![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Look, I get the stigma surrounding ouija boards. I've had my own negative experiences before; some things I can classify as the other people involved messing around or the ideomotor effect, but chairs don't just throw themselves across rooms, y'all. Ouija boards have a reputation, but that's all it is, just a reputation. And they get this reputation because of how easy it is to obtain or make a ouija board (bruh, just make one yourself. $30 is ridiculous for a piece of cardboard), how easy it is to make contact, and how many horror stories spread across the internet about them.
But the truth?
They are no more dangerous than, say, picking up a voice recorder and opening a line of communication that way, having a seance, or even just dumping out your garbage bin and telling the spirits to give you a message using the trash in your bin.
If you open up a line of communication between yourself and dead people, you are going to attract more dead people, because dead people want to be heard and if you're listening, they're going to try their hardest to get your attention. You also have the potential to attract entities of other varieties, some of whom may have less than pure intentions.
But this has absolutely nothing to do with the ouija board itself. The board is a tool; it's there to make initial contact easier, and that's its only job. Burning the ouija board or burying it will do nothing to stop a haunting that spawned because of you playing with it, because the ouija board didn't cause the haunting, you did.
There will always be an inherent danger if you play around with the occult without knowing what you are doing, which is why it's important, when doing any form of spirit contact or any other occult practice, to do thorough research before participating. There are no rules specific to a ouija board that aren't the same across the board for other necromantic practices.
Also ZoZo is not as huge a thing as those 3am challenge youtubers like to make it out to be. ZoZo is not some "ancient ouija board demon" because a.) ouija boards are not ancient and have only been around since the spiritualist movement, and b.) ZoZo didn't show up until a post on trueghosttales.com in early 2009 (archived link and active link that contains more recent comments. Caution, the site is so chock full of ads, make sure you have ad blocker enabled in case of viruses), when everyone kinda jumped on that wagon and started posting their own ZoZo stores. I was active on this site at this time and was there to personally witness this explosion in new stories once the original was posted.
That doesn't mean that ZoZo isn't something to watch out for, because, assuming that most of the stories aren't made up for some paranormal clout, ZoZo does seem to have the penchant as well as the ability to ruin your night, but it's not some ancient demon. It's at most either some stray entity who adopted the name, or an egregore running wild.
TL;DR A ouija board isn't going to possess you if you have one in your house or on your T-shirt. It is a tool and is no more dangerous than any other form of spirit communication. The only danger is people dabbling in the occult that don't know what they're doing.
But the truth?
They are no more dangerous than, say, picking up a voice recorder and opening a line of communication that way, having a seance, or even just dumping out your garbage bin and telling the spirits to give you a message using the trash in your bin.
If you open up a line of communication between yourself and dead people, you are going to attract more dead people, because dead people want to be heard and if you're listening, they're going to try their hardest to get your attention. You also have the potential to attract entities of other varieties, some of whom may have less than pure intentions.
But this has absolutely nothing to do with the ouija board itself. The board is a tool; it's there to make initial contact easier, and that's its only job. Burning the ouija board or burying it will do nothing to stop a haunting that spawned because of you playing with it, because the ouija board didn't cause the haunting, you did.
There will always be an inherent danger if you play around with the occult without knowing what you are doing, which is why it's important, when doing any form of spirit contact or any other occult practice, to do thorough research before participating. There are no rules specific to a ouija board that aren't the same across the board for other necromantic practices.
Also ZoZo is not as huge a thing as those 3am challenge youtubers like to make it out to be. ZoZo is not some "ancient ouija board demon" because a.) ouija boards are not ancient and have only been around since the spiritualist movement, and b.) ZoZo didn't show up until a post on trueghosttales.com in early 2009 (archived link and active link that contains more recent comments. Caution, the site is so chock full of ads, make sure you have ad blocker enabled in case of viruses), when everyone kinda jumped on that wagon and started posting their own ZoZo stores. I was active on this site at this time and was there to personally witness this explosion in new stories once the original was posted.
That doesn't mean that ZoZo isn't something to watch out for, because, assuming that most of the stories aren't made up for some paranormal clout, ZoZo does seem to have the penchant as well as the ability to ruin your night, but it's not some ancient demon. It's at most either some stray entity who adopted the name, or an egregore running wild.
TL;DR A ouija board isn't going to possess you if you have one in your house or on your T-shirt. It is a tool and is no more dangerous than any other form of spirit communication. The only danger is people dabbling in the occult that don't know what they're doing.
