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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to ask what is so scary about ouija boards?

100 replies

OTheHugeManatee · 23/06/2011 10:38

Inspired by the 'paranormal experiences' thread.

I've never done a ouija board. But it's been mentioned several times on the 'paranormal' thread as dangerous, scary, and something you should never, ever do. But always in hushed tones, and without much detail of what actually happened to make people think they're so dodgy.

Can anyone who's used a ouija board and then vowed never to do it again please explain to me what's so creepy or dangerous about it, and what happened to make you think that?

OP posts:

Limy · 23/06/2011 10:52

Hi I have never done a Ouija Board myself but have been told a family experience which has stopped me from every trying it out. When my uncles were younger they decided to try the Ouija Board one night whilst my nanna and grandad were out. It was fun for them at first but soon things turned nasty - a spirit of some sort appeared out of the Ouija Board and attacked one of my uncles, he actually had marks on his neck where the spirit had tried to stangle him. Since that day my nanna has had a poltergeist in her home (this was approx. 35 years ago) she does not have many problems with 'Fred' now but I am still nervous of visiting the toilet in my nannas house. Please do not try it, it can go ok but you may unwittingly invite some nasty spirits into your home.

BeerTricksPotter · 23/06/2011 10:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ashamedandconfused · 23/06/2011 11:00

whether any spirits or dangers are real or not, my father's clergyman friend has done several exorcism and blessings of houses for people who have been very seriously affected by these sort of things.

KvetaBarry · 23/06/2011 11:01

my school friends and I did a ouija board once at a birthday party (we were all 15/16 years old). When the glass started moving about the board and the lights started flickering on and off, we were all absolutely cacking ourselves.

However, we all started getting very sceptical that the spirit of Elvis Presley would really visit a teenager's party in West Central Scotland, just to turn the lights off. Cue much debate and a general consensus that someone must have been moving the glass around, and the lights were a coincidence. Some of us were on the 'someone is playing a trick on us' side (me included); others on the 'AAAAAIIEEEEEE!!!!!!' side of the discussion. But we swiftly packed the board away and got down to some serious Spice Girls appreciation. (we were 15...)

10 years later, in the pub with 2 of the friends, and one friend admitted that she'd a) been moving the glass, and b) had got the hostess's father to fiddle with the light switch :o

I remain a sceptic :o

CoffeeDodger · 23/06/2011 11:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Dylthan · 23/06/2011 11:03

I have never used one but I believe that they were originally used as a fun for all the family type game.

The original intention was for the board to tape into your own self concious and and give answers based on what you were really thinking.

Nothing external or creepy I think they were forgotten about until films started to use them and put a whole new spooky twist on there use.

Morloth · 23/06/2011 11:05

I think it is very unlikely that any harm will come from messing about with a oiuja board.

However I don't know that and I try not to do things that are unnecessary which might be dangerous.

ruddynorah · 23/06/2011 11:05

We did them loads and tried various ways of checking if it was 'real.' One time my friend had an Exchange student who spoke little English staying with her and we did a board on a mirror. We shut our eyes and got the student to write the letters down. The letters spelt things about me, my dad, and my deceased mother that the student could not possibly have known. This included the name of the woman my dad had an affair with, which even my friend didn't know.

Empusa · 23/06/2011 11:06

Sweet sod all. They are only scary if you make them scary.

A couple DH and I were friends with were trying to convince us that ouija boards work, so we agreed to give it a go.

You could actually see them pushing the glass around (fingernails were white where they were pressing down) but they were totally unaware of it. Do a ouija board with a non-believer and the glass stays still.

IMO if it's ghosts or whatever controlling the glass, then you shouldn't need to touch it. Of course, the glass doesn't move without humans touching it.

Same deal as dowsing and predicting with pendulums. Small subconscious movements will be amplified by the object you are touching.

dolldaggabuzzbuzz · 23/06/2011 11:06

I had a lot of fun with ouija boards in my younger days. They do work and are very very scary - what a rush!

I'm far too cowardly to do one nowadays!

Empusa · 23/06/2011 11:07

"I personally object to them on the ground of my religion. I'm pagan and firmly believe that playing with a ouija board is stupid and dangerous because it shouldn't be done without the proper circle being set or shields being used or the knowledge of how to protect yourselves should you attract anything untoward.

A Ouija board is not a toy, its a tool and should only be used by people who know what they're doing."

Because of your religion? There's no "rules" against ouijas in paganism (to be fair, there aren't really any rules at all)

Shaxx · 23/06/2011 11:07

We were talking about this at work and a colleague of mine just went really pale and told me that she had an awful experience with one when she was a teenager. With two of her friends, they managed to contact someone with the board and were told that one of the girls was going to die.
The girl did die 2 months later. My poor work collegue was choked up and was really trying to hold back the tears when she told us.
She's a lovely, normal woman and there no no reason why any of us would not believe her.

BeerTricksPotter · 23/06/2011 11:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ashamedandconfused · 23/06/2011 11:09

they were indeed originally marketed as a toy/board game!

CoffeeDodger · 23/06/2011 11:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

itisnearlysummer · 23/06/2011 11:10

well i've used on once and my mum used one once.

My mum used one when she was 17 asking questions about the people playing - who's going to go out with who etc. they got to one lad and the glass spun off and broke. He was killed in a car accident a few weeks later.

Now my mum isn't the sort to embelish a story like that - she's very boring and sensible!

I used one once with a friend and appeared to have 2 spirits arguing with each other. We asked one 'spirit' if it was responsible for the odd things that had been happening to us it confirmed it was and when we asked why responded "because you are mine".

Do I believe? No idea. I do know that I believe my mum wasn't making it up and wasn't responsible for any 'tomfoolery' in her experience. I certainly wasn't pushing the glass and there was only my friend and I there and I don't see how one person could suddenly change the trajectory of a glass with one finger at speed. Both of us found our fingers losing contact when it changed direction suddenly.

so I don't know.

Wouldn't do it again though.

Dylthan · 23/06/2011 11:13

"In the patent, Wagner called his invention a "psychograph" and its purpose was to read the minds of people with "nervous energy." By 1861, Frenchman, Allan Kardac, was describing the Ouija board as instruments with which to open communications with the spirit world. In seven short years, the Ouija board had evolved from a mind-reader to portal of communication with the dead."

I believe its hasbro games that still hold the patent and produce the board.

CoffeeDodger · 23/06/2011 11:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ClarasMummy · 23/06/2011 11:19

When I was younger a friend and I messed around with a home made Ouija board. When I went to remove the glass we had been using after not "contacting" anything the glass shattered into lots of tiny pieces cutting me quite badly.
There's probably a rational explanation but I'll never fool around with one again.

MaxSchreck · 23/06/2011 11:25

About as dangerous and scary as Snakes and Ladders, imo.

BeerTricksPotter · 23/06/2011 11:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GentleOtter · 23/06/2011 11:34

My aunt gave me a ouija board when I was eight and I played with it for years without any fear or concerns or weird happenings.

Our family moved house a lot and my parents would gather the family around to use the ouija to see 'who we were sharing the new house with'. I never found this freaky at all.

The planchette can move without anyone touching it but I assume this is due to the heat from your hand or magnetics or something.

It is just a board, imo.

MooMooFarm · 23/06/2011 11:44

Bugger all.

Makes me laugh when people say they don't believe in that kind of thing but then say they would never have a go with a ouija board because its' 'the unknown', etc etc

And everybody seems to have a story of a friend's friend's cousin who used a ouija board and summoned a spooky ghost. If it were really that easy, surely Most Haunted would do that for every episode rather than having shite all happen.....

Not that I watch it

worraliberty · 23/06/2011 11:51

About as dangerous and scary as Snakes and Ladders, imo.

That totally sums it up for me MaxSchreck

Empusa · 23/06/2011 11:59

moomoofarm I watch Most Haunted, mainly because I get great joy out of shouting "it's a piece of dust you twats!" at the screen

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