True Ouija Board Horror Stories

If you have any knowledge of the occult — whether from actual experiences, reality TV “investigative” shows, or fictional horror films – then you have no doubt heard of the demon “Zozo.”

No one knows what Zozo looks like or what type of being he is, other than that “it” is a demonic force. Those who have come into contact with him report terrifying experiences. As depicted in the movie “The Exorcist,” Zozo is most commonly contacted through a Ouija board. In that movie the entity that possessed young ‎Regan MacNeil was referred to as “Pazuzu,” that is just one of the many other names for Zozo. Others include; ZoZo, Zaza, Zo. But no matter what it is called, Zozo is a satanically evil creature not to be trifled with.

In both fictional and “real world” encounters, Zozo seems to be a powerful demonic being with the ability and the desire to do significant physical and mental harm to the humans he encounters.

Summoning Zozo is almost always associated with the Ouija board, and those who have had dangerous paranormal encounters when using a Ouija board, have almost always run afoul of Zozo.

Zozo Encounters and the Ouija Board

Darren Evans, a man from Oklahoma, reportedly encountered Zozo while using a Ouija board with his girlfriend. The demon reportedly shared information with Evans from the other side, and he became obsessed with Ouija. Just as in the movie the Exorcist, at first Zozo appeared to be a little mischievous, but mainly playful and harmless. But over time, Zozo became more sinister. Evans would experience constant fear and dread. He would see a “dark shadowy mass” that followed him around, and said he would “have panic attacks that landed me in the hospital several times. I also felt I was being followed by people who were possessed by demons.”

Evans eventually had a nervous breakdown. He said that the demon even threatened his young daughter, saying he was going to steal her soul. She nearly died, and Evans realized he needed to take action. He pursued an exorcism to get Zozo away from his family, but it was a terrifying experience that left an impression. Evans wrote a book “The Zozo Phenomenon” and now runs a site dedicated to warning people about the dangers of messing with Zozo.

While Evans and other “Zozo survivors” like him would warn you to avoid messing around with Ouija boards entirely, if you insist on using a Ouija board, here are some warning signs to look for to avoid contact with Zozo:

• Rapid movements: If you are using a Ouija board, the planchette might begin moving rapidly. If you are undergoing hypnosis, the pendant or pendulum might begin to swing.
• Announcements: Zozo might announce himself by spelling out his name.
• Feelings of unease: You might feel a sudden weight of dread or unease descend upon you.
• Darkness: You might see shadows moving, or the room you are in might get darker.

If you feel that Zozo is with you, do not panic, but take action to end the connection to prevent bodily or mental harm. Evans recommends you break the connection immediately by moving the planchette to “goodbye” and formally closing the Ouija session. Then he recommends that you:

• Remain calm: Demons and other evil spirits feed off fear, so take deep, calming breaths and steady yourself.
• Do not speak his name: Using his name gives him power. Avoid speaking about him or to him.
• Call to God: Pray to Jesus or other positive deity you believe in to save and protect you.
• Seek help: If you feel you still have Zozo nearby, seek out help from a paranormal professional or a religious leader, such as a priest or rabbi.

Not All Ouija Horror Stories Involve Zozo

While Zozo is a dangerous demon, and you should use the Ouija cautiously to avoid contacting him, he is not the only source of some truly freaky Ouija horror stories. BuzzFeed recently put out a call for readers to submit their creepiest Ouija encounters, here are some of there top results.

The handprint horror: “When I was a kid, I played with a Ouija board with my friends. Everyone except me believed in spirits, so I kept asking the board to do more physical things, like tap my shoulder. The piece never moved, but suddenly my back started to sting. There were three handprints on my back, and they were red and puffy like I’d been slapped! I refuse to touch a board again.”

The worrying whisper: “I got my board after months of harmless paranormal activity in my house. When I contacted something, the planchette started doing figure eights across the board, which is a huge NO NO — that means something demonic was present. I didn’t touch it for months. When I tried again, I asked where the spirit was in the room. My vision went spotty, I saw a vivid image of my head jerking back, and the words, “with you,” were whispered into my ear by something I couldn’t see. I sold the board.”

The crayon catastrophe: “One summer my friends and I met the spirit of a boy named Jake through my board, and my friends kept antagonizing him to prove he was real. We were in the basement when the board said to go to my room. There we found crayons had been knocked over onto my floor, and a notebook on my bed opened up with the name JAKE scrawled out in big letters. All of us had been together in the basement the entire time, and no one else was home. Our friend said we needed to break the board into pieces and ‘stop the evil,’ so we did.”

The fear of God: “When my friends and I played, my question for the spirits was a bit scarier than everyone else’s: I asked if God existed. But instead of ‘God,’ I used God’s name, Jehovah. Once I asked the question, the planchette flew out the open window. I SWEAR. I never touched one again. Later, when I was reading the Bible, it says that the demons shake in fear when you mention God’s name because they know of his power.”

The camera catastrophe: “My husband and I were in the Navy together in 2011. There were security cameras in every corner of our building, with one computer holding all the footage. One night, we sat down right in view of a camera to play with a board. After 30 minutes and getting a few questions answered, we went to see if there was any activity happening around us on the cameras. The footage showed us sitting down with the board, and then the 30 minutes of use were completely gone. The next image was us removing our hands from the planchette and getting up to leave! No other camera in the building had lost any footage for that time period.

Is There a Rational Explanation for Ouija Experiences?

So, what are all these people experiencing? Contact with an ancient malevolent spirit named Zozo or with some other supernatural entity, paranormal phenomena created by their own latent ESP abilities, mass hysteria – or something else? Is there any scientific or rational explanation for Ouija board experiences?

There is one, and it is called the ideomotor effect. While it does not explain the truly bizarre stories as those mentioned above, (and instances that claim the Ouija planchette moved on its own) it does offer a “real world” explanation for the more common and benign effects of a Ouija board, the planchette moving, seemingly driven by spirits to spell out answers to questions.

The ideomotor effect is not a paranormal, but rather a biological phenomenon. It is your brain’s ability to tell your body to make physical movements sub-consciously that you are not consciously aware of. The ideomotor effect is responsible for things like suddenly jerking awake while sleeping, echoing movements during sleep that you may be dreaming about, even sleepwalking. These are all examples of physical movements that are triggered by sub-conscious brain activity. Scientists believe it is also responsible for the seemingly “spiritual” movements of the Ouija planchette to spell out answers to questions.

According to this theory, those who say that they were not moving the planchette, but that their fingers were being guided by some “unseen force,” are absolutely right. But, that “unseen force” is not a ghost or demon, it is merely their own subconscious. Researchers who have explored Ouija and the ideomotor effect, say that the movements are simply a reflection of the users unconscious desires, and represent answers to the questions they are seeking of the board that are locked away in their deep subconscious minds. “Rituals” like Ouija, especially when presented among the trappings of other occult rites, such as séance, commonly can produce highly imaginative, or even hypnotic, or trance-like states, which could easily trigger the dream-like unconscious movements of the ideomotor effect.

So, what is it that the Ouija board allows us to tap into? Another realm of mystical demons, the dead, and other spirits? Or the sometimes even darker recesses of our own subconscious?

Either way, it seems that a simple child’s toy, can be a gateway to some fascinating and/or very scary places!