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With so much talk of Zozo demons, portals and evil entities, it’s time to have a look as the most recognized "occult" device out there, the Ouija.

Why has the Ouija become so feared? How did it come to be associated with negative energy? When first created, it was meant as a tool that could speak to loved ones in the afterlife. You could contact Uncle Rupert, Aunt Francis, a lost husband in the war and even the spirit of a departed pet. It had no negative associations at all, quite the opposite. It was seen as a positive influence that could even bring peace and happiness.

When did things change so that it could only contact evil? Who turned this board of Spiritualism into a tool of demonic conjuring? Part of that looks to be a product of Hollywood and movies like Exorcist and Witchboard. In both cases you have an innocent, young, female becoming prey to dark forces through use of the board. It makes for good storytelling, like Dracula seducing the women he wished to turn. However, it’s only a story.

Does it have something to do with Aleister Crowley? To be fair, there is a ton of misrepresentation about Crowley. Despite how it’s portrayed, Crowley wasn’t trying to conjure Satan. Further, he was considered wicked because of his sexual habits and indulgences. He referred to himself as "The Beast" in order to magnify his infamy.

Even if he was "evil", Crowley experimented with a great many things. He certainly read the bible, so should that be considered tainted? Crowley worked with Tarot cards and those aren’t being called a portal to hell. There is even a deck he designed.

Clearly not everyone thinks it’s evil, Amazon certainly treats it as a toy. You can get talking board coffee mugs, tumblers, pendants, keychains, mint boxes, hoodies, rings and sweatpants. In every sense of the word it’s a gimmick item. If there was any scientific evidence to the board’s power, or any of these Zozo claims were proven to be real, would it be allowed to be sold by a toy company?

Further proving it’s lack of power, National Geographic showed that when participants are blindfolded, the Ouija spells gibberish. The BBC and others have explained how the Ouija works and how it doesn’t. Even Penn and Teller, who are masters of the con, show how the Ouija doesn’t work.

Another master of illusion, Houdini proved every claim of mysticism to be a hoax, from seances to ectoplasm. The Ouija was used heavily in seances and not one of them proved to be valid. And this was during the time when talking boards had no demonic connection associated with them. Houdini wanted to commune with the dead, but it just wasn’t so.

But there are those that say the spirits need the participants eyes in order to spell words. Yet, paranormal investigators claim spirits can see them. Which group is lying?

People also claim the Ouija can predict the future and explain how it told them something 20 years ago and it just came true. If you can link events together that occur that far apart, you’re trying to find a cause and effect. This would be same as reading a fortune cooking that says you will come into great wealth and two weeks later you find $20 in the street. No one would say the fortune cookie had divine insight. But when it happens with the Ouija, people say it has power.

Looking at it, the Ouija uses a board and letters to spell out phrases from the other side That in mind, why aren’t people having the same experience Scrabble or Upwords? Why isn’t this mysterious humbug called Zozo showing up on Scrabble boards spelling out demonic words?

In our society, why is conjuring evil so damn easy and contacting good spirits so hard? People say they were only in the room with a Ouija and something bad followed them home. However, the same isn’t true about someone passing a church who then says a friendly angel followed them home to make breakfast and tidy up the house. If evil forces can throw books and upturn chairs, a good force should make something to eat and be useful.

If the Ouija was capable of working on conjuring those who have passed, why aren’t we talking to Einstein, Twain, Socrates, Houdini and other great minds so they can continue their work?

This may sound like heresy, but it’s not meant to be. But if the board allowed us to contact the dead, perhaps angels, perhaps higher spiritual beings, why isn’t it used in religious teachings? People don’t have a problem with prayer, so what’s wrong with something more direct?

A common claim toward the Ouija is that it works because of intent and belief. If you don’t believe, nothing will happen because the spirits know. If your intent is to contact a spirit, you will. How is that different than, "it works because I said so."

The Ouija has been debunked multiple times and is as mystical as a rabbit’s foot, lucky socks, game winning jersey, rain dance, blowing on dice or a double rainbow. When they work, people claim the power of the talisman. When they don’t, people claim other forces were acting against them, like the other team had more people with jerseys, or the magic ran out giving them their last wish.

As a final thought, since Darren and his ilk claim it’s so easy to conjure Zozo, why not take up the million dollar challenge laid down by James Randi and get Zozo to appear while he looks on?

The Strange and Mysterious History of the Ouija Board

Other Articles of Interest:

• I Am Zozo – A Review
• Zozo, Darren Evans, Robert Murch and Darkness Radio – A Zozo Hoax?
• Do you believe in the Ouija?
• Ghost Adventures – The Zozo Demon – S10E03
• The Zozo Phenomenon by Darren Evans – Review
• The Zozo Phenomenon by Darren Evans – Thoughts and Impressions
• Ghost Adventures – The Haunted Museum Live – Halloween Edition
• Paranormal State – The Lurking Man – S05E09
• Ghost Adventures – Samaritan Cult House – S14E03
• Ghost Adventures – The Exorcist House – S08E07

I’m still curious and extremely skeptical of this Zozo phenomenon so I keep reading about. The whole thing seems absurd to me. The Ghost Adventures episode was a total farce, but this Zozo idea seems to be everywhere. In my searches I find that Dave Schrader of Darkness radio invited both Darren Evans and Robert Murch to his show to talk about the Ouija, it’s dangers and the upcoming movie. Both Darren and Robert were featured in that same Ghost Adventures, Zozo episode. And if you recall, Robert didn’t actually say the board would contact the spirit world. He made the statement you would get out what you put into it.

I listened to this show and was quite taken with the comment Robert made. He is a Ouija historian and will soon be the curator of the official Ouija museum. In fact, his knowledge is so vast, that Hasbro goes to him when they have questions about the board and it’s origins. He brought up a slew of interesting facts and he even owns thousands of the boards.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Ouija is hundreds of years old. It’s not something that just popped up as a board game in the 80s. It was a huge part of the Spiritualist movement in the very late 1800s. Bear in mind that figures like Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were part of the Spiritualists. It was their belief they could contact the afterlife and the board was a simple way to spell out messages. It never took on a demonic or satanic overtone. That would come from Hollywood and the movies.

It was the Exorcist that pushed the Ouija into a dark place. That was the way little Reagan unleashed the spirit that haunted her. Ironically, that spirit name was Pazuzu. Even though the board was barely mentioned and barely seen, it was typecast in the demonic role. Now, when you touch a Ouija, out pops a demon. Something that was used by scholars and learned writers is now a toy used to contact the devil while you hide in your closet in your pajamas.

This also seems to be where the mythical name Zozo comes from. Pazuzu becomes Zozo because no one call spell Pazuzu. There is actually no reference to Zozo.

But during the discussion, Robert Murch doesn’t really give any indication that Ouija boards are bad or that they even work. He even goes so far as to say if you have a haunted board he’ll take it off your hands. So, if Robert has all these boards, why isn’t he haunted and tormented?

All the while Darren sticks to his story of how dangerous the Ouija is. Don’t touch it, don’t see the movie, don’t even look at the damn thing or a spirit will attach itself to you. He is utterly fanatical as to how dangerous the board is. He even says sales will go up and more unsuspecting people will be exposed to evil because of the movie.

Dave makes several comments as to why Scrabble isn’t haunted or any other "game". I mean seriously, what if you asked a question then pulled out tiles from the Scrabble bag. Would that make it demonic? Would a spirit be unleashed?

It all sounds utterly absurd and the same fool rhetoric we’ve heard in regards to D&D and games like Ultima and Diablo. Playing D&D unleashes the devil. Those kids did evil because they played D&D. No, those kids were messed up in the head and had mental problems.

One thing I did find interesting is that Darren says Zozo is a female spirit. This threw me for a loop considering the big piece of faked evidence in the Ghost Adventures episode was his girlfriend being molested and her pants undone. So she was molested by a female spirit who wanted to see her tits? The more you listen to this sort of thing, the more you roll your eyes.

So what about the board moving? People make it move because they desperately want to believe it will move. And the way the board is set up, words like Zozo are easy to spell. So is Mama and several other words that people claim are other names for Zozo. Even random guesses makes a pattern in this case.

When all is said and done, Zozo sounds like a massive hoax. The people who believe in Zozo are the same people who believe that Jesus comes to them in a waffle or pancake. Nothing about this Zozo story makes sense. Nothing about people contacting the devil through a Ouija makes sense. It’s all in their minds and wishful thinking. And again, if it’s so damn dangerous, why is Hasbro selling it? It’s cardboard and plastic. There are Ozzy Osbourne Ouija boards. There will be a Supernatural Ouija when the show finishes it’s run. Houdini and Doyle used the Ouija and they didn’t get a spirit attached to them. What the hell are people thinking?

Could the Ouija be used to contact the afterlife? Sure, but so could Scrabble, Upwords, playing cards, the phone book and a dictionary.

Like I said, this whole Zozo phenomenon comes across as hoax. Everyone is jumping on a bandwagon and acting like their experience is the most haunting. Combine that with the shenanigans of guys like Zak from Ghost Adventures and you pretty much seal the deal this is all a fake.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Adventures – The Zozo Demon – S10E03
• I Am Zozo – A Review
• The Zozo Phenomenon by Darren Evans – Review
• The Zozo Phenomenon by Darren Evans – Thoughts and Impressions
• Ouija – Cardboard and Plastic Toy or Mystical Portal?
• Ghost Adventures – Samaritan Cult House – S14E03
• Ghost Adventures – The Haunted Museum Live – Halloween Edition
• Ghost Adventures – The Exorcist House – S08E07
• Ghost Adventures – Hotel Leger – S16E05
• Paranormal State, seeing the demonic in a box of Cracker Jacks