Zozo Phenomenon
It’s time for another entry into our Real-World Creepy series! This particular topic was sent to me by Sobellium69, who sent me the following message: Recently I have come to knowledge of what is known as the Zozo phenomenon. To start, I must tell of what the Ouija Board is. To those of you who don’t know, it’s a “children’s toy” with letters spelled out across a board. A person or a group can put their hands or fingers on the planchet, and try to summon spirits. The spirit then moves the planchett around the board, spelling out sentences. Some claim its each other doing the moving, which it often tends to be. Others claim it’s their subconscious. Yet many believe it is actually spirits. I will not get into this, if you want to research this there is plenty of information. The Zozo phenomenon is the fact that people from all over the world for the last 30 years (the time the board became popular) have reported an entity named Zozo, Zoso, ZuZu, Zu, Zo, and other Z worded names like that. This creature often starts claiming its another spirit, or trying to act friendly or nice. More often then not, Zozo quickly becomes violent, curses you out, and takes complete control of the board. For many, this is not the end of it however. No matter how many boards they use, Zozo comes back. And soon it doesn’t end with the board. Many report hauntings by Zozo, some claim possession, and others claim harassment. It often carries a very common theme, however. Zozo either pretends to be friendly for a while, and slowly drains away from its host, or he is outright hostile, terrifying the poor souls unlucky enough to encounter him. Many have asked Zozo questions on his origins. On most occasions, after revealing himself as Zozo, he will not deny what he is. He will outright tell you he is a Demon from hell, even once claiming to be Satan himself. Although this last part was probably one of his many scare tactics, there is much evidence of ancient entities in ancient Africa, medieval Europe, and Christianity for a demon named Zozo, which in English translates to “the destroyer.” Zozo has even been known to curse off in Hebrew and quote bible verses, and to react severely negatively to anything about God or Jesus Christ, even relinquishing his grip on his victims when being commanded in a Christian fashion. I do not know if this is common with other religions as well, and it doesn’t always work for Christians as well. I am writing this as a warning to inform my fellow Creepypasta readers that not everything is as it seems. If you happen to use one of these boards or an automatic writer, and something by the name of Zozo appears, leave the game properly, and cleanse the house by your religion. -Sobellium69 Googling the name ‘Zozo’ brings up a number of websites and message board postings where people discuss their ‘true’ experiences with this being. I’ve compiled a short list for any of you who are interested in reading more about this alleged demon: The Zozo Phenomena
What is ZOZO? @ Ghost Theory
ZoZo, the Oujia Demon @ Creepypasta Wiki
A Zozo experience from Your Ghost Stories
A thread about Zozo @ Disclose.TV Now, I’m aware that people are pretty divided on just how creepy Ouija-related experiences truly are – to be honest, given that every time I’ve ever tried to use a Ouija board it was blatantly obvious that any messages were borne entirely of human effort (my friends weren’t exactly good at hiding their efforts to move the piece where they wanted it to go), I’m not particularly spooked by the boards. After all, it is largely marketed as a children’s board game and since all of my experiences using it were when I was a kid, for me that association is hard to break. However, I’ve seen many people make the argument that it’s not the vessel that matters, it’s the intent and permission given by the user to any entities that’s important. That may be true; after all, how many stories are there of seemingly innocuous items becoming possessed by ghosts and spirits? Many. So I’ll leave each of you to your varying degrees of skepticism and belief and close out with some anecdotal evidence – a Zozo experience trascribed by Stephen Wagner: I am from Tulsa Oklahoma. I am currently 40 years old and have held a fascination with the occult since an early age. I have had many bizarre experiences with Ouija boards and I am writing this as a warning to people that bad things can happen because of these “portals.” The majority of people from The United States holds a skeptical view regarding the scientific evidence of spirits or ghosts, and many people who believe in these things also believe that it is for this very reason that ghosts and poltergeists occur here and exist “under the radar,” so to speak. These Ouija boards are manufactured under the precept that they are mere “toys.” Let me tell you first hand that they are not toys and should be used with strict caution, and probably should not be messed with at all. Other countries take a more open-minded view of spirits, demons, and ghosts, and many many cultures have based entire religions from these beliefs. During my experiences with Ouija boards one particular spirit always seemed compelled to make its presence known. Its name is Zozo. Today, I refuse to even pronounce its name as I believe the mere pronunciation of it can cause it to manifest itself. Too many times to count, it has at first pretended to be a nice spirit, or pretend to be whomever I was trying to contact. But eventually it showed its true self, cussing me, threatening me and others present in the room. Once it actually cussed me using what looked like Latin or Hebrew, and using biblical terminology. NASTY SPIRIT I was genuinely fascinated and startled by how many times Zozo showed up, even in many different states and many different Ouija boards. It always wound up being very nasty and commented freely about how it wanted to posses my girlfriends and take them to paradise. When asked where paradise was, it spelled HELL. One time, after Zozo was being extremely evil, I walked into my bathroom only to see my one-year-old daughter about to drown. Her mother had left her alone in the tub “just for a second” and somehow the water got turned on and was overflowing. Instinctively, she had her face tilted up and was seconds from going under when I grabbed her from the water. The next day she was hospitalized for some weird internal infection and was put in isolation for 14 days straight as doctors tried to diagnose the illness. We almost lost her, and that was when I began to suspect demonic attack. At this same time, my girlfriend maintained a trance-like state. Her personality changed from a very sweet person to withdrawn and uncaring. Zozo said before this that it was going to possess her and eat her soul. I was recording music for a future rock project, and I remember jokingly asking if it had an opinion on what I should name the band. It spelled IRON TONGUE, which at the time I thought was pretty cool. Only later when my daughter’s tongue swelled up in the hospital to the point of asphyxiation did I realize that this wasn’t coolat all! Her tongue became rock hard and distorted her face, swelling up to where it hung grotesquely from her mouth. We took turns bedside at the hospital for what seemed like forever before my daughter began to recover from this strange affliction. When guests would spend the night in our house, they would claim that they heard frightening voices coming from inside the walls. Objects would be thrown across the room, and spiders seem to come from nowhere. My girlfriend’s brother, who lived with us, complained that he couldn’t sleep at night because the “conversations” were so loud that he simply could not rest. He believed in ghosts, and though he wasn’t afraid of them, he said that it definitely felt demonic. Lights would turn off and on by themselves, doors would open and unlock themselves. One night in our bedroom a viscous laughter emanated from thin air, and to this day I cannot explain the terror in that laughter. Another night, I was awakened by what felt like hands on my throat choking me. I could not breathe, I could not scream…. After about 30 seconds, it released its grip and I gasped for air. The same thing happened to my girlfriend the next night. FAMILY CURSE Yet another night, her brother and I were standing just outside the back porch sliding glass door talking about a supposed curse of their family. I abruptly exclaimed, “I rebuke this curse in the name of Jesus Christ!” I no sooner finished saying those exact words when a deafening sound and a vibration struck the entire house with such an alarming “boom” that the neighbors came over to ask if I had heard something strange. I knew it wasn’t our imaginations. I got out the ladder to see what had landed on top of the house only to find nothing. Things settled down after that, and to this day I believe that whatever made that noise also caused the disturbance to go away. For awhile. My girlfriend broke up with me, and I met someone online in Michigan, where I moved up to be with her. She didn’t believe in spirits, and although I knew better, I decided to make her a believer as well…. THE SKULL NECKLACE Living in a very small town in Marshall, Michigan, there were no stores that sold Ouija boards, so I downloaded one from the internet. I printed it out, and to my horror, Zozo returned. It said it came from “cyberspace,” and when I asked it where it lived it spelled SKULL NECKLACE. We didn’t think much of this until I asked it again where it was, this time spelling MIRROR. There was only one mirror in the bedroom where we were crouched on the floor, and I heard a scream coming from my girlfriend’s seven-year-old niece, who was watching us with another young friend. We looked up at the mirror and saw the skull necklace swaying back and forth with glowing eyes looking down at us! My girlfriend’s son had hung the necklace on one of the posts of the waterbed hours before I downloaded the paper board. We almost jumped out of our skin, and although three feet of fresh snow had fallen that night, we all found ourselves in the front yard not knowing what to do, scared and frozen in terror. My girlfriend was so fascinated, she drove 40 miles to purchase a new glow-in-the-dark Ouija board, much to my dismay. The next night, we had another session in the same room. Zozo immediately came forth, even without me being a participant. My girlfriend’s nieces were using the planchette and I would secretly write down a color onto a small piece of paper, then crumple it up where no one could see. I asked the young girls to ask the board if it knew which color I had written down. It quickly scooted to YES and then BLUE. I remember chills coursing up and down my spine as I threw the wadded up paper to my girlfriend. Her eyes widened as she read the written color: BLUE! We then tried the same thing with shapes and words, and every time the board knew. THE PHOTO APPARITION One night we asked the board if the spirit would show itself. It spelled YES and told me to turn out the lights and take a picture of the necklace above the board. I did just that, and what turned out is eerie, to say the least. On the upper left hand corner of the picture we could plainly see “winged” skeletons flying about, and they are of the exact same weird shape of this “skateboarders” skeleton necklace. Toward the middle we could make out hideous faces. I have seen at least four evil faces in this picture. I have sent this picture to several “experts” and they have all said they cannot explain the images inside. As if all of this wasn’t strange enough, now comes the really scary part. A few months ago I Googled the word Zozo. To my shock, many other people have also been contacted by a demon by the same name! I read about 20 similar stories and I am now convinced that this simply cannot be mere coincidence. Supposedly, Zozo is an ancient demon name, which possibly stands for “The Destroyer.” Claims of demonic possession are associated with this Zozo, and I feel it my duty to warn people to steer clear from this if it happens to present itself during a Ouija board session. I am currently researching this phenomena for a future book, and am in the initial stages of presenting my findings to a reputable demonologist, who has been involved in hundreds of cases of paranormal activities across the world, including A Haunting in Connecticut. WHO OR WHAT IS IT? What is this Zozo? Supposedly, the three-headed dog demon that guards the gates of Hell has a tattoo on its forehead that spells Zoso. Also, Zozo is a term Aleister Crowley claimed meant “666.” Jimmy Page of the rock group Led Zepplein also used Zoso as a symbol on the Zepplein 4 album. Could Zozo and Zoso be connected somehow? How can so many different people from so many different parts of the world somehow lie about this Zozo spirit? And if they aren’t lying, than how can we explain these visitations by this wicked entity? Is Zozo the Devil himself? Or a wayward demon who has the power to manifest itself wherever and whenever it is called? Heed my warnings, people: If you are playing around with a Ouija board and you jokingly ask it if it has a name and it spells Zozo, close the session properly, cleanse the house, and never — I repeat,NEVER ask it again. And if you are brave enough to carry on conversations with this spirit, do not antagonize it or act on its directions. I know what I have seen, and I know other people have also come into contact with this spirit. It is dangerous beyond words. I realize not every session results in negativity, but when you play with this Zozo you are playing with fire. Everything I have described here is true, and I am not exaggerating one bit. It may take me years, but I do intend on writing a book about this, as I have many more stories that I do not have time to mention here. They all stem from true events that took place while talking to this Zozo. Folks, I have been told by people wiser than myself that the spirit world is “more real” than this world of so-called reality. Ouija boards can cause many bad things to happen in your life. Maintain an open mind, and most of all… be careful! -Stephen Wagner Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.