Ouija board

[BlueSeagull]

Reading another thread where OP daughter believes she is seeing a ghost, lots of the advice was it a medical issue there’s no such thing as ghosts etc. OP updated that her daughter disclosed her and her friends had used an ouija board and they were all upset as a result. I have never used one I am too skeptical (people close to me and I have had experiences that have no logical explanation) intrigued if anyone has used one ? Did anything happen?

No, it's a load of nonsense.

I think they can be dangerous. But not because they can summon up spirits or open the door to demons or whatever,that is bollocks. They are dangerous because they can trigger mental health crises in susceptible/vulnerable people.

No and its complete nonsense.

How old was the daughter? DD once saw a tiger in her room - it was a dressing gown over the back of a chair.

Yes and no nothing happened. We did it at my pal's which was a very old house right next to a graveyard so you'd think it'd be quite haunted. All that happened is three teenage girls spooked themselves and got the giggles.

It's a toy, it's manufactured by Hasbro. If anything happens it's because people in a group who want something to happen can subconsciously make it happen.

In the 90's we all thought we could make people levitate too right? Light as a feather stiff as a board?

Someone just linked to this on the other thread that’s just about to go ‘pooof’. Looks interesting.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/strange-journeys/202508/are-you-afraid-of-the-ouija-board/amp

Thanks to @Tistheseason17

Ouija boards are a game more than anything. But they take advantage of sorrow and grief and provide the comfort of the promise of contacting the dearly-departed. My granddad on my mum's side was a spiritualist and believed in contacting the deceased. He was a bit of a kook, but that's how some of these people are. They're not mentally ill, they're hurting and probably have unresolved problems with their deceased loved ones. It's hard to let go sometimes.

I once saw a lobster on my curtain rail. It was a crazy just woke up half asleep post partum moment

I had a friend at school who was a bit of a live wire and up for anything except ouija boards. She knew someone who had used one for a bit of fun and her mental health significantly deteriorated afterwards resulting in her being sectioned and admitted to inpatient psychiatric unit. Her life was never the same again.

If that school rebel avoided ouija boards then so am I.

Teenager. But we can’t make this a TAAT. It’s not allowed on MN.

I think they have the potential to be very dangerous.

I am a complete sceptic about anything woo. I don’t believe in anything there’s no evidence for and I’ve never heard any convincing evidence for any of it.

HOWEVER.

I am and always have been a keen horror/supernatural film and book fan.

When I was a child and young teen I was a Huge Believer In that Sort Of Thing. I devoured Unexplained Magazine and Doris Stokes books.

I am therefore the most easily spooked sceptic you’ll ever meet.

If I did an ouija board I’d be perfectly capable of being scared silly. Still doesn’t mean I believe any of it.

Ideomotor movement. Known and proven. An excellent chapter about it in Derren Brown's book Tricks of the Mind, well worth hunting down (whole book is interesting and fun). Includes instructions for how to demonstrate it yourself with a pendant necklace. I've done it loads of times. Yes, it really really does feel like it's swinging by itself, but it isn't! Penn and Teller have also tried blindfolding users and turning the board upside down without them knowing. Suddenly the ghosts are drunk. Too many spirits indeed.

Ouija is an old parlour game and as a trademark it is licensed to Hasbro. If your board wasn't produced by Hasbro but uses that name, rather than being a talking board or spirit board or something, the scariest thing it might summon is a copyright infringement case for the maker.

Teenagers are suggestible, impressionable, prone to drama and believe anything. It's a perfect storm. I remember this stuff ripping through school and youth group back in the day and I guess some things don't change. Our teen magazines carried stupid stories about the board as well. Really irresponsible, kids were terrified.

Edited: Without them knowing. Obviously.

Yes. Unbelievably at school. A group of us did it. I’d never heard of it before and we all took our finger off the glass one at a time to make sure none of us were pushing it but it carried on moving. It did feel like an unseen force was pushing the glass. We asked ‘it’ to tell us what each of us were thinking and It was spelling out things that we really were thinking of, some of which were totally obscure things and some of which were very specific to certain people taking part. It disturbed me and made me scared because I could see and feel that none of us were pushing the glass to take the piss. I never did it again but found it frightening. Did I suffer from lifelong mental health problems? Yes, but that began long before this happened. I can’t explain it and I don’t understand it but I do think there was some sort of force at work when we did it. It left me really anxious and paranoid that I was being watched for a very long time. Years later at a spiritualist church I was told that it was about dark energy forces and why it shouldn’t be dabbled with.

What, the glass continued moving when no one was touching it?

I wouldn’t touch one with a barge pole or allow one in the house. DDs know how I feel about them. I am a bit “woo” and don’t rule out that ghosts may exist, at least as intense energy imprints, and i know one sceptic who used one and was unnerved by the experience.

But, as PPs have said, i think the main thing is the feelings they can whip up in people at vulnerable times and adolescence is a vulnerable time. I know myself well enough to know i would end up scared, upset and panicking just from the mere fact of having tried one and had no wish to do that to myself.

Entirely possible, it would have had a load of people unconsciously pushing it for quite a while. If they all suddenly let go, it probably would continue to skid a bit, especially since most of them would also have given it an unconscious push at the end. Or on purpose, to freak people out.

Ideomotor movement. That Derren Beown chapter is absolutely worth looking up. He had some fun at uni once by planting suggestions among the group doing the board. It started confirming stuff that never happened.

Well it creates an awful confirmation bias if you’re ‘attuned’ and you believe in it so that anything remotely out of the ordinary is going to be put down the summoning of spirits.

That said it’s absolutely not something I’d do, I think you open yourself up to all sorts of vulnerabilities and thoughts that are best left alone.

Yes. I also did it as a teenager and it was terrifying. The force. The glass spelt out the name of a tutor I had that no-one else would have known. I’d never ever do it again.

I also believe in ghosts. Seen a few. Weren’t scary at all. In a very old house I once owned. Both had lived there before.

I am one of the most pragmatic and sensible people you will ever meet.

I don't dismiss ghosts and believe I have felt a presence. I suspect I have a sixth sense.

I wouldn't pursue anything "woo" because I am genuinely concerned I could make a connection. I woukdn't touch an ouija board with a barge pole.

Without doubt, issues in life are better resolved in life than after life.

The glass spelt out the name of a tutor I had that no-one else would have known.

You knew it.

No, I said we each took our finger off one at a time - ie while I took mine off the rest didn’t. Then I put mine back on and the next person took theirs off. And so on until each of us had done so while the rest continued touching it. So each of us knew it wasn’t us pushing it. It felt like it was almost hovering a millimetre above the surface like it wasn’t actually in contact with the table.

You are not at all skeptical. You are gullible.

If you were skeptical, you wouldn't be saying your experiences have no logical explanation, you would be saying you haven't yet found a logical explanation. A logical explanation exists.

Ouija boards are toys and are marketed and sold as such

Yes, as a young teen we used one all the time. It "works", as in it will move and I genuinely don't think anyone is consciously doing it. But when several hands are placed on a glass it is easy to make it move without even realising. You kind of will it to move and yiu subconsciously move it. Its hard to explain but looking back that it what was happening. It does feel creepy at the time and it does work - but it ain't no spirit! I've also done them as a young adult for a laugh. The same thing happened ie. it worked but it was us collectively and unconsciously pushing the glass.

Collective imagination/ hysteria