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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Has anyone used a Ouija board?

129 replies

grannyinapram · 18/02/2021 18:26

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 Hmm
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!!

OP posts:
janlevinson · 18/02/2021 22:50

@TheChip

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.

I've heard this exact story. It's an urban legend.
TheChip · 18/02/2021 22:52

@janlevinson that makes a lot of sense. It was probably her attempt to scare us away from it. Little did she know she made me want to do it more lol

GrinchTastic · 18/02/2021 22:53

I used it as a young adult, in a group of 4/5 people. We took turns having one person sit out, to try and eliminate anyone moving the piece themselves. It was quite alarming - the piece moved quite rapidly and forcibly by the end. I think now that it was some sort of collective energy moving the piece, rather than a “spirit”. But whatever was happening certainly tapped into information that the others couldn’t have known about me, for example. I wouldn’t do it again.

LunaHeather · 18/02/2021 22:55

TheChip did you go seeking things or investigate things that were reported to you...actually, as I type that, it seems like the same thing in a way 🤔

impossible · 18/02/2021 22:55

I used it - reluctantly - with a group of friends as a student but wouldn't again. The name of a child from home who had died came up followed by a word that looked like gobbledygook. None of my friends knew this child. This was pre mobiles so we had to go to library to look up meaning of the word - it was the scientific name for what she died of. I felt terrible about it. I can't explain what happened and am not religious but it felt very intrusive. I would not recommend.

TheMoth · 18/02/2021 22:56

We used to use a penny. We all swore blind we weren't pushing it, and it did freak us out at the time. We got a bit addicted to it, in kind of the same way you get a sm hit I suppose. Clearly either one of us was pushing it or we did it subconsciously.

impossible · 18/02/2021 22:58

It was very like the experience described by GrinchTastic. I felt we were tapping into something we should not.

scaredbeyondbelief · 18/02/2021 22:59

Me and my friends used to play a lot, we were about 13 or 14. We didn’t have a proper board so used an upturned tray and had handwritten paper for the number, letters, yes, no and exit.

All had a great fun and laugh until the last time we did it.

We were in my bedroom there were 4 of us playing. As soon as we started it was different than it usually was. The glass was moving so fast none of us could keep out fingers on it. We all got scared pretty quickly and kept asking “it” to exit, it kept going to the NO and after about the 10th time of asking it flew off the board through the exit area.

We all breathed a sigh of relief. Then one friend laid back on the bed and seemed to be unconscious, we were trying to wake her up and then her torso started lifting off the bed in an unnatural fashion, like she was being lifted by her belly button. After around a minute (felt a lot longer at the time) she came to and started crying, but didn’t remember anything.

We all walked her home and me and one other friend walked back to our homes (we lived close together), when we got to my friends house we discovered that her watch had stopped at 8.45pm and it was actually around 10pm by this time. We called our other friend and hers had also stopped at 8.45pm. We were all pretty spooked. When I got home my bedroom clock had also froze at 8.45pm.

The next day we went to check on our poorly friend to see if she was okay and she seemed fine, we carried on with hanging out listening to music etc. I then said I wish I could give up smoking and the poorly friend said “I will ask The Man if you can” me and other fiends all had a WTF look on our faces and then I asked her what she meant, what man? All she would say is a dark man in a hat and she wouldn’t say any more. We never did it again after that and never spoke of it.

I didn’t sleep in my bedroom for a year after that. A good few years later we redecorated and when we took the wallpaper off the walls, there was a picture of a man in hat scribed into the plaster of the wall. Shock

I would never mess about with them again and would strongly advise others not to either.

indemMUND · 18/02/2021 23:02

Any suggestions what to do with mine then? I just dust it Grin

MuddyPawPrintsEverywhere · 18/02/2021 23:03

I've never used a ouija board, no. I don't really think anything awful would happen if I did, but I don't like the idea of it, so no, I wouldn't want to use or own one.

TheChip · 18/02/2021 23:04

@LunaHeather we would go to known haunted locations. Once we were called to investigate a place to see if it was haunted, but mostly it was us requesting to do a place. It was some kind of leisure centre thing that we were called to do. It had a funny feel to it, but nothing happened.

The only place that did have some activity was an old museum. We had opened that to the public and each had a group of people to take round with us. Apart from a few sounds of things being thrown, it was mostly just the feel and the energy. The worst feel was the toilet block. I wanted to investigate that, but couldn't as it wasn't part of what was set out.

LunaHeather · 18/02/2021 23:09

Chip interesting.

scared the most striking thing about your post is you were trying to give up smoking at 13 or 14. When did you start? Or am I just really old 😂

scaredbeyondbelief · 18/02/2021 23:10

@LunaHeather

Chip interesting.

scared the most striking thing about your post is you were trying to give up smoking at 13 or 14. When did you start? Or am I just really old 😂

I know it's awful. I was 13 when I started and about 40 when I gave up for good.
AprilThe8th · 18/02/2021 23:14

My mum did as a teenager (1960's" they were on the second floor of a pub that her friend lived in.They all saw a face appear at the window!

grassisjeweled · 18/02/2021 23:16

Can someone link the tarot card thread, please?

ConkerBonkers · 18/02/2021 23:20

Do not mess with them.no good ever comes from them. People who use them are giving a free pass to really bad forces to come forward. Just stay away.... Tarot cards are fine without reversals, angel cards are 100 percent better for young people to use.

MuddyPawPrintsEverywhere · 18/02/2021 23:23

I think I'd just encourage the kids to play with a Magic 8-Ball, instead, or better yet, one of those paper fortune tellers we used to make when I was a child! Grin

LunaHeather · 18/02/2021 23:25

@grassisjeweled

Can someone link the tarot card thread, please?
It's here

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4169552-DD-using-tarot-cards?postsby=silverjackal&fromid=104806974

Prisonbreak · 18/02/2021 23:27

Yes we used one years ago. It moved, I kid you not. It moved! Everyone was freaking out but I can guarantee you it moved....
Because I was moving it

Brinstar · 18/02/2021 23:30

@scaredbeyondbelief

Are you still fourteen? Because that seems like the kind of story a teenager would come up with.

Alexandernevermind · 18/02/2021 23:32

I used one on a ghost hunt once, which was clever and convincing enough at the time, staged obviously, so quite good fun.
I would never let a child under 18 use one however, kids are not mentally mature enough. When she was a young teen one "told" my relative that she was going to be killed in the next couple of weeks, so she sat shaking in a bedroom for weeks. They aren't evil in a hocus pocus way, but if you are a little vulnerable or susceptible can be very damaging simply by suggestion.

LunaHeather · 18/02/2021 23:35

[quote Brinstar]@scaredbeyondbelief

Are you still fourteen? Because that seems like the kind of story a teenager would come up with.[/quote]
I enjoyed it!

I just mentioned the smoking because I was surprised. When I was 13, sneaking a smoke was hard, my parents supervised us heavily. So getting addicted was impossible.

Fromthegekko · 18/02/2021 23:36

My parents had a seance in the back room of our family house. They did it with some of the neighbours. My DM told me that they asked if anyone was there and after a bit the glass spelled out “Atmosphere too heavy”. And that was it. Nothing else happened. I had no idea this had happened until I was in my late teens but had always been really scared of being in that room on my own. It was where my brother’s piano was and where I practiced my violin. There wasn’t a centre light but just a table lamp which was plugged in at the opposite side of the room to the door. When I turned off the light I’d always belt out the room as fast as I could and felt really relieved when I was out. After my DGF died I was always convinced if I turned round I would see him sat on the sofa. Never did though.

scaredbeyondbelief · 18/02/2021 23:42

[quote Brinstar]@scaredbeyondbelief

Are you still fourteen? Because that seems like the kind of story a teenager would come up with.[/quote]
Well you're just a delight.

No need to criticise my writing, I am not a novelist. I wrote it as I remembered it as a teenager. Really no need for your nastiness. I couldn't care less if you believe me or not, I was just sharing as requested by the OP.

ChristmasSexyTime · 18/02/2021 23:43

Yes they were manufactured by Hasbro, but humans have been divining for millenia. So it was based on an ancient practice.

I did them as a teenager but nothing of note happened, sadly.