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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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
SchadenfreudePersonified · 30/08/2018 20:49

Agree with @brizzledrizzle

I'm making jokes on here, but I've done ouija before and it really is frightening - or at least it was for our group.

I wouldn't recommend it.

HamsterToast · 30/08/2018 20:57

Don't. If you are concerned about bad vibes then use sage to cleanse the house and visualisation

KidLorneRoll · 30/08/2018 21:09

It's a bit of cardboard ffs.

It's no more 'dangerous' than a game of monopoly.

KidLorneRoll · 30/08/2018 21:09

"sage to cleanse the house and visualisation"

GrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrin

headinhands · 30/08/2018 21:18

Talked about doing one once with a friend. Lights went off, TV went to white noise. We RAN out of the house.

How did the "good" spiritual realm handle the risk of humans contacting harmful entities before the invention of cardboard games, bulbs and TVs?

Neanderthal #1: I want to talk to dead people.
Neanderthal #2: lets do it!!

What happened next?

RosinaAlmaviva · 30/08/2018 21:36

It's not the case that Ouija boards were only used by spiritualists after WW1. "Talking boards" were invented by the Victorians who were very into woo and loved having seances - there were lots of different boards and the current one is just the most commercially successful. More here for anyone interested.

Of course, the Ouija board had a burst of popularity during and after WW1 because of the many bereaved families hoping for comfort.

OP: Don't do it! Off to find your other thread.

Hertha · 30/08/2018 22:00

Has anyone taking the piss and despairing at other's beliefs actually ever used a ouija board?
If you jump up and down on a trampoline whilst holding an ice cream cone to your forehead and chanting ‘I want to be a unicorn’ repeatedly as fast as you can, you turn into one. I had a friend who did this and she turned into a unicorn for 5 minutes before changing back. Some people don’t change back though so it’s super dangerous.

Don’t disparage my beliefs until you try it for yourself.

Aintnothingbutaheartache · 31/08/2018 00:27

To all of you mockers out there, I was totally cynical and disbelieving until some friends and I did a ouija board in a holiday cottage one weekend.
It was bloody scary how much came out that nobody could have known.
I don’t think it’s wise to mess with stuff we don’t understand

Holyguacamoley · 31/08/2018 00:46

I wish there were more ACTUAL experiences with a board on this thread and fewer 'NEVER do it. I had a terrible experience with one once' type comments.

I want to know exactly what happened and why those experiences were so terrifying that you can all only bring yourself to allude vaguely to them.

Holyguacamoley · 31/08/2018 00:50

And I'm not a total cynic. My mum spoke to a 'psychic' last year - she telephoned this person (in front of me) and told them her first name only. During the call the psychic told her the names of her 4 siblings, including both the given and pet names of one of her brothers and which ones were deceased. One of them lives abroad. None of them share my mum's surname. So I can't think of any possible way this person could have sneakily found out. She also said some total bull, mind, (describing someone with a specific role in my family as heavy set and blonde when actually she's a tiny Chinese lady) but the stuff about the siblings sticks in my head.

Hertha · 31/08/2018 01:11

Caller I.D.? You can sometimes find out a fair amount with a phone number as a starting point.

Hertha · 31/08/2018 01:55

I just tried this with my grandparents’ number.

First google result gave my grandmother’s full name and address. Googling her address turned up a 192.com result showing the full names of current cohabiters (and their rough ages) and her previous addresses with previous cohabiters and their ages (including my dad). A couple of clicks more and there are my and my siblings’ details. Could very quickly and easily map out our family in about a minute (even with my fat clumsy fingers on my smartphone).

headinhands · 31/08/2018 03:07

don’t think it’s wise to mess with stuff we don’t understand

Says the person using technology to talk to me.

cantfindname · 31/08/2018 07:55

I knew a girl at school who decided ouija boards were going to be the latest craze and she had all her friends joining in with her. They had several nasty frights, the worst being a message telling her she would die before she was 21. She shook it off and it was never mentioned again. But, shortly after she was 20 she stepped in front of a train, a fast moving train.

Make of it what you will.

MurunBuchstansagur · 31/08/2018 08:19

But, shortly after she was 20 she stepped in front of a train, a fast moving train

Well yes. I don’t expect you’d have bothered mentioning it if it had been a stationary one.

QueenAravisOfArchenland · 31/08/2018 08:31

But, shortly after she was 20 she stepped in front of a train, a fast moving train

Can you link us to a news article about the accident? If you were just at the same school, that won't out you.

QueenAravisOfArchenland · 31/08/2018 08:33

It was bloody scary how much came out that nobody could have known.

What do you mean stuff that "nobody could have known"? If it related to the present, the people sitting there knew it. If it related to the future, you couldn't possibly have known at the time if they were accurate or not.

hooochycoo · 31/08/2018 09:01

At the risk of being taken the piss out of........My sister and I used to do it regularly as children with my aunt and mother . I have very vivid memories of it. It was extremely normal as it was normally at teatime and the same dead aunts and uncles would come through and say hello. ‘‘Twas a bit magical and a bit cosy and nice. Like kinda phoning relatives. We’d all put our fingers on the planchette and it would whizz around all directions . It’s hard to understand how it could have been my mum or auntie pushing it on purpose, as it just doesn’t move like it’s being pushed. It flees around and pulls your fingers with it. Sometimes it’s too fast and some people’s fingers come off , but it continues. Quite strange. I’ve read about the ideomotor effect, and it’s obviously possible, but hard to understand as the planchette was difficult to push when you tried to. Sometimes I would try and the pressure of my finger trying to push would change the movement
Of the planchette. If you tried to effect it it didn’t feel the same. And the speed was strange. Seriously fleeing about the board, would have been extremely difficult to achieve on purpose. I guess the point of the ideomotor theory is that it’s subconscious from everyone. But then I don’t understand how it actually spells and keeps a conversation. Anyway as an adult I haven’t quite ruled out any explanation to how it worked, but enjoy the special memories anyway.

The planchette had a pencil stuck through it and would draw a line between letters numbers and points on the board . There would be a fair percentage of the time spent with it just fleeing between the “hello” and “goodbye” places on the board. Mum always used to say that that was like a bad connection. Sometimes it would go to hello, and then my mum or aunt would ask who it was and a name was spelt out. If someone came through that we didn’t know or was being vague or weird, mum would politely say no thank you and goodbye and move the planchette to goodbye. But it was usually the same uncles and great grandparents. And usually them just saying things like “remember this and remember that”. Sometimes they’d refer to something unexplained that had happened recently and claim responsibility ( a lost object. A fallen thing) . It was all very smiley and nothing scarey atall.

The planchette was my great grandfathers and it was a normal thing in my mother’s family. Various great aunts and uncles were reported to be physic . No big deal was made of any of it really, and it was just a family thing. My mum
Was quite clear that you only do it with family. Apparently my mum was the most gifted in a paranormal way of her family and was encouraged to train as a medium when she was young. She told us stories too of astral travel and all sorts. But never in a scarey woo kinda way. Just very normal. She was also a very conservative private woman, so didn’t pursue other people to share her paranormal experiences, apart from her sister and daughters, she was almost a bit embarrassed I think. There was talk of extravagant great aunts who were well known mediums in their time. Mum always talked with distaste about them. As she got older she was less interested in the paranormal.

It was only when I was an adult that I looked back and realise that all thus in my childhood was unusual. I have had some unexplained experiences as an adult, but i don’t generally seek it out or talk about it a lot. I am open minded and don’t totally believe in the paranormal or not. I just recognise there are different explanations within different contexts and i don’t actually know anything.

I inherited the planchette when my mum died and i’ve Been reluctant to use it without her, but I did use it once with a couple of friends, and it whizzed around just like I remembered. Mainly between hello and goodbye though and didn’t spell out anything legible. Was kinda a relief it worked like I remembered it doing and a disappointment that my mum and aunt didn’t Come say hello. Feel daft for saying that but it is what it is. I’d like to do it with my family and see if my mum comes to say hello, but my siblings don’t want to and it feels weird to do it without a family context. So it’ll probably remain on a shelf now.

KidLorneRoll · 31/08/2018 09:04

"Make of it what you will."

I will. You can't communicate with the dead or see it the future with a bit of mass produced cardboard.

hooochycoo · 31/08/2018 09:08

It wasn’t a bit of mass produced cardboard. It is a handmade planchette made from wood, metal and bone wheels.

But certainly believe what you want to with certainty.

I shall continue being uncertain probably.

JacquesHammer · 31/08/2018 09:26

Make of it what you will

What? That you’re using the death of what was obviously a troubled young woman to try and prove that there’s something supernatural about ouija?

I find that utterly tasteless.

ShawshanksRedemption · 31/08/2018 09:33

@LucyDontLockIt are you a journalist looking for stories for an article.....?

KidLorneRoll · 31/08/2018 09:45

The point being that a bunch of inanimate objects have no ability to predict the future, of course, mass produced or not.

It's well known how these things work and it's got sod-all to do with magic.

coconutpie · 31/08/2018 10:18

Seriously, don’t. People will say it’s a board game but it really isn’t. I speak from first hand knowledge (daughter of a priest) who has had to rush to people’s houses in the late evening to exorcise them after they thought it would be fun to do one. I’m really glad you’ve had no experiences of spiritual context but keep it that way. I’ve had the opposite and it’s really terrifying. If you’re uneasy, do what was suggested upthread and get your local priest to do a blessing of the house, but doing a oiuja board is inviting trouble.

@Lemonysnicketts would love to hear more about this please!!

headinhands · 31/08/2018 10:26

Why does anyone need to even touch the planchette or whatever it is? And doesn't the fact that the spirit needs to be able to spell unfairly preclude dead Jeremy Kyle show guests and people who voted to leave the EU?