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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To have refused to let them use a ouija board in my house

234 replies

FrankWelker · 07/01/2015 12:19

We had some friends over for new year and one night they got out a ouija board. I'm scared off them (never done one so don't know why) and point blank refused to let them play it in my house (nicely). I was telling my cousin about this today and she said I'm a right wuss! I know it's my house and I can refuse but do other people have the same kind of fear with this sort of thing?

OP posts:

YoullLikeItNotaLot · 08/01/2015 19:52

No it didn't spontaneously boil from an unplugged kettle in front of her eyes. She was surprised to find the water in the kettle had been recently boiled as she didn't remember boiling the kettle and it was unplugged. I said to her "do you normally unplug the kettle after boiling it?" She said "yes". I said "oh".

She is convinced that "something" had happened rather than her boiling the kettle, unplugging it and forgetting.

bringbacksideburns · 08/01/2015 19:54

The expression 'woo' really irritates me.
Was it something dreamed up on here years ago or something?

YoullLikeItNotaLot · 08/01/2015 19:55

Oh and the kitchen is "cold" - that was the other decisive factor.

bigbluestars · 08/01/2015 19:56

I had never heard of "woo" until I read these boards.

Hakluyt · 08/01/2015 20:12

Funny, isn't it? I think it was originally thought up as a disparaging term- but they seem to have embraced it!

HolyTerror · 08/01/2015 20:19

Yes, I think it originally emerged as a deliberately dismissive, slightly jeering term used to jibe at ghost-fanciers (and it's snappier than 'credulous orb-seers' or 'gullible types') but either they're too tin-eared to have noticed it's pejorative, or they don't care and have reclaimed it.

Hakluyt · 08/01/2015 20:35

I do like credulous orb-seers.

True Believers is the term used in my circle.......

blanklook · 08/01/2015 20:42

Who are "They" Hak?

FWIW I won't use that term, IMO it's beyond offensive.

QueenTilly · 08/01/2015 20:56

Aermingers went into specifics on what happened when she tried it, too.

Hakluyt · 08/01/2015 21:02

Aermngers gave details of a message that the board spelled out. Nobody is denying that things get spelled out- it's the process by which it happens that's being disputed.

Hakluyt · 08/01/2015 21:05

"
"FWIW I won't use that term, IMO it's beyond offensive." Really? It's pretty mild compared to some I could think of. And people seem perfectly happy to use it to describe themselves.........

elfycat · 08/01/2015 21:21

I'm one of the 'They'. I love the term woo and I'm keeping it. I even use it in RL.

I don't know the origins but I figure it's from the 'wooooo' noises people make while larking around playing ghosts. I don't believe in ghost as such but I'm qualified in and plan to work with some of the more energy based therapies.

I vote 'claimed it'. And not only is it non-offensive to me, it is so non-offensive I find it kind of sweet even when aimed as disparaging.

FightOrFlight · 08/01/2015 21:21

I only used it because I thought it was the correct term to use!

is new around these parts

Can't see how it is offensive though

Hakluyt · 08/01/2015 21:25

Woo

elfycat · 08/01/2015 21:26

It really isn't Flight

IME the 'woo' people on here talk about having a 'woo' topic using the term.

blanklook are you one of us or are you taking offence on our behalf. The former is obviously acceptable but you might like to meditate on why those three letters are so concerning for you. If the latter then please butt out.

elfycat · 08/01/2015 21:38

bit concerned that I'm agreeing with Hakluyt on any aspect of a woo thread. Also I found your last post made me grin. I'll go find some gin to calm my nerves.

QueenTilly · 08/01/2015 22:31

Aermngers gave details of a message that the board spelled out. Nobody is denying that things get spelled out- it's the process by which it happens that's being disputed.

Hmm, I'm not certain I agree that no-one has disputed whether words are spelt out! But more relevantly, the debate seems far more focused on asserting this strange idea that if it's simply the ideomotor effect then no-one should have any concerns. Because no-one in a group of friends could possibly have thoughts and fears (conscious and subconscious) that are best not voiced, eh?

LynetteScavo · 08/01/2015 22:39

YANBU

Firstly, it's just nonsense, so there's no point. Secondly, someone might not believe it's nonsense and become upset, so again it's not a good idea.

Or, you might have actually connected with "the other side2, which is a damn good reason not to do it!

honeyimholmes · 08/01/2015 22:56

When I was a teen I had a boyfriend who lived in a very very old house. It was built on the foundations of some ancient cattle type place and in parts of the garden you could still see the moat.
He was your typical teenage slob, drank too much etc and had zero interest in the house. They hadn't long moved there and his parents had vowed to research but not got around to it.
After one drunken night in the pub he decided it would be fun to do a Ouija board. It was quite shit actually with no yes or no's. Eventually the thing moved, I accused him he accused me. It spelled out a name, Prudence. We took the piss and no more was said.
A few months later his mother came home with census information and there on the list of names was prudence.

I'm not woo but not long after I woke up to see a woman walk through a wall in his bedroom. Turned out it used to be a door (I hadn't known this). Of course back then I was a bit wild and known for a love of alcohol and the odd recreational drug so I filed the whole thing in the "sober up" category.

I'm much older and wiser now, I personally think prudence was more to do with the song being reasonably popular than and a bloody great coincidence that she lived in the house.
Would I do another? Probably for a laugh s why not, would I believe it? No.

ExitPursuedByABear · 08/01/2015 23:21

I had the shit scared out of me when I was about nine. I wouldn't go near one nor let one i my house.

blanklook · 08/01/2015 23:36

Elfycat where is the us and them demarcation? Just out of interest, why do I have to have a side, why can't I be a sphere, transparent in a transformational way for those who know how to look and presenting only distortion to those who don't?

Elsewhere online in my experience the w-word is used deliberately as a derogatory term, much in the same fashion as Flying Spaghetti Monster, Invisible Friend etc. It's unnecessary and lazy for educated people to fling such insults to make a point, surely?

As for my butt, small and perfectly formed as it is, I'll place it in or out of any thread I choose and express my own opinion as the whim takes me

elfycat · 08/01/2015 23:49

blanklook see we're never going to get on if you have a 'small and perfectly formed' butt. As I don't

I find the best way to deal with the anti-believers (and of course there is a major difference between them and non-believers) is to disarm them. I've found that by using the term 'woo' in RL I take the wind out of their sails and leave then becalmed. There's nothing an anti-believer hates more than to be becalmed by a therapist [evil grin]

I meant to do the demarcation, after a thread a while ago in chat. I got busy with OU study and the thread had gone before I got around to working out just how 'woo' MN was. I was going to do charts and everything.

A sphere huh? I like spheres and have several I don't use them for crystal ball gazing except, you know, when I gaze at them

FightOrFlight · 09/01/2015 00:47

Just look at the 'Woo' link and rather than the term "bullshit" I'm going to go with the "As a coincidence, the Chinese word "W?" (?) means a shaman, usually with magic powers"

FightOrFlight · 09/01/2015 00:47

looked*

dustarr73 · 09/01/2015 06:48

I gave a detailed account also.I think if you dont believe in the board thats up to you but dont be so disparaging to the people who had something happen to them.

And the word woo isnt offensive to me at all.

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