Quite alright Alysia.  

You know, I heard that everytime somebody uses a smiley face and angel gets its wings. So here 

 Wrote this awhile ago for Linn's site, about Ouija boards, somewhat pertinent to this conversation:

I basically agree with CW, Mair, and Alysia about the above...but could it be a little more involved..? Had a couple thoughts about Ouija, relating it to collective thought-form energy and resonant attraction laws...

Its kinda like when we say, the spirit of America, the spirit of the Celts, the spirit of Latino's etc.? What do they mean...they're kind of generalizations, like people descended from strong Celtic blood have a tendency towards high energy, creativity, hard-headedness/combativeness, and psychicness...Or America has a general aura of EXTREMISM (both very material and very spiritual) around it...

But generalizations though they may be, isn't there some average truth to it. I've noticed that a lot of caucasians with Fire sign risings for example, tend be be Celtic looking i.e. freckles/light skin, round alpine heads, strong or at least wiry muscular, and like what their Fire rising sign indicates--often FIERY emotionally (even more so then their Sun sign counterparts). I can attest to this, i have a Leo rising and I certainly have more than a bit of tendency towards short-temperedness, though i never stay mad for more than a few minutes (am mostly of scottish descent and look stereotypically "Scottish" reddish beard and all, and i have the whole British Isles thrown in, some German, and some Native American). But, like astrology, these are just innate tendencies, probably ones i was well aware of before i was born, and chose this body for these particular tendencies (this relates to the astro chart too)...

I think this applies to Ouija boards in a way, because they have been around for a while, and were especially prevalent during the spiritualistic era of the late 1800's and early 1900's where people tended to be a little bit sensationalistic, and smitten with the dark and/or occult (hidden) forces.. So, having so many people use the Ouija boards in a certain general manner for so long, magnitizes a certain collective energy to Ouija boards, or eventually forms something like, "the spirit of Ouija"..

So when someone from our day and age, uses an Ouija board, because of the collective thought-form around the Ouija, someone would be more prone to attract ignorant or even blatantly negative energies...but of course the knowledgable and well prepared to could counter act that influence...

Like in certain physics theories, when we call something material, like say..calling an apple an apple, you are really saying a particular pattern of vibrational energy with a different and relative relationship to other consciousnesses, so when someone sees, eats, EXPERIENCES an apple, they're really tapping into a certain consciousness of which the apple is the symbolic representation visually and materially.... So each thing, even "dead" ouija boards have an aura, a certain general consciousness around it, and this has its own tendencies to act in a certain way in a particular environment.

Eggshellseas, how long ago was this experience?  Did the odor come at the time it happened?  How would you describe the smell? 

I played with one once when I was a teenager but never did it again.

When my husband and I were married, we lived in an apartment for 2-1/2 years.  After we moved we learned that the people who lived there before us were into rituals and "dark magic" and the like, performed ceremonies or whatever in that place.  I never believed in that stuff and still don't really, I don't know much about it and don't want to.  But I have to admit, we had some horrible paranormal experiences there, one of which was a horrible smell like a dead body (not that I've ever smelled that before but I assumed).  I do have to believe that whatever rituals were performed there is what caused our paranormal activity.  This stuff is real.  Unfortunately, if someone intends negative, evil, dark intentions they can manifest.  Not that this has to do with ouija boards, as most of the time people play with them for fun, not for intending darkness.