Questions to Ask a Ouija Board
Twenty questions shaped for what a Ouija board can actually answer: yes, no, single words, letters and numbers. Includes how to set a session up, what to leave alone, and how to close it.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Is anyone here with us?
Why ask it
A board answers in yes, no, letters and numbers, so a session runs better when the first question takes one of those shapes. Opening with something closed also gives everyone a shared reference for what a clear answer looks like.
Do you want to talk with us tonight?
Why ask it
Questions phrased as asking permission set the tone, and the effect is mostly on the people in the room. A group that asks tends to stay calmer than a group that demands, which matters more as the session goes on.
Can you spell your name?
Why ask it
Names are where boards produce their most ambiguous output, because a run of letters invites the group to finish the word. Agree first that letters get written down one at a time and read back only once the spelling stops.
How many of you are here?
Why ask it
A number is the cleanest thing a board can produce. Worth asking early, because a small numeric question shows the group how the planchette behaves when the answer has no room for interpretation.
Are you someone one of us knew?
Why ask it
Deliberately loose, and more revealing about the room than about the board. If someone present has a particular person in mind, this is where that expectation begins to shape the movement, which is worth naming openly.
What year were you born?
Why ask it
Four digits and nothing to interpret. Numeric answers are the only ones you can check against anything afterwards, which makes comparing them more interesting than arguing about what a word meant.
Have you been in this house before tonight?
Why ask it
Ties the session to the room you are sitting in. It is also a clear case of a question everyone present has some knowledge about, and that knowledge is part of what ends up moving the planchette.
Do you know why we are asking?
Why ask it
Better than an open question about purpose, because it prompts the group to say out loud why they are doing this. Sessions go wrong most often when different people in the room want different things from them.
Is there something you want to tell us?
Why ask it
Genuinely open, and it will produce a long string of letters. Write them down without reading them out as a word, then read the whole thing once. Groups that interpret mid-spelling end up with something nobody quite chose.
Can you say it in one word?
Why ask it
A useful correction after a long, ambiguous answer. Narrowing the output to a single word means the group either gets something legible or notices clearly that it is not going to.
Would it help if we asked yes or no questions instead?
Why ask it
Boards are much better at yes and no than at prose, and saying so aloud gives everyone permission to simplify. It also breaks the mood of a session that has become tense and hard to follow.
Is there something you want us to stop doing?
Why ask it
This earns its place because it lets anyone in the room halt something they are uncomfortable with without having to say so in their own voice. That is its real function, and it is a good one to have available.
Are we asking too much at once?
Why ask it
Sessions become overwhelming when three people talk over each other. This interrupts that in a way that sounds like part of the session rather than a complaint about how someone is behaving.
Can you tell us something one of us would recognize?
Why ask it
The traditional test, and the part that matters is deciding beforehand what would count. Settle that in advance, or the answer gets accepted or dismissed according to whoever speaks first.
Is there anyone else here who would rather answer?
Why ask it
Useful when the session has stalled. It also shifts attention away from any one participant, which lowers the pressure on whoever has been doing most of the interpreting.
Is there anything you want us to pass on to someone?
Why ask it
Requests like this carry real weight for people who bring a specific loss to the board. Handle whatever comes back gently, and expect that someone may become upset rather than intrigued.
Would you rather we came back another night?
Why ask it
Gives the group a way out. Every session should have an exit that does not require anyone to admit they personally want to stop, and this question is that exit.
Have we asked anything we should not have?
Why ask it
A steadying question rather than a searching one. Asked out loud, it lets anyone who has been uneasy say so under cover of the session, which is often the only way it gets said at all.
Are you ready for us to close?
Why ask it
Boards work better with an explicit ending, for an entirely practical reason: a session that closes clearly does not leave someone awake at two in the morning wondering whether it is still open.
Will you say goodbye with us?
Why ask it
Ending the same way every time gives the group a ritual to hold, which matters most to whoever in the room is most affected. Say it aloud, move the planchette to goodbye, then put the board away.
Running a Session Well
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you start
Agree what this is
Some people come to a board as a game and some as something closer to a seance. Sessions that end badly usually contain both without anyone having said so. Settle it out loud before you sit down.
Give one person the notebook
Someone recording letters without commenting on them changes a session more than any other single choice. It slows interpretation down and leaves you with something to read in ordinary light afterwards.
Agree who can stop it
Anyone should be able to end the session without explaining why. Saying that in advance is what makes the person who needs it actually use it.
Think about who is in the room
A recent bereavement, or someone already frightened, makes for a session that ends in distress. That is a judgment about the people present rather than about the board.
Questions that work on a board
- Yes and no questions, which are the only kind a board answers cleanly.
- Numbers: years, ages, counts. They arrive unambiguous and you can compare them later.
- Single words rather than sentences.
- One question at a time, asked by one person, with a pause after it.
- Questions the group agreed on beforehand, so nobody is improvising something upsetting halfway through.
What to leave alone
Anything about when someone will die
It cannot be checked and it cannot be unheard, and it is the most common reason someone leaves a session frightened. That includes asking on behalf of a person who is ill.
Health and medical questions
A board is not a source of medical information, and treating an answer as one can delay real care. If a health question is on someone's mind, that is a reason to see a doctor rather than to sit down at a board.
Decisions you actually have to make
Money, relationships and moves deserve better inputs than this. Using a session to settle something consequential hands your judgment to whatever the group's hands produced.
Long open questions
Anything needing a full sentence produces a letter string the group interprets collectively, which is how sessions end in an argument about what was said.
Pushing anyone who wants to stop
The person most affected is rarely the one doing the talking. If someone goes quiet or asks to finish, close the session then rather than after one more question.
Closing the session
- 1Say clearly that you are finishing, rather than just lifting your hands away.
- 2Move the planchette to goodbye together, the same way every time.
- 3Put the board away out of sight and turn the lights up.
- 4Read the notes aloud once in ordinary light, and let people say what they thought was happening.
- 5Check on whoever was quietest, since that is usually the person a session unsettles.