I remember playing around with a Ouija board with my brother and a group of neighbourhood pals one afternoon in the basement of our home in Toronto.

 

I have no idea where the board came from, but if I had to guess, one of my sisters, who were over fifteen years older than my brother and I, bought it. I can't fathom my mother or father would have bought the board.

So there we were, all sitting around this little board nervously looking around the dark basement scared half out of our shorts that at any moment the devil himself was going to pop up from the basement floor!

Even as a frightened 7 year old I strongly suspected the planchette was not being moved by unseen spirit hands. In the end, we scared ourselves a bit, and then became bored and I don't recall ever seeing the board out of its box again.

So, was there any real danger in a bunch of kids messing around with a board game? Up until a few years ago I would have said no. But after careful study, and the fact that I witnessed several truely frightening situations around the same time and in the following years after we used that board, I have come to believe that it is extremely possible that we opened ourselves up to demonic opression. I will give details...

 

The very first weird event I can recall actually happened several years prior to playing around with that Ouija board. However, the event was not scary at all, and so I doubt it was a negative attack, such as the situations I lived through after using the board.

OK so I had to be approximately 4, or 5 years old. We were living in a house in Toronto, on Dynaver st, which was in the Eglington and Dufferin area of Toronto. I was two months old when we moved from !6 Belmont st, to the Dynaver house. I was 7 years old when we moved out of the Dynaver house to 5 Colfax st Toronto. That is how I came up with an age of 4 to years old when I had my first bizarre incident. Here's what happened...

 

OUT OF BODY

I remember very clearly that I was playing with a large tow truck that I got from Santa at Dad's company Christmas party.I loved that truck. The truck always reminded me of the fantastic Christmas party I went

to with Dad. Mum didn't come, and I remember feeling so special that I was at that party with my Dad...just me and Dad! It was at a Legion hall. Dad was a WWII vet, he served aboard the H.M.S. Illustrious, which was an aircraft carrier.

 

I had the time of my short life! We played games, and I remember we were given a pile of crackers coated with peanut butter, and the first child to be able to eat five coated crackers and whistle oh Canada, won a prize! I did not win!

 

So I sat on Santa's knee yes he was the real Sanat, and whispered that I wanted a carpenter's tool set for Christmas. Santa asked the usual questions "have you been a good boy Jackie?" Oh, ya my name was Jack back then, anyway that's another story. Of course I enthusiastically nodded my wee head up n down, "yes Santa, I'm a real good boy, just ask Mummy!"

So Santa handed me a large square present, and I tore off his knee straight to my Dad, and got to the business of ripping the paper off to discover Santa had given me a sweet tow truck!!!

 

So, it must have been a few weeks afterward that I was on the top floor, where the bedrooms were, and I was playing with my tow truck. I started to feel tired and so I made my way into Mum's room. I remember so clearly that I left my tow truck on the floor and I climbed up onto Mum's bed. I was lying sideways on the huge bed, and I was looking up at the ceiling, and feeling very sleepy.

 

The next thing I know, I'm not looking up at the ceiling anymore, I'm looking down at myself lying on Mum's bed! I was at ceiling level, with my back to the ceiling, and I saw my entire body and the entire bedroom from that perspective!

The odd thing now as I look back on it, was that I didn't feel anxious, or frightened at all! It was as though I was not doing anything unusual at all! It didn't feel weird to me in the least! As I recall it only lasted about ten, or maybe fifteen seconds, then I found myself opening my eyes and staring up at the ceiling again. I drifted to sleep.

 

It took me several years as I looked back on that day over the years, to realize I had done something extraordinary.

It never happened again, and I came to the conclusion that God allowed me to experience that so I knew there was life beyond this mortal coil. I stopped trying to figure it out many years ago. It did happen, it was not a dream. It was as clear as any waking moment I ever experienced. I don't recall telling anyone until I had reached my twenties.

 

DARKNESS ENSUES

The next "spiritual" event in my life was not positive in the least. As a matter of fact, it was dark and extremely terrifying.

My grandmother and grandfather Greenwood (Mum’s parents) came from England in the early sixties to live with us here in Canada. I remember one summer afternoon that my Aunt Joyce, and Uncle Stewart,

as well as our five cousins who lived down the street, came to visit grandma and gramps. Everyone was sitting in our small den, and I remember that Grandma needed medicine because she had ulcers and wasn't feeling good. So someone was shaking a bottle of medicine for her when all of a sudden grandma leaned forward out of her rocking chair and a huge stream of pure red blood came flowing out of her mouth onto the den floor! I guess I should have been terrified, but at four years old I just did not comprehend what I just saw.

The next thing I remember was all the children were heaved out the door, and chaos ensued. An ambulance came and took grandma to the hospital, I never saw her again.

 

It was two or three days later, in the middle of the night that I heard Mum crying. I never heard Mum cry like that before and it scared me, so I listened carefully and I clearly heard Mum tell Dad that she just saw her Mum, and she came to say goodbye.

My brother Jim was asleep. We were in the room right next to Mum's, and I was wide awake listening from my bottom bunk.

Dad was comforting Mum. Then I heard the phone ring. It took a while before Mum made her way downstairs, but it didn't take long before I heard my Mum shriek, and she began sobbing. Even as a four year old, when I heard mum tell Dad that her Mum was "gone" it sent a shiver up my spine.

 

My mother was not the type to make things up, or elaborate. Mum's word was solid gold. Mum did not lie...ever.

Years later I asked my Mum about that night. She told me what I already knew. Her mother came to her bed and called her by name "Jean" then "Goodbye love" It was a couple of minutes before the phone rang. My grandmother had passed away just minutes before mum saw her in her bedroom. I heard it all unfold - Mum reiterated the exact same details years later. It happened.

 

I have a serious problem...I now know, without any doubt, that the spirit  my Mum saw, and heard that terrible night back in 1966 was not her Mum...was not my grandmother...it was something terrifying and dark. It was there to plant the seeds of doubt. It is my firm belief that my Mother was visited by a demonic spirit that night. I firmly believe that these unclean spirits work tirelessly to plant seeds of doubt in our minds. They take every chance to make the Holy Scriptures appear to be even just slightly in error. Once they get that first seed planted, they work on it, and try to grow a huge weed of disbelief in our hearts to where they hope they will cause even one person to reject God right out, so they can drag one at a time out of eternal bliss in Heaven with all powerful God, down to the lake of eternal fire, so they can watch His children burn right alongside them.

 

Evil, unclean spirits - they hate you, they want you to burn, they want to rip you to pieces, and if they have to appear as angels of light, and appear to love you in order to eventually destroy you, then they will do whatever it is they need to, in order to get it done. Sounds unbelievable, ridiculous even…right? That’s exactly what they are hoping you’ll say.

These are not to be taken lightly. We stand no chance against even the lowest of these mighty fallen angels. Without Jesus Christ in your life, you will lose...no doubt, you WILL lose.

 

DEMONIC OPPRESSION BEGINS

I absolutely loved my grandpa Greenwood! We were very close. He loved his Mini Austins! I remember he had two of them one time, and he promised me that one of them was mine, as soon as I was old enough to drive!

I fell in love with those sixties Minis! Grandpa could take one apart in our driveway just for something to do! I mean the entire car! Doors, fenders, trunk, hood and engine out! Then put it all back together over a weekend!!

He was a class A mechanic. I have several of his yearly mechanic renewal certificates, and I treasure them.

He knew how to get under my skin! For example; I was very sick all my life. Mum told me I came very close to death several times before I was even two!

 

When I was around eight, I had been sick in bed for over a week. I couldn't even sit up on my own. I felt so weak.

Grandpa loved the Toronto Maple Leafs, as did Jim and I. So one day, as I lay mortally Ill! Grandpa opens my bedroom door and plops a tape recorder on my floor, hits play and closes the door, and I hear him giggling as he waited outside my bedroom door for the fun to begin.

 

I was pissed! I had no clue as to what he was up to this time, but I didn't like it no matter what it was. Then I hear a Leafs game, which Gramps had recorded...what was this? I couldn't put it together...what was this about? Then, I hear a familiar voice doing the play by play!! He had taped an entire game, and over dubbed the play by play for the entire game!! He knew I couldn't get up on my own, and he knew I would have to lay there and enjoy the entire recording!!

 

Well, I snapped! I started yelling at my gramps and giving him proper crap!

That's how it was between us. In the end I just loved his antics, and he told Mum I was his favourite because I wasn't phony with him. When he pissed me off, I let him have it, and he loved my honesty...he also knew I loved him to pieces. It was my grandpa Greenwood who bought my brother and I our very first Corgi die cast toy cars and trucks! He bought us each the 1966 Corgi Batmobiles...both scale sizes! And the Bat Boat, and the Bat Copter, as well as loads of other makes of die cast. I still collect them to this day, and I have close to 4,000 of them!! Don't tell anyone, but I actually bought a few expensive airbrushes, and some specially formulated paint, and I actually restore, and customise these little pieces of art!

 

I was eleven when my gramps got diagnosed with lung cancer. It was devastating, especially because I wasn't allowed to go to the hospital to see him. Mum and Dad wanted to spare me the sight of my beloved grandfather dwindling away...it was a mistake, and I wanted to see my gramps no matter what he looked like. I often wonder if he wondered why never came....sigh

 

So I was at the funeral home, looking at the shell of my grandfather. It was then that I realised there was more to us than just a body. Yes, his body was there, but it was missing something...a soul.

 

Mum wanted me to touch him, to say goodbye. I refused; she insisted...I flatly refused. Everyone was telling me how brave I was because I wasn't crying. And Mum would not give up, so she forced me to touch his cold grey hand, and I lost it. I started sobbing, and not because I was sad, but because I had been forced to touch my grandpa's dead body.

 

My brother in law took me to his house so he could take me fishing in the morning. Joe was like a second father to me really. I loved him so much...still do. He always made me feel important. Most adults would sort of shoo kids outside "to play" but Joe actually took the time to engage me. He made me feel important, he let me talk, and he responded to me honestly, not like most adults, who you knew were patronizing. So, there I was...lying wide awake in a twin bed.

 

The house was old, but well taken care of. It was a duplex. The houses on that street were all duplexes and all built in the late 1890's to early 1900's, they were beautifully built. But they had a spooky atmosphere at night. I started to freak myself out. I was positive my grandfather was going to walk right through that bedroom door and get me for not wanting to touch him!

 

I kept staring at that door, scared to death. Then it happened! The front door of the house began to open and slam shut with force!

It would have taken an adult two hands and a powerful swing to get the door to slam as hard as it was! I was petrified! It went on and on for hours. I knew without a doubt this was not of this world! It literally went on for hours!

 

I knew Joe didn't hear a thing because he was busy breaking the world record for loudest and longest snoring! Honestly, I have never in my now 51 years, ever heard any man nor beast snore anywhere near as loud and as long as Joe did! It was ridiculous! I would usually be quite amused by Joe's snoring, it was legendary, everyone in the family, heck, for that matter everyone on the block knew about Joe's world record breaking snoring.

 

But this night, it wasn't amusing...I was absolutely petrified. I didn't know what would happen next. If a spirit could make that kind of racket, and have the strength to actually be doing that, then what else could it, would it do? I can't remember when it stopped, but I didn’t sleep a wink that night. I asked Joe if he heard anything, and as I already knew, he did not.

So, we went up just North of Barrie and we had a great day of catching Speckled Trout!

 

The door slamming was on my mind all day, and as soon as we got home I asked my sister if she heard the door slamming...she did!! And apparently, so did the neighbours, because the husband came calling to give her shit about slamming the door all night long! The neighbour thought it was Joe, and Joe's wife thought it was them! I knew it wasn't any person.

 

I was so happy to be going home to sleep in my own bed that night.

I got into bed, and before too long I began to drift off...but then the noise began! At the foot of my bed, I began to hear a loud rustling noise. It sounded just like someone had a green garbage bag at the foot of my bed, and they were constantly rustling it. I was frozen with fear, and I dared not move all night, until the sound stopped as the sun came through my bedroom window.

 

When I got out of bed, I searched for anything that could have made such a sound, but there was nothing!

The fear was gone in the light of morning and so I was embarrassed to tell Mum or Dad. I knew they would tell me I was just dreaming, or they would fluff it off as child's imagination, so I said nothing. I sufferred, I was frozen with fear every night, right there in my own bedroom, a place where a child should feel safe.

 

The noise happened every night, hour after hour for days, then weeks, then months! I was petrified!

Then one night, as I lay in my bed in utter fear, something weird happened...I began to get mad at myself for being afraid every night. I got so mad that I swallowed up all my fear with anger! That was enough! I sprang out of bed, and the second I clicked the lights on, I blurted out "Enough!" this was it, no matter what happened, I had enough! The noise stopped the second I touched my light switch, and never happened again.

 

I began to understand that there were some kind of nasty spirits that they were actually real...I knew for certain! I would check my room every morning thoroughly, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to what was making this damned scary noise every night. I even pulled out my shelves, which were on wheels. That Colfax st house had an attic, but it was on the two sides of the house, and not in the ceiling. So I pulled out the shelves on wheels and even had a thorough look in the attic for any explanation, but there was nothing!

I even tried to convince myself that our cat was somehow getting into my room every night and making this noise somehow...I knew that was a load! So, after I challenged whatever it was, it stopped. I knew it was a dark spirit!!! there was no doubt. My life had changed for ever, and permanently after coming to that realization.

 

All the scary things that kids experience were possibly real! Not everything, but I knew for certain that at least some of them were real. That changes you. I lost some of my childhood innocence after that experience.

I couldn't bring myself to completely relax after that. I didn't know what started it, and so even though my challenge seemed to stop it, I just could not convince myself that some other form of attack would begin at any moment. Well, it wasn't long before it happened.

 

THE NIGHT WALKER

One evening, I remember Mum was out somewhere, and so was my brother, so it was just Dad and I home that night. I heard Dad walking with his shoes on, across the short stretch of tile floor in the hallway between our two rooms.

Mum and Dad had the top floor, front bedroom at this particular time, and I had the top floor rear bedroom. So, there was a short stretch of tiled floor hallway between our two bedrooms, about six or seven feet of tile in the small hallway between our two bedrooms on the top floor.

 

I remember being surprized because that was a strict rule in our home, no shoes in the house! We would take our shoes off the second we stepped into the house. Dad had built a shoe rack behind the side door, and he built it into the wall, so you weren't tripping over shoes as you came into the house.

 

Dad lead by example in our home, and I remember thinking it was extremely odd that he was wearing his shoes in the house.

As I contemplated opening my bedroom door to give dad crap for wearing his shoes I suddenly heard Dad cough...only he wasn't upstairs, he was downstairs! So who, or what, was walking across the hallway, just outside my bedroom door!!? My heart began to pound in my chest! Oh no, not again please God!

That terrified me, and it made it so I was never relaxed in my own home! The footsteps were loud, solid, and unmistakeable! And once again, some dark spirit was in our home, and for whatever reason, it was torturing me specifically!

 

After that, I began to stay away from home as much as I possibly could. I started staying at friends’ houses whenever I could. I actually quit school when I was fifteen so I could get a job, and a place of my own. That house scared me right out!

I left home when I was fifteen, and never moved back.

 

CITY BOY IN THE COUNTRY

Over the next few years nothing like that happened to me. Then, when I was nineteen, Mum and Dad sold the Colfax st house and bought a few buildings and businesses, along with a brand new back split home in Tottenham. They asked if I wanted to move into the new house in Tottenham with them, and I said yes. So, I moved from Toronto to Tottenham and a brand new home.

 

The new house was great. I had a basement and a sub-basement which Dad converted into a separate apartment for my sister Gloria and her kids. It had a stone fireplace, and it was beautiful.

I had my own bedroom on the top level, which was a few steps up from the main floor. A couple of years later, Mum and Dad sold the house and moved into the beautiful 1980's era apartment which was the full floor, front to back above one of the buildings/business they owned. My sister and her kids moved into the same layout apartment in the building beside us.

 

I just loved that apartment. It was huge! It had ten foot ceilings and beautiful original hardwood floors, French doors to the living room. My bedroom was huge, and with the ten foot ceilings I also had my own sky light, it was so, so beautiful.

 

DEMON'S TOUCH

One night, I got home at about 2:00 a.m. and I went straight to my bedroom. Mum and Dad were long asleep. I turned my small TV on and I watched a half hour episode of Ben Wicks, which was a guy who drew cartoons as you watched and made up these funny little stories. I used to watch him all the time when I was a kid.

 

When that show was over, I reached over from my bed, and turned the TV off. Right away, as soon as the TV went off I got this extremely terrifying feeling that was so bizarre. I had the distinct feeling that something was coming to my room from some dark, dark place very far away. I felt like whatever it was, had to expend a great deal of power just to reach me...it was very scary, and so odd. My fear level got greater and greater, and it got to a point where I had never felt that much fear ever before in my entire life! I was frozen, just lying in my bed, then I felt a hand grab my shoulder!! "oh my God!", and I bolted out of bed and hit the light! As soon as the light came on, my fear level began to wear down. I was still quite shaken and I actually swallowed my pride and knocked on Mum's bedroom door.

 

Mum was a light sleeper, and she got up and sat down at the kitchen table with me and I told her exactly what had just happened. Mum was frightened, because she could see I was visibly shaken to the core!  We talked about it for a while, and then I told her to go back to bed, as did I. It took quite a while for me to fall asleep that night.

 

Nothing more happened to me until I met my wife Dawn.

Dawn and I were living in a century old house in Tottenham. Dawn and her sister were living there when I moved in. We were married only a few weeks after we met! Ya, I know! We’re still together some 28 years later!