Are Ouija Boards real?
We've seen them in countless horror movies and talk about them every Halloween. Teenagers and adults alike from every generation in history often are curious about how it works and will usually give it a go at a get-together.
The earliest mention of Ouija board like seances date back to Roman times (augury), was made popular in the United States beginning in the 1890s, and was originally labeled, "The Talking Board." The board itself contains a number of options that a spirit, or demon, can use to communicate with humans, such as numbers, letters, yes, no, and goodbye.
The Ouija board, a name that given by a spirit during a seance, which explained that it meant "good luck," was first patented by coffin-maker E.C. Reiche in Maryland and sold commercially by William Fold around 1890. At the time, the United States was obsessed with the idea of contacting ghosts and loved ones who had passed. In 1910, the planchette was modified to have a circle window.
Ouija boards were even noted in courtrooms. In the 1920s, a court ruling determined that the board was to be classified as a toy and taxed, despite it being seriously used by mediums. In 1994, during a UK murder case, members of the jury used a Ouija Board to contact the dead victim in order to help them make a verdict. The judge soon found out about the use of the Ouija board and forced a retrial, which the defendant ended up getting convicted.
In the video below, a group of teenagers got together to play with the Ouija board and see what would happen.
At first, YouTuber Tanner Fox and his friends come in contact with a little boy named "Maja," who was murdered by his mother at the age of 5 years old. To verify, the group Googled the name and story and was able to confirm the answers that the spirit was giving.
Later, Lizzie's grandmother "Angel," who passed away before she was born makes contact.
The most terrifying part of this video may have been when "Zozo" the demon made contact. Zozo, a nickname for Pazuzu is thought to be a very powerful demon who usually haunts Ouija board players around the world. He'll usually lead Ouija board players to do figure eight movements on the board, spell out "ZOZO," choose the number 28, and even create shadows around the Ouija board.