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?

When we played once as a young teen I was the one pushing the glass. It takes very little pressure to move it where you want.

We did it as a family, dad asked what was wrong with the car and it spelled “CARBURETOR”. Then I did it with a friend and a wardrobe door banged, a bin fell over and a big draft went through the room. We just giggled - nervously - and stopped. In my mum’s road they used to do it all the time to contact other neighbours who had died! They thought nothing of it. But I never knew it was a marketed game, we just made our own.

Also if its really ideometer moving it how come sometimes people do it and nothing happens?

I have only used a Ouija board on a couple of occasions.

I believe they can initiate contact with spirits. As I see it, the spirit world is as diverse as this one; not every spirit is going to be pleasant or friendly. Some might be hostile and downright nasty; some might be mischievous and find it fun to mess with people.

I recommend that if people are going to use a Ouija board that they do at least a simple protection ritual beforehand (this can be envisioning a circle of white protective light surrounding the space.)

The last time I used one with a couple of friends, we didn't get a message spent out on the board, but my friend's computer (which was in the same room) suddenly went a bit haywire, with multiple pages flashing up on the screen. The three of us were sitting around the Ouija Board, so certainly weren't responsible.

It could have just been a coincidental, weird malfunction of the computer - but it's said that spirits can affect technology, so I've always thought it possible that it was a spirit letting us know of its presence.

I have done one with my family. The glass moved a lot, spelling out “messages” only my mum would have understood the reference to. I get that you can unconsciously push the glass, but you can’t unconsciously pull the glass towards you so each person would have had to be unconsciously pushing towards the same letters. We did it for quite a while and it spelled out lots. I really am a total boring skeptic, but I know what happened. My family either have some weird psychic connection with each other (no evidence of that) or there was some other force. I would never do it again.

What happened?

There’s a very funny/revealing clip of “Most Haunted” where they’re doing a ouija board and Yvette Fielding is wearing gloves and she’s obviously trying to push the glass but instead her glove slides across the top of it 🤣

When I was in year 7 and 8, I went through a Ouja board phase with my friends. We did them all the time, at sleepovers an even during school.
I definitely moved the cup sometimes on purpose. Other times other people did. Although noone ever said they did. We wanted to believe it so we just dis. But It is definitely nonsense. The collective energy and belief can whip up a frenzy, I knew I was moving the cup but I so wanted to believe we had done something crazy and mystical. We defiitely all thought we had some mystical powers. We were a bunch of hysterical preeteens at midnight doing ouja.
We had some spirits we spoke to all the time, I can't remember the names now but we invented the characters out of our collective imaginations

This.

Some people are mentally vulnerable to crap like Ouija boards and might imagine things afterwards on the shadows.

We did a few as teens. Usual spelling out of familiar names and faux freaked out reactions. Once we did it in the church porch until suddenly all the lights went out and we scarpered into the night.

Reader, the lights were on a timer.

Collective hysteria is real.

No and I never will. It probably is nonsense but I wouldn't risk it. Being dark and spooky it could lead you to think your seeing things even if you aren't. I do believe in life after death, I do believe in ghosts and have had a couple of experiences of weird things. I'm certainly not mentally ill! The keyboard always goes off in my in laws house when we visit, it's switched off and unplugged. MIL died last year. FIL reports other things. I think there are things beyond our senses and comprehension that do happen and just because we don't understand it doesn't make it not so. I also think as humans we are quite arrogant to think we can and must explain everything away. We can only see things in our own physical boundaries. There is more to the universe than just us and our technologies, there are probably more senses that we aren't in tune with in the same frequencys so can't see every thing that's around. Just my opinion. Either way it's an interesting topic. I love hearing stories of the paranormal, near death experiences ect but I would not want to see a ghost and don't seek them out. It would scare me!! I have loads of friends that say they don't believe in god / afterlife but then visit mediums?? So I assume they are hoping there is an afterlife. I would never visit a medium either.

Very good points in the article the poster linked:

"Ouija boards are associated with fear and danger in popular culture.
Research shows that they can produce negative psychological outcomes in some users.
Negative consequences from use only affect people who believe in the paranormal."

Yes, this happened when I was a teenager too. It seemed to have a life of its own, was very aggressive and would come off the table onto our hand. I don't believe in it but still it happened.

Yeah, we used one to contact Mozart on a residential orchestra course.
What a load of shite! I suspect one of the older kids was pushing the glass.

This. Some people do convince themselves otherwise though 🤷

Sometime before WW1, my teenage grandmother came downstairs one night to find her sisters playing with a ouija board. It ended up on the fire courtesy of Nanny and her words were more or less that they were 2 very silly girls anyway and would probably scare themselves out of whatever wits they had, also great grandmother would have pulverised them if she found out.

Because nobody is into it enough to be unconsciously pushing it. But people who decide to play with this toy usually do it because they want something to happen. They often get worked up as a group too and nobody wants to be a party pooper so everyone gets in on it, hence the "we did it individually and the glass always moved!" stuff. Nobody wants to be the one to break the spell, consciously or not.

It's not actually a theory. It's proven and known that these things work by ideomotor movement. Even if ghosts and stuff do exist, they don't use mass produced cardboard toys from Hasbro. Obviously lots of people don't or don't want to believe this, and they don't have to, but that doesn't stop it from being true.

Here's one for the times.

The only thing they ‘open’ is a portal to a bunch of over-excited teenagers wanting to know which one of them is going to be the first to die.

“Hereforthecommentz · Today 10:03

No and I never will. It probably is nonsense but I wouldn't risk it. Being dark and spooky it could lead you to think your seeing things even if you aren't. I do believe in life after death, I do believe in ghosts and have had a couple of experiences of weird things. I'm certainly not mentally ill! The keyboard always goes off in my in laws house when we visit, it's switched off and unplugged. MIL died last year. FIL reports other things. I think there are things beyond our senses and comprehension that do happen and just because we don't understand it doesn't make it not so. I also think as humans we are quite arrogant to think we can and must explain everything away. We can only see things in our own physical boundaries. There is more to the universe than just us and our technologies, there are probably more senses that we aren't in tune with in the same frequencys so can't see every thing that's around.”

This is my take on it. It also surprises me that people take things like TV and long distance phone calls for granted - eg that scrambled images can be sent down a chord and unscrambled into a perfect picture and that you can be in the UK and have a call in real time with someone in Australia - but cannot imagine that the scientific elements that allow that to happen can’t and don’t also carry other information and images.

The scariest thing for me is that most people don't believe in anything.

Thinking logically can be helpful for those scared out of their wits. Ouija set ups are linked to danger, malevolence and evil aren’t they. Bad presences. So let’s imagine there are all these dangerous, not-very-nice ghosts bobbing about the room at all times but not being very shit-scary at all. Until you spread out a few lettered pieces of paper and turn one of your drinking glasses upside down. Suddenly: evil mayhem! Is that something which really makes sense? That all these really dangerous, manipulative entities who want to cause upset and fuckery can’t think of any manner of doing so, and are instead lingering around waiting for all their bad shenanigans to be ‘unlocked’ by a few letters being put down on a table or on the floor in a circle?

My elder sister (very down to earth chemistry student) and her housemates used one ‘for a laugh’ in their old house in Aberdeen. Sister never expected anything to happen, so was freaked out when a large wooden wardrobe started moving about in her bedroom at night.
Said she’d never mess with an ouija board again.

Dbro, boarding at a cathedral school with several very ancient buildings, tried one with friends - again, ‘for a laugh’. He’d have been about 16.

He himself didn’t see or experience anything, but soon afterwards, one or two of the younger boys were very frightened by ‘something’ they’d seen or witnessed.
In the end, the bishop performed an exorcism, and the problem disappeared.
Dbro is another who wouldn’t use an ouija board again.

“This is my take on it. It also surprises me that people take things like TV and long distance phone calls for granted - eg that scrambled images can be sent down a chord and unscrambled into a perfect picture and that you can be in the UK and have a call in real time with someone in Australia - but cannot imagine that the scientific elements that allow that to happen can’t and don’t also carry other information and images.”

No-one but me will care about this but the final lines should have read “cannot imagine that the scientific elements that allow [TV and long-distance calls] to happen can and do also carry other information and images.”

I haven’t and would never. I used to use Tarot cards when in my early 20s and offered lots of cold readings to people I had never met (through a website). They would email me their question and I would do a spread. Out of 20 readings one would be a bit off but they came back and said it made a difference and they could relate to what I said.

maybe that was a massive coincidence but I always felt mentally wiped out afterwards, like it cost me my energy. Anyway I didn’t like to continue as lots of people were vulnerable and in a bad place even though the readings were never more than £30. Also since having children I would never even have tarot cards in the house, that door is firmly shut.