“The Ghost and Christopher Arter”

Did you ever hear about things that you had to see or experience to believe? Do you ever wonder how you can hear so much about something to do with supernatural if it is not true? What you are about to read (if you choose the continue) it’s not a work of fiction that I sometimes post on here. Many of my readers thought “Hope” was a true story. It wasn’t. This is, although I don’t know if you will all think I am being straight with you.

To tell the story right let us flash back to last night when a thin layer of snow blanketed South Jersey. I drove over to my good friend Chris Arter’s (look for an upcoming feature story on him) home in Somerdale to meet up with him and Ryan. I was originally going to stay there for a short time, and than go over my girlfriends. However since I didn’t know how bad the roads were going to get, and really felt like some male bonding with my two long time friends I decided to stay in Somerdale.

It must have been literally years since the 3 of us hung out with out any outsider friends or muscular biology teachers nicknamed after a legume. The night was some of the most fun I have had in a long time sitting in the Arter basement. We sat and played Sega DreamCast tennis game for hours, while on a neighboring computer Chris downloaded pornographic video. We scarfed down Doritos and soda. This resulted in a horrifying bizarre noise coming from Ryan’s throat. All the time Chris kept suggesting to dust off the old OIJA board. I dismissed his suggestions several times. Mostly because of religious reasons.

Eventually when our thumbs grew tired and we became bored of the video game (which was actually equally as entertaining as the porn) we retired upstairs. After having to air out the house due to smoke from the fireplace I finally agreed to part take in the OIJA board part of the night of male bonding. I am pretty open minded to think that there are spirits somewhere out there. I am certainly not arrogant enough to claim to know all the answers. I think that’s part of being on Earth, not knowing the full story. If I were an Atheist, I might have killed myself a long time ago. Heck the goofy mood we were in made me think it was not going to work anyway. When I realized the box had a Parker Brothers logo on it and was recommended for children ages 8 and up, that it had to be for kids messing with each other. Okay so I will sit there like a jackass with a piece of plastic over a board.


We could not stop laughing at first( partly cause of Ryan’s throat noise), so I didn’t see it going anywhere. Eventually the piece began to move though. I thought for sure one of my friends was playing a joke on me so it was not big deal. I thought that maybe someone was just moving slightly since the piece was moving ever so slowly while Chris was asking if there was a spirit in the room. He had done before. I thought to myself am I moving it cause I am a little freaked out that it might work and we might summon up and evil spirit? Therefore, I released the piece. For a minute that seemed the case. but it still moved.

Chris asked the spirits name. It slowly picked the letters S,T,U, and at first we laughed until I realized it spelled the name Stu. Oddly, we asked other questions and we went to random letters that made no sense. At least not to us, and I was still thinking someone was pulling my leg. Until when asked when he died. The piece seemed to gain momentum and traveled to the bottom where the numbers were, and spelled a year in the 1865 (I could be off a few years.) This is when I decided to figure out which one of my friends (they both were denying it) was making the night a little more interesting. It certainly wasn’t Ryan who was barely touching it. I was only resting my fingers on it. It had to be Chris. But looking at the muscles in his hands, it didn’t seem plausible that it was just him, or the matter in which it was moving. At times Ryan’s part moved the most.

We soon realized that if we pressed harder the damn thing moved amazingly quicker. As if it took on a life of it’s own. We also realized that it could not spell so sticking to Yes and No answers were the only way we were getting anywhere. I made sure we asked if he was friendly when I really started to think something was really happening. He responded yes. Than we decided to have fun and start asking more questions, and oddly enough if the answer was Yes we would slightly move off of the word Yes, and then back on. If what we interpreted to be a big Yes the pieced would move almost to know making a big circle like b-line to Yes again.

Okay, so we figured we had a spirit’s attention (maybe anyway) we should ask him why he chose us. When we asked him who he was there to talk to we got Yes for Chris, and no for me and Ryan. WE asked him where he was from (before we started doing Yes and No) and the piece moved to the letters S,F over and over and over and over again. That was freaky. We laughed out loud a few time since we kept asking him silly questions once we believed he was from Ireland such as if he grew potatoes (YES), if he liked Irish Music (Yes), if he remembered the American Civil War (yes), if ate only potatoes (Yes, jokingly?), and if he liked Bono (no).

We decided to ask him what he knew about Chris. He told us (at least our hands) correctly picked the number of brothers Chris had. He guessed Chris was 25, which is the age of his brother. He claimed to know one of Chris’s relatives, but oddly enough he claimed he knew his grandfather which could be impossible timeline wise. He told us died of natural causes at age 56 (again I might be off a year). Eventually Chris figured his last name to be Bradley. Stu, seemed to know about Chris’s band and said although he hadn’t written the right song yet that the band would make it big in two years with Jeff as their drummer, not Drew. He also claimed to be a fan of the 90s rock band the Black Crowes.

We decided to ask him what heaven was like since he claimed to be there. He told us it was a great place where you can still interact with others, but wasn’t made up of floating clouds like many people think. He told us God was okay with him talking to us this way, and that was pretty much the only way he could communicate. We told him to say hi for us, and he said he would. He agreed that it was frustrating moving the piece, which he claimed he did with his hand. Oddly enough, he said yes when Chris asked if he had to pay to talk to us. Perhaps through good deeds? I thought it would be strange for heaven to have currency. He said he had none spoken to people this way 9 times this week. He told us that he just enjoys seeing people’s reactions, and does research on his realities from beyond. He also knew for some reason quite a bit about Chris.

He answered yes when we asked if he could see the future. He told us nothing bad would happen to us anytime soon. He however told Chris that his success with the band will not be good for him but live a good life. We asked if he knew the current condition of the world and if he was concerned. He told us the world is not on the brink and won’t end in our lifetime. He also told us that we will not go to war with Iraq or North Korea. We asked him if President Bush will become reelected, he said yes and that it was a good thing.

He knew about Chris’s brothers, and his different bands. He also talked about music he supposedly liked.

He also as it turns out is a BIG football fan, and said the Eagles will win Sunday and win the Superbowl. I don’t know how you could be a fan of sport that you always knew the outcome of, but hey.

The most tense moments came when Chris wanted to see if he could move something in the room to let us know his presence. He asked him to pick push a tissue box, but he didn’t. He asked him to pick up a glove resting on the fire place still nothing. He asked him to move a Christmas Bow. After awhile we realized that he couldn’t do that even though he agreed to try. But waiting freaked me out, because if something happened I would know for certain that someone else was in the room.

What almost sealed the deal was when we realized he was getting weak. We asked him if he wanted to go and he said yes. So the piece moved rapidly towards the words good-bye at the bottom of the board. It slid back and forth erratically (almost violently) again and again. Chris asked if we had to let go of the piece for it to end and it went to Yes quickly. He told us earlier that all 3 of us most touch it for it to move. After answering the question the piece slid to goodbye again. And went back and forth. Untill I let up and it slowed, than we all let it go.

Okay, there was a point that the piece had to been moving on its own it would seem to me. However I am not quite ready to say I know 100 % that we made “contact”. However my theories why it wasn’t a message are relatively thin. It could have been Chris fooling with us. Or perhaps one of us subconsciously was moving the piece. Which would still be a pretty cool trick. Maybe it has something to do with holding your hands in the same position at a certain angle that will make your arms involuntarily move slightly creating the illusion that the piece is moving. Perhaps the designers of the board knew this and put Yes and No at certain places for a reason. Perhaps that was just a coincidence that it was seemingly answering our questions. This would be a stretch when you apply it to the S, and F moment or the Good-bye moment. However some of the answers seemed in impossible.

Although I didn’t feel a “presence” I did feel some sort of force guiding the piece. I can’t imagine one of my friends could make it glide the way it did, but I shouldn’t rule it out. It did seem strange though that the piece would gain strength at times, and move rapidly. At times it almost went clean off the board. One of my two friends might be a really good actor if they pulled it off. I have not yet put a finger on what happened perhaps I am not supposed to understand or perhaps it is simply a fluke. It certainly is unexplainable at this point. All I know is that I will not soon forget that experience that should at the least be chalked up under the unexplained. Trust me I had serious doubts anything would happen before as ready to downplay it, but if you were there you would most likely agree with me that “something” was happening.


The more I read about these things the more I think its better to leave these old games collecting dust in basements. They sound like bad news, so don't go trying it unless you really want to experience something bizarre willing to take a risk. I think once is a enough for me, lets just say there was a Stewart Im glad he was nice. If anyone has any theories please email them to me.