You know the history of the Ouija board. Now it's time for the stories people swear really happened.

In this first bonus episode of The Haunted Line, we're stepping away from the history books and into five unsettling Ouija board encounters, from a bizarre case of "Ouija mania" that ended with police breaking down the door to unexplained footsteps, a message that haunted a science journalist for nearly three decades, the disturbing legend of Zozo, and a Ouija board prediction that allegedly came true years later.

Some of these stories are documented in historical records. Others have been preserved in folklore archives or told firsthand by the people who experienced them. And some remain impossible to verify.

Are they evidence that something can actually communicate through a Ouija board?

The ideomotor effect?

Coincidence?

Or something we still don't understand?

You decide.

And if you've ever had a frightening or unexplained experience with a Ouija board, I want to hear it. Your story could be featured in a future bonus episode of The Haunted Line.

Sources & Further Reading

El Cerrito Historical Society
When El Cerrito Went "Insane": The Ouija-Mania Incident of 1920
https://www.elcerritohistoricalsociety.org/ouija-mania

KQED
Jon Brooks, This Science Editor Has a Real Ghost Story and It's Still Freaking Him Out
https://www.kqed.org/news/11930135/did-i-actually-contact-a-dead-person-a-science-editor-in-search-of-his-mothers-ghost-2

KQED
Can We Really Speak to the Dead? Even for a Skeptic, Hope Creeps In
https://www.kqed.org/news/11930176/did-i-actually-contact-a-dead-person-a-science-editor-in-search-of-his-mothers-ghost

USC Digital Folklore Archives
Ouija Board Experience and collected Ouija board folklore
https://folklore.usc.edu/tag/ouija-board/

Coast to Coast AM
Ouija Board & Zozo Phenomena, featuring Ouija historian Robert Murch and Darren Evans
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2014-10-04-show/

Reddit, r/Paranormal
Freaky Ouija Board Story
https://www.reddit.com/r/Paranormal/comments/rn9kok/

A Note on the Stories

This episode includes a combination of documented historical events, personal testimony, folklore, and unverified first-person accounts. Paranormal claims discussed in this episode have not necessarily been independently verified and are presented as the experiences and beliefs of the people who reported them.

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🎙️ The Haunted Line
Where History, Hauntings, and Folklore Meet.

The Ouija board might be one of the most feared objects in paranormal history, but it didn’t begin as something sinister.

In this episode of The Haunted Line, we uncover the strange history of the Ouija board, from its roots in the Victorian Spiritualist movement to the businessmen who patented the first commercial talking board in 1891.

We explore the mysterious story behind the name “Ouija,” Helen Peters and the unusual patent office demonstration, William Fuld’s connection to the board and his tragic death, and the bizarre case of Patience Worth, a supposed spirit who communicated through a Ouija board and went on to dictate entire novels.

We’ll also look at the science behind why the planchette moves, including the ideomotor effect, and how The Exorcist helped transform the Ouija board from a popular parlor game into something associated with demons, possession and the occult.

And then there are the rules.

Why are you supposed to always say goodbye? What does it mean if the planchette moves in a figure eight? Why do people warn against using a Ouija board alone, using one in a cemetery, or burning one when you’re finished with it?

Some of these warnings have roots in Spiritualist traditions. Others appear to be folklore that developed over generations.

So what is a Ouija board really?

A toy? A psychological phenomenon? A tool for spirit communication?

Or something we still don’t completely understand?

🎧 Listen to The Haunted Line wherever you get your podcasts.

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🎙️ The Haunted Line
Where History, Hauntings, and Folklore Meet.

What if you took a photograph and, when it was developed, someone appeared behind you who had been dead for years?

In the 1860s, that question became more than a ghost story.

As Spiritualism swept through the Victorian era, photographer William H. Mumler claimed his camera could capture something the human eye couldn't see: the dead.

Soon, grieving families were lining up at his studio, hoping for one last photograph with someone they had lost. His eerie images showed translucent figures standing behind the living, including one of the most famous spirit photographs ever taken, an image of Mary Todd Lincoln with what appeared to be the ghost of Abraham Lincoln standing behind her.

But were Mumler's photographs evidence of the afterlife, or carefully constructed illusions?

In this episode of The Haunted Line, we explore the strange history of Victorian spirit photography, Mumler's sensational fraud trial, the photographic techniques that could create a convincing ghost, and why unexplained figures continue to appear in photographs more than 160 years later.

Because cameras have changed.

Our fascination with photographing the dead hasn't.

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@thehauntedlinepod

Love haunted history, folklore, and things that go bump in the night? Follow the show and leave a rating or review—it helps more people find us.

🎙️ The Haunted Line
Where History, Hauntings, and Folklore Meet.