Experiences with ouija boards ?

Question

What are people's experiences with ouija boards ?, good or bad ?. I've heard a lot of warnings about them. Does any good ever come of it ?. Can you do one on your own ?.

Answer 1

I played the ouija board a number of times years ago and nothing happened.  Nothing happened when my friends played it.  Nothing comes from it - neither good nor bad.  It does not work it you try to play it on your own.  You need to play it with friends, with people who know each other well, so they will know the answers to the questions asked.

The ouija board is just a game that you can buy in most toy stores and department stores, an ordinary piece of wood or plastic or cardboard.  It is meant for two or more players so it will not work very well if you try to use it alone.  It has no supernatural powers.  It does not communicate with the dead and it does not contact spirits.  It does not open any portals to the underworld or to anywhere else.  The people using the ouija board make it work through ideomotor movement.  It plays on your mind and imagination and your susceptibilities and beliefs and fears.  It can be scary because the imagination is a powerful thing, and can make you believe just about anything.  Here are a couple of links that discuss ouija boards and how to use them.  

Answer 2

You want to know the secret behind the Ouija board?

HAND & EYE COODINATION.

Simple enough?

That's how the damned thing works.

A demon, spirit, ghost, or anything else doesn't make the planchette move.

The people with their fingers on it make it move.

Do an experiment.

Let some people play with the board.

Ask the board about 5 to 7 general questions.

Blindfold everyone and turn the board the opposite direction, and ask the same 5 to 7 generic questions again.

What you will find are random letters and numbers chosen, versus spelled out responses when the participants could see.

If you think the board is evil, that's based on your personal beliefs.

Answer 3

It is an interesting thing...

On one hand Ouija boards do "work" (as in they will apparently move on their own) but this is caused by the Ideomotor Effect; a subconscious movement.

BUT

Anyone who claims that it interacts with spirits is just being fooled by their own subconscious. Further, their whole of evidence is just that it  answered questions for them - and I would say, "yes, but it was you who answered" (via ideomotor action).

Don't believe me? Have whomever claims it works to do it while blindfolded (and spin the board around once or twice on them)... You'll be amazed at how blindfolding a user affects the spirits' ability to communicate coherently!

Apologists will justify this failure to work by a variety of excuses. All it really shows is that WE are moving the planchette and if we can't see the board it moves incoherently.

Even so, there are still folks out there who claim it works (another subconscious power is confirmation bias - failure to notice contradicting evidence). They either are trying to fool you, or they don't understand the ideomotor effect.

Also keep in mind that this was a game made by businessmen trying to cash in on the "psychic wave" of the mid to late 1800s.

Further, the "mysterious, dangerous and dark history" of the board was created by William Fuld in the 1890s as a marketing gimmick to save the struggling company. Apparently it worked; I still hear remnants of his tale told today as "fact".

This tale, along with the powerfully convincing ideomotor effect has fooled many into believing the board is some sort of portal. Me, I think the ideomotor effect is, on its own, way cooler than the spirit tale, and for this reason alone I encourage anyone to experience it.

Answer 4

For all the ghost stories it's just a toy and nothing more.

Answer 5

don't use ouija boards! ouija board acts as a kind of portal and is dangerous! there are supposed to be special rituals and such that can close the door that you open to communicate with the paranormal, but im not sure how safe and real all of them are. it would be best not to because i've heard of bad things that happen to people who use ouija boards who don't know what there doing, even if all you want to do is talk to grandma. what you might want to do is just call a paranormal research group and see if they will let them come, they probably won't but it would be safer i think if they would allow it.

also if they do, do anything i come to understand that standing in a circle of salt is supposed to help keep you safe.

Answer 6

LEAVE WELL ALONE!!!

Answer 7

lol, don't mess with it, i don't' care what anyone states about it being a toy or fake if you are blind folded etc, if they think it is only a toy, i suggest they speak with those that practice wicca, voodoo, and other pagan religions and ask about voodoo dolls curses etc.  the fact of the matter is that if you believe, then you open a door to whatever is behind the board, good or bad.  i have seen them not work for some individuals, and for others i have seen the create chaos in peoples lives.  leave well enough alone.  and if you really want to see what happens, place ouija board in browser and go to video, it will show you what you want to know

Answer 8

hi   i played a Ouija board at 14 year old was a scary night,,there were 6 of us    4 have died in tragic circumstances  don't mess with them i never Will again,,i swear there bad.

Answer 9

it didnt work for me but I tried it. Now at night things are strange

Answer 10

i work as a paranormal investigator and my boss has always had bad things happen they are bad and no good has ever come form them i had on we were in a hotel room trying to contact anything that might be in there and we got nothing so we were walking out he room and just as the last person got out the door went to grab the k**b to close in it slammed knocking him off his feet he helped him up and were he dding down the stairs (the elevator was being fixed) and me and 2 other people felt something grab out ankles and we rolled down the reaming stairs so if you thinking of playing with one i recommend you don't nothign might not happen but later on in life somethign might they wait till you least expecting them  

Answer 11

They go where you expect them to.  So you may find out surprising and uncomfortable things about yourself.  If there are disagreements in the group, you can end up pressing so hard that the tips of your fingers turn white, all the time denying that you are doing this (I have seen this happen).

So the best advice is, don't do it.   Not for supernatural but for the best of natural reasons.

Answer 12

I wouldn't be so eager to try them. I'll tell you that I've heard this question a million, scratch that, a billion times. And no, nothing good comes from them. They are a way to channel spirits. The board acts as a doorway from their world to ours, or so to speak. Now, there is no filter on this doorway and anybody can come through it, good or bad. The most frequently attracted to it, so it seems, are the bad once. Angry spirits who want to be heard and may not leave you alone or demonic entities who will pretend to be good, get your trust, and then reveal themselves. Then you're in too deep.

I would just stay away from them. Look into automatic writing. It's a safer alternative and you're not inviting anything weird into your home that way.

Answer 13

Only do it if you are willing to take the risk of it being real.

But I have never tried it, but I will soon.