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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To do a ouija board on my own?

380 replies

LucyDontLockIt · 23/08/2018 13:11

Got another threat going but wanted to ask a quick question.

I want to a ouija board to determine whether anything is haunting my house. I'm a non spiritual person, non religious, don't really believe in the supernatural but I'm being tested at the minute.

I've been to some of the most supposedly haunted places on Earth (Poveglia anyone?! Look it up) and felt nothing. So I'm not easily convinced but something isn't right. Nobody will talk to me about it and nobody believes me. I'm tempted to just do a ouija board on my own. If nothing happens, I'll tell myself I was imagining everything else.

AIBU to consider doing this??

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
Belina · 23/08/2018 13:52

wont work you need more than one

Thiswayorthatway · 23/08/2018 13:53

Load of rubbish, alone or with others.

DunkandEggAgain · 23/08/2018 13:55

If you're going to do it, please set up a camera on your phone and record it all!

Padparadscha · 23/08/2018 14:05

They are dangerous. Don't mess with them.

It’s a board game. There’s nothing to ‘mess’ with Hmm. The only dangerous board game is a family round of Monopoly at Christmas.

MeyMary · 23/08/2018 14:05

But seriously, let's go through some possible options.

  1. You have a haunting entity (I'm assuming it isn't just your great grandmother telling you to stop messing up her apple pie recipe ..) and managed to contact it. no what? What did you achieve?
  1. No ghost. But the psychological effect / whatever goes on in your subconscience may come up with some rather disturbing shit. You'll probably feel encouraged in your believe of being haunted and scared shitless.
  1. Nothing happens.

Option 1 and 2 seem less than ideal.

I wouldn't contact some "professional" either. Go to a local religious person you trust and say you need some assistance.

Or check whether there is a non-woo reason for the haunting.

Anyhow, how are you doing? Happy, healthy?

Lemonysnicketts · 23/08/2018 14:06

@luckydiamond the experience I’m thinking of (there have been a few he’s told me about) they were having an evening church service and a guy burst into the church in a total state. A few friends of him and his wife had been playing with a ouija board thinking it was a bit of fun but the atmosphere in the house changed and went icy cold and they had a young baby who was obviously freezing. It really wasn’t funny and they were absolutely petrified. Dad had to leave the service in someone else’s hands and rush off to help them. Sure you can try to rationalise it a million different ways if you want to, but it happened and it was evidently very traumatic. Goodness knows what they did to get that sort of response from the “game”, but it was the baby that really frightened them as it went so cold. If you don’t know what you’re messing with, best not mess I say!

Lemonysnicketts · 23/08/2018 14:10

**It’s a board game. There’s nothing to ‘mess’ with hmm. The only dangerous board game is a family round of Monopoly at Christmas.

I’ve never played a version of monopoly that involved asking spirits if they were there or not and trying to contact them...though I’m with you on monopoly being a risky game for relationships Wink

BlackberryBramble · 23/08/2018 14:13

Yes YWBU.

It's psychologically dangerous even before we enter the realms of woo.

jumpingeasel · 23/08/2018 14:13

What a load of bollocks. You might as well play monopoly, you'll get the same results

KlutzyDraconequus · 23/08/2018 14:17

Ouji Boards are indeed a board game, have been around for a long time and only linked to any kind of spiritualism after WW1.

Parker brothers and Hasbro... Hasbro, the ones that make My Little Pony... Popularised Ouji in the late 1800s.

DianaPrincessOfThemyscira · 23/08/2018 14:17

I suggest everyone on this thread listens to episode 28 of The Dollop podcast The Talk Board as a starting off point.

And stop winding yourselves up, it’s a bloody board game.

user1466783975 · 23/08/2018 14:25

I messed with one once and got a ghost because of it,although I never saw it,the sounds in my bedroom whilst I was in bed freaked me out.I asked it the next day to please go away (in a bright breezy voice.I also thanked it for coming but please move on!) It then went to my friends house who was doing it with me,moved his display cabinet and moved lights! Never again. I think the ghosts in your house mean no harm,just ask them kindly to move on

GruciusMalfoy · 23/08/2018 14:26

All You'll achieve is to frighten the shite out of yourself. I don't believe in this game contacting spirits, but you seem really wound up about there being something in your home, you don't need to use this to reinforce your worry.

SendintheArdwolves · 23/08/2018 14:26

the atmosphere in the house changed and went icy cold

I have to say, that's a bit of a let down...

Im not doubting the fear the young couple experienced, the genuineness of your father's motivations or how relieved and comforted the couple felt after he'd done his stuff.

But as for something that would convince a neutral party that Ouija boards are DANGEROUS and should NEVER BE MESSED WITH I would kind of want more than "and the room got a bit chilly" Grin

BartholinsSister · 23/08/2018 14:27

Mine was made by Parker Bros, the same people who made Cluedo and Trivial Pursuit.
Hours of family fun winding up Grandma.

Padparadscha · 23/08/2018 14:33

I’ve never played a version of monopoly that involved asking spirits if they were there or not and trying to contact them.

Yes, but there’s also as much chance of spirits and ghouls being real as there is of me building an actual hotel in Mayfair. It’s all self-imposed psychological nonsense, and it’s an awful thing people actually perpetuate the idea of hauntings by offering ‘exorcisms’ and ‘cleansing’. It’s playing on people’s fears in the worst way.

liz70 · 23/08/2018 14:36

My dad told me that gran (i.e. his mum) used to have friends round for seances with a board. This was when my dad was in his teens, so the 1950s. Dad used to watch, but not participate. He said that the pointer would move. I've heard of the ideomotor effect, so I asked him, were the sitters' fingers on it at the time. No, he replied, nowhere near it. It would whizz all over the board, at great speed, nobody's hands or anything else near it. My dad is the least bullshitting person imaginable, so I have no reason not to believe him.

BlackberryBramble · 23/08/2018 14:40

Just a board game eh? Monopoly pushed my brother into being a competitive arse despite their being no real hotels involved. 😀
One game could upset the whole weekend.

So do I think op who is already worried about a haunting should play with this? It's a no-brainer surely.

FourFriedChickensDryWhiteToast · 23/08/2018 14:43

ha ! Blackberry - my brother was also turned into a capitalist arse thro playing monopoly. Certainly the game could upset a day or two. Ouija board probably less harmful..(jokes)
OP, really it is not a good idea..

BlackberryBramble · 23/08/2018 14:47

Glad it's not just my family who are psychologically unprepared for playing at property development.

onetimeposter · 23/08/2018 14:49

It was an expellable offence at my secondary school, using one in school.
Imo i wouldn't. I don't understand the spirit world, if it exists, but sure as hell if there are spirits around they aren't going to be the nice ones who enter a scary game played but vulnerable people.
My mum was terrified of them.

BanananananaDaiquiri · 23/08/2018 14:52

OP, it's vanishingly unlikely that your house is haunted. I'm fairly open minded about things that science hasn't found the answer for yet and the power of the mind, but horror story type ghosts and demons etc don't exist, nor do ouija board spirits.

However, the mind is a powerful thing and you can turn that to your advantage. Close your eyes, picture yourself in your house bathed in soft, warm light and repeat to yourself "there is nothing here that can hurt me". Do that every time you feel yourself starting to get spooked or think you've heard/seen a ghost, and soon you'll retrain your subconscious mind to start believing it.

Oddcat · 23/08/2018 14:53

I've read your other thread Op and I can understand that you would like a definitive answer but you do seem fixated and determined to prove that it was a ghost and not another more probable explanation.

Twotailed · 23/08/2018 14:56

A ouija board is no more connected to the spirit realm than a chess board - so no, you wouldn’t be unreasonable to play with one. However, if you’re susceptible to this anxiety (which at the moment it sounds like you are, even if that isn’t usually the way you are) I wouldn’t, as you’d just be focusing on your own negative feelings.

FubbyChucker · 23/08/2018 15:03

Many (many) years ago, my mum was involved with the local spiritualist church. She told me a story about young man who used a ouija board, almost overnight he developed a talent for drawing, in particular, birds. One morning, his mother was washing up, gazing out the kitchen window, chatting away to her son when she realised he had gone really quiet. Apparently, he was standing behind her, blank eyed, with a knife in his hand. Highly likely in it's retelling to me as a wide eyed teen, it had been somewhat embellished but, christ, it scared me shitless when I first heard it.