Freddy and my mom. The letter F was obviously for Freddy, the E represented my mom's middle name, the A from my mom's first name, the R was the initial of my mom's maiden name and the S for Segarra.

Eventually, I added my given last name and my pen name became John Fears Torres. A few years later, I came up with John Fearsturo, which represented Freddy and my mom, but now I included all the letters from my mom's first name, middle initial, as well as her maiden and married name, Aurea E. Rosa Torres. All her letters are in there. It was my sentimental way to honor them.

Eventually, Freddy and I were married and I changed my name to John Segarra. Hmm maybe I should go with John Fearsturo Segarra now? Nah, too long. How about John Fears Segarra? Nah, that would imply that I fear my married name. Babbling! Sorry people.

Anyway, I liked the name Fearsturo so much, that I decided that I would use it as part of the title of my sci-fi space opera novel series that currently remains unfinished. It's been a while since I wrote anything for it. Maybe one day I will get back into it, but for now, the aliens are fast asleep on my drive. I will wake them up eventually.

Okay, Okay, I know I'm babbling and going off on a tangent (aka tangerines in our world)... But what did you expect? I wanted to give you guys a brief history of my pen names as boring as that must have been for you to read and I just couldn't help myself. Well, this is turning into a hot mess of a post so I'll stop my babbling now before this turns into a real disasta! Haha! Okay, so back to the main topic of this post... No more going off on tangerines, I promise...

...End of tangent.

So, where was I before I rudely interrupted myself?... Oh, so I figured since we've been on a Paranormal kick lately, especially with seeing Paranormal Activity on Broadway, chatting about it on our podcast, and sharing our recent Paranormal Experiences videos on our YouTube Channel, that it would be kind of fun to revisit an old blog post from way back when.

So below, you will find an ancient blog post, "All in the Ouija Board Family: A Ouija Interview", which includes a few occurrences Freddy forgot to mention in "The Palisade Terror" YouTube video. We searched for the interview on one of our portable drives and decided to post this as a little flashback companion piece to our recent video on the same topic. This was originally posted in early 2010 over at my now deceased horror blog. Hope you enjoy!

Hey, did I mention my pen names? Oh yeah, I did.

Okay, so we are flashbacking to 2010 in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

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Original blurred graphic art from that post of my now deceased horror blog from back in the day. The blog might be gone, but its ghost remains alive on our portable drive.

(From the John Fears Horror Blog circa 2010)

The Ouija Board has always created a sense of skepticism. Some believe it to be a fixture of amusement, while others believe that it has some sort of mystifying power that allows us to communicate with the dearly departed. Whichever the case may be, this oracle to the unknown intrigues us, amuses us, and at times frightens the sh** out of us.

Personally, I have at one time or another ‘tried’ to play with one, only for seconds at a time. I was the one believing that the owner of the board was the one causing the pointer, or in more formal terms - the planchette, to glide over the board.

Technically, I’ve never really played with one so intensely that it caused a major outburst of supernatural terror, although I am highly curious. But with the kind of luck I have, if I ever chose to play, I would be the only person whose head would be spinning in a severe possessed state. So I refuse to play it… for now.

Not to say that I will never give it a chance, but I can admit that I can be quite the chicken sh** when it comes to things that can actually communicate with the dead and cause a haunt or two in the process. Before I get up the courage to take part in this age old custom, I would have to have an emergency team of priests on hand to perform an emergency exorcism. Better safe than sorry, I always say.

I am a believer of the paranormal, especially since I myself have encountered things that go bump in the night…like an ordeal I tend to call, ‘The Night of the Hissing Man'. That was some scary sh** right there! But that’s more of a haunted apartment story to be left for another day. This is about Ouija.

It’s a known fact that some people do not believe in the paranormal, hauntings and the like, least of all the Ouija board. But I have no problem admitting that I am a believer. Who am I to say that a person’s ‘story’ of a paranormal encounter is just that - a ‘story’? Especially when the people who tell me these true tales of the supernatural are the sanest and most honest people I know, who do not have any reason for creating tales of the untrue.

Below you will find various accounts of Ouija experiences within one family, that were told to me (again) by a certain person I know incredibly well. According to him (and his family) these stories are true. I've been known to attend their various family functions, with all of the people mentioned in the stories below, and have heard these stories many times. They always remain the same and always make me believe. Yes, I believe. I have to say that one reason I don’t have much interest in playing with the Ouija is because of the stories they have shared with me.

So without further ado… I present this “Ouija Interview”, detailing true ordeals, as told to me by a person whose name will be kept hidden for the sake of anonymity (plus it makes it all the more mysterious). Let’s call him ‘FS’... The ‘JF’ obviously representing me. (duh)

JF: Great idea you had to share your Ouija stories with the world... or more accurately... the 'one' person who visits my blog.  Oh, ahem... that person's me. Hmm... Maybe we shouldn't go on with this. Anyway, It will at least give me something interesting to read.  Okay, let's get to it... Who in your family has played the Ouija board?

FS: I’ve played. My mom, brother and many others in my family have played. We’ve all had our own individual stories and experiences. We’ve even shared many experiences being that we were in the same room when some of these things happened.

JF: Okay, let’s start with your mom. What’s her Ouija story?

FS: It was Christmas Eve night in the 1990’s and my mom, sister and I decided to play with the Ouija board because we were bored. That’s all it takes to play (laughs). All together there were about six of us playing in my parent’s house.

JF: What a Christmassy thing to do.  I can see God up above smiling down on you all for sharing the Christmas 'spirits'! (laughs)

FS:  Yeah, I know. Look what we were doing on Christmas Eve! (laughs) So the Ouija board was taken out and a cousin of mine said that she didn’t believe in ‘that stuff’ and my mother tried to persuade her to play. She told my cousin that it did work because she has played before. So my cousin decided to give it a try with us. We started playing, asking it silly questions like, “Are we ever going to win the lotto?” and it would point to ‘yes’.

JF: Did anyone in your family ever win the lotto?

FS: No,  it hasn’t happened yet (laughs). So we kept asking silly question after silly question and we all could feel that it was moving by itself. The pointer. My cousin who didn’t believe asked, “Who’s here?” Then it spelled out a girl’s name but I can’t remember the name. I do remember that she said she was 9 years old. She began to communicate with us but she seemed to be hesitating to answer how she died. I do remember that she spelled out ‘someone in the room has a secret’.

JF: Did anyone have a secret?

FS: Yes, at the time a pregnancy was kept hidden and no one playing knew.  It was revealed weeks later. This teenage person knew she was pregnant but hadn’t found the courage to tell her parents and family.  A couple of weeks later she revealed to everyone that she was pregnant. We all put two and two together that this must have been the ‘secret’ that the Ouija was speaking of weeks before.

JF:  Anything else happen that Christmas Eve?

FS: I remember my mother asking the ‘spirit’ of the little girl to prove to us that she was indeed there with us. Suddenly, at that instant, outside of the window there was a very loud bang. Everyone got chills up their spines and the room filled up with a chill in the air. The room turned cold. So, my cousin, who at first didn’t believe, grabbed the Ouija board and threw it across the room shouting that she didn’t want to play anymore. She was so scared (laughs).

JF: It made her a believer. Okay, what’s your brother’s story? I know he loves this stuff!

FS: Well, I was visiting my brother in his basement apartment in my parent’s house. He lived downstairs and we lived above him. We were totally bored, once again and my brother decided to take the Ouija board out.

JF: How many people were playing?

FS: There were about five or six people playing including myself. For the first half hour we just asked it the typical funny questions. Then it started getting intense. The pointer started to move really fast and no one was admitting to moving it. You know, how everyone always blames someone else for moving the pointer.

JF: I’m always assuming that someone who is playing the game is moving it. The few seconds that I have played Ouija, I've been that culprit!  I never admit it though. (laughs)

FS: No one ever admits to moving it. Anyway, I remember that a ‘spirit’ was very stubborn and it didn’t want to tell us his or her name.

JF: Did it say or do anything else that freaked you guys out?

FS: Yes! My brother asked the spirit, “If you are really here, then do something.” All of sudden we all felt something on our arm at the exact same time. It was like a gentle brush on all of our arms. It felt as if someone was gliding their hand softly against our skin. A really weird feeling.

JF: Did anyone scream?

FS: We did get scared but no one really screamed. It was more like we were amazed or in shock. Basically we all felt freaked out but didn’t show it. After that, the board started going crazy. We all had our fingertips on the pointer and it was just moving all over the board in rapid circles. Not really spelling anything out. My brother asked it to start communicating with us again and suddenly, right then and there, his beeper... read ‘666’.

JF: Are you kidding me? Stop! You’re lying! 

FS: No, I swear! We were all there. It sounds crazy, but it’s true! We all saw it. I saw it! The numbers that appeared on the beeper were 666. I've told you this before!

JF: Yeah, you told me this story before and I always seem to forget that part about the 666. That's crazy. How did you all react?

FS: Everyone was in shock! Totally creeped out. My brother asked the spirit, “Is that you?” regarding the beeper number and it wouldn’t answer. Again, it just went in circles and stopped. Then the phone rang, startling all of us . There was dead silence at the other end followed by static a few seconds into the call. I remember my brother blaming one of his friends, accusing them of creating this ‘practical joke’. But everyone denied that this was all a planned joke.

After that, the room felt heavy. It was like we all felt a heavy presence within the room. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s just a feeling as if there was something or someone in the room. A presence. My brother freaked out and yelled, “F**k this sh**!’ and we all just stopped playing. (laughs) No one even wanted to touch the board and we just left it there. One of his friends said something about how it was bad luck if you threw the board away now that you have played with it. You know, some superstitious crap.

JF: So what did he do?

FS: My brother gave in to his superstitious talk, went online and tried to research on how one can go about getting rid of the Ouija board. Back then there wasn’t much online being that the internet was fairly new. But he found something about how the only way you can get rid of a Ouija board, after using it, is to throw it into the ocean (laughs). So that night, we all headed to the river, I think it was the Hudson River. We took the board, some lighter fluid and burned it.

JF: Then you threw it into the river.

FS: Yep. We threw it into the river.

JF: Okay, next story please.

FS: Well, this took place before the first story I told you about my mom and the Ouija board. My mom used to play with another board on occasion, when I was little, in another house we lived in.

JF: So the first story wasn’t her first paranormal encounter with the Ouija?

FS: No. When I was little she always used to play it with family members. They used it often but nothing really scary or supernatural ever happened. I do remember my mother deciding to throw the board away because she had heard something from my aunt that made her think twice about messing with it. She heard that my cousin began having too many horrible nightmares and they claim they saw her bed levitate because my cousin was playing Ouija obsessively. Or is it that she levitated off the bed? I forget that part. It was one of the two.

JF: Are you serious? She levitated? Like 'The Exorcist' levitated?

FS: Yes. That’s what my mother has told me many times. I don't know exactly if it was the bed or my cousin that levitated.  My aunt and uncle had to throw themselves on my cousin’s bed to stop the levitation.  It sounds crazy but that’s what they told my mom.

Right after they told her about my cousin’s experience, my mom decided to throw her Ouija board away. She went into the garage, grabbed the board and threw the it into a garbage can outside of the house. Later on, she walked into the garage and somehow the Ouija board ended up back in the garage! It was like it magically reappeared in the garage. She grabbed it and threw it out again and this time it didn’t return.

JF: And years later she decided to play again with another board. Go figure. (laughs)

FS: (laughs) Yep. She did.

JF: I remember you telling me about seeing a ‘chicken man’ as a little kid and your family painting over a devil sign or something in that same house. You also told me that your family also found a coffin in the basement when you moved in. Do you think any of that stuff had anything at all to do with Ouija board usage?

FS: I don’t know. Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with the Ouija board because when we first moved in, we kind of felt that the house was haunted anyway. That house was so strange. I was only a little kid but I did see what I call ‘the chicken man’ and we found a devil star sign painted on the basement wall too. My parents constantly painted over the sign, but somehow the sign would always reappear through the paint. The paint would then disappear. The image would always come back… but that’s another story.

JF: Yeah, that’s a haunting story. We’re talking Ouija here. So what’s your own personal Ouija story?

FS: As a teenager, I was bored one day after work and decided to head down to Toys R Us to buy a Ouija board. You always have to be bored to want to play with a Ouija. (laughs)

JF: Didn’t you learn your lesson with the experiences from your mom and brother? You still went out and bought one?

FS: (laughs) Yeah, I was drawn to it. I don’t know why. I’m fascinated by all of that stuff. I still am.

JF: So to this day, you would still play it? 

FS: Yeah. Well, not in my house and it can’t be my Ouija board. Someone else has to purchase it.

JF: Why would someone else have to purchase it?

FS: Haven’t you heard that before? The first person, who touches it, purchases it and owns it, is the person the board attaches itself to. That’s what some people say. I don't know.

JF: Why does the board attach itself to the person who owns it?

FS: Because they’re the ones who opened the door to that particular board. By buying it, the owner has some belief in it and belief opens the portal for the board to work. If you are a strong believer it will work.

JF: Things that make you go hmmm…Okay, back to your story.

FS: So, I bought one and I started playing with it alone in my room. It only moved a little and there wasn’t anyone with me that I can point fingers to and say, “Hey, you’re moving it!” It was really moving by itself. So I started with the usual silly questioning. I got into the habit of playing it every other night for months. Then I started noticing something about myself. My personality was changing.

JF: How?

FS:  I wasn't myself. Members of my family, as well as friends, were noticing that I was angrier. I was never an angry teenager and was always very calm and very friendly. I felt like I was depressed and didn’t want to participate in anything. I felt like being alone all the time. That was so unlike me.

In between all of this, my mother knew I had a Ouija board and she told me to get rid of it. But being a teenager at the time, I lied and said that I did but I kept right on playing with it. She believed that I threw it out.

JF: Did anything happen during your solo Ouija time? Did you speak to any spirits?

FS: No. Not really. I asked questions and it did move but it was nothing that would scare me or anything. It was like things started to happen around the house instead.

Like one night, after one a.m., I went into the kitchen to get something to drink when suddenly the back door to my house opened by itself. It slammed open. Of course I got scared and went to close it and I made sure it was perfectly locked. So I walked away knowing that I had locked the door securely. Suddenly it slammed open again! It was virtually impossible for that door to open again.

JF: What did you do?

FS: I did what any teenager would do and screamed for my mother (laughs), awakening my parents.

JF: How did they react?

FS: They woke up, ran to me and asked what was wrong. I told them that the door opened by itself… twice. My father assumed it was a burglar so he put on his slippers, went outside and walked around the house to check things out. He couldn’t find anything and we all went back to sleep. After that night, we started to hear noises.

One night, I was waiting in my brother’s basement apartment below for my mother to arrive back home, which was upstairs. My sister-in-law and I heard footsteps above and heard the dragging of the kitchen chairs against the floor upstairs. I assumed that my parents were back home and wanted to go upstairs to ask for money like all teenagers (laughs). I told my sister-in-law that I would be right back because my parents were back home. When I got upstairs, no one was home, the lights were off, and the chairs were all in place. It was just dark and quiet. I was so confused and went back downstairs and told my sister-in-law. She couldn’t believe it because we both heard the footsteps and chairs moving as clear as day. It was a very quiet neighborhood and we know what we heard.

JF: Any other strange occurrences?

FS: Yeah, on different occasions, my mother, father and I saw a dark shadow at the end of the driveway. It’s hard for me to explain. It was like a dark shadow of a person in the middle of the driveway that would disappear. We were never together when we saw it and would only compare notes on it.

On another occasion my sister and I had the same exact dream of a woman trying to kill us. Same night. Same dream. We both woke up and described the lady in our dreams and we were shocked that we were both describing the same woman! She looked exactly the same in both dreams! A woman that neither one of us had ever seen.

JF: Did the occurrences continue to play out without the Ouija board or did the Ouija board come back into play?

FS: Well, through it all I was still using the board and the board itself was still a part of it all. Like one night my brother saw the board sticking out from underneath my bed and he kicked it and said, “You need to throw it out bro!” I lied and told him that I would. I saw that he had kicked the board underneath my bed and it wasn’t visible anymore to the naked eye. When my brother left my room, I walked over to lock the door and when I looked over at the footing of my bed, the Ouija board was sticking out from underneath my bed again! I was so freaked out and I didn’t play it that night at all. I got so creeped out that I went to sleep with my sister (laughs). But things kept happening.

My sister and I were saying goodnight to each other and I felt something on my leg. I told my sister, “Can you get off of my leg please.” She asked, “What are you talking about?” I said, “There’s a hand on my leg.” She swore it wasn’t her! It was impossible for it to be my sister’s hand because she had been facing in the opposite direction. Her hands were on the opposite side and she couldn't reach my leg.  We both freaked out for a minute but shrugged it off.

So I fell asleep and I hadn’t been asleep for 20 minutes when I saw this demon like face, that I can’t explain, directly in front of my face. It felt like a dream, but I felt awake.  You know, one of those. I ‘woke up’ drenched in sweat and my sister just thought that was weird. I didn’t sleep at all that night.

JF:  Good times! (laughs) Were there ever other nights like this?

FS: There was another night when my mother woke up screaming and struggling in her bed. We heard the screams from our bedrooms and we automatically assumed burglars. We always assumed burglars (laughs). My brother and I ran into the hallway and noticed that all of the family pictures hanging on the hallway walls were now crooked and we saw my mom crying hysterically at the end of the hall with my father. She said that two dark figures were dragging her and pulling her down the dark hallway. We all thought that she had a nightmare but she insisted that it wasn’t a dream. We believed her because my brother and I had heard the commotion and lots of big heavy footsteps in the hallway before seeing my mother at the end of the hall. We had heard what sounded like a struggle.

For the rest of the night, the entire family slept in my parents bedroom with the lights on. It was another sleepless night. The strange thing about what happened was that my mother’s pastor friend phoned her and told her that there was something going on in our house. The pastor lady had no clue of what had happened to my mother. So my mom told her that there had been a couple of strange incidents in the house.

JF: Was the pastor a psychic?

FS: No, I don’t think so but she told my mother that she saw a vision of blood in each of our rooms. That totally creeped my mom out because she was home alone during this phone call. The pastor then said, “Something is telling me that your son has something under his bed but I don’t know what it is.” My mother went to check and didn’t find anything. She didn’t even find my Ouija, although she thought I threw it out. The pastor lady told her that she’d pray for us and reminded my mom to check underneath my bed again. My mom agreed to check again.

Then later that day, I got home and my mom told me about the pastor lady and asked if I had something under my bed, although my mother didn’t know what she meant by that. So, I reluctantly confessed that I still had the Ouija board under my bed and my mother was furious. She told me that she had checked and didn’t find any Ouija board. So we went together and checked underneath my bed. The board was there! My mom started flipping out saying we have to get rid of it and get the house blessed, which she did. We then broke the Ouija into tiny little pieces and threw it outside into the garbage.

JF: Let me guess...it reappeared! Did it reappear? 

FS: No, it didn’t reappear. After that, my personality went back to normal and nothing really strange happened anymore. Until years later but that has more to do with mild hauntings (laughs).

JF: As of more recent times, have you or anyone in your family played with the Ouija?

FS: No, not at all. Well, that’s not entirely true. My brother has been known to dabble in it still.

JF: Hasn’t he learned his lesson? What's wrong with him! (laughs)

FS: I guess not. Last summer, he made a homemade board out of cardboard and marker and using a drinking glass as a pointer. Believe or not, he claims that it works just as well as the real thing.

He told me some story about him playing it with his fiancée and claimed he was talking and communicating with a little boy who died in the area. He learned his name (I forget what it is). Anyway, he said he researched the boy on the internet and learned that a boy, not too far from his home, was killed. So my brother stopped playing with it.

JF: Good thing that he stopped.

FS: Yeah, but recently, my mother told me that my brother told her that his little step daughter began talking to someone in the house. All of a sudden she was having conversations with ‘an imaginary’ friend. His fiancée, the little girl’s mom, would walk in on her daughter who would stop talking and would just look at her mom. Her mom would ask her who she was talking with and her daughter would say that she had been speaking to a little boy. Prior to my brother playing with his homemade board and learning about the dead boy, his step daughter never spoke to imaginary friends, least of all a little boy. They kept the homemade Ouija and the story of the boy away from her and there was no way she could have known about it.

Another odd occurrence was that it seemed that someone was playing with the toys in the baby’s room. My brother and his fiancée noticed that it seemed like the baby was always playing with someone in the room.  They'd hear the sound of toys. When they'd check, the baby was always in the room alone and the noise of the toys would stop. 

JF: Maybe the toys were taking on a life of their own. Ever see the film Demonic Toys? (laughs)

FS: (laughs) Who knows? But after that, my brother went back to his homemade board and told the spirit of the boy to leave them alone. He expressed to him that he wanted him to go away and made sure that the spirit understoood that this was my brother's house. The little spirit boy must have listened because nothing has happened since.

JF: Has your brother thrown the cardboard Ouija away? Or has he created another one out of clay? (laughs)

FS: Yeah, he threw it away. You'd think that my brother would learn not to play any type of Ouija’s after all the incidents in our family over the years (laughs).

JF: I know. So with all of the things you have gone through ‘Ouija wise’, are you afraid of it? 

FS: No, I’m not afraid of it. If someone brought one out, I wouldn’t scream. It's not the actual board that has the power.

JF: Who gives it the power?

FS: I think we give the board the power by opening up the portal to allow an energy in. Believing in it, brings something in. Lots of times, it’s a negative energy. Although you can get good spirits to come through, but most of the time those bad spirits will sneak up on in.

JF: Your family has been quite busy with their on again-off again, love-hate relationship with the Ouija board.  You guys get one, play it, get scared, throw it out, get bored, get another, play it, get scared, throw it out etc. etc. (laughs) Are you planning to play it again or anyone in your family for that matter?

FS: No, I’m not planning to play it anytime soon. I don’t have any plans to play it at all.  My mom certainly doesn’t play it anymore and would refuse. 

JF: What do you think people see the Ouija board as?

FS: Some will see it as a game. Some see it as a portal to evil. Some see it as silliness and fun nonsense. 

JF: Would you recommend it to people?

FS: Not really. I would tell people...play it, decide for yourself and see what it means to you. Is it only a game? Only you can decide.

JF: Thank you 'FS' for sharing these stories.

FS:  You're welcome. Next time we’ll talk about my haunting experiences!

JF:  Your Chicken Man and the Hissing Man! I’m already freaking out!

Okay, so there you have it.  One family's true encounters and experiences with the infamous Ouija.

So a word of warning… Before you head to your local Toys R Us (out of boredom) to pick up one of those little devices, make sure that this is the way you want to spend your evenings. If sleepless nights and 666 on your beepers (okay it’s no longer the 90’s) are your thing… then go for it. Play it and see if it will make a believer out of you. Just don’t go gettin’ all possessed and stuff!

Happy Ouija-ing!

John Fears

2010

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Okay, back to 2026... 

Hope you enjoyed this little read. It included a few tidbits that Freddy hadn't mentioned in the Palisade Terror video... And see? As I mentioned in the video, I did post it here on the website! So I am able to keep promises. I am so proud of myself. Haha.

Happy Screams everyone and we'll scream at ya later!

John (formerly known as John Torres, John Fears, John Fears Torres and John Fearsturo)

One of Two Goblins From New York