"When prowling in the stacks of the Notre Dame library, I came across a book written sometime before WW II about the Catholic position on spiritualism and related phenomena - negative, you won't be surprised to hear. There was a whole chapter on the sinister ouija board, in which I found a story to this effect: a certain priest had acquired a ouija board so that he could study it with a view to writing about and exposing its diabolical nature. After using it for several evenings, he found himself subject to a kind of addictive craving, and resolved to consult it no further. Having made this resolution, he took to his bed and tried to sleep - but the ouija board leaped off the table, and in a series of bounds, hopped across the room and placed itself on his chest! I forget what the good father did next - ran screaming into the night, or poured holy water on the devilish apparatus, or threw it into the fire (I suppose he couldn't have done both of the last two things) - but having seen this, I have no doubt that other stories similar to the one John relates were being told. He could have made this particular one up himself; it's even possible that he was inspired to think of the ouija board by the story I found in the library, because I was very amused by it and often related it to friends."