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!!

I have used a ouija board..

We were friends with some neighbours where we used to live, and one day they invited us round for drinks. In the course of the evening (after they'd had quite a lot to drink) they suggested we all try a ouija board. The DW told us ages used it a lot when younger and that the same spirit always talked to her.

So we get set up (they down a few more drinks) and we begin.

The glass zooms around the board almost straight away, DW is taking it all very seriously until her DH started giggling. Turns out he was deliberately pushing it around. He's banished to the other side of the room, my DH follows as he's struggling to keep a straight face.

So we continue (after she's topped up the booze) the glass is now going back and forth over and over and over. DW is getting increasingly annoyed with the spirit, demanding it stop playing games with us and make sense. I notice that she is very clearly pushing the glass back and forth, but is apparently so wasted by this point she has no idea what she's doing. I gently point this out, only for her to freak out as now she thinks she's possessed.

She then tells us a story of the spirit that normally talks to her, as "proof" that the spirit really existed and really knew stuff, she told us that it had revealed a secret that no-one else knew - the secret was that she'd once let an ex give her a golden shower. Turns out her DH didn't know and really wasn't happy with the new knowledge.

The evening ended with me pretending to "cleanse" their house of evil spirits with my tarot deck, as it was the only way to get both of them to calm down.

We never went back over for drinks again.

For heaven's sake, there's a reason why the vast majority of the stories on here claiming that something actually happened are about suggestible teenagers in groups, the same way there's a reason why so many of the 'woo' stories recounted on Mn involve people falling asleep, suddenly woken at night, or imaginative small children.

Setting aside entirely the well-documented ideomotor effect, teenagers have seen the spooky films about teenagers on ouija boards half the supposed 'messages' are about who will die first etc. They're acting out a cultural script. I know that death predictions were about half what 'came through' when I used ouija boards in my teens. I was supposed to have died in a car crash several times before turning 21 and this kept being said over a period of months. Fairly obviously, it was someone else in the group trying to freak me out. (I probably don't need to say that I am in my 40s, and hale and hearty.)

Bainne I agree. However if people want to believe in this stuff you aren't going to change their minds with logic. Nothing is more persuasive than a desire to believe.

Derren Brown did one while a student. He made up a story about a local death, suddenly that started appearing on the board, said it had been suspicious, suddenly the spirit started making accusations of murder.

My father once deliberately (as in, it wasn't ideomotor movement, he was doing it consciously and on purpose) started moving the planchette to say the presence was leaving because it wanted a drink of spirits. Nobody saw anything amiss.

Just blindfold the people doing it, turn the board upside down without them knowing and watch it not work, spectacularly and hilariously.

Just blindfold the people doing it, turn the board upside down without them knowing and watch it not work, spectacularly and hilariously.

😂

My question is always, if the spirits are moving the planchette, then why does anyone need to be touching it? Surely they can take their fingers off and it'll still move, right?

@crimsonlake

I am one of those who had an experience I wont talk about. Leave well alone.

C'mon, don't tease like that!

You know, I'm sure not ALL spirits are malevolent arseholes. Some of them must be nice. Why doesn't anyone ever have a good story about their grandma coming through and telling them all is well, or they're going to fall in love or come into money or something like that? Why is it always death and car crashes?

I'm going to disagree a bit here.
It's harmless fun in the right hands. In fact I'd trust a group of 14/16 year olds without alcohol before I'd trust 16+ with alcohol.
It depends on the child too. We all know it's harmless fun but unfortunately some teens believe it and can become affected. I've met some who are still haunted by their experience years later, so not harmless fun for these.

I think, like pp said, it's a kind of perfect storm when you add teenagers and ouija boards. They don't tend to be the most rational creatures at the best of times and tend to be drawn to the woo. Not only that, look how many cases there are of teenagers hyping each other up and suffering mass hallucinations or fainting fits. I'd bet it's more likely to be teenage girls who do it too. We were into palm reading and all that kind of thing and utterly convinced ourselves we'd made contact at the time. It was only a few years later I realised we hadn't, but in my defence, I grewup with a grandmother who regularly had friends round her house to talk to spirits and who had a spirit guide. I believed as fully in that as I believed in transubstantiation at one point. No wonder the Puritans saw Catholicism as a form of witchcraft.

It is not fun.it is not a toy.you are right to ban it op.

It's harmless fun in the right hands

Yes, I don't watch scary films because it freaks me out even though it's nonsense.

@UrAWizHarry

It's a toy made by the same people who make monopoly. Of course its not anything sinister.

This.

There's no magical property in a piece of cardboard. If you believe in communication with the dead, adding a ouija board does not make the process any more sinister than sitting in a chair by yourself with no equipment and simply asking dead people to communicate with you.

adding a ouija board does not make the process any more sinister than sitting in a chair by yourself with no equipment and simply asking dead people to communicate with you.

I wouldn't do that either, got zero interest in a chat!

@gigity

adding a ouija board does not make the process any more sinister than sitting in a chair by yourself with no equipment and simply asking dead people to communicate with you.

I wouldn't do that either, got zero interest in a chat!

Nor I, it's not something I believe in. If (and that's a huge if) dead people are sentient and have the power of communication, they would find a way to get a message across if it was important. There's no evidence that this has ever happened to anyone.

Totally not a toy. I've got not reason to lie, I'm not very active on here anyway. In my early 20's I was on my own and did an Ouiji board after a recent ex boyfriend said he'd done one and 'it' indicated we'd get back together.

I really didn't want to get back with him, and thought he was lying anyway, and mainly wanted to prove him wrong. I mentally asked for 'protection' from bad spirits first, and 'requested' a good spirit (it all sounds so daft!) and 'it' worked. It felt like an electrical or magnetic force gently moving the penny I was using around. I didn't feel scared, I asked the spirit all kinds of questions, and it (correctly I add) predicted the first letter of my exDH's name (an usual letter, 'U') and how many children we'd have. I only met exDH several years afterwards.

I started getting cocky and asking silly questions and then 'it' left. The experience lasted 10/15 mins. It did say that I wouldn't get back with the ex boyfriend, so I was pleased about that!

Remember, I was on my own. Completely alone which rules out horseplay. I'm openminded about woo after this event, but certainly wouldn't recommend anybody else do the same, it's not to be messed with and it's not something I've ever wanted to repeat. It felt internally wrong in someway, like I shouldn't be engaging in that sort of practice, even though I'd say it was a 'neutral' experience.

*no reason

Nor I, it's not something I believe in.

I don't think I believe but I rather not know

@malmi

As I posted on the other thread, it's a board game made by Hasbro and suitable for ages 8 and up: shop.hasbro.com/en-us/product/ouija-game:86117134-5056-9047-F5E1-46EB2553A56A

Here's the instructions: www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/Ouija_Board_(2001).pdf

Any claims of woo or danger or spirits or ghosts or whatever are entirely unsubstantiated.

I just read the instructions,it seems like a very boring and pointless game. Players sit round the board with fingers on planchette, ask a question, wait 5 minutes, nothing happens, wait 5 minutes, nothing happens, repeat until you get bored of nothing happening.

Ouija, like pendulums and dowsing rods, just amplify the tiny involuntary movements that our bodies make. We may not be consciously aware of them, but they happen anyway.

The thing about ouija, especially with a group of people, is that your expectations of what's going to happen next will also add to that amplification. Eg. If the planchette moves slightly towards a letter, then everyone expects it to keep going until it reaches the letter, where it will then stop. So it does, because an expectation of movement causes involuntary movement.

The only way you can prove spirits are moving it is if you remove all human influence.

OP be very careful. For many they are ‘harmless’ fun, others not so much It can be a portal to no good. Think of ouija as opening a door and never being able to close it again.

Stay away from them.

@Smeeglz

Totally not a toy. I've got not reason to lie, I'm not very active on here anyway. In my early 20's I was on my own and did an Ouiji board after a recent ex boyfriend said he'd done one and 'it' indicated we'd get back together.

I really didn't want to get back with him, and thought he was lying anyway, and mainly wanted to prove him wrong. I mentally asked for 'protection' from bad spirits first, and 'requested' a good spirit (it all sounds so daft!) and 'it' worked. It felt like an electrical or magnetic force gently moving the penny I was using around. I didn't feel scared, I asked the spirit all kinds of questions, and it (correctly I add) predicted the first letter of my exDH's name (an usual letter, 'U') and how many children we'd have. I only met exDH several years afterwards.

I started getting cocky and asking silly questions and then 'it' left. The experience lasted 10/15 mins. It did say that I wouldn't get back with the ex boyfriend, so I was pleased about that!

Remember, I was on my own. Completely alone which rules out horseplay. I'm openminded about woo after this event, but certainly wouldn't recommend anybody else do the same, it's not to be messed with and it's not something I've ever wanted to repeat. It felt internally wrong in someway, like I shouldn't be engaging in that sort of practice, even though I'd say it was a 'neutral' experience.

I could find any letter on a Ouija board and relate it to something in my life if I wanted to. I've got something for U. The board doesn't decide whether you get back with an ex, you do. Ideomotor movement will be powered by you, so I'm not surprised it told you what you were thinking. It works when you're on your own as well; ever been pregnant and done the "chain swinging" thing over your belly to find out the sex? Well no, me neither, but some women do and it's the same thing. It absolutely feels like you're not moving it, but you are.

However, if you wanted to prove you weren't going reconcile with an ex by doing an Ouija board rather than simply not reconciling with him, you're likely to be susceptible to this sort of thing.

The precursor to Ouija was table tipping.

Yes No

@GeordieGreigsButtButtZoom

You know, I'm sure not ALL spirits are malevolent arseholes. Some of them must be nice. Why doesn't anyone ever have a good story about their grandma coming through and telling them all is well, or they're going to fall in love or come into money or something like that? Why is it always death and car crashes?

Yes, the kind of gently pointless 'spirits' that 'come through' to commercial mediums doing the circuit of provincial theatres, and who are invariably someone called John, or it might be Jack, or James, who is pointing to his midsection, so might have had anything from stomach cancer to kidneystones to a peptic ulcer, and they are looking out for someone whose initial is M, or it might be N -- anyone? anyone? And their 'messages' are cosy cluckings about how it's lovely in the afterlife, and they're looking after little So-and-So, and Auntie Nellie's lost engagement ring is down behind the fridge.

Could it possibly have anything to do with (a) the kind of people involved (groups of bored, suggestible teenagers looking for free thrills vs middle-aged women looking for comfort and (b) the fact ouija boards are free, whereas the audience for a commercial medium has paid money for an evening of entertainment/comfort, and not to be told they are going to be killed in a car crash on the way home?

The kind of people involved and the nature of the experience being sought of course creates the 'communications.' It would be highly amusing if teenagers doing ouija boards were besieged with communications from their great-grannies about hypertension and disputed Royal Doulton, whereas the type of audience who pay to see Sally Matthews were targeted with frightening accusations and death predictions (and voted with their feet by never again paying for her 'show').

@Missdotty

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.

What's wrong with reversals? Not that I use them, but why is having them upright ok, but turn them upside down and they become bad?

As for angel cards, I see no real difference between angel cards, tarot cards, playing cards. They're just mass produced pieces of card with ink on them. Nothing magical about them.