Ouija board

[namcybotwinbloom]

Has anyone ever done one.

I haven't I'm terrified but my DH has when he was a teenager. Says it absolutely moved.

I dont know what I'm asking really just how real do people think they are?

I saw a programme years ago I can't remember what it was called but it scared the shit out of me.

Are they actually real?

They're not real. I think the movement is caused by the participants involuntarily moving.

Absolutely not real - but like all things 'woo' people will chose to believe them and make up meanings for things that can be explained logically.

I did one as a teenager and again as an adult. They did move and as of yet I haven't been consumed by demonic forces!

I have done this in the past with a glass and letters. I have read the opinions that the movement is due to involuntary movements, or deliberate cheating.

My experiences are that there is a quality of “liveness”, almost vibration, when my finger is on the glass that is quite different from normal.

The group I was with experimented with different combinations and numbers of people, including just one person at a time. The glass still moved and I don't think they were faking it. I certainly wasn't.
There was some information given to us that was uncannily true, as well as some that was untrue.

I am not certain what it was that we contacted, the dead, unknown entities or our own unconscious minds, but we all became unhealthily obsessed with it and it didn't end well.

I would never do it again or permit anyone to do it in my house, as I think that opening up to unknown forces in an uncontrolled way like that is asking for trouble.

Of course they're not real!

This is how they 'work'

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideomotor_phenomenon?wprov=sfla1

I’ve never tried one, for the simple reason that two absolutely non woo people I know very well, who tried them as teens or students, just for a laugh, had very scary/unsettling things happen shortly afterwards.

My utterly non woo science-student sister had the large old fashioned wooden wardrobe in her bedroom, move about during the night.

The other did it with other boys at school (very old cathedral school with buildings to match). They themselves didn’t experience anything, but some younger boys who hadn’t been involved and knew nothing about it, started freaking out about things they’d seen or felt.
The bishop was called in to exorcise the place.

Both of those said they’d never do it again.

as of yet I haven't been consumed by demonic forces!

Unfortunately, I have.

Not real. I'd be more inclined to believe it was real if you got an intelligent response while the thing was moving of it's own accord.

Obviously I think the only people who can confirm it is real are the ones who have tried it. I did years ago as a teenager and lets just say it frightened the life out of me...the things it spelt out. Stay away from it.

No, they’re not real.
No, I wouldn’t use one... 😬

I don't know.
I'd never allow one to be used under my roof.

Even if you do believe in ghosts / spirits / and afterlife full of things just sitting around waiting to get in touch, why would they need ouija board participants to be touching the glass for it to move? If the spirit has the power to make the glass move, why does it need anyone else? And why do spirits always conveniently speak the same language as the people operating the ouija board? Is there a queue back in the afterlife, and a tannoy announcement so that a spirit with the correct language skills knows it’s their turn up to communicate with the living?

Friends and I used to mess about with them as teenagers and pretend to be terrified by the spooky messages we were getting. If we opened some kind of portal and allowed evil in to plague us forevermore, I’ve yet to notice (or perhaps it got bored of my company and went home.)

I was part of a university research group about 15yrs ago. We held seances once a week, every week for a year. Each session started with us completing a questionnaire asking about our mood, medications we were taking and so on, we also had to complete one at the end of the session. We had cameras recording us throughout and voice recorders as well. I have no explanation as to what happened during that year but when your hands are on top of a table that is floating in the air, no one with their hands underneath it it, it makes you question everything. These all took place at my house so I know that nothing was rigged before hand.

Ouija boards are very similar but you have to be careful 'opening' and 'closing'. Its the equivalent of leaving your front door wide open on a Saturday night with all sorts who can bumble in and not bumble back out!

That's fascinating@OldTinHat!
What was the outcome of the research please?

Tables moving is also a know ideomotor effect also known as table turning. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table-turning

A well observed and research phenomenon

Surely that the “experiments” took place in your house rather than in a neutral and controlled environment completely invalidates the results? What sort of research study was this and which university was monitoring it?

Of course they're not "real", if by real you mean holding some sort of power/woo force/portal to the afterlife.
It is a game, though, produced by Hasbro. Who also do Monopoly, Cluedo and other games; and make My Little Pony Toys. It is no more woo than any of these, and was never intended to be.

I am a very rational person who believes in science and doesn’t on the face of it believe in ghosts etc, however I have myself experienced what we would call a ‘ghost’ so I have an open mind to things beyond our realm of understanding that we can’t yet explain - it would be rather coincidental if we happened to be alive during the first point in the history of civilization when all things had been known and understood.

I don’t really believe in ouija boards but I did mess around with one at uni and though I didn’t experience anything unusual I had a friend who was really angry about it and absolutely refused to participate - she had done one with friends and something very untoward had happened to one of the group. She was extremely rational and down to earth - this made me feel that maybe there is something about them that we don’t understand

Ouija boards are either...

a) A load of nonsense, in which case messing about with them is a waste of time

Or

B) Real, in which case we shouldn't mess with them

So at best they're a waste of time, at worst...

"Are they actually real?"

No.

I would never do one, what good can come of it?

Used to play with one a lot as a teen.

The glass slides very easily and it is impossible for every one to keep their finger totally still. As soon as someone's finger moves, however slightly, everyone else moves to keep up which gives the glass momentum. After the first letter, people have ideas about what it is going to say and think about a letter that could follow. Thinking about a letter, leads to focussing on that letter and your finger/hand is primed to move that way - and so it goes on.

Sometimes one person deliberately moves the glass in order to get the answer that they want.

I know some people believe in it and get spooked by it but in most cases when kids/teens play with it, it really is just a bit of fun.

Not real. I have one in my bedroom.

@PixieKitten

I would never do one, what good can come of it?

And what harm can come of it? It's a mass produced cardboard game in a box. The "spirits" are just a likely to make contact through Risk, Monopoly or Mousetrap!