THE HAUNTED 8 BALL

   I wrote this blog post several years ago and recently decided to repost it - - despite the fear of being considered a fabricator or a likely candidate for a padded cell in Bellevue. I can only offer my reassurance that it is absolutely true.

The incident of the haunted 8 ball happened when I was eleven years old and I kept it to myself all these years. Only one other living person knows about it. I'm revealing this  because I always had a desire to finally tell the story.

The Magic 8 Ball is a novelty "toy". The idea was first patented in the 1940s, inspired by an old  fortune-teller spirit writing machine. It was first made in 1950 by the Brunswick Billiard Company in Chicago and later manufactured by Mattel.

The original  Magic 8 Ball is made of plastic and looks like a regular 8 ball, only larger. The user must ask it a "yes" or "no" question - then turn the ball upside down. The answer floats in an alcohol-based liquid that is dyed blue, and appears in a window on the bottom of the ball. The original ball provided twenty different answers, which appeared randomly and never in the same order.

Several variations of the ball are still sold today.

I was eleven years old and we were living in Pomona, California. At that time the novelty Magic 8 Ball fortune teller "toy" was extremely popular. It was enthusiastically advertised on television and nearly every kid in the neighborhood had one.

I was smitten by the 8 ball allure and begged my parents to let me have one. My mother was initially hesitant. She'd had a very bad experience with an Ouija board when she was a child and was suspicious of anything to do with fortune telling. My father scoffed at her protest and let me buy the coveted ball.

At Mom's gentle but firm request, I never kept the 8 ball in the house. I kept it on the patio outside in a cabinet that contained some of my other toys.

 This is the exact vintage box that my 8 ball came in when I was eleven years old. I found this photo on the Internet

 

The Magic 8 Ball initially seemed completely harmless and extremely entertaining. I enjoyed asking it random questions and my interest in it began to intensify.

The more I used the ball the more I noticed a curious quirk. Almost every time I asked a question, the answer would be "Reply hazy. Try again" or "Concentrate and ask again."

I quickly became aware that the more deeply I concentrated, the more accurate the answers were. And when I completely cleared my mind and concentrated with absolute intensity, the answers were nearly 100 per cent accurate.

I was soon convinced that this was no coincidence and the 8 ball was not merely a toy.

Entering the portal of darkness requires putting the mind into a semi-hypnotic state of extreme concentration.

There was a girl my age named Carolyn who lived across the street. She had a Magic 8 Ball and was as seriously obsessed with it as I was.

We decided to test the dual accuracy of our two  balls, using the most intense concentration that we could muster.
I would ask my ball a question, Carolyn would ask hers the same question and we'd immediately compare answers.
Is Jon wearing a blue shirt?
Is Carolyn wearing a yellow dress?
Are we residing in Bora Bora?......etc.

We asked eight questions in a row and the answers on both balls were IDENTICAL each time. It was too astonishing to be a mere coincidence.
(remember, there were twenty different answers on the 8 ball).  

Concentration yielding accurate answers weren't the only strange happenings. The very worst part was yet to come.

During the summer when I was eleven years old we moved from Pomona to Anaheim (near Disneyland). My parents wanted to buy a house, but weren't sure exactly where - so we temporarily moved into an apartment.

I want to emphasize that it was a luxurious, spacious, brand-new apartment.  No one previously lived there - so it didn't have any kind of dark or sinister history.

There were two bedrooms, each with its own private bath. The bedrooms were located on a long hallway. One side of the hallway had several huge closets with sliding doors.

I put some of my things in one of the closets - -including the Magic 8 Ball - - and never thought about it.

It's rather difficult to condense this story. I'll simply say that strange things started happening late at night - rather subtly at first. 

The toilet in my parent's bathroom would flush.

It's not unusual for toilets to make weird noises at night. The water runs or gurgles or sometimes sounds like a half-flush.
These were always FULL flushes - and as soon as the toilet filled up, there would be another full flush. And another.

My father said "Johnny must be in the bathroom" (my parents called me Johnny back then).

My Mom asked "Why would he be in our bathroom? He has his own."
(I never went in my parent's bathroom).

After several nights of frequent flushing, the toilet in MY bathroom started to make full unauthorized flushes, too. It was beyond bizarre.

Soon after the mysterious flushing began, the footsteps started. Late at night - when we were in bed - loud, heavy footsteps would quickly stomp down the entire length of the hallway, always in the same direction - from the kitchen all the way to my bedroom door.
There was also an ugly raspy sound like heavy breathing. Whatever it was, it sounded very angry.

My father was previously a staunch skeptic who never believed in ghosts or evil spirits. He laughed and scoffed at anyone who believed in paranormal activity.

My father was also completely fearless. He was never afraid of anything. This was the very first time in my life that I saw him genuinely shaken.
He searched the entire apartment (including the hall closets) and found absolutely nothing.

The footsteps and flushing happened so often that we were terrified to sleep. Occasionally the sliding closet doors in the hallway would open by themselves.

The most horrifying thing happened one night after I finally fell asleep. The footsteps in the hallway woke me up suddenly, and I sensed that something was right by my bed.

Then I felt a force pressing me down into the mattress, and I was overcome with something that could only be described as sleep paralysis. My entire body was paralyzed - - I couldn't move and could hardly breathe.

I was DEFINITELY wide awake - this was no dream or figment of my imagination - - and to this day I shudder with the chills when thinking of it.

I remember praying to God and eventually I was able to move and catch my breath. But the incident literally terrified me for months afterwards and I was too scared to go to sleep.

One day, in complete desperation, my mother started looking (searching) in the hallway closets. She found the Magic 8 Ball and immediately took it outside.

She later told me that she smashed it apart with a hammer and discarded it. After she got rid of the ball the footsteps and toilet flushing stopped completely and we never had another nocturnal problem. We were finally able to sleep in blissful peace.

I have since done extensive research on Magic 8 Balls and only found one other true story about it being connected with a haunting.

I've kept this story a secret because it's so incredible. My parents witnessed it and later spoke of it quite often, but they are now deceased.

I have nothing to add -  except that extreme caution should be used when delving into things that deal with black magic, fortune telling, spiritualism, curses, spells, voodoo....and even "toys" that seem benign. Ironically, the Ouija Board was initially created as a harmless parlor game.

Willingly relinquishing your mind to portals of the dark side can yield negative results.
Keep positive prayers of light in your heart and soul.
Evil exists in many ways that might surprise you.

             Peace, Jon

I don't want to sound like a preacher. My caution is only inspired from personal experience.