To do a ouija board on my own?

[LucyDontLockIt]

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??

You should not piss about with one

What ever anyone thinks, anyone doing it is very much just pissing about with a piece of cardboard.

"It totally wizzed around the board."

Yes, that's what my dad said happened when he watched my gran and her friends using one. Nobody was touching it at the time, he remembered. Having the experience of objects having moved about in a locked room, and having observed the disc tray of an unplugged, without power, blu ray player sliding rapidly in and out, I don't doubt him. I've seen for myself what can happen.

Ghosts are one thing because, as unsupported by credible evidence as they may be, you can’t disprove their existence.

Unlike ouija boards that have been thoroughly and roundly debunked and are a fucking board game.

Don't do it. I did one as a teen. It spelt out the name of a girl in the circle, a random date and the word danger. She was killed in a house fire 2 years later on that date.

Bollocks!!!!!

Aren't Ouija boards made by hasbro?

That's like using monopoly to speak to the dead...

Slightly off topic but does this not strike everyone as implausible?

@Lemony said her tale of a couple using a board involved the room going cold "was along the lines of ice cold and the baby going blue" and the reaction was to run for the priest. I really didn't think I'd need to say this on a parenting site but if your baby is freaking blue, you need an ambulance not a priest. Most people go more pale/white with hypothermia than blue. So unless the parents were spectacularly negligent, I highly doubt the baby was blue. Which kind of throws the credibility of the rest of their account into question.

Don't do it. I did one as a teen. It spelt out the name of a girl in the circle, a random date and the word danger. She was killed in a house fire 2 years later on that date.

I believe!!!!!

Get the pro's in OP

Chocolatecoffeeaddict - you’ve just repeated an urban myth that I’ve heard scores of times over the years. If you’re going to tell ghost stories try to say something original.

*@DeadButDelicious

I've known similar and utter fucking bollocks like Do NOT tamper with this board does not help.

Winds me up no end. I am usually just vaguely irritated by woo but the utter stupidity of grown adults becoming hysterical over a fucking chopping board with letters on it drives me mad.*

With respect, what happened to my friend was very real, not a jot supernatural about it but real all the same. I don't think anyone close to him would of believed that a 'fucking chopping board with letters on' could of had such a profound and devastating effect on someone's mental health had they not witnessed it for themselves.

I do not believe the boards themselves physically 'do' anything, I don't believe in demons or ghosts or anything paranormal and I would need to see some pretty spectacular evidence to convince me otherwise BUT I do believe that the human mind can be a very dark place and for some people things like this can have a very real effect. So I stand by my advice of leave well alone. Especially if the OP is already worried and scared. I don't think messing about with something like this will help.

This thread would be unintentionally hilarious if it weren't so depressing.

I am usually just vaguely irritated by woo but the utter stupidity of grown adults becoming hysterical over a fucking chopping board with letters on it drives me mad

This ^^ 100%

It's almost as bad as a pack of cardboard that can 'help to tell your future'.

How many of those saying it's just a piece of wood have ever tried it to come to this conclusion? I like to try things before I dismiss them as rubbish.

When the cat got curious..... well the rest was history!
One of the first rules is, never to do it on your own. But even so you would never mess with what you don't fully understand.

No no no, don't go there, you are opening a portal to the spirit world that could include bad spirits. My medium friend won't touch one. Why not get a local recommendation for a good medium. I heard of people doing the Oija Board, and their house became haunted.

I wouldn't do it, it's a waste of time and money. This is nonsense promulgated by crackpots and frauds, get on with something else.

I wouldn't!

How many of those saying it's just a piece of wood have ever tried it to come to this conclusion?

Are susceptible people fully capable of freaking themselves out and having spooky experiences that feel very real to them? Yes. Does this mean anything, given that scientific research and testing have found no woo or validity whatsoever? No.

The human mind is very powerful and fits its experiences to the cultural template available. Everyone knows what's "supposed" to happen when you use a Ouija board, and voilà, it happens. Alien abduction experiences are reported all the time in America, but never at all in countries where they don't have stories or TV shows about alien abduction experiences. It used to be the fashion for middle class ladies to use these boards to get in touch with departed writers or musicians. An astonishing number of them were taking dictation from Mozart or Shakespeare - in which case, as an observer put it, being dead has a remarkably debilitating effect on one's writing ability.

Do you intend to push the glass around on your own then and pretend it moved spontaneously?
Ridiculous, superstitious nonsense.
There are no haunted houses.

Very thorough theory Queen but it doesn't answer the question

Well, I can't answer how many, but I've amply answered why I wouldn't bother. I know it's rubbish, whatever experience I had with them wouldn't change the fact it's rubbish, and I'm not 12 any more and don't require entertainment at a sleepover. The same way I know homeopathy is rubbish without taking it.

How many of those saying it's just a piece of wood have ever tried it to come to this conclusion?

Several times. I have one as decor. It’s a bit of wood.

I've never taken part in an Ouija board so would never comment on it either way but I have taken homeopathic medicine and it worked.

Yes, homeopathy "works", the exact same way an Ouija board "works" - through the power of your mind. Homeopathy works as a placebo, and an Ouija board works as a projection of your own fantasies and expectations. Both stop having any effect above placebo when you test them in controlled conditions, i.e. remove testers' knowledge of what they've taken or their ability to control it.

If you really don't understand why anecdotes of "it worked for me" don't mean anything, read about it. I recommend Ben Goldacre's Bad Science or Moerman's Meaning, Medicine and the Placebo Effect.

That does sound an interesting read Queen but I'm certain that the clearing up of a mass of boils on my back was not down to the placebo effect. My understanding is that the placebo effect is more relevant to conditions with a psychological element. Mine was purely physical. If anyone is interested it was Silicea from Boots.