Has anyone used a Ouija board?

[grannyinapram]

Inspired by the tarrot cards thread.

I think I would let my children mess about with tarrot cards but I would always say no to ouija boards. Not sure why. Its the only thing I couldn't get peer pressured into as a teenager
I'm not woo (well not really woo) but I think that ouija boards would be a 'my house my rules' situation...

yABU ouija boards aren't really going to doom you
yanbu don't mess with that!!

@BSintolerant

The dead won’t harm you: people should be more frightened of the living!

My nana used to say that ☺️

I would be furious with my children if they went near one and would not want one in my house.

I wouldn’t let a kid play with it and wouldn’t myself. I don’t believe it will open the gates to let spirits through but that doesn’t mean that kids can’t really freak themselves out and the fear can last longer than just when playing

@janlevinson

Yes and it spelled out someone's name. Can't be sure it wasn't one of my friends but I know it wasn't me and there were only three of us playing. That left one person that I'm 50/50 on but she claimed to never have done it before..

I don't think there's much point unless you use it alone. If anyone else is involved, you just think they are moving it.

@Zevia

It's a toy made by the same people who make monopoly. Of course its not anything sinister. Hmm, now I'm less sure. Pretty sure we've had some demonic possessions playing Monopoly.

That’s actually true. My eight year old turns into a demon.

Honestly, OP. It’s an ordinary board game suggestible teenagers use for mild thrills when they can’t persuade anyone who looks over age to go to the off-licence for them. See also Truth or Dare or telling one another urban legends about hitchhikers and murderers who call you on the extension that had definitely happened to your cousin’s friend.

We used to make ouija boards all the time back in the days when adults would happily go out leaving their offspring in the sole care of a flaky fifteen year old who was paid only by being left a frozen pizza and the remote control. Invariably a minimum of six friends would arrive. Invariably the question was ‘Which of us will die first?’ I think I was predicted to die before my eighteenth birthday on several occasions. I’m 48.

My mum was always adamant I shouldn’t play with one, I think she had had a frightening experience when she was young but it never really came up in my youth so I haven’t played. I think if there’s any hint of susceptibility to supernatural stuff or any kind of drug or mental health issue going on then you should probably stay away for your own well-being, lots of people are genuinely scared of them and the brain feeds off that. I don’t really believe but at the same time the mind is a powerful thing. It doesn’t interest me.

I wouldn't go near it. I had a very religious upbringing and although most of it has not carries over to my middle age, this is one thing that has. My logical brain says it's nonsense but deep down I think no good could come of it whether it is spirits or just another person messing about. So best left alone.

I have one in my bedroom, have done for years. I sleep easy. When DD was little she used to count the numbers and read out letters on it. Planchette and all. It's as meaningless as the tarot cards on the thread you mention

@LunaHeather this is my dads reaction. His mum was quite “woo” and I know that he did one with her when he was younger, every time a I’ve ever asked it’s like he’s a different person. He looks terrified, goes pale, won’t ever say what happened. This is so unlike my dad that it frightens me. I wouldn’t play with one and I wouldn’t have one in my house.

I did use it in a graveyard once as a teen in a group and took flash photos, something appeared in them reflected on a shiny headstone in one photo then another a couple of minutes later that extended what looked like a bony finger towards my boyfriend at the time. All good fun, nothing scary then or since.

Here's a spooky and true story. About 30 years ago I had a ouija board session with a friend (who was also called Sarah) and some friends of hers. A 'spirit' came through and said her name was Gwen and asked Sarah to tell Donnie she was OK. Didn't mean anything to me so I assumed it was for the other Sarah, but it didn't mean anything to her either.

It was some months later when I was talking to my Mum and she mentioned my father's cousin, Gwen, who'd committed suicide some years earlier. Her husband's name was Donnie...

[quote usedandabusedx1000]@LunaHeather this is my dads reaction. His mum was quite “woo” and I know that he did one with her when he was younger, every time a I’ve ever asked it’s like he’s a different person. He looks terrified, goes pale, won’t ever say what happened. This is so unlike my dad that it frightens me. I wouldn’t play with one and I wouldn’t have one in my house.[/quote]
That's interesting

I think my actor friend could fake his reaction but not the others. Did your dad play the board with others?

When I did get someone to speak about what happened, practically the only thing he would say was there were a few of them.

I told him to get back to me if he ever sees pieces moving of their own accord!

Yes, as a teen. It's a toy/game.

I love the paranormal so much. I even became an investigator earlier on in life. I've used many over the years and have never had any activity. The movements I have encountered I've never been able to trust that it wasnt someone else, even if only subconsciously.

I decided to buy my own and try with people I do trust and I've never had any movement.

As for a scary story, my aunt told me one when I was young about a ouija board her and work colleagues tried. This is the shit I was hoping for:

They were working in a garage, overnight and it was really late so extremely dead. They decided to try a ouija board to entertain themselves. They didn't have the planchette (sp?) And so used a glass instead. She said they were laughing at first thinking it was one of the others messing about as it slowly moved to the letters. Eventually it started doing circles, getting faster and faster until the glass levitated in the air, the table shook and then the glass flew across the room and smashed off the wall. She ran home. Terrified to go back the next day.

We used one a couple of years ago while ghost hunting in a Scottish former prison at 2am. Great fun but scary. We were told to leave the room, we did - fast! 😂

I don't believe there is anything genuinely supernatural in them at all, other than what comes out of the human mind – but that perhaps is where the problem lies.

I do think that playing with them can tickle the edges of certain types of mental illness, and for some people that might take them over the edge.

On the whole, I think they are harmless for most people, but certainly not harmless for all. The difficulty is you won't necessarily know which type of person you are beforehand.

So yes, caution needed in my opinion, but not because of spirits.

TheChip "I even became an investigator earlier on in life."

Well this sounds grand! You can tell us a bedtime story? (Okay, too early, but still...)

@Littlejacksmummy

We used one a couple of years ago while ghost hunting in a Scottish former prison at 2am. Great fun but scary. We were told to leave the room, we did - fast! 😂

And how do you get the chance to do that? Sounds fab.

I did at secondary school

As others have said, it can expose some people’s psychological vulnerabilities through the ideometer phenomenon. Far more dangerous than the spirits gibberish.

There are loads of videos, including one from Penn and Teller, showing what happens when you blindfold the users. Needless to say, it doesn't work.

When I was at high school 30 years ago. A group of girls, in the not so bright group, decided to mess with ouija board. They scared themselves so much that at least 2 tried to commit suicide.
I personally have never felt the urge to use one.

Honestly, the investigations were disappointing. I have scarier stories from my childhood home. I'll share a couple.

The dog would stand at the bottom of the stairs and growl with hackles up at nothing quite often.
Another time with the dog I had changed my bedroom round, once I finished I lay on my bed to watch my TV. The bottom of the bed was almost touching the door, the dog was resting at my feet. Suddenly she jumped up, hackles up and growling staring at the door. Her head moved around the bottom of the bed as if following something and when her head reached the side away from my door I legged it lol.

The scariest one happened to my mother. I was at school and siblings were elsewhere, dad was at work. She was sitting in the sitting room when she head a lot of banging from the bathroom upstairs. It had a fire escape window so she assumed someone had climbed in. She walked to the bottom of the stairs, listening more closely. Convinced at this point that someone definitely was in. She grabbed the phone and then shouted "hello" up the stairs. That's when huge bangs as if a giant was racing across the landing happened. My mam ran for the door, and as she did those huge bangs were heading down the stairs. Only no one was there. She never went back into the house until my older sister got home.

So much happened in that house. That's where I got my interest from. Terrifying but exciting at the same time.

I didn't take part but watched people doing it when I was a teenager and it started spelling stuff out. I know now it would have been someone in the group making it move but it really freaked me out. I don't believe in any paranormal stuff but at the same time it scares me. Many a time I've been convinced there's a ghost in my house . I think I'm so scared at the thought of it I refuse to believe any of it. So although I know deep down nothing exists it doesn't stop me being scared if I wake up during the night or a light flickers

My mum made ouija board sound terrifyingly exciting by telling us never to do it because of terrible things that could happen, like schizophrenia etc.

So of course we made one

Of all the dead people in the universe, Kurt Cobain made contact with us.

I know, chances of a group of teenage girls who'd just read his biography being contacted by a megastar.