Ouija board session said to contact a grandfather in a coma
A caller on the first-time caller line tells a story they say their friend [name withheld] told them in “the utmost seriousness.” According to the caller, when [name withheld] was sixteen and his brother about twenty-one, a group of friends used a Ouija board alone. One of them appeared to make contact with [name withheld], the brothers' grandfather, who had been in a coma for two to three years. The story ends with the board spelling rapid messages and the boy at the board being pulled away in a shocked state. The host then warns against Ouija boards.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1994.mp3”, starting at 1:44:43). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller says the story was told to them by their friend [name withheld]. [name withheld] was sixteen at the time, and his older brother was about twenty-one. According to the caller, the parents were away for the weekend, the brother had a couple of friends over, and the group decided to use a Ouija board. They agreed that one person would use it at a time. Some in the group were “jokers” who messed around, so they chose one friend they knew was “always honest” to sit alone at the board, while [name withheld] watched from a corner. The caller explains that two or three years earlier the brothers' grandfather, named [name withheld], had been in a car accident and had been in a coma since, with no expectation he would come out of it soon. The older brother then suggested trying to reach [name withheld]. The friend, who had never met [name withheld], sat alone with the board, and it was not moving. He began calling out [quote withheld] The caller says the board then began to move a little, and that the group felt [quote withheld] along with a very slight wind and goose bumps. Asked whether it was Grandpa [name withheld], the board spelled “yes,” although the boy at the board had his eyes shut. It then spelled out “I'm scared” repeatedly and [quote withheld] for what the caller says was about a couple of minutes. As the group were about to pull their friend away, he began sweating with shaking fingers. The board spelled “keep praying” over and over, too fast for him to keep his hands on it. They grabbed him. When he opened his eyes, the caller says, he had no idea what had happened and was almost in shock. The caller adds that [name withheld] told them he had told almost no one because the experience scared him so much. The host thanks the caller and says that Ouija boards are nothing to play with.
Reported events, in order
- 0:16
The caller says the story was told to them by their friend [name withheld] in the utmost seriousness.
- 0:26
[name withheld] was sixteen at the time and his older brother about twenty-one.
- 0:33
The parents were away for the weekend. The brother had friends over, and the group decided to use a Ouija board.
- 0:47
They agreed each person would use the board alone.
- 0:58
Because some in the group were jokers, they chose a friend known to be always honest to sit alone at the board.
- 1:08
Two or three years earlier the brothers' grandfather, [name withheld], had been in a car accident and had been in a coma since.
- 1:31
The older brother decides to try to contact [name withheld].
- 1:36
The friend, who had never met [name withheld], sits alone. The board is not moving. He calls out to Grandpa [name withheld].
- 1:49
The board begins to move a little.
- 1:53
The group reports feeling the biggest chill enter the room and a very slight wind, and getting goose bumps.
- 2:07
Asked if it is Grandpa [name withheld], the board spells yes, while the boy's eyes are shut.
- 2:19
The board spells “I'm scared” repeatedly and [quote withheld]
- 2:39
The friend begins sweating and his fingers shake on the planchette.
- 2:47
The board spells “keep praying” over and over, too fast for him to keep his hands on it.
- 2:54
They grab their friend. When he opens his eyes he has no idea what happened and is almost in shock.
- 3:02
[name withheld] says the caller is one of the only people he told, because it scared him so much.
- 3:12
The host says Ouija boards are nothing to play with and invite the possibility of real danger.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- hearsay· 1:08
The brothers' grandfather, [name withheld], had been in a coma since a car accident two or three years earlier.
- hearsay· 1:31
The older brother decided to try to contact [name withheld] through the board.
- hearsay· 1:49
The Ouija board began to move on its own while a boy who had never met [name withheld] had his hands on it.
- hearsay· 1:53
The group felt a chill and a slight wind enter the room and got goose bumps.
- hearsay· 2:07
The board spelled “yes” to the question of whether it was Grandpa [name withheld].
- hearsay· 2:19
The board spelled repeated messages: “I'm scared” and [quote withheld]
- hearsay· 2:47
The board spelled “keep praying” repeatedly until it moved too fast for the boy to keep his hands on it.
- hearsay· 2:54
The boy at the board had no memory of what happened and was almost in shock afterward.
- hearsay· 3:02
[name withheld] told almost no one about the experience because it frightened him.
- host statement· 3:17
The host says that using a Ouija board invites the possibility of real danger.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
This is a coherent, ordered story, but it is passed on secondhand from a named friend. It rests on events with an easy ordinary explanation (the ideomotor effect of the boy's own hands) that the caller does not address.
Evidence for and against
- A named source and details: friend [name withheld], grandfather [name withheld], ages sixteen and twenty-one, a car accident and coma two to three years earlier.
- A consistent, ordered telling with no self-contradictions, and the caller answers the frame of the story.
- Concrete sensory details: a chill, a slight wind, goose bumps, sweating, and shaking fingers.
- The story is entirely secondhand from the caller. The caller was not present.
- No location, date, surname, or other checkable anchor is given.
- The central event (the planchette moving) has an obvious ordinary explanation the caller never discusses.
- Whether the caller's paraphrase keeps [name withheld]'s original wording is unknown.
- No exact number of witnesses or time of day is stated.
- 0:16
- 0:58
- 2:18
What the model inferred (not said on air): The idea that the ideomotor effect fits is my own inference from the detail that the board only moved while a person's hands were on it. The transcript itself contains no discussion of any natural explanation.
There is only the caller's retelling of a friend's claim. A few first names and ages are given, but nothing is documented or checked, and the claimed witnesses are inside the story and do not speak.
Evidence for and against
- Named individuals ([name withheld], [name withheld]) and stated ages (sixteen, about twenty-one) that could in principle be checked.
- Several witnesses are claimed within the story.
- No surname, place, date, or record is provided.
- No physical evidence, recording, or photograph is claimed.
- No second witness speaks on air. The witnesses in the story are only asserted.
- The caller's identity is not stated, so even the person passing on the story cannot be checked.
- 0:26
- 2:02
What the model inferred (not said on air): A low score reflects the scoring guide's range for “teller's assertion only.” The names given are sparse enough that they do not clearly reach the 11 to 25 range for “checkable specifics,” so the score is placed at its lower edge.
The story builds dread through a house full of young people, an unexplained chill and wind, and the board's pleading messages ([quote withheld]), ending with the boy pulled away in shock.
Evidence for and against
- Messages described as distressed and pleading: [quote withheld] and repeated “keep praying.”
- A safe home invaded by something unseen: “Something was there.”
- Escalation to the boy sweating, shaking, and afterward having no memory.
- No threat, injury, or physical harm is reported.
- The scene is a teenagers' weekend experiment rather than a lasting haunting.
- The time of day is not stated, so the atmosphere cannot be fully judged.
- 2:25
- 2:59
What the model inferred (not said on air): The creepiness score is my judgment of how the story reads to a listener, not a statement about what happened.
The Ouija board setup is a stock one. But contact with a living relative still in a coma, the relayed distressed first-person messages, and the abrupt ending where the boy remembers nothing give it a somewhat distinctive shape.
Evidence for and against
- Contact is tried with a grandfather who is alive in a coma rather than known to be dead.
- The board gives a first-person plea and instruction rather than a name or prediction.
- Ouija board sessions, cold chills, and a moving planchette are common motifs.
- The ending where he [quote withheld] is a familiar framing.
- The comparison with the archive will be provisional with few stories in the archive. This score is the model estimate only.
- 1:15
- 2:47
What the model inferred (not said on air): The provisional model estimate of originality is mine. The published value is worked out relative to how rare the story's motifs are in the archive and how similar it is to other stories.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.65 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's secondhand telling of a named friend's story; Claimed witnesses within the story (not on air); No physical evidence, recording, photograph, or documentation claimed. The originality score blends the model's score (55) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- The boy's own hands could have moved the planchette without his knowing it (the ideomotor effect). That would fit the detail that the board only began moving after he began calling out, and that he was described as sweating with shaking fingers. · The board did not move until the boy engaged with it, and his fingers were shaking on the planchette.
- The reported chill and slight wind could be an ordinary draft or change in temperature in the house, heightened by the group's close attention in a darkened setting. · [quote withheld]
- The boy's reported lack of memory and shock-like state could reflect ordinary disorientation or distress after an intense group experience. · [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
What stands out
The board is said to make contact with a living person still in a coma rather than someone known to be dead. The messages relayed through it (“I'm scared,” [quote withheld] “keep praying”) are framed as coming from the comatose man's point of view. A caller is also retelling a friend's story rather than speaking as a direct witness.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.