 Hey Weirdos, be sure to click the like button and subscribe to this channel, and click the notification bell so you don't miss future videos. I post videos seven days a week, and while you're at it, spread the darkness by sharing this video with someone you know who loves all things strange and macabre. If you want to listen to the podcast, you can find it at WeirdDarkness.com slash listen. Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. There is something inherently spooky yet inviting about Ouija boards. The Ouija board's intricate hand-drawn letters and numbers beckon you to trace the planchette along their curves and call on whatever lies beyond the wall of death. If you've ever been to a Halloween party, you probably have a few creepy Ouija board stories of your own. Scary Ouija board stories are particularly terrifying because they deal with an unknown presence that the victims invite into their homes, the one place where we are supposed to be able to relax and escape the corporeal haunting that is real life. And once in a while, something is invited in that is more than disturbing. It is malevolent and evil. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome Weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode… Just because the Ouija board is made by a board game manufacturer does not mean it should be treated like a toy as many have discovered. The similar game, Charlie Charlie, seems more innocent but is so dangerous that in one school where children were playing it, they had to call in an exorcist. And you never know when playing any of these types of games what kind of spirit you might be inviting into our realm. But I can tell you this, it's never good. They might pretend to be good but that is far from the truth. And one particular demon has found notoriety through the Ouija board community, a demon you do not want to risk opening a door for. Its name is Zozo. If you're new here, welcome to the show. And if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com where you can find the show on Facebook and Twitter and you can also join the Weird Darkness Weirdos Facebook group. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights and come with me into the Weird Darkness. For decades, children have been using do-it-yourself Ouija boards to speak with demons. According to the Charlie Charlie Are You There legend, by drawing your own Ouija board and asking some yes or no questions, you can invoke a creature named Charlie and have him tell you about your future. Unfortunately, there is a catch. Playing Charlie Charlie like all demons summoning games carries a ton of negative ramifications. You aren't just talking to ghosts to answer your questions. You're usually chatting with a demon who's hanging out around your house. There are plenty of spooky stories about Ouija boards which we'll get into a bit later, but the creepy Charlie Charlie school game has a history that's just as macabre as the related demons' intentions. Kids have been possessed or attacked and more than one player claims to have seen a dark figure watching them after they play. Once you've invited Charlie into your life, there is no end to the creepy stuff it can do to you. Players across the world have found themselves in the grips of terror after playing Charlie Charlie. Anika Saighir from Buckinghamshire, Great Britain had her electricity cut by the fortune-telling demon. She claimed that she asked Charlie to turn on her tablet screen just before her laptop turned on. When Saighir asked Charlie to leave them alone, the pencil spun to the word no. That's when she asked the worst possible question, if Charlie was going to dispatch with her. Of course it answered with the word yes. After Saighir's friends left, the lights went out but only in her apartment. When she called her parents, her phone suddenly cut out. While Saighir did live to tell the tale, she actively discourages others now from attempting the ritual. On December 4th, 2017, Catholic priest Father Cattelano paid a visit to Tolesio Primary School in Calabria, Italy because students had called forth a demon while playing Charlie Charlie. Their teachers who dedicated their lives to worshiping and studying Jesus Christ were of course understandably upset. Speaking to the press, Father Cattelano explained Charlie Charlie is not a game but rather a satanic rite that possesses children. According to the father, the problem does not concern only the Tolesio School but many schools in Reggio, Calabria and I would dare say all of Italy. Charlie Charlie is a game that works similarly to a Ouija board. Essentially you set up your board, in this case a piece of paper with yes and no written on it, and you ask questions. The best part about this game is you don't have to spend any money. To play, all you need is a piece of paper and a couple of pencils. First, draw an X on a piece of paper, and then, okay, it's probably not a good idea for me to tell you how to play. Anyway, for some Charlie Charlie players summoning the demon turned their lives into a horror movie. Hannah McKinley, who spoke to the Mirror, described a couple of violent outbursts that occurred after she played the game. At first McKinley asked some questions and things were going well but then she heard a scream from a distance. Right after that she said, my Mirror slightly cracked. I get scared and ran into my sister's room and her bookshelf tumbled. The biggest risk associated with playing Charlie Charlie is the demonic spirit that you call forth. It can potentially possess your body. It also is possible for another spirit to use the Charlie Charlie game to enter the human realm and wreak havoc in your life. In 2016, a 12-year-old girl from San Pedro was supposedly possessed by Charlie after asking the spirit a few questions. During the possession she freaked out and threatened to kill her sister. Her mother claimed, it's like having a person inside that will not let her be quiet. No one knows what Charlie looks like but since it's a demonic creature it's likely not bound to one specific appearance. Multiple players have claimed that they have seen Charlie and each new description is creepier than the last. One player saw a dark figure on the roof of her neighbor's house watching her from afar. Another player claims they heard somebody scratching at their bedroom door and after that they heard dark laughter. Charlie has also been described as a dark figure with red eyes which is definitely something you don't want to see in the middle of the night. If you asked 10 different people who the titular Charlie is you'd likely end up with 10 different origin stories. One version of the legend says Charlie is the spirit of a young boy who died after a physical assault. In other iterations of the tale Charlie committed suicide or it's a Mexican demon who uses the name Charlie to warm up to players. Maria Elena-Navez of BBC Mundo claimed that while Mexico has a vast amount of supernatural beings there is nothing named Charlie in their demonic hierarchy. A game this simple probably has a lot of parallel origins but Mexican school children were likely the first people to play. People believe that over time Charlie-Charlie may have taken on aspects of other games to become what it is today. Supposedly the crossed-pencils style of play comes from a near-identical game called Juego de la Lepicera which I am probably butchering. I failed Spanish when I was in junior high school. Originally Charlie-Charlie required colored pencils possibly as a way to signify the words yes or no. While there is plenty of evidence pointing to the contrary it is possible that there is no demon involved with Charlie-Charlie at all. Some believe the whole thing is just in the player's heads. According to a 2012 study published in Current Directions in Psychological Science people experience something that they call response expectancy in situations where they know something might happen. This theory is similar to the idea motor effect also known as an influence of suggestion or expectation on involuntary and unconscious motor behavior. When someone expects a spirit to move their hand they sometimes move it without consciously meaning to. It is theorized this is how people are able to receive messages using a Ouija board. Response expectancy could explain why spooky things seem to start happening after you play Charlie-Charlie. You want to believe you are in a room with a creepy ghost and thanks to that overwhelming feeling you will begin to attribute everything that happens to a ghost haunting your house. It is entirely possible that thing answering your questions while playing Charlie-Charlie is actually just gravity because the pencils are precariously placed and they are bound to make a couple of ill-timed spins. Depending on whether the room you are playing in is built on an incline you can get more yes or no answers to your questions. If this is true you don't need to worry about demons but rather the crushing weight of gravity. But really is it worth the risk? The Ouija board has become a subject of fascination and fright, entertainment and terror. Some believe it opens a door to speak with loved ones who have crossed over while others believe it actually is inviting demonic entities to invade your home and life. Up next we will look at some true stories of people who have had some disturbing experiences either while using a Ouija board or shortly after, when Weird Darkness returns. The first letter seemed harmless enough, possibly even just a result of a mistaken delivery. The second one drew concern and paired with the unexplained visions of something darkly unsettling, Sam Morris, finally caves. The everyman safe world he lives in is about to take a drastic and dark turn. He quickly falls into a world of insanity, the morbid and the macabre. He is drawn into a darkness that is just as deadly as it is mysterious. A darkness that dwells in a house that could only be conjured up by a mad brain. It is a house that calls you, a house that haunts you with its ghosts. They'll scratch and claw through your fragile hide, bringing madness bubbling to the surface. Come see the ghosts for yourself, if you dare. Weird Darkness Publishing presents of A Mad Brain by Scott Donnelly, now available on paperback, ebook, and audiobook versions through Amazon and WeirdDarkness.com. Ouija board stories all have a few things in common. Groups of friends who underestimate the power of the spirit realm, entities that lie about who they really are, and mysterious occurrences that even the most ardent of skeptics have trouble explaining. Whether you are a true believer or one of those skeptics, these stories of spirits haunting the living from the confines of a Ouija board will chill you to the bone and make you think twice before communicating with entities from another dimension. Redditor AMA went out of their way to get haunted by something that came through their Ouija board. After trying and failing to contact a spirit the first time, they cut the lights, lit some candles, and turned on an old radio to play nothing but white noise while they tried to make contact with the other side. That's a pair of bad idea genes if ever there was one. But a spirit finally responded. The Redditor and their friends learned that its name was Zozo, which we'll talk about a little bit more later in the show. And from there, things went about as poorly as they could. They said we began to try and move the planchette in circles like you do when you're expecting an answer. And all of a sudden it stopped on the hello spot of the board and would not move. We actually slid the whole board off the table trying to get it to move. It was being pushed down hard. The planchette continually alternated between hello and no. The radio emitted screeching sounds. A bunch of objects fell off the top of the refrigerator. The candles blew out and a cat that lives at the house began walking with a limp the next day. Weird activity continued in her home for the next two weeks. After this collection of spooky Ouija stories that happen to Redditor Kimi Gibbler say what, you're probably going to buy a ticket for the no thank you train, just like me. The writer's most terrifying story comes from an evening when a spirit named Deb proved that it exists by explaining that it knows where she and her friends smoke, possibly insinuating that it's watching them as they get their fix. Not freaked enough by this information to stay inside, the Redditor and her friend Hailey pressed Deb to prove she is real. I said, how will we know you're real? And she said, trees. I'm like screw that. And Hailey says we have to do it, so we're smoking outside. I'm looking into the forest, sweating balls in fear, thinking I'm going to see a demon face in the branches or something. Eventually, we relax, but then Hailey mid-sentence in her face drops and goes white. She's like, get inside now. I toss my cigarette and jump in the window. We close the blinds and we're breathing super heavy. I'm like, what the heck happened? She says that behind me in the distance, there was a big like 100 foot tall tree. There was no wind. I remember this because I was watching my cigarette smoke go directly up and I was blowing perfect O's without them disappearing. She says the tree was still, then suddenly the whole tree, including the trunk, moved back and forth then went back to perfectly still. I was like, heck no. And after a while, a freaking out sat back at the board. When we put our fingers on it, it said, did you see? Redditor Huxley Pearl relates a Ouija board story that seems to be more about a family of intuitive people who live in a haunted house than anything else, but it's worth noting that their spooky troubles didn't begin until they horsed around with a Ouija board. Afterward, their ghostly issues included phantoms pulling on a baby's limbs, a black clad ghost, slave family and the appearance of a creepy red door. What's more, the sister in this family may have summoned up something very troubling. Anyway, her sister said that she was playing with the board one day and when she asked who she was speaking to, she got a weird name. It struck her as odd, but she didn't really worry about it. Weeks later, she watched a special on the History Channel or something and they were discussing demonology. She recognized one of the names as being the strange one that she had encountered through the Ouija board. While stationed in Germany, a former Redditor and some fellow soldiers decided to light some candles and contact the dead. The first spirit they spoke with was a young woman who had perished while she and her boyfriend were driving home from a grateful dead concert and now she was looking for him. After she went away, they actually spoke to the boyfriend who asked if they could tell his girlfriend that he was sorry. Then they spoke to the ghost of an older woman who said the reason the spirit of the young woman couldn't find her boyfriend is that he's in hell. While missing around with the Ouija board as a young man, the stepdad of a former Redditor was visited by a demon who told him that his firstborn child would perish. Understandably, the next morning the guy tried to get rid of the board first by throwing it away, then by burning it and finally burying it with a Bible on top for good measure. Years later, his wife miscarried their first child. While playing with the Ouija board with some friends from high school, Redditor, Halvin 3 and some friends, encountered a spirit named Nile who said that he had been slain by his father. The group tried to move on from that conversation but the spirit continued to insist that he wanted answers, even going so far as to spell out satisfy my requests. After that, the friends abandoned everything, the board, the house, the street, truly the only way to bust a ghost. After building a spirit board with his sister, Redditor Life in Hex Colors says the duo contacted a spirit named Roger who perished of food poisoning and knew that the brother and sister's older sibling wanted to talk to them. Shortly afterward, the older sister who was upstairs vacuuming called for the kids to help her with the household chores. The spirit boarding duo got so freaked out that they threw their board away only for it to return the next day. Imagine a Ouija board that was so pent up with spooky energy that it didn't even have to be used to start screwing around with your life. That's exactly what happened to Redditor Zombie Tovin who took the board in question from a friend who said that every time she tried to use it, the same spirit continued to show up. After taking the board to its new home, things began to move around in the middle of the night. Footsteps were heard and the cats were not happy. But then really, when are cats happy? While using a Ouija board to contact the spirit of a young girl's grandmother, Redditor Awawawi and a group of friends were contacted by the spirit of something that wore wooden clogs and had the touch of something not quite human. After being called, the spirit entered the room and touched everyone in the circle, causing them to hyperventilate. Suddenly, the girl closest to the door starts hyperventilating and tears fill her eyes. According to one person, we're all basically frozen in fear at this point. It's really hard to get a feeling for how fast time went, but not long after it started, it stops and starts with a person on her left side doing the same. I don't think I really understood at that time that I was next in line. It ended with the person next to me and I suddenly felt something touch my shoulders. It wasn't completely like the physical touch of a human, but it definitely was something to put weight on my shoulders. I of course freeze and start hyperventilating at the shock of something unknown touching me. When this had gone halfway through the circle, it jumps straight at the granddaughter who starts with the same hyperventilating and breaks down crying. While playing with a Ouija board late at night, Redditor Frost from Fire asked for a simple sign so they could know that they were actually communing with the spirit realm and not just absentmindedly moving the plant shadow around. That's when their local flood alarm sounded three times, even though there was no rain that night. Redditor Twisted Missy tells Ouija story about their grandmother, who decided to pass some time with her lady friends and husband one spooky evening. After reaching a spirit and asking the basics, they cut to the chase and asked how the ghost passed. The ghost said it would tell them, but not until the boy left the room. After the grandpa left, the spirit began to relay the story of its demise, but when the grandpa returned to fetch his wallet, the spirit cut its chilling tail short. While playing with a Ouija board with his cousin Donnie in a camper outside of his house, Redditor Roblicky kept receiving the same message again and again. The letters H and A followed by You Are Trapped. When the two cousins decided to leave the camper, they discovered that the door handle had broken off. They were trapped. Eventually they got out of their prison, but that was the last time either of them messed with a Ouija board. On New Year's Eve 1991, while drinking like only teenagers can, Redditor Eat My Cupcake and their siblings contacted a spirit named Eugene. We asked, why are you contacting us Eugene? We received the answer, afraid. That seemed a bit more serious. We asked, why are you afraid Eugene? It replied, music, music, over and over. Nonsense. Then we got a series of numbers, puzzling. My brother had the bright idea to turn on the radio to the station indicated by the numbers. To our surprise, there really was a station there. The song Don't Leave Me Stranded by Hart was playing. The board immediately started saying, Hart, Hart, Hart. I thought my brother was just playing off of what he was hearing and was screwing with me. Then it started saying, don't go. Don't leave me. Don't go. Church. Church. Afraid. Don't go. Over and over and over. We assured it that we weren't going to go, but it dwindled into nonsense after a while. It was getting really late and we decided to go to bed. The next afternoon while everyone was eating breakfast, the family's father received a phone call letting him know that his uncle, Eugene, had had a heart attack the previous night and died multiple times on the table, only to be revived very early that morning. He had been terrified of losing his life because he hadn't attended church in decades. It's a well known fact that the Queen Mary, a historic cruise ship permanently docked in Long Beach, California, is one of the most haunted sites on the planet. So it makes perfect sense that someone would have a very scary Ouija experience onboard the ship, even if they made their board out of two pieces of paper and some band-aids. When Redditor, Garden198 and some friends decided to experiment on the ship, they spoke with a spirit who said that its name was Zach and who may have tried to physically assault the team after they went to bed that night. Each member of the crew suffered night terrors with one of them running through the Our Father Prayer in a state of lucid dreaming. Redditor WooWooHoo tells a couple of stories about their strange Ouija board that predicted major events in the lives of those who used it. But the most interesting thing they mention is how the board consistently had 35 cents in its box. One of their friends ended up taking the change for luck and kept it on them at all times. Months later, the change was able to help them make a phone call that got them out of a sticky situation. When Redditor WooWooHoo decided to use her Ouija board in the wilderness one afternoon, she and her family spoke to a spirit who may have been reaching out for help. After meeting something calling itself Patrick, the family had a good time joking around with its ghost until it told them that it had been brutally assaulted and slain near where they were hanging out. After the family shut the conversation down, they returned home and checked up on the story, which had been reported in the local news. After having some success speaking with spirits via Ouija board in college, Redditor DonnieNarco89 claims to have accidentally attached themselves to two ghosts who followed them home after graduating school. The spookier of the beings was an old man who wore a hat and smoked a pipe while sitting next to the Redditor as they slept and shouted at them to wake up. The haunting became so bad that the Redditor and their mother had to cleanse their house. If you're using Ouija board and the spirit gets tired of you and wishes you a good day, don't get offended and definitely don't keep pestering the entity because things won't go well. While playing with Ouija board and their teens, one former Redditor and their friends continually pestered a spirit after it told them goodbye multiple times. Finally, the spirit got so tired of these meddling kids that it called them on the phone, spoke to one of their dads and said, don't f with me. Take some advice from Redditor Bluejake42, who accidentally invited a demon named Kos into his dreams and leave well enough alone when you're using Ouija board. The writer says that while they don't necessarily believe in spirits, the conversations they had with this entity on an abandoned basketball court have made them believe that something is out there. He said he was blonde, blue-eyed and burned, all of which I thought was a weird description, and when I asked what he meant by burned, he said, F-I-R-E. Fire, I asked. Did you die in a fire? There was some hesitation. I thought I hit the wrong nerve or something with this spirit. It was a long pause, then, yes. I asked what year it, and it said 1816. Okay, so at this point, I just start talking to Kos, like an old shum or something. I begin to ask about his family life and things like that. Well, I didn't believe it, I still had fun. I asked him if he could visit me because I thought he was an alright guy. Kos said, D-R-E-A-M-S. DREAMS. I said, Sure, visit me in my dreams. That would be alright. Spoiler alert, Kos did indeed come visit the Redditor in their dreams, and it wasn't pretty. After speaking to the creature and inviting it out of the board, no one else was able to contact anything, so it's possible the demon took over the Ouija board and is still waiting for the Redditor to return to their game. When Redditor Dorian Gray 98 and their cousin, who lived together, decided to dig up an antique Ouija board and play around with the spirit world, they may have gotten more than they bargained for. After goofing around with a spirit, they put the board away without dismissing the spirit, thus inviting it to creep them out constantly, even when they were going to the bathroom. They destroyed the planchette, burned the board, and buried it. But then the board reappeared on their doorstep. While using a Ouija board with some friends to communicate with a spirit from beyond the grave, Redditor Nate Sobs 1216 chatted with a young woman named Bridget, who claimed to have perished in a car accident. When the friends grilled her about the facts of her passing, make a model of the car, the year of the event, etc., the spirit freely gave up her answers until the game ended. The Redditor says they looked up Bridget's info online and discovered that it was true, and ever since, they have felt like something is following them. Maybe Redditor Slackerish's first mistake was getting cross-faded before invoking a demon through a Ouija board, or maybe it was not shutting down the conversation when they discovered that they were talking to a demon. Either way, they kept chatting with this alleged demon until it said that it wanted to hurt everyone using the board, which is never a good sign. When the player went home, they discovered all of their furniture moved around and all of the cabinets open. Whether this was simply a prank or the work of a demon is yet to be seen. And if you've seen any horror movie with a Ouija board, you know that the last thing you want to do is burn a spirit board. We don't know the exact science behind it, but something about seeing one of these things on fire angers all of the ghosts, and then you have to figure out how to get them out of your house. Redditor Orphaneter decided to get spooky with his friends one day and printed out a Ouija board from the internet. After they failed to get anything going with the ghost, they burned the board in the fireplace. But then everything got creepy. A set of downstairs doors opened randomly and they heard a continual banging from downstairs. The creepiest part of the entire story is that one piece of the board survived the fire. The word yes. When Weird Darkness returns, of all the stories of Ouija boards, the ones of a demonic entity coming through are the most terrifying. But something unbelievably horrifying is taking shape when you start comparing the stories. A pattern begins to emerge. A pattern where one particular demon surfaces to terrorize, oppress, and even possess those who play with what they do not understand. Its name is Zozo, and don't let the quirky name fool you. This dark, demonic entity is anxious to drag your soul to the depths of hell. Up next. Are you more than just a fan of Weird Darkness? Would you consider yourself a loyal listener of the podcast? Do you want even more content? Take your dedication to the next level by becoming a member of Weird Darkness' Darkness Syndicate. As a member of the Darkness Syndicate, you receive exclusive Weird Darkness merchandise, yet daily episodes of the podcast Commercial Free along with commercial free recordings of the weekly radio show. Listen to chapters of audiobooks I narrate even before the publishers or authors hear them. Get video updates about the Weird Darkness podcast and future projects that I'm working on before anyone else. And share your opinions on ideas to help me decide what to do in the Weird Darkness podcast in the future. You get all of these benefits starting at only $5 per month. Join the Darkness Syndicate at WeirdDarkness.com slash Syndicate. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Syndicate. Stories of the Ouija board demon Zozo have been circulating for just about as long as the Ouija game itself has been around. Who is Zozo? Depends on who you ask, but most people familiar with Zozo believe it to be either a demon, a tulpa, a mischievous ghost trying to scare and impress the living, or just a product of the idea motor effect. Regardless of Zozo's true identity and origins, tales of harrowing encounters with have become so widespread that they've inspired books and horror movies. Of course Ouija is a board game and your chances of accidentally speed-dialing a bona fide evil spirit in the middle of your Halloween party are most likely pretty low, but still, just in case it can't hurt to keep an eye out for signs that Zozo is haunting your Ouija board or spirit board. What should you do if Zozo appears the next time you say hello? Several people claim to have been possessed by Zozo, and the experiences that they describe are absolutely nightmarish. Paranormal researcher Darren Evans recounted having a nervous breakdown when Zozo stalked and tormented his daughter until she had to be admitted to a hospital. The Internet is also rife with spine-chilling tales of meeting Zozo and facing the aftermath of each encounter. According to one witness, Zozo first asked a series of questions about players' families through a spirit board before mysteriously extinguishing a candle and going on to cause a streak of nasty luck for the witness and her friend. Another witness who also claimed to have contacted Zozo through a spirit board allegedly spent some time with a friend talking to a spirit named Zozo until her friend began experiencing strange symptoms that started with a headache and culminated with her inexplicable disappearance from the house in the middle of the night. The first recorded account of a supernatural encounter with an entity calling itself Zozo dates back to far before Darren Evans reports though. In the last published edition of La Dictionaire Infernal, the same book that contains the symbol that Evans claimed was a representation of Zozo's name, the author documented a case of demonic possession that took place in the village of Tiley in 1816. The case concerned a girl who claimed to be possessed by three demons. Their names were Mimi, Crapoulay, and Zozo. According to another theory, Zozo is another name for the Mesopotamian demon Pizzuzu. Zozo really is a nickname for Pizzuzu. This creature has been terrorizing occultists and party game enthusiasts for at least 2700 years. Most descriptions of Zozo refer to it as a demon, but the truth is that nobody knows exactly what it really is. Zozo's MO is to introduce itself to unwary spirit board users, interact with them through the board for a little while, and then slowly begin to spread its influence over their lives. Though a few connections exist between the name Zozo and the identity of a Mesopotamian demon, it's not entirely clear if Zozo calls itself a demon or if reports of its malicious behavior have earned it a demonic reputation. Zozo may not be just one entity either. After all, if ghosts exist and we can truly speak to them, there's nothing preventing them from using the name Zozo simply to scare us. In fact, there might not even be a Zozo. The trademark bizarre planchette movements and negative feelings associated with Zozo could easily be produced subconsciously by anybody familiar with the nasty rumors surrounding its name. While not every Zozo story involves ongoing torment at the hands of a mysterious force, even temporary contact with Zozo can be an unsettling experience. People who claim to have encountered Zozo often describe experiencing sudden, intense feelings of anger, fear, depression or suicidal ideation while speaking with the entity through a spirit board. Some victims even say they've experienced physical symptoms including headaches, sleepwalking and in one case an infection. Inexplicable strings of bad luck have also been attributed to Zozo. To date, there are no confirmed instances of actual deaths caused by Zozo, but the incidents recounted by alleged victims are ghoulish enough to lose sleep over. Almost every story of an encounter with Zozo involves a spirit board, but even if you don't pick up the planchette, you might be unlucky enough to attract Zozo's attention anyway. Some have contacted it through pendulum dousing, a system similar to a spirit board that uses a suspended weight instead of a planchette to indicate answers. Others have reported meeting Zozo through automatic writing sessions or hypnosis. Researchers have also captured what they claim is EVP audio footage of Zozo. Darren Evans, the most well-known researcher of the Zozo phenomenon, has even taken what he believes to be a photograph of Zozo. Most encounters with Zozo start off as deceptively benign conversations before they start to turn sinister. However, there are several signs that can tip you off in time for you to disengage before anything truly creepy happens. Here's how you'll know it's time to put the game away. The planchette will move in a rainbow pattern from side to side, sometimes pointing to O and then Z over and over. The planchette will move in repeated figure eight movements. The planchette will spell out any version of Zozo's name, so watch out for Zozo, Zozo, Zaza, or even Mama in particular. You might see what looks like shadows moving around the area while you're playing. And you or whoever you're playing with might start to feel scared, uneasy, or upset. If you suspect you might have made contact with Zozo, the best thing you can do is to stay calm. If Zozo really is a demonic spirit, your fear will just make him stick around. If you're using a spirit board, close the session by moving the planchette to goodbye. This will formally end the game and you won't be able to make contact with Zozo anymore. If you're not using a spirit board, end your game or session according to its official rules as quickly and calmly as you can. Even if Zozo's nothing more than a product of the audio motor effect and an overactive imagination, just removing the source of your fear will help you escape the feeling of being haunted. The easiest way to avoid forming an unwanted connection with Zozo is to stop communicating with it for a while. If you use a spirit board, put it away for a while or use it somewhere besides the place where you believe you've run into Zozo. Cleansing your home or anywhere in particular where you feel Zozo's more likely to bother you is also a pretty reliable way of staving off negative influences and regaining some peace of mind. If you're a spiritual person, go ahead, give your place a cleanse with whatever tools work best for you such as sage or holy water. Better yet, don't mess with a Ouija board at all. If you're dealing with a run of bad luck or cruddy luck, your best course of action is to take care of yourself. Remember what goes down will come up again. Don't ignore your physical or mental health, whether it's creepy spirits or garden variety health problems that have you worried. And if you're 100% convinced that what you're facing is an actual demonic spirit, you can't go wrong with a good ol' ectorcism. Zozo goes by many other names. Zozo, Zaza, Zo, Oz, even Mama or Abacus. Some sources also associate Zozo with Pizzuzu, the Mesopotamian demon king of the southwest wind, and the inspiration for the villainous spirit in the ectorcist. Darren Evans, a paranormal researcher whose reports brought Zozo into the public eye, described and countering Zozo through a Ouija board with a symbol etched into it that could be read as the name Zozo. Curiously, the symbol is almost identical to the Zozo symbol used to represent Jimmy Page on the inner sleeve of the fourth Led Zeppelin album. While it's not impossible that Page took graphic design advice from a demon, it's more likely that he adapted the symbol from La Dictionnaire Infernal, an encyclopedia of demons written in 1818. However, this book lists the symbol as a protective sigil, not a demonic one. So this means that Evans, a Zeppelin fan, probably took Zozo's name from the symbol he saw in the album and gave it a demonic origin story. Or Zozo just happens to really be into Led Zeppelin. There's no guarantee that any given spirit board session will bring you face to face with Zozo. But why leave it to chance? Before you pick up the planchette, take a minute to set some ground rules for whoever or whatever you're hoping to contact. If Zozo does indeed exist, it might think twice before trying to intimidate you if you have shown that you're willing to take control of the encounter. Just dedicate a minute or two before your session to state firmly you are not interested in talking to anyone who wants to scare or control you, and that if they try, you're going to tell them goodbye. Or again, better yet, don't mess with spirit boards, Ouija boards, or Charlie Charlie at all. This might not sound like it would do much to deter a demon, but it's really hard for them to possess or oppress you if you're not giving them an opportunity to even be around. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at darren at WeirdDarkness.com. You can find the show on Facebook and Twitter, including the show's Weirdo's Facebook group, on the Contact Social page at WeirdDarkness.com. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, click on Tell Your Story or call the dark line toll-free at 1-877-277-5944. That's 1-877-277-5944. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. Charlie Charlie and Ouija boards were written by Jacob Shelton for Graveyard Shift, and Zozo, the Ouija board demon, was written by Maggie Klendenen for Riker. Again, you can find links to these stories in the show notes. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House productions. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Galatians 6, verses 7-9. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction. The one who sows to please the spirit, from the spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. And a final thought from Martin Luther King Jr. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others? I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. I'd like you to meet the newest member of our Weirdo family. Meet Sijak, a female arctic wolf. While visiting the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Kingsburg, Colorado, Robin and I fell in love with the place and their mission to save the lives of animals from abuse and neglect. I immediately felt drawn to Sijak upon seeing her and decided to adopt her in the name of Weird Darkness. And that means you had a part in that Weirdos. Sijak was born in a safari park that couldn't care for her. But the Wild Animal Sanctuary steps in to save Sijak and other wild animals from private owners and less than ideal living conditions. Sijak now has a lifelong home in a large acreage, natural habitat near other wolves. Wild Animal Sanctuary has saved numerous other wild animals from abuse and neglect. Lions, grizzlies, tigers, panthers and more. Visit wildanimalsanctuary.org to learn more, donate to the sanctuary and maybe adopt an animal of your own like we have with Sijak. That's wildanimalsanctuary.org.