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Experiences With The Ouija Board (IHTM)

We made one whilst working in France. I found an excellent piece of wood and convinced the girl in the room next to me to do the design. So we went up the chateaux on our site, a winding narrow staircase full of dead bugs, enough to warrant complaints from whom who saw it, and sat in the top room. Five of us gathered, candles lit. We contacted a welsh man who had died in the 19th century. Nearly every question was answered by numbers!

I'm pretty sure one of the girls was moving the glass. I was disappointed.

I would still like to give it another go, with people I could trust. I want to be able to tell a true story that ends with something like... "it wasn't until the next day I realised the spirit was me!"
 
I got a Ouija board for Xmas from my gran in about 1979, when I was nine. I remember we all used it Xmas night, while telling ghost stories. Absolutely nothing happened, and never did the few times I used it afterwards. It did allow us to have a fun and scary evening, with scary stories. Which, as it's a game- with no more power to raise the dead than Monopoly- meant to enhance social interaction, is entirely to be expected.
 
I got a Ouija board for Xmas from my gran in about 1979, when I was nine. I remember we all used it Xmas night, while telling ghost stories. Absolutely nothing happened, and never did the few times I used it afterwards. It did allow us to have a fun and scary evening, with scary stories. Which, as it's a game- with no more power to raise the dead than Monopoly- meant to enhance social interaction, is entirely to be expected.

So they say. I'm still scared of the bloody things. Dark nights, no problem. Ghost hunts, no problem. Having friends who were variously into the occult - never turned a hair.

Ouija board, problem.

Thing is, even without anything supernatural occurring, stuff can still happen. I gave up doing Tarot readings, which I used to do as a party trick (with the ulterior motive of attracting girls, of course) because despite the fact that I was making it up as I went along, people would start changing what they intended to do based on my readings.

Well, you can't exactly make it up as you go along, because you have to be consistent regarding the basic meaning of each card, though you can spin it based on context. Also everyone thinks Death is the nasty card when actually its the Tower.
 
when actually its the Tower.

Depends, context really is everything, change can be painful, true, and the tower represents a significant and sudden change, there really isn't anything bad (or indeed good) in it, or indeed any other card.

The problem which you've hit upon is the because the images are so archetypal they can really affect folks who see something negitive in them. Elphias Levi believed the imagery to be far more ancient than simple playing cards would suggest and the tarot simply a more recent incarnation of the images, I'm not so sure, but they are a powerful tool for counselling if your intent is positive and constructive.
 
I'm genuinely scared of Ouija boards and I don't really know why. I have several packs of Tarot cards in the house and they don't bother me, but an Ouija board would go straight on the bonfire.

There's no question of me having been scared by people using one (unless I've suppressed the memory really well) because if someone got one out at a party or whatever I'd be on my bike.

I don't think it matters whether it really contacts dead people or demons or whatever or whether its all in people's hades.

Sorry, I mean heads. That was a genuine mistype that I thought was worth preserving. See how dangerous they are? Even thinking about them can let stuff through. :) sorta...

I can understand that.
I remember at junior school a girl carefully writing out the alphabet on little squares of paper and, with a glass, swiped from the canteen, 6 or 7 of us held an impromptu ouija session in a store room adjacent to our classroom one lunchtime. The girl asked "is there anybody there?" and, after a short pause the glass started to move and spelt out "why" . We started to freak out and all swore that we weren't pushing the glass. Our session ended promptly then, with a couple of girls in tears. I can remember feeling really frightened that night and having trouble sleeping. Was quite a relief to see my friends the next day! Have never dabbled in ouija since.
Have a couple of Tarot packs at home though - not for divination purposes, but to play the historical French card game of Tarot. It's a moderately complex, trick-taking game, with a slight resemblance to Bridge and is a popular after-dinner game in France, or whenever we have members of the French family visiting us.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fédération_Française_de_Tarot
 
I have used a ouija board on many occasions and only once did anything unsettling occur during and after it's use. I don't however blame the activity on the board itself that night, but more so on the location where we were using it.
My wife, who was raised a Catholic is very much against them, so I have not used one since being with her, however if she ever were to be open to the idea, I wouldn't hesitate as I find them fascinating.
I was given one when I was around 7 years old which my mother and I used to use. We used to ''play with it'' often until one day we asked it if I had lived before. It replied I had and told me I was called ''Napoleon'' in my previous lifetime. This was all well and good until the planchette started moving on it's own, which scared my mother so much so that I never saw the board again.
I have mentioned on this forum before that my wife and I own a couple of retail giftware stores. We sell a lot of childrens toys & games. Our games supplier has a wonderful rep who visits us monthly to take orders and to show us new products. In his catalogue is a page of ouija boards. He tells me he sells hundreds every month.
 
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I have used a ouija board on many occasions and only once did anything unsettling occur during and after it's use. I don't however blame the activity on the board itself that night, but more so on the location where we were using it.
My wife, who was raised a Catholic is very much against them, so I have not used one since being with her, however if she ever were to be open to the idea, I wouldn't hesitate as I find them fascinating.
I was given one when I was around 7 years old which my mother and I used to use. We used to ''play with it'' often until one day we asked it if I had lived before. It replied I had and told me I was called ''Napoleon'' in my previous lifetime. This was all well and good until the planchette started moving on it's which scared my mother so much so that I never saw the board again.
I have mentioned on this forum before that my wife and I own a couple of retail giftware stores. We sell a lot of childrens toys & games. Our games supplier has a wonderful rep who visits us monthly to take orders and to show us new products. In his catalogue is a page of ouija boards. He tells me he sells hundreds every month.

Gotta feel sorry for poor old Napoleon (and Hitler).
Since the invention of the Ouija board, they can't get a minute's rest on the "other side".
 
Make of this what you want folks, but I had a really scary experience with a ouija board when in my teens.I still see it as a paranormal experience and not a telekinetic joint mind power type deal.Although anything is possible. I was 16, the age when people usually try daft things and there was about 12 to 14 teenagers there{after youth club}.We "contacted" 3 spirits. One teenager who apparently drowned,and old man{who we lost contact with} and a little boy who also drowned. The scariest part {and there were many}was I knew of the little boy and his family but nobody else in the room did. I didn't touch the board all night and didn't really want a part of it, but I couldn't help but be transfixed with it all. At one point when conversing with the boy, the there teenagers touching the pointer lost their grip and it moved itself. I shit you not.The boy became confused when being asked questions which I thought he would know{ie his brothers age etc}The teenagers on the pointer became really scared and asked him to say goodbye. He then asked if he could stay. I think every teenager in the room sychronised shitting their pants at that point. They asked him to please go and he went to goodbye. We were all terrified. I don't think about it much now but at the time it really scared me. Did I see evidence of the other side ?was some how all our minds moving it?I don't think so but it's possible.what scares me the most is I don't think the spirit was the little boy I think it was something pretending to be him, which shits right up.
 
GAH! people DONT play about with them boards PLEASE,
what you can unleash is nasty nasty nasty :evil:
This and similar posts make me wonder why Ouija boards in particular are associated with great spiritual danger from nasty sprites and demonic imps.
What is supposed to make Ouija boards dangerous, if tuning into dreams, guardian angels, and intuitions are not considered so?
 
What is supposed to make Ouija boards dangerous,
I recall reading somewhere (ETA here!) - maybe even on here - that the Ouija board was regarded as harmless family entertainment for a couple of decades, and it was in fact Parkers' (or some other game manufacturers') best-selling game for a while: it apparently outsold Monopoly in the 1960s. Then it featured in the Exorcist, and that film appearance was enough to ruin the board's reputation as wholesome family fun, although this led to an alternative market... Conversely, are there any tales of ouija-related weirdness (by which I mean beyond the board/planchette interplay) that predate the movie?
 
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"Krepostnoi,"]I recall reading somewhere (ETA here!) - maybe even on here - that the Ouija board was regarded as harmless family entertainment for a couple of decades, and it was in fact Parkers' (or some other game manufacturers') best-selling game for a while: it apparently outsold Monopoly in the 1960s. Then it featured in the Exorcist, and that film appearance was enough to ruin the board's reputation as wholesome family fun, ]
It was harmless family entertainment for decades before "The Exorcist" and before frightened fundie Christians got oh so worried. Most 40's, 50's, 60's, and early 70's kids played with one. Our much older cousins gave our family their forties version of the board in the 50's, a Hasko Mystic Board. We mostly used it as a lap desk--my mom found it the right size to deal solitaire on, but in the early 70's a teen friend and I tried it a few times and got nothing, or got replies that we would marry our favorite pop stars. Pretty sure she moved the pointer to get that she would marry Ray Thomas of the Moody Blues. After that it was pretty ignored until I hung it over our kitchen table in order to admire the fine graphics of our collectible. The tiniest touch of weirdness might be that I, not my friend, married a fellow whose first name is Ray and whose middle name is Thomas. He hates pop music, though, and I still think she was moving the planchette.
Found this online, a healthier specimen of our pretty but sadly damaged collectible:
 

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I believe that "bad things" started happening to people almost from the start of production.
 
... of people, or of the board game ?

i think its all shenanigans and allows parlour tricksters to perform for a gullible audience ... as the sorely missed @markbellis pointed out :
One of the things that makes me wonder is that if no one is pushing the planchette, why do you have to touch it and look at the board to make it work? James Randi and Penn and Teller have done experiments where blindfolded ouija boarders have been unable to produce any messages.

In order to show that no one is pushing the planchette, you would have to do what Faraday did with his cards or at least do a blindfold test - you'd have to make sure no one does what's called a "nose peek".
 
On the one occasion I used one with neighbours I tried mentally to spell out the boy's name we had decided to use if the child I was carrying was male.
When we each touched the glass it was like an electric current ran down my arm and it spelled out the name we had chosen if the child was a girl. None of the neighbours knew the names we had chosen.
The neighbour's Siamese cat started running round wailing and as no other messages were forthcoming we stopped.
That night I felt as if something was sitting on my chest so decided not to do it again.
Later I read about people having unpleasant experiences so have never used it again.
Some of the neighbours continued using it but became afraid after getting unpleasant messages and all of them later divorced although I don't know if that had anything to do with it.
 
My mother had 3 girls and her 2 sisters had boys, I had 3 girls and my sisters had boys, my eldest has girls and my youngest has a boy.
 
But it's the male that determines the sex of the child...
 
But it's the male that determines the sex of the child...
While it's true that the sperm makes the egg develop as female or male, it's a little more complicated. Blood groups, genetics, all sorts.
 
A mate of mine insists that the ouija board is a load of rubbish. Later I asked him if he wanted to have a go with one and he flatly refused to do so. When I asked why he said "I'm not taking any chances". That, to my perception, seems to be quite a common feeling amongst people.

Most instances, I suspect, are caused by the board users. But regarding PSI and such like, it may be a more complicated issue than just unintentional fraud.
 
A mate of mine insists that the ouija board is a load of rubbish. Later I asked him if he wanted to have a go with one and he flatly refused to do so. When I asked why he said "I'm not taking any chances". That, to my perception, seems to be quite a common feeling amongst people.

Most instances, I suspect, are caused by the board users. But regarding PSI and such like, it may be a more complicated issue than just unintentional fraud.

I have had goes with ouija boards and seen all sorts of mad stuff. Wouldn't do it again, not because I believe or don't believe in it but because it's just trouble. I won't be drawn into it again.
 
Having just finished the book 'The Trickster & The Paranormal' it really fits into society in general disliking the blurring of boundaries. Hence the reaction of "its a load of rubbish" while being nervous enough not to give it a go. Just what are you frightened of then Mr Skeptic?
 
Not ouija but similar - as a youth, with my mate John, my sister, & Sally from down the road, used Lexington cards [remember them?] spread in a circle on a polished table top & upturned wine glass. It was sometime after our dad died, although I don't think we were expecting anything because of that.

We definitely got movement & all I can say is it wasn't me. At one point we asked if there was a message for anyone present. It spelt out John. There was some trepidation & I was relieved the message wasn't for me, as probably were the others. The message was something like 'don't forget the books' - totally mundane but something of a relief.

Tried it decades later with another mate, just the 2 of us, & nothing happened. I think there has to be more than 2 present - if it's not me then it's you. Plus we were both sceptical bastards.

What's the set-up with a ouija - do you rest a finger on the pointer or what?
 
Having just finished the book 'The Trickster & The Paranormal' it really fits into society in general disliking the blurring of boundaries. Hence the reaction of "its a load of rubbish" while being nervous enough not to give it a go. Just what are you frightened of then Mr Skeptic?

Do you mean me?
 
I have had goes with ouija boards and seen all sorts of mad stuff. Wouldn't do it again, not because I believe or don't believe in it but because it's just trouble. I won't be drawn into it again.
The only time I've done anything close to a Ouija board was when my big Sister made a rudimentary one when we were little kids in the 70's .. she drew numbers and letters in a circle and asked the questions with us both putting a finger on a 2 pence coin. The board spelled out Hitler and Harriet (Harriet was her hamster who had died) .. no idea how a hamster would know how to spell its name .. my Sister was a prankster who pretty much got me into all things Fortean and weird so I forgive her .. she once convinced me she could fart the national anthem and later told me she'd just been snapping her pant elastic instead.

I've met a few people telling me not to try Ouija boards including my Dad who warned me off them, a school teacher of mine and others. I can still remember seeing them for sale in the kids toys sections in some shops.
 
I have recalled my ouija experience on another thread. It was terrifying and something I'm still not comfortable talking about today. I don't think it was spirits of deceased people,but other entities pretending to be them. It's not to be meddled with, seriously no matter how experienced people are in mediumship or the like.
 
I've flat out refused to be anything to do with Ouija boards during a ghost invest to my team, they know and are respectful about where I stand on that. We had someone want to join us once on an invest who was also trying to sell Ouija boards through us and I refused him.
A really strange story involving a medium and my step sister in law Jane{if there is such a family position exsists}. Jane's father died and she was naturally heartbroken..She tried various mediums to try and contact him without success. My sister went to a medium,a private sitting, and was told to pass on a message to Jane from her father. He relayed that he was better and regretted that he died when she was abroad, but they would see each other again etc.He then said that under no circumstances should she ever try to contact him again using a ouija board because it was dangerous and would not be him she contacted. My sister obviously shocked relayed the story to Jane. Jane was very emotional but also horrified as she admitted she had tried to contact her father via the board. The story is pretty crazy on several levels.
 
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