Questions to Ask a Ouija Board
35 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.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
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.
How old were you?
Why ask it
A number is easier to spell than a sentence, so this often works when longer questions stall. It also gives you something to hold against later answers, since inconsistency across a session is the most common way these conversations come apart.
What year did you die?
Why ask it
Pairs with the age question. Two numbers that cannot both be true are the clearest sign the answers are coming from the table, and if they do line up you have a date range you can look up later.
Where did you live?
Why ask it
Place names are checkable afterwards, which is the point. Note whether the answer matches something a person at the board already knows, since that is the most likely source of it, and treat details nobody present could have known as the ones actually worth researching.
What did you do for work?
Why ask it
An occupation is concrete enough to picture and specific enough to research. When the answer comes back as an abstraction rather than a trade, the board has usually run out of anything to say.
Who did you leave behind?
Why ask it
Names of the living stall a board more often than dates do. Write down the exact letters before anyone interprets them, because half-spelled names are the ones people later insist matched someone they knew.
How did you die?
Why ask it
Ask this only if the group is prepared for a distressing answer, and skip it if anyone present has a recent loss. Answers to this question are the ones people carry home from a session, whatever they believe about their source.
Why did you come to us tonight?
Why ask it
Moves from identification to intent, and the answers tend to be short: a name, a room, a word like lost or waiting. Watch the group's reaction here rather than only the board, because this is the question that changes the mood of a session.
Are you here for one of us in particular?
Why ask it
Expect this to land emotionally on whoever it points to, and be ready for that. If someone at the board hoped to reach a specific person, they are the likeliest unconscious source of the answer, which is worth knowing before anyone treats it as confirmation.
Are you at peace?
Why ask it
A yes or no that often shapes the rest of the session. A negative answer invites the group to try to help, which can be a kind impulse or a way of talking yourselves into distress. Decide beforehand how far you are willing to go down that path.
Is something unfinished?
Why ask it
Better than asking about regrets, which invites a lecture rather than an answer. If a yes comes, follow with closed questions to narrow it: a person, a place, an object. Open follow-ups here usually stall the board completely.
What do you miss?
Why ask it
One of the few questions where a single word still feels like a full answer, which is why it produces the moments people remember. Treat it as a temperature check on the table as much as a question to the board.
Is there anything you want us to do?
Why ask it
Worth asking and worth handling carefully, because the answers people act on afterwards, visiting a grave or ringing a relative, are the part of the evening that lasts. Promise nothing at the table.
Can you tell us something none of us knows?
Why ask it
The only question in the set that can actually be tested, so ask it plainly and write the answer down verbatim before anyone interprets it. Answers that are vague, universal, or already discussed in the room are the ones to be sceptical about.
Is there anything we should be careful about?
Why ask it
This question reliably raises the tension in a room, which is worth knowing before you ask it. Whatever you make of the answer, it tends to be remembered and reinterpreted afterwards, so consider whether your group is in the state to hear it.
Is there a question you want us to ask?
Why ask it
Hands over control, which exposes how much the group has been steering. A long silence here, after twenty minutes of fluent replies, is worth noticing.
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.