Something strange...

happened when I was about 13 or 14 years of age...

My friend, Suzanne and I had decided to hold a seance. We'd been discussing the possibilities or potential of the supernatural for sometime and had come to the conclusion that harnessing some occult powers for good purposes was possible and probably an ideal solution for us.

I'd been pursuing information regarding this for sometime and had done some preparatory research and, as the time arranged approached, wasn't feeling as confident about the whole idea as I had been during initial discussions.

Suzanne's family lived almost opposite and they had a touring caravan parked in their front garden. Suzanne had the keys and with a collection of left over candles (including some from birthday cakes) we started to assemble a make-shift ouija board.

Once we had everything we could find and add to the 'atmosphere' (for us this also involved mars bars, crisps and our favourite fizzy drink: dandelion & burdock) we sat and looked at each other across the caravan's central table.

"Are you ready?" Suzanne asked me,

"I'm not sure we should be doing this Suzanne, what I've read suggests this is serious stuff" I replied

"Let's at least do the ouija board or we've done all this for nothing?!"

I took a breath in and agreed.



I don't really remember much about what happened immediately after.

I understood at that time that there can be effective minor muscle operations determining results and had been the requisite unconcious co-operation of clients providing innocent corroboration for fakes during the Victorian era.

I'd certainly discussed that with Suzanne. There were only the two of us to touch the glass base. The board surface was reasonably smooth and so the glass would move without hindrance, but I wanted Suzanne to be concious of the obvious effects if she did not clear her mind. In other words, I wanted to see if it worked without any concious or unconcious effect of ours influencing the result. Although I'm not sure that's really ever possible.

We also agreed that no result wouldn't change what we already believed to be possible.

We weren't sure what to ask initially. We didn't want to talk to anything like a demon, we just wanted to know if there was a spirit who could somehow confirm whether or not such a thing exists.

How do you ask a spirit if it exists?

We asked, "Is there anybody there who won't scare us?"

No answer, discussed, waited, repeated, same result x 2

We changed the question ....


"Is there anything here that could or would reply to us through this medium?"



As I finished saying it, I felt unease.

The caravan was small, but as I sat at the table, I glanced over my shoulder several times, searching the darkest corners for ... 'something'.

I felt a presence beside me, I kept looking because every sense was telling me that a man was stood just behind my left shoulder and staring intently at me. When I looked, there was nothing there, but every other sense was checking and confirming.

I even asked my friend Suzanne if she could feel or see anything. She looked puzzled and obviously had no idea what I meant. I wanted to get out of the caravan as soon as possible so made some excuses and hurried back around to my home.

All night I was concious of this presence. I kept telling myself it was just my imagination and to ignore it and it would go away.

When I woke the next morning, the presence was still there. It seemed to be so close it was almost touching me.

I didn't like the feeling at all.

For months the figure stayed close to my shoulder. It was during the winter months so, I stayed at home and read mostly after school, or watched some tv. At school I just tried to ignore it. I tried to avoid doing obvious things like leaving doors open or moving out of it's way when sitting down in class rooms.

Remember, I was only 13 or 14 years old.

I was critically assessing my physical and mental responses to something that no one else appeared to be aware of.

I felt vulnerable.

I didn't know what it was.

Ignoring it didn't make it go away.

I didn't like it.

I wanted it to stop.

Apart from asking a few questions at the seance, I never mentioned it to anyone for years. I was just aware of it. As time passed, it seemed to take a back step. It never spoke.

I stopped being scared of it, accepted it was there and was probably a permanent feature, whether I liked it or not. It has (like most men's hairline) receeded. 

I'm not sure if it's gone or that I'm so used to it now that I don't notice it, if that makes sense.