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[theouijagirl]

Your “Funny” Ouija Board Demon Post Is Bad And You Should Feel Bad

Hi there! So you made a joke post about summoning a demon with a Ouija board. Maybe you made it to get some notes. Maybe you made it to make your friends chuckle. Or maybe, albeit a very tiny chance, you made it because you genuinely believe that Ouija boards summon demons and you want to warn everyone about this dangerous board game.

The fact of the matter is that Ouija boards do not summon demons. Period. Millions of Ouija boards are sold each year, and we do not hear millions of stories of people being plagued by demons. Even Zozo, the “Ouija board demon” is not a demon, but a spirit equivalent of a Tumblr joke post. It’s made to make them laugh as you panic and try to burn your board or whatever. And besides, nobody ever warns about angels coming through your Ouija board, or accidentally summoning an angel into your home, and demons are just another form of angel at the end of the day. You can read my longer post here where I further break down exactly why demons cannot be summoned with a Ouija board.

But shouldn’t this just make demonic Ouija board posts funnier? Because it can’t happen and it’s just a funny ha-ha on tumblr dot com? You would think so, if there weren’t people who genuinely still believe, despite basic common sense and logic, that Ouija boards are extremely dangerous and could kill you. And their proof of that? Funny ha-ha posts like yours. I’ve had many people tell me, in so many words, “Well, everyone believes Ouija boards summon demons, because there are posts and memes about it everywhere, so why should I believe you when you tell me otherwise?”

Your “joke” post is perpetuating a very negative stereotype, and could actually be harmful. How, you ask? Because those stories about people becoming possessed or having panic attacks after playing are because of their deep fear of demons coming after them for playing a board game. They go into hysterics. Posts like yours just add fuel to the fire. 

Occasionally I’ll see a post about how Ouija boards are evil and will summon demons and get you possessed, and when I message the person telling them how wrong they are, they reply, “It was a joke, get over it.” Which either means 1) they can’t be bothered to see the harm they are causing by perpetuating a stereotype, 2) they are mad that nobody laughed at their joke, or 3) they genuinely believed their post, and when they realized they were very wrong, were too embarrassed or mad about it to make an apology. I’ve had exactly ONE apology over a “joke” post when they learned that what they were doing wasn’t funny, and that the stereotype they’ve known about Ouija boards has been wrong all along.

If I’ve linked you to this post, take a second to reflect on your funny joke. Was it worth it? Are the notes you get more important than the safety of others? Was the brief attention you had more important than terrifying people and adding fuel to their phobia? Were the handful of followers you picked up more important than the idea that you’ve just perpetuated a negative stereotype that will be used as an example by religious extremists as to how board games are Satanic? 

If this post had you wondering more about Ouija boards and what else you didn’t realize about them before because popular culture told you otherwise, check out my other posts on why Ouija boards really are just board games, why Ouija boards won’t get you possessed, and how to safely play a Ouija board that doesn’t include rules like “burn the board after you play” or “never leave the planchette on the board” and all those other made up rules. And hey, if you learned something today and wanted to thank me, buy me a coffee.

Now please go and delete your post.

[theouijagirl]

The Warren Curse: Detailing the harm caused to the supernatural community by the Warrens. Part 3: The Amityville Horror

112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York was once considered “the most haunted house in America.” The Dutch Colonial house first made headlines after it was the location of a brutal mass murder, and once again after a family moved in, only to move out twenty-eight days later, leaving behind all of their possessions. Their story was turned into a book, The Amityville Horror, which later became a blockbuster movie. So naturally, the best known demonologist investigators had to look into the house, not because they were genuinely curious, but that they were riding the money train of Amityville.

Unlike my previous blog post about their Annabelle investigation, there is a LOT of evidence to look into about this case. For Annabelle, we do not know who owned her, where she was located, and when it all took place. For Amityville, we know all those things. George and Kathy Lutz still speak out to this day about the terror they faced in their brief stay at the house, and stand fervently behind their story. We know the haunting occurred in late 1975 into January 1976. And obviously we know where it was located, since they used actual images of the real house in the movie, making it an iconic Hollywood haunted house.

Unfortunately, all of the details behind the haunting and the Warren’s investigation seem to be pretty much made up. And also like Annabelle, we have far more proof that it’s a hoax than actually true.

Here is what we do know to be fact:

Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. killed his entire family as they slept on the night of November 13, 1974. His mother, father, and four younger siblings were all shot, and found face down in their beds. Butch rushed into a bar that morning claiming that he found his family all shot. He was arrested, and the lies he told to protect himself all fell apart, and he had to confess to the killings. He pled insanity, claiming that he heard voices telling him to kill his father, and claimed “once I started, I couldn’t stop”.

A year later, the Lutz family moved into the home, knowing full well that it was the scene of a brutal murder. They got it for fairly cheap, and even got to keep almost all of the DeFeo’s furniture. Just to be on the safe side, they had a priest bless the home. However, the Lutz family would flee twenty-eight days later, leaving everything behind, because, according to them, they were being terrorized by demons and negative entities.

Ed and Lorraine Warren were invited to inspect the home by a television news investigation team.

Those were all of the most truthful statements I can make about this case. These things I listed did actually, 100%, happen. Then why was it a hoax? Because these truths are mixed together with a lot of half truths, and a lot of lies. Here is what we kind of sort of maybe know about the haunting and murders.

Butch DeFeo may not have acted alone. His story has changed multiple times. He has claimed that his sister killed his father, then his mother killed her and her other children, and he killed his mother. He has said that a home intruder killed his parents. He claimed to be with his brother-in-law at the time of the murders (except that he didn’t have one). Regardless, Butch is serving six life sentences. But even though he lied so often about the murders, the evidence leans toward some little nuggets of truth. None of the neighbors heard gunshots that night, but they did hear the DeFeo’s dog barking. The gun didn’t have a silencer, meaning the loud bangs should have woken up the entire household, but everyone was found in their beds. It’s assumed that the easiest way of taking out an entire family with little to no fuss is to have multiple people shooting at the same time. But what does all of this have to do with the Warrens? Find out soon.

The Lutz’s claimed a myriad of haunting symptoms occurred to them. I’ll get to all the sensational stuff soon, but you have to wonder what makes someone lose so much money so quickly, if they didn’t have a good reason. Even if they did plan on selling a hoax to the press and to publishers and to Hollywood, seeing any profit off of that would take years. George and Kathleen bought the house for $80,000, as well as some new furniture. To leave all that behind and start fresh, just to try to pull off a hoax, seems a bit far-fetched. Clearly, something must have happened to them in that home, and since there’s no evidence of any earthly wrongdoing, it’s not unlikely that they did experience some negative paranormal activity. Not to mention that the Lutz’s did undergo a lie detector test, which they passed with flying colors. They would not have been able to do that if they were completely lying about everything they saw and experienced.

Ghost investigations are nothing without evidence, and the Warrens managed to snag a whopper of a photo during their night in Amityville. Someone on their team managed to snap this picture, which features a little boy in the corner who looks exactly like the youngest DeFeo child. And I want to believe, with all my heart, that it is a genuine ghost photo, because if it were then it would be the best, and creepiest, evidence of life after death.

But like I said before, there’s more evidence of the whole story being a hoax than there is of it being true. We know for a fact that six people were murdered in that house in one night, even though we may never know how or why or by exactly whom. But everything else about the story is totally, completely made up.

William Weber, Butch DeFeo’s lawyer, was approached by George Lutz with an idea. George had just abandoned his home, and told the lawyer that they could cook up a haunted house story together, most likely inspired by the current spooky fad brought on by The Exorcist movie a few years earlier. Weber figured he could get a retrial for his client, with the argument that Butch was possessed and that demons had killed his family, while the Lutzs earned a profit off of royalties. We know this to be fact, because Weber sued the Lutzs for capitalizing off of some of his ideas for the haunting, like the demon pig and oozing green slime, and not paying him the correct royalties.

And indeed, the details of the haunting are all ludicrous. To this day, they admit that they have no evidence of all that happened to them, and that we just have to take their word for it. But can we really believe when they say they witnessed their family members levitating, that there was a secret red room in the basement that their dog refused to go near, that priests who came to bless the house developed fevers and stigmata blisters, that green slime oozed from the walls and floorboards, that doors were ripped off their hinges, that their young daughter was being visited by a pig with glowing eyes, that cloven hoofprints were found in the snow outside, among many other wild stories? In fact, what finally drove them out of the house was too horrific, that the Lutzs refuse to say what even happened. All of these stories are lies, straight up. It’s not just that none of this would happen in an actual haunted house, but that we have proof that they are not true. There was a tiny room in the basement, but it was definitely included in the floorplans and the Lutzs had to have known about it when they bought it, as the DeFeo children used it as a little play area to store their toys. Future owners of the house (none of which ever reported any kind of haunting) showed that the original hinges made for the doors were still intact, and that not one had been removed or even fixed. One neighbor claimed that their cat would go over to the house constantly to play with the young Lutz daughter. It never once snowed in the time the Lutzs lived in the house. Not to mention, the Lutzs claimed to have made many police calls during their stay, but the police department has no record of any call to them ever coming from the house during that time, except after they had already fled. One night, January 12, the Lutzs said that a terrible rainstorm damaged the walls, shattered windows, and that some locks had mysteriously ripped out of doors, when we know on that night the wind was only about 12 mph with only a little bit of sleet. George Lutz claimed to witness Jodie the demon pig on Christmas Eve, lit up in the window by the light of the full moon, when we know that the moon was not just third-quarter that night, but had already set by the time he claimed to see the pig. The inconsistencies just keep piling up, to the point where pretty much everything that was described in the book can be written off as nonsense, or is just plain fiction.

The Warren’s investigation, of course, is icing on the cake, filling the story with even more lies to back up their ridiculous claims. They say to have experienced what I call the “Zak Bagans Effect”, where something happens to their bodies during an investigation that you cannot prove is true, such as feeling like they’re being pushed or held back. They eventually concluded, thanks to their paranormal “research” team, that the haunting was caused by a number of factors. First, that the Shinnicock natives had once used that land to treat their insane and fatally ill. I won’t get into the racism and white superiority that statements like these are linked to, because that’s a whole other blog post (not to mention it fills me with a very deep rage. There is no such thing as land being haunted because it was sacred to natives. If a church was demolished and houses built on the land, would it be severely haunted by demons because it was sacred ground? No, of course not, because that sounds ridiculous. But if you think the sacred land, or any land, that once belonged exclusively to non-white people could be haunted, then congrats, you’re racist), but the Shinnicock tribe lived nowhere near present day Amityville, much less used that specific spot as a sanitarium. The Warrens also blame the haunting on black magic, conducted by John Ketchum, who had a cottage on that plot of land. John Ketchum was a real person, and was most famous for trailblazing what is now Indiana and killing a LOT of Native Americans in the process. He never lived in New York, and was clearly not a part of the occult. Even though Ketchum is a common name in the Long Island area, there’s no evidence that black magic (whatever that means) was practiced specifically on that plot of land. So you would think, when presented with this hard evidence that they were incredibly wrong about everything, that they would take it all back, right? Wrong. They still have the “sacred Indian land and occult magic” excuse on their website about their investigation. They use this excuse to explain why Butch DeFeo suddenly killed his whole family, and how he did so with little to no fuss. Not only did the Devil make him do it, but somehow, the Devil literally did it. And of course, that makes more spooky evil energy, which was why the Lutz family faced so much turmoil.

And as for the spooky ghost photo? While the person in the picture may look like someone who was murdered in the home, he also looks an awful lot like one of the investigators on the scene that day, Paul Bartz. They were even wearing the same shirt. Bartz has refused to confirm or deny that it’s him in the photo.

This series on the Warrens is about exposing them for the harm that they caused in the paranormal community, and while their “it was brown people and Satan” excuse is just the worst, I think the most lasting impression that came out of Amityville was the fact that George Lutz was said to have woken up every night at 3:15 AM, and would experience some kind of terror each time. 3:15, apparently, was the time that the DeFeo family was murdered. To this day, so many people think that waking up at a certain time each night means you’re being haunted by demons, when it couldn’t be farther from the truth. For one thing, we don’t know the exact time the DeFeo family was murdered, but it was definitely in those early morning hours around 3:00 AM.  Second, it’s super normal to wake up around the same time each night. For me it’s around 4:00 AM, usually because I like to drink water before I go to sleep, so it’s around that time that I have to get up and pee. But Ed Warren had really run wild with this notion that 3 AM is the “witching hour”, because three is the Holy Trinity, or whatever. I had one of my followers tell me that their pastor had told them that Jesus had died around 3:00 PM, so 3:00 AM would be the opposite of that, and that’s why it’s the bad time. None of this is true, not even a little bit. Time as we perceive it does not exist in the spirit world. Spirits are not sitting around their clocks, staring at 2:59 so they can start haunting people at just the right time. Spirits are not going around the world, time zone to time zone, just so get their haunt on for one good hour. It makes no sense at all. If you believe the Witching Hour was a real thing, it means you’ve been literally duped by something the Warrens made up, which just goes to show how far their lies and deceit have come.

Time for sources! Snopes, the definitive website for getting the truth of everything, says the Amityville book and movie are not based on a true story. A wayback website called amityvillemurders.com that breaks down all the lies about the haunting. Here’s the detailed story of the Amityville Ghost Boy which includes Paul Bartz’s statement. A 2003 article from Skeptical Enquirer about how the haunting was made up for profit. A 1992 article from The New York Times about how the haunting was made up for profit. A 1979 Washington Post article about how the haunting was made up for profit. John Ketcham’s Wikipedia page where you can see he never lived in New York and was never driven out of Massachusetts for practicing witchcraft. And finally, the Warren’s side of the story, where they insist that all of the haunting is true even with glaring evidence against them.

In the next post, I’m going to cover the Enfield Poltergeist, which was the basis for the plot of The Conjuring 2. The Warrens claim it is a classic case of demonic possession, despite the evidence contradicting them, and despite the fact that they weren’t even allowed on the premises to investigate. This series takes a lot of time and research, so feel free to buy me a coffee if you found this post educational or insightful. And you can follow my research in the tag #thewarrencurse 

[theouijagirl]

The Warren Curse: Detailing the harm caused to the supernatural community by the Warrens. Part 4: The Enfield Poltergeist

On the night of August 31st, 1977, Peggy Hodgson called the police. Two of her four children, Janet and John, had heard some strange noises in their room. Peggy rushed in, and witnessed a large chest of drawers slide across the room. Peggy was a single mother, alone with the children in the house, so they rushed over to their neighbors for help. The neighbors came over, and also heard strange knocking sounds in the children’s room... and every other room that they entered. When the police arrived, they witnessed a chair slide across the room. And so began the two year saga of the Enfield Poltergeist.

The story became so notorious that it went down in history as one of the best archived hauntings, with lots of video evidence and photos of various incidents. It also had multiple witnesses, from neighbors to journalists to paranormal investigators, which is really unlike most haunting stories. It became so notorious that it was used as the plot of the film The Conjuring 2, in which the two main characters were Ed and Lorraine Warren. The fictional Ed and Lorraine save the family and expel the demon haunting the home, thus becoming the heroes of the story. The real Ed and Lorraine insisted that the Enfield case was one of the definitive hauntings that prove demonic possession is real, and swore up and down that the haunting was completely true.

Except that it wasn’t. Basically all of the major activity was debunked as a prank. Almost all of the paranormal investigators involved with the case agree to this, and even Janet admitted to faking most of the haunting. Only two people held tight to their belief that there was a demon haunting the house: Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Most of the activity centered around eleven-year-old Janet, and her sister, twelve-year-old Margaret. Small items, like Legos, would fly across the room. Doors opened and closed on their own. Footsteps, knocks, and bangs echoed through the home. Which was very standard poltergeist behavior. Peggy wanted as many witnesses to this activity as possible, and invited over pretty much everyone in her neighborhood in Enfield, a small borough of North London. There are a long list of witnesses, including people who were just passing by and saw things flying past the windows. Peggy was desperate for help, and wasn’t able to get any from local clergy and city council members, so she contacted the media. And that’s when stuff started to get weird.

The activity changed from basic poltergeist phenomena to the stuff you only see in movies. Janet was captured in photos being thrown out of her bed. She started speaking in a gruff, low voice that swore a lot, and referred to itself by a man’s name. Spoons were found bent. The increase in activity brought in all kinds of investigators, from the paranormal to scientists to regular journalists eager for a scoop, and soon plenty of articles in gossip newspapers like The Daily Mail appeared. Photographs of Janet being tossed across her bedroom were published, and many TV news journalists were able to interview “The Voice” through Janet, and have it on film.

Two paranormal investigators stayed in the Enfield home to chronicle everything: Guy Lyon Playfair and Maurice Grosse. They are considered the foremost experts on the case, along with a few other paranormal investigators who came by, via invitation, to check out the home. They also invited a slew of other professionals to investigate, such as magicians, ventriloquists, mediums, psychologists, and plenty of scientists to analyze everything from the house to Janet’s vocal chords. It was clear that, while the haunting activity was hot, Playfair and Grosse wanted as much proof and analysis of the haunting as they could. Which is what a good investigator does.

Very randomly, one night, Ed and Lorraine Warren showed up at the home. They had not been invited, and asked to interview Janet and check out the home. Playfair says that the Warrens were there for less than a day, and that at one point Ed had pulled him aside to explain how he could make a lot of money off of the haunting. Playfair quickly dismissed him. Janet would later say that she has no memory of meeting them.

Over time, a lot of the evidence of the haunting fell through. Motion cameras were set up around the home to detect any activity, and it picked up videos of Janet bending spoons. Everyone who analyzed the photos of Janet being tossed out of her bed clearly stated that they just looked like a girl jumping off the bed. The voice that came from Janet had a lot of her habits and manners of speech, and sometimes Janet would mean to say something in the voice and accidentally used hers, and sometimes vice versa. Activity most often happened off camera, or when nobody was around to witness it besides Janet and Margaret. Eventually, Janet and Margaret came clean about faking evidence, and many investigators (and me) came to the conclusion that while the activity could have started with actual paranormal activity, it turned into a sideshow for these girls to show off.

The Enfield Poltergeist reminds me of another famous hoax, created by teenage girls just for attention. The Cottingley Fairies were a series of photographs taken by two young cousins, which shows them hanging around in their garden with a bunch of fairies. At the time, people were baffled, and many (including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) believed they were genuine. It later came out that these girls had just cut out pictures of fairies from their storybooks and placed them just so, in order to make them look real. It was basically the first ever photoshop. Teenagers wanting and gaining attention is nothing new, and in this day and age it’s easier than ever, thanks to Instagram and YouTube. So for us now, it’s a little hard to imagine why some girls would fake something like this, whether it be photos or demonic possession, but at the time it was definitely addicting.

Only two paranormal investigators have never said that the Enfield Poltergeist wasn’t a hoax: Ed and Lorraine Warren. They added the story to their official case files, stating that Janet was clearly demonically possessed and that she even was levitating out of her bed while sound asleep, something that nobody else claims ever happened. The Warrens were the least educated about the haunting, and yet, when the Hollywood movie comes out about it, they are the main characters. Thanks to The Conjuring 2, the Warrens are synonymous with the Enfield Poltergeist, even though they have nothing to do with it.

My blog series is called The Warren Curse because, in my eyes, these two placed a curse on the paranormal community, bamboozling people into believing their lies, from regular people with little interest in the paranormal, to very serious figures in the community who have their own TV shows and movie deals. It’s why the angry messages I get about this series only come from people who have studied the Warren’s case files and nothing else, and consider themselves novice demonologists. The Enfield Poltergeist case just shows how deep the Warren’s fraud goes. In Playfair’s own words, “...they just wanted to make money off it.” Playfair, at the end of the day, truly wanted to believe in the haunting, even though he actually caught Janet in the middle of her setting up numerous pranks. Until his death, he truly believed there was a poltergeist in the home. So the fact that he still considered Ed Warren to be a money-hungry liar, who definitely fabricated stories about the haunting, should be proof enough that the Warrens are frauds.

There are a lot of sources out there about this case. There are a huge number of gossip magazine articles about the haunting as it was going on, and plenty more describing how it was all a hoax, so these are just the most interesting sources I’ll pull for you, and the rest you can Google. Here is Playfair’s interview about the Warren’s involvement in the haunting case. Here is a Skeptical Inquirer article about the case, which includes some nice tidbits about how the Warrens are notorious liars. Here’s an America’s Most Haunted article comparing the plot of The Conjuring 2 to the actual haunting. And here’s the writeup from the organization that Playfair and Grosse belonged to, The Society For Psychical Research, with lots of details about the haunting. Their writeup, along with many other articles I read about the facts of the haunting, have no mention of the Warrens, and doesn’t mention any of their claims. Because they weren’t involved, and they lied about what they saw.

Next I’ll be diving in the Perron family haunting, which was the source material for the first Conjuring movie, where Ed and Lorraine not only appear as characters, but actually cameo in the movie. You can check out my other articles in this series by following the hashtag #thewarrencurse, and if you learned something, or are grateful that I didn’t link you to the horrendous audio clips of The Voice, as I sat through them so you don’t have to, you can buy me a coffee.

And like every stupid horror trope, Janet claimed that she played a Ouija board before all this haunting stuff happened. My blog deals primarily with Ouija related content, so feel free to check it out and see for yourself why blaming the Enfield Poltergeist on a Ouija board is the dumbest.

[theouijagirl]

Read This: The Definitive Ouija Board FAQ

I get a lot of questions every day on my Ouija board advice blog, and usually they’re the same questions over and over. So instead of answering each one, I usually post a link to a post that answers their question while stating Read This. Apparently it’s become my iconic catchphrase. So here is a long post of all things I typically tell people to read.

-Ouija boards are incredibly dangerous and you should not mess with them!

~Ouija boards are very safe as long as you’re playing in the right frame of mind. Read this.

-Ouija boards are not games.

~By definition, they are. Read this.

-Can Ouija boards summon demons?

~No, read this.

-Is Zozo or Mama a dangerous spirit or demon?

~No, they are just names spirits use to scare people. Read this.

-What if I talk to Zozo and they refuse to go away?

~Keep refusing. Read this.

-Can you get possessed while playing the Ouija board?

~No, read this.

-Can Ouija boards open portals?

~Not even a little bit. Read this.

-Is it important to say Goodbye?

~Yes, but it’s not a life or death thing, it’s just polite. Read this and this.

-Can spirits escape the board and follow you home?

~Ouija boards are pieces of cardboard, therefore there is nothing “inside” of them. The spirits are already in your home. Read this.

-What happens if the planchette moves in figure-8’s, off the board, counts down the numbers, or moves to all four corners of the board?

~Nothing, the spirit is trying to scare you for their amusement. Read this.

-How do you play the Ouija board?

~Read this.

-Can I play the Ouija board by myself?

~Some people can. Read this.

-Who are spirits and where are they?

~Spirits are the souls of people who have passed on. Read this, then read this to learn about the spirit realm.

-Are shadow people dangerous?

~Shadow people are just spirits that have half-materialized, and therefore not dangerous. Read more here.

-What’s the difference between a spirit and a ghost?

~Ghosts don’t know they are dead. Read this.

-I saw spirits when I was little, but I don’t anymore. What happened?

~You got older. Read this.

-How do you make a Ouija board?

~Get a pen and paper and write one. Read this.

-How do you get rid of a Ouija board?

~However you want. Read this.

-I want to play, but I’m not allowed to, or I don’t have anyone who wants to play.

~Then you can pendulum dowse. Read this.

-Aren’t Ouija boards divination tools, and sacred to Wicca and other pagan beliefs?

~First, there’s a big difference between spirit communication and divination. And there is no belief or religion that incorporates the Ouija board. Read more here.

-Ouija boards aren’t real and are caused by Ideomotor movement.

~I bet you’ve never played before. Read this.

-Are Ouija boards safe for children?

~Sure. Read this.

-What do I do if a spirit says I’m going to die tomorrow?

~They’re lying, I assure you. Read this.

-What does it mean when the board sells out gibberish?

~Lots of things. Read this.

-Can I use the Ouija board to contact a specific person?

~I do not recommend it. Read this.

-Is it safe to play the Ouija board in my house, my friend’s house, a haunted location, or a graveyard?

~Play it wherever you want. Read this.

-Can you talk to animal spirits on the Ouija board?

~No. Read this.

-Are spirit guides real?

~Yes. Read this.

-What can I ask the Ouija board?

~Whatever you want. Read this.

-I’m scared of Ouija boards, but I want to play.

~Read this.

-I had a very bad experience while playing and therefore I want everyone to know that all Ouija boards are very bad.

~If I ate shellfish and had an allergic reaction, I wouldn’t make a blog post about how all shellfish is bad and nobody should ever eat it. Read more here.

-I have sleep paralysis and see scary things when it’s happening, is it caused by spirits?

~No, read this.

-I played the Ouija board and I woke up with a bruise, am I possessed?

~Obviously not. Read this.

-I feel like I’m being watched after I play.

~That’s you feeling adrenaline pumping in your brain. Read this*.

-The Ouija board didn’t work at all.

~There are a lot of reasons why it wouldn’t. Read this.

-Do online Ouija boards work?

~Online Ouija boards and Ouija board apps are programs that act like real Ouija boards, and will not get you in contact with a spirit. Read this.

-I saw a scary YouTube video of a Ouija board game and I believe them.

~It’s fake, I guarantee it. Read this.

-Is it safe to wear Ouija board clothes and accessories?

~Very much so. Read this.

-How do you pronounce Ouija?

-Wee-gee in America, Wee-juh in other English speaking countries. Read this.

This is just for Ouija board related asks. In a few months, I’ll post an FAQ for more pagan and spirit related stuff. In the meantime, you can check out a mini FAQ here. And hey, if you didn’t see the answer to a question you have, ask away.

*this post is currently being edited and will be added to this post presently

[theouijagirl]

Think You’re Being Haunted? Think Again.

I’ve written before about how to tell if you’re being haunted, and where the misconception of becoming haunted after playing the Ouija board comes from. But lately I’ve had to describe to people what are not signs of a haunting more than I have about the actual signs and symptoms.

There are many different aspects to a haunting, and many people find one tiny one and believe they are severely haunted. It’s similar to getting a cough, Googling “cough”, and thinking you’re dying of Ebola. If you have one common symptom of a deadly virus, you definitely don’t have a deadly virus. Same goes for a haunting. So instead of going over what to expect in a haunting, here are common things you will not expect.

Feeling watched

First, and by far the most common one that I get all the time, is the feeling of being watched. A lot of people play the Ouija board, then spend the night feeling like there’s someone in the room with them, watching them. Not to mention, a lot of ghost shows use that “feeling of being watched” as evidence, especially when they don’t have enough actual evidence to make their investigation scary and spooky. But the feeling of being watched is actually a really common safety mechanism that your brain creates with a chemical called adrenaline. Adrenaline is what keeps up alert, and can make us hyper sensitive to things around us. We can thank our ancient ancestors for this, as they used that adrenaline rush to prevent attack from predators or other humans. Those who did not have sufficient adrenaline pumping in their brains were killed by saber-toothed tigers, or murdered. Therefore, that trait is passed down to all of us. You feel that adrenaline rush whenever something scary happens, like almost getting into an accident, or watching a scary movie, or even playing the Ouija board. Your body senses danger (even if you aren’t in any actual danger) and will pump that adrenaline: your heart rate goes up, you could sweat, you feel tense and upset, among many other things. One of the lingering effects is that feeling of being watched, because your brain still wants to keep you alert in case there is a saber-toothed tiger coming for you. So if your only symptom of a haunting is that you feel like you’re being watched, you are not haunted.

Same goes for hearing any kind of tiny noise. That adrenaline rush makes you hyper-sensitive to anything, whether it be sound, sight, or even taste. Your brain is preparing you to either fight or run after a scary situation, and is making you as alert as possible. That’s why a lot of people say that they hear noises at night after playing the Ouija board, when it’s really just common household noises that you wouldn’t normally hear when your brain isn’t rapidly producing adrenaline, like the walls settling, or birds outside, or other people quietly moving around the house.

Nighttime symptoms

I’ve written many times about sleep paralysis and how it is not paranormal, not even a little bit. Sleep paralysis occurs either when there’s a disrupt in your sleeping pattern, or could occur if you’re awoken in the middle of your REM cycle. It’s considered a sleep disorder, and is basically the opposite of sleepwalking. The person awakens to find they can’t move and can experience audible and visual hallucinations, most commonly of shadow people. Throughout history, people would think they were being held down by the Devil, or a succubus/incubus, but we now know, thanks to modern science, that our brain locks down our movement while we sleep, and if we are woken up before our brain realizes it, it will keep us locked down and will try to keep dreaming. Having sleep paralysis does not mean you’re haunted, and again, especially if that’s your only symptom. I’ve talked to people who have never experienced it before, only to experience it the night after playing the Ouija board. Remember that correlation does not equal causation, and that their fear after playing is what caused it, not the actual spirits.

On that note, a lot of people blame scary dreams on spirits, which baffles me. We don’t understand fully how and why dreams work, but we know that if you experience something scary, you’re likely to dream about it. One thing we do know about dreams is that our brains use them as a way to prepare us in real life, so it may play out a scary scenario so we are better equipped to handle that situation if it really does happen to us. If you play the Ouija board while scared, or even watch scary Ouija board videos, your brain will remember that it scared you, and will make you have a scary dream about it in case it happens again. These kinds of dreams are not caused by spirits. Most importantly, the Twitter story about Adam Ellis’ haunting falls under this category. He convinced himself he was haunted because he kept having a weird series of dreams. Dreams are always weird, and deciding that you are haunted by the ghost of a little boy because you keep dreaming about a little boy is positively medieval thinking. And while it’s true that spirits could contact us during dreams, a) it’s extremely rare, and b) they wouldn’t do it with the intention to scare you, they would do it to try to pass on a message.

This also includes night terrors. I once talked to a lady who played the Ouija board, then that night her son experienced a night terror. Night terrors are vivid nightmares that cause your body to react, usually by screaming, even though you are still asleep. They are also super common in young children aged about 3-6 (which was how old the lady’s son was). Just a rule of thumb, any and all sleep disorders are not caused by spirits. We have science that can explain all of them.

Hallucinations

Having hallucinations sounds terrifying, but they’re actually more common than you might think. Again, our brain creates hallucinations in order to help keep us alert and alive. The brain thinks it’s helping us, but all it does is create confusion. One of the most common hallucinations that everyone experiences are audible hallucinations as we are falling asleep. I’ve found that for most people (including myself) that the most common audible hallucination is hearing your name being called out by a strange voice. It’s really creepy to hear, but it’s just your brain again. Your brain is entering “sleep mode”, and it has a whole process to do so, and for some reason one of them is to create audible hallucinations (probably to prepare you for dreaming). I get a lot of messages from people that hear spirits, only to find that they only hear them at night before falling asleep. That is not the case at all. (Also, just a note, I’ve found that listening to relaxation videos greatly reduces audible hallucinations, as well as that feeling of suddenly falling.)

Visual hallucinations are also pretty common. A lot of people see something out of the corner of their eye, only for it to vanish instantly. Whenever I would bike through this one park at night, I would pass a trash can that somehow looked like a squatting person out of the corner of my eye, and it would freak me out almost every time I road past before remembering it was that trash can. Again, it’s our body preparing to fight or run, and is what kept our ancient ancestors alive. If you see anything blip in the corner of your vision, whether it be a light or a human figure or anything, it’s your brain. As a person who sees spirits, and sometimes in the corner of my eye, it’s important to discern the difference between a visual hallucination and an actual spirit. My test is to keep my eyes on it; if it disappears right away, it’s my brain, if not, it’s a spirit.

Hysteria

One of the reasons why we have so many misconceptions as to what a haunting is and isn’t comes from a) a lack of understanding of science, and b) hysteria. The origins of hysteria are really shady (it comes from the Greek word for uterus, and was considered a disorder women suffered from if they didn’t want to get married, liked sex, or were irritated during their periods) it now means to become uncontrollable with emotion. A person could react with hysteria if they are in a scary situation they don’t understand, such as playing the Ouija board. Many people have told me how their friends would shake uncontrollably, or suddenly feel really sick. This behavior happens largely in part because it’s what scary movies have taught us happens when we play the Ouija board. The same goes for any other form of hysteria: you scream and jump uncontrollably at a concert or sporting event because everyone else is, and it’s the learned behavior of what to do. People at certain religious services collapse and speak in tongues, because everyone else is, and it’s the learned behavior. If you are playing the Ouija board, and your friends are all freaking out because it’s spelling Zozo or Satan or whatever, you could start to shake, or blurt out words, because that’s the learned behavior. I’ve spoken with many people who watched their friends become hysterical, even by speaking in tongues and running around the room, and were afraid they were possessed. But no, that’s hysteria, not possession, especially since there has never been a case of possession caused by a Ouija board.

Another really common thing that happens, including to me, is that weird feeling of becoming freezing cold while you play. It’s really eerie; you feel it creep up your fingers until your whole hands are ice cold. When I was younger, I used to think this was due to a spirit putting their hands on the planchette over yours. Then one day I told one of my aunts about it, since she was really skeptical of anything to do with spirits, who promptly said, “That’s your blood circulation.” And of course, it makes perfect sense. You’re sitting very still, usually for over an hour. Of course your blood circulation wouldn’t be ideal. I can also never forget the ask I received one time, where someone was playing the Ouija board on the floor while sitting on their feet, and after an hour started to feel their feet falling asleep, and was worried that they were being possessed. Nope, just your blood circulation.

And finally, I want to talk about anxiety. Anxiety is another common disorder that can be dealt with if treated properly, and is typically triggered by stress. It cannot be triggered by spirits. Your fear of spirits could trigger it, but a spirit cannot enter your body and cause you to feel anxious. I know that sounds weird, but you’d be surprised how many people message me because they’re worried this is the case. I can guarantee you, it isn’t.

Among other things

-feeling a temperature change in the room does not mean it’s a spirit. It could be a number of things. This is just a common trope ghost shows use, again, when they are lacking evidence.

-don’t worry if your pet suddenly acts weird. Pets can act however they want, whenever they want. It doesn’t mean a spirit is freaking them out.

-spirits cannot do things to your phone or computer. They can’t open web pages, access apps (especially Ouija board apps), or send texts. Period.

-while it’s possible to capture a spirit in a photo, it’s incredibly rare. When dust hits the light just right, it could appear in photos or film as floating orbs. These are not spirits, only dust.

-scratches, bruises, and bumps are really common to get without realizing it. Everybody wakes up one day to find a weird bruise on them that they don’t remember getting, or got when they moved around in their sleep. It doesn’t mean you’re haunted.

The most important part of dealing with spirits is to debunk anything and everything around you. If there’s any rational explanation for something strange happening around you, you have to rule out the paranormal. I used to live in a house where a door would slam every afternoon if left open, and I always thought it was a ghost or something, until one day I noticed it only happened when this one nearby window was open. I had to conclude that the slamming was caused by the wind coming through the window. To go on thinking that it was paranormal, knowing that it only happened when the window was open, would be completely moronic. If you ignore rational evidence in favor of spooky ghosts, then you are willingly choosing to live in a fake fantasy world instead of the real world.

Actual symptoms

Like an illness, if you have one symptom, you probably don’t have it, but if you have multiple, you probably do. Same goes for a haunting. If you have only one thing on the following list, you’re probably not haunted, and there’s probably an explanation for it. If you have two or more, you’re probably haunted. Actual haunting symptoms are

-strange things happening with electricity and electrical devices

-objects being moved around your home

-feeling yourself being touched by something that isn’t there

-hearing an intelligent response to something around you, and hearing it with your ears and not in your mind (for example, if you’re watching TV and you think you hear a weird voice, it’s probably an audible hallucination, but if you hear a voice go “I hate this commercial”, that’s an intelligent response.)

-knocking or tapping on walls intelligently, as in, the knock can come once for yes, twice/no times for no

But the main thing that can happen once and can pretty much guarantee that you’re haunted is that you see the spirit, straight up, either in shadow form or a full apparition. If you actually see the spirit in your home, or witness actual poltergeist activity (and not something being slightly moved, like something being drastically moved) then you’re haunted.

In conclusion, here is a post about what to do if you’re haunted (basically, don’t worry about it, as long as it isn’t a violent or threatening haunting, you’re fine) and just for fun, here is my latest masterpost about Ouija boards.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask anytime.

[theouijagirl]

A Midsummer Night’s Blog Post FAQ About FAE

Tonight is Midsummer, the pagan celebration of the first day of summer. It’s marked with lots of bonfires and celebrations by many different cultures around the world for hundreds of years. But why bonfires, you ask?

To keep away the fae.

There are many holidays that are associated with fae, but none so popular as Midsummer. During this time of the year, the fae can be very active and find lots of ways to mess around with you. This was most famously shown in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which a bunch of fae decide to trick some silly humans for one night.

But what are fae? Why do they play tricks on us? What do they want? And, are they dangerous? I’ve been getting these questions in my inbox for a few days now, almost nonstop, and I honestly don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s right during Midsummer.

So let’s explore.

WHAT ARE FAE?

Fae are another word for fairies. There are hundreds of different kinds of fae in all shapes and sizes.

WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?

Every culture in the world has fae. They all have stories of people that live in an alternate dimension that can cause trouble for humans.

WHAT DO THEY WANT?

Most of the time, fae just want to be left alone and not be bothered. They are nature based creatures that are very in tune with the earth, and typically one specific element. Bothering them can result in a lot of danger for you.

WHERE DO THEY LIVE?

Fae exist in their own realm, which can be called Faeryland. This is a realm we cannot enter, but fae can go in and out between ours and theirs. You can find entrances to the fae realm any place where two worlds meet. For example, a cave where water meets earth, or a tall tree where sky meets earth. Not to mention you’ll get a certain wary feeling, like something is telling you to keep away. The biggest fae entrance I’ve ever found was near my home one time.

WHAT KIND OF FAE ARE THERE?

Like I said, there’s hundreds of different kinds. There can be aziza, banshees, brownies, bunyips, dokkaebi, domovoi, dryads, duendes, elves, gnomes, gremlins, hobgoblins, leprechauns, merfolk, mogwai, nereides, ogres, pixies, pukwudgie, selkies, tengu, trolls, undines, will-o-the-wisps, and so on. Certain kinds of fae can be found in only one part of the world (like tengu, that originate from Japan) but they certainly can immigrate when their cultures do to other parts of the world.

ARE FAE DANGEROUS?

Yes. I cannot state this enough. Yes they are. Fae can kill you. Fae can drown you, stab you, let you wander the woods until you starve, trick you into jumping off ledges, and many other horrible ways. Whenever you hear about someone being taken in fairyland, it’s not that they’re on a magical adventure with beautiful pixies and splendor. They’re dead. The fairies killed them.

You should absolutely never try to contact fae. Doing so could very well result in your death. But there are other, more common outcomes too, like stuff vanishing, important items getting moved around your home, appliances breaking, or even you finding yourself feeling lost in your own home.

WHAT DO THEY WANT?

Fae don’t want anything. Fae have their own little agenda that we don’t know of, but they want to be left alone to do it. They are not a fan of humans, however, since we tend to ruin their environment constantly. Fae take great delight in tormenting humans.

But there are a few fae who tend to be friendly, the most common being brownies. Brownies are fae that like to live in people’s homes, particularly homes that are cozy, have a pleasant atmosphere, has a lovely garden and plants, and is well kept. Brownies will sometimes slip into our world to help us keep the home tidy, and they really don’t have any intention to harm us, but it’s not like they’re our friends either.

HAVE YOU SEEN FAE?

Yes, a few times. I’ve seen a brownie when I was a child, and I had a lot of bizarre experiences when I lived in that house. When I moved in, my whole area was full of daddy longlegs, so I went through and killed them all, and kept killing them as they appeared again. I was harassed by local fae until I stopped killing them, and the fae left me alone. Also in that place, I reportedly saw a gnome.

HOW DO YOU CONTACT FAE?

Like I said, you don’t. The only time you should be reaching out to fae is if they reach out to you. If they’re bothering you, figure out what could be going wrong, and fix it. Apologize to them. Leave them an offering of natural, sweet things like honey or milk until you feel that they decided to leave you alone. You can incorporate local fae into your spellwork, but DO NOT initiate contact with them in order to have them work for you or do favors for you. They will not comply, and could seriously harm you.

I’ve received so many messages from people around the world who are shocked at the ignorance of fae I’ve been receiving. Many cultures around the world teach children to not mess with their local fae and respect them. This is common knowledge for many people, but in the US primarily, we are taught that fairies are cute little girls in skirts who are sweet and beautiful. This is absolutely not the case. Tinkerbell is actually a pixie, but if you watch the original Peter Pan, Tinkerbell actually sells out her friends in order to kill Wendy. Pixies are a lot like the ones in Harry Potter more than the Disney ones. Very dangerous, and not to be messed with. There are many stories around the world where people know not to mess with fae, especially in Iceland and Ireland.

Keep those bonfires bright tonight to keep out the fae and bring in good luck. My ask box is always open for any questions about spirits and the paranormal, Ouija boards, fae, and dismantling the patriarchy.

[theouijagirl]

Why Did I See Spirits As A Child?

I’ve talked to many people who experienced some form of the paranormal as children. Either they saw apparitions, heard voices, or have stories about very vivid imaginary friends from their parents. There are also plenty of ghost stories about children seeing dead relatives they had never met, or even remembering aspects of their past lives. So why is this?

If you experienced this with a child, or as a child, you are not alone. It’s far more common than you think, especially since most of it is disregarded as an overactive imagination. What you don’t hear is that the elderly also experience paranormal things such as seeing spirits, hearing voices, or even experiencing poltergeist activity. That’s also not really discussed for a lot of reasons: adults don’t want to admit they’re haunted or will blame it on something mundane, or nobody may believe them in case that elderly person has or is developing dementia, or even that person is lying about their experiences out of loneliness or want of attention. Either way, there’s a reason that paranormal experiences tend to happen quietly around young children and the elderly: they are closer to death. If you think of life as a cycle of birth -> middle age -> old age -> death -> rebirth, the stages closer to death are birth and old age. Just being near that stage in your cycle, recently born or nearing death, makes you more susceptible to spirit activity. This is the main reason why a lot of people message me wondering why they had experiences frequently as a child but slowly stopped as they got older. 

There’s another reason why children have paranormal experiences more often than adults. Remember that spirits are people, with human attitudes and feelings. They may want to appear to someone to send a message, but they may not want to frighten that person. Or worse, they don’t want someone to see them to only blame it on the wind, or a visual hallucination. But children are more likely to believe in something fantastical like ghosts and spirits. Plus, young children haven’t been taught yet that ghosts are scary, and will see them as non-threatening and even fun. Therefore, spirits prefer to be around children. 

So what if you miss your childhood experiences and want to have them again? Talk to the spirits around you, either out loud, or with a pendulum, or a Ouija board. Spirits can always hear you if you talk to them, but they may not be able to answer back right away. Give them time, and eventually they can reply to you in some way, either by moving an object, speaking, or even materializing.

If a child comes to you and tells you they’ve seen a ghost, believe them, talk to them about it, and encourage them to not be afraid. A child seeing a spirit does not mean an evil presence is around, or the child is haunted or cursed, or that anything negative is happening in their home. The worst thing you can do is tell that child that what they are seeing is evil, therefore terrifying that child or even scarring them for life. Let the child know that what they saw was really cool, and they’re very lucky, and reassure them that a spirit cannot hurt them as long as they know that they are more powerful than any spirit. 

Feel free to drop by my blog anytime for advice on the paranormal, spirits, and Ouija boards. 

[theouijagirl]

The Fall of Ghost Television, and the Rise of Internet Ghosts

I’ve long said that Ghost Adventures is the best ghost investigation show on television, and the best that I’ve ever seen. Its first few seasons were dedicated to getting factual, consistent, and clear evidence of the paranormal, with a dash of humor. You could really tell that Zak and his crew put a lot of time and effort into the show, to make it as real and raw as they could. I’ve always wanted a ghost show that didn’t have a huge television crew included, and Ghost Adventures was my dream come true. 

It’s been sad to watch the decline of this once great show. I’ve written before about the lies that the show creates in order to make good television, which I discovered after talking to people who work at one of the places they investigated. I always cringe at the irrefutable evidence they keep mentioning over and over again, especially by Zak, who keeps having overwhelming emotions and small possessions which just look like bad acting. Worst of all was their Zozo demon episode, where they heavily relied on Internet creepypasta stories and ignored basic common sense and logic about how spirits, demons, and Ouija boards work. All of this has slowly led into a downward spiral of what the show consists of now.

This current season (14) has not just been one of the worst Ghost Adventures seasons, but one of the worst ghost hunting seasons ever created. It’s clear that the places they’ve been to this season have not had a lot of activity and evidence, and have relied heavily on Zak’s acting and feelings. In one episode they didn’t have access to the building they were investigating because it was dilapidated, so instead of packing up and leaving like any investigation would, they decided to play the Ouija board in the only room deemed safe for them. I’ve said multiple times that if your paranormal expert relies on the Ouija board to contact spirits and get evidence, get as far away from them as possible. Ouija boards are toys that anyone can use; it is not meant for serious methods of spirit communication. They wound up having a typical Ouija board game and played it up like they were speaking with super dark, terrible demons that haunted the location. It was completely moronic, and the fact that it took up a quarter of the episode was appalling. Getting spirit information from a Ouija board is like getting financial advice from Monopoly.

Then there was S14E06, in which the crew went to help a family who seemed to be haunted by a demon. At no point in the show did anything demonic seem apparent, so instead of reassuring this family that they had a typical haunting and had nothing to worry about, they panicked the entire family and called in an exorcist. They should have all known better that what they were dealing with were just spirits, but that doesn’t make good television. It also just goes to show how low the show is going, in that they are resorting to investigating random peoples homes and not sites of historical interest. I mean, they’re on the Travel Channel, they’re supposed to be encouraging tourism, not making house calls. It’s clear at this point that they are more about sensationalism and scare tactics to keep the show going, instead of real evidence. I don’t know if it’s the Travel Channel pushing this, or the GAC themselves, but either way it’s ruining this show.

Ghost Adventures is now going down the path that a lot of other ghost shows have traveled down: Make Everything Spooky. Somebody has a haunting? It must be demons. Heard a funny noise? Replay it ten times and make it scarier each time. Witnessed something paranormal? Panic and scream and run for your life. Make. Everything. Spooky. I mean, people tune in to these shows to be scared, why not scare them? The problem with that is it perpetuates the idea that all paranormal things are terrifying and should be treated like it’s the end of the world. When those of us who actually deal with the paranormal know it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Ghosts are idiots that bump into things. Spirits are just regular people that are invisible, struggling to be seen and heard. Poltergeists do not mean that you are about to be dragged into Hell through a demon portal, but just basic spirit activity that can be dealt with easily. Nothing about it is scary, we’ve just been taught that it’s scary through religious extremism, Hollywood movies, and Make Everything Spooky ghost shows. Shows like these can cause actual anxiety and irrational fears for some people, all for the sake of ratings.

Thankfully, there’s a light at the end of this tunnel. Internet ghost investigation shows have been emerging lately, and they’re the best and most realistic look at hauntings I’ve ever seen. Not only are they not Making Everything Spooky, they are showing real evidence, or even a lack thereof. 

The first I want to show you is Queer Ghost Hunters, in which an all queer paranormal society goes out in the search for queer spirits and ghosts. Nothing like this has ever been done before, and it’s incredible. The episodes are funny and interesting, and you learn a lot about history as well. They do not have a lot of really technical equipment, and rely mostly on dowsing rods to communicate. Dowsing rods are a very old method of spirit communication that can provide yes and no answers from a spirit, but unlike the Ouija board, they are not very spooky or have a creepy history associated with them. I’ve never seen a paranormal show use dowsing rods, and I realize now that it’s because they aren’t Spooky. You really can’t scare people with two rods spinning around. Queer Ghost Hunters use these tools to talk casually to a spirit, and don’t try to make it terrifying or Spooky. In fact, they treat any potential spirit they contact with a lot of respect, even if a spirit is being angry or threatening toward them. As someone who identifies as queer, and someone who deals with spirits regularly, I cannot recommend this show enough. Please watch this show, and better yet, support them on Patreon if you can.

The other Internet ghost show I love is Buzzfeed’s Unsolved series, which has its own paranormal specials. This is as real as a ghost hunt can get. Most episodes capture little to no evidence, which is entirely realistic. They also don’t have any fancy equipment whatsoever, and rely on their eyes, ears, and cameras. The best part to me are the investigators themselves, Ryan and Shane. Ryan is a true believer (and at one point we see the footage of a paranormal incident that made him that way) and Shane doesn’t believe in ghosts whatsoever. I’ve always wanted a ghost show that involved a skeptic, and Shane is not only critically thinking about the causes of paranormal activity, but he’s also hilarious and has a healthy, optimistic, and funny approach to the concept of spirits. At one point they make contact with a spirit who can turn a flashlight on and off on command. While Ryan panics, Shane thinks it’s amazing and a little funny. His reaction is EXACTLY how one should react to a paranormal incident. It’s not something to run and scream from, but something really interesting and cool. This show is also, hands down, the funniest and most entertaining ghost show I’ve ever seen since Ghost Adventures’ very first episode at Bobby Mackey’s. 

Internet ghost shows are going to be the future of paranormal investigations, since they don’t rely on viewer ratings in the way TV shows do. These two shows present exactly what it’s like to be on a real ghost hunt, and how you should appropriately react to paranormal activity. Ghost Adventures could learn a thing or two from these shows, but I’m afraid it’s already too late. Every ghost hunting show on TV right now is following the Make Everything Spooky formula (including, sadly, Ghost Brothers, which has the potential to be an incredible show). There is now not one TV show I can recommend people to watch in order to understand the paranormal, but I can’t emphasize enough how perfect Queer Ghost Hunters and Buzzfeed Unsolved are. Go watch them instead, and please, let’s all agree that Ghost Adventures is dead, long gone, totally over, and so deceased that you can’t even talk to it through a Ouija board.

(I run a Ouija board advice blog. Feel free to send any questions you have about them my way, I’d be glad to answer. Also, if you want a post that goes more into detail about why these most recent episodes of Ghost Adventures are horrible, let me know. I edited them out because this post was already massive. And again, thanks for everyone’s patience while I deal with recovery from surgery due to a broken arm/elbow, and thank you for all the Get Well Soon wishes!)

[theouijagirl]

How To Play The Ouija Board When You Can’t Play The Ouija Board

The #1 most common ask I get is either “I want to play the Ouija board but I don’t have anyone to play with” or “I want to play the Ouija board but I’m not allowed to have one where I’m living.”

First of all, let me say, if you’re not allowed to play a Ouija board in your home then please don’t play the Ouija board in your home. It doesn’t matter if your parents or roommates are uninformed or ignorant about what Ouija boards are or do, what matters is that they set a rule and you decided you were better than them and don’t care what they think or feel. Especially if it’s a rule set by your parents, since their home was something they worked hard to get for you, and your way of showing appreciation for that is to follow their rules. Even if they’re awful parents (because believe me, I’ve been there) this is a pretty easy rule to follow. Just don’t play Ouija boards in places you’re not allowed to play. Play it at a friend’s house.

But what if you don’t have friends who want to play? I also get a lot of asks from people who have friends who are afraid that they will open a demon portal and be haunted forever and die if they play, and they want to know how to change their minds. I would either tell them to let their friend check out my blog, or ask them a few logical questions:

-if it’s a demon portal, why is it sold in toy stores?

-why has it been for sale in America since the 1890s and has never once been banned?

-why is it that when there’s a toy that could harm a child they all get recalled, but Ouija boards have never been recalled?

-why are Ouija boards only condemned by religious groups who also claim that you can summon Satan by listening to rock music or reading Harry Potter?

-why are Ouija boards for sale on Amazon under the toy and board game section?

But honestly, if your friend won’t listen and are dead set against playing, whether it be for personal or religious reasons, then don’t push it. Be a good friend and respect their choice to not play a board game with you. Like, I hate playing Scrabble, I have never had fun playing Scrabble, and whenever Scrabble is around I resist playing as much as possible. Your friend could feel the same way about Ouija boards.

So is there a solution? Is there a way to play spirit communication games without a Ouija board and by yourself?

YES!

It’s called pendulum dowsing. I have a video describing how to play it here, but basically all you need is something that dangles, like a necklace or a lanyard or crystal. Hold it as steady as you can, trying not to rest your arm on anything (but if you have to, then do) and give it some rules. Swing left for no, swing right for yes (or however you want to do it). You can tell it to swing clockwise, then change direction. Tell it to swing fast, then slow. Put it over a map and tell it to swing toward where your house is. Put it over a makeshift Ouija board and have it swing over letters. Or even better, print out a pendulum board and use that. It’s a really fun way to get in touch with spirits in your area. And the best part is that you don’t even need half the rules that Ouija boards have, since it requires barely any energy to work. You don’t need to say Goodbye when you’re done, and the spirit can’t really troll you or pretend to be Zozo since it can really only do yes or no questions. It can be limiting that way, but it’s the best and easiest way for anyone to communicate with a spirit by themselves.

What about playing the Ouija board by yourself? I’ve talked about it loads of times before, but let me sum it up.

-it is possible to play by yourself, but most people can’t

-playing by yourself requires the spirit to use a lot of your energy, and people typically feel really tired and drained after playing

-since the spirit needs all that energy from you to move the planchette, it’s very possible a spirit with bad intentions will play just to use you

This is why I typically recommend you don’t try (mostly because of the not working thing, like, I don’t want you get to get all excited to play for it to not do anything) and why I absolutely recommend pendulums, because I only very rarely hear it from people that it doesn’t work for them. If you do try it out for the first time, let me know how it goes. And since I am an advice blog, I’m always around to answer any questions you have.

[theouijagirl]

Do you have a tag that you attach to every post you’ve made yourself?

Yes it’s #theouijagirlblogs and during my 31 Days of Ouija Blogs series I tagged it with #31ouijadays

[theouijagirl]

Just an idea, tag your posts and make a masterlist so you won't get as many repetitive asks :))

I do have tags for my blog posts, #theouijagirlblogs, and I have a tag for my 31 Days Of Ouija Blogs posts from last year, #31ouijadays. But tagging everything else isn’t going to stop me from getting repetitive asks, as that won’t stop someone who sees one of my posts on their friend’s blog from asking me a question.

But I really should be tagging everything. It’s just overwhelming with getting so many asks, and I can’t tag asks as I’m answering them, so I have to go back and edit each post and add tags, and it’s exhausting.

[theouijagirl]

May I get all the info links? Thank you !

You can search my tags #theouijagirlblogs or #31ouijadays, or just search whatever you want to know in the search bar on my blog. I should have a big new FAQ megapost sometime later this week.

[theouijagirl]

God every time I see someone post a "how to attract fairies :)))" post I feel obligated to be like "uh actually that's a horrible idea" and no one ever listens

Like an alternative to these posts would be “how to keep the fae around you happy and leave you alone”. It’s never smart to attract fae, of course.

And before I get a bunch of asks about what fae are, search “fae” on my blog, or read my big fae post in my #theouijagirlblogs tag.

[theouijagirl]

So guys, I have the day off today, and as you may have already noticed, I’ll be on my blog a lot today working on turning it into a book. I’ll be around to answer any questions you have, and maybe I’ll do a live stream tonight if you guys are interested. Just remember my basic rules for asks:

-please no multiple part asks. Sometimes a part or two gets lost and I never see it. If you have a long question, send it through Tumblr messenger.

-please don’t include your name, email, phone number, or any other personal info in an anonymous ask. I can only answer your anonymous question by publishing it for the entire Internet to see. I will not email you or Skype you to answer questions,  because a) most likely the answer is already on my blog, and b) I’m not giving out my personal info to strangers. The only way to contact me of of Tumblr is via Snaphat, which you may have if you request it from me (whenever I publish it I wind up sexually harassed)

-please take some time to check out my FAQ on my blog before you send an ask, or even better, check out my tags #theouijagirlblogs and #31ouijadays for my major blog posts. I also have a search bar on my blog, so if there’s a topic you want to know whether or not I’ve already talked about, you can search for it.

One of my goals for June is to finish the first rough draft of the Ouija book, especially now that my arm is healing up. Fingers crossed!

[theouijagirl]

Sleep Paralysis Is Not Paranormal

Here’s the scenario: You’re fast asleep in bed when you start to have a crazy nightmare about being chased by a dark figure. You jolt awake, to find that you are in bed but can’t move. Your body feels like it’s being held down, and you can’t speak. In the corner of your room is the shadow figure from your dream, staring at you. You start to feel like you’re being choked as you try to move and call for help, and slowly the figure fades away and you can start moving your body.

Sounds like a terrifying paranormal experience, right? Wrong, you’ve just dealt with sleep paralysis.

Sleep paralysis is a common sleep disorder that millions of people go through. One of the jobs your brain has during sleep is to keep you still, so it puts a lot of muscle movement on lock down. This happens to everyone while they sleep. You only notice it if you wake up before your brain realizes it’s awake, typically after being suddenly awoken by a bad dream or a loud noise, or anything. Your brain could take a minute to realize you’re awake and keep on dreaming, making you see weird stuff (typically people and shapes) and sometimes hear stuff too. Eventually your body figures out you’re awake and releases your muscles. The opposite effect of sleep paralysis is sleep walking, in which your brain doesn’t freeze your muscles at all and you wander around as if you were still awake.

People tend to remember their dreams when they’re awoken in the middle of their REM cycle, because they’re in the middle of their dream. People that go through their whole sleep cycle and naturally wake up are far less likely to remember their dreams. So when someone is awoken suddenly in the night, they remember exactly what they were just dreaming about. So say you’re having a scary dream where you’re being chased by a shadow figure, and it’s so creepy that you jolt yourself awake. The shadow figure is still fresh in your mind, and for all your brain knows, you’re still dreaming about them, which is why you could still be able to see them in your room, if you’re experiencing sleep paralysis. It’s not that a demon has come to you in your sleep and is now standing in your room. The shadows you see are literally just your brain trying to keep the dream going. And why do most people with sleep paralysis see shadow people? Think, what do you dream about the most? What is something that is common in almost any dream? People. Whether they be people you know, people you don’t know, or random crowds of strangers, you always have people popping up in your dreams to some extent. So naturally, the thing you’ll most likely see when suddenly awaking is a person.

Sleep paralysis is typically a symptom of something else. It can be depression, a change of medication, insomnia, or anything else that affects sleep. Pretty much anything that causes you to have an irregular sleep pattern can cause sleep paralysis. So the best way to get rid of it is to simply have a good night’s sleep every night, which is obviously easier said than done. But there’s a reason why people who are having problems with paranormal activity in their homes get sleep paralysis (and blame it on the paranormal). They are stressed, they don’t want to fall asleep because they are scared, their brains become hypersensitive to any noise or movement, and when they finally do fall asleep, their brains are still so freaked out that they wind up dreaming about evil ghosts. Which makes the person wake up in fear, and find that they can’t move and there’s a shadow person in their room. Sleep paralysis is not a symptom of a paranormal haunting, but it can be a symptom of someone going through paranormal trauma.

I run a Ouija board advice blog, feel free to send me any questions if you have them.

[theouijagirl]

Ouija Board FAQ, Part 2

Here is Part 1, that contains long explanations to the most common Ouija board questions. Here is the next part, which are questions I get about weekly and don’t really need long explanations.

~Do pets have spirits?

Not like people do. I’ve written about this a few times. Spirits can shapeshift to look like whatever they want, and they can definitely look like dogs or cats. Living people like to look like dogs and cats, so do dead ones.

~Can pets see spirits?

For sure. Just don’t think that anytime your dog barks at nothing or your cat stares at a corner that it’s a spirit, they could be just playpretending.

~What is pendulum dowsing?

I get asked this A LOT, since it’s a really fun, really easy method to talk to spirits by yourself. I have a video demonstration of it.

~Why is it so bad to play alone?

Well, I mean, it isn’t bad but it’s not safe. Spirits need your energy to move the planchette, and the more people there are to give energy, the easier the spirit can do their thing. If you’re the only one giving all your energy, then you could wind up really drained and exhausted, plus you’re allowing the spirit to have lots of control of your body and mind.

~If I’m depressed, but it’s under control, can I still play?

I suggest that people who are undergoing depression not play because the spirit could easily trigger you or worsen your depression for their amusement, and I don’t want to be responsible for encouraging people to play to have them wind up very ill or worse. But if you feel like it’s under control, of course you can play. Rule of thumb: if you feel okay to play, play, if not, don’t.

~How can I talk to a loved one if I shouldn’t use the Ouija board to do so?

Contact a psychic medium.

~How can I remember my past life?

Try past life regression, which is a mediative/hypnotic state where you can remember some of your previous life. It’s not something I recommend though, since you’ll remember your last moments first, and remembering what it feels like to die is awful.

~How do I meditate?

Get comfortable, relax, and stop thinking.

~How can I make a protection spell to keep me safe?

Get something that makes you feel safe. Boom, protected. It can be a pillow, or a book, or the Hamilton cast recording, or a reallly good friend.

~How do I start a Ouija board session?

Say whatever you want. You don’t have to “warm up” the board by moving the planchette in circles, or say a rhyming chant like they do in the movie. Do whatever.

~Do homemade Ouija boards work?

Absoluely. Get a pen, paper, and something to use for a planchette (like an upside down glass, a blank CD, or just cut one out of a piece of paper) and you’re in business.

~What are shadow people?

Spirits that have halfway manifested. They are not good or bad, they’re just spirits. They look scary, because I mean, shadow people, but that doesn’t make them bad.

~How do you feel about:

The Psychic Twins: They are awful. They make predictions that are based on fear mongering, and say terrible things about people who have died.

The Warrens: These were two investigators who let their faith dictate their conclusions. They very much believed that all spirits came from the Devil, and therefore every kind of haunting was demonic. They sensationalized a lot of their stories in order to sell more books and movie rights. Do NOT trust people who will not look at both sides of something; if someone says something is demonic and refuses to think logically about another outcome, do not listen to them.

Long Island Medium: Theresa is lovely! She is a psychic medium, which is more than what I do, and she really does talk to her clients with love and support. Of course the show is scripted, and places her in situations that have clearly been planned, but that’s just how TV works. I don’t mind TV mediums as long as they speak respectfully of those who have passed and don’t treat the people they talk to as payroll.

Ghost Adventures: This is my favorite ghost show, mostly becuase they spend a lot of time debunking evidence. That being said, there are obvious experiences they have faked, and that’s because they have to put something on TV if they didn’t get enough exciting evidence. Recently I visited a place they investigated to find that a lot of the facts they presented about the location weren’t true and just sensationalized rumors, so don’t believe everything they say.