Often feared as a gateway to the supernatural, the Ouija board has long been a staple of horror films and ghostly lore, but new research shows the fear lies more in belief than in the board itself. In an eerie experiment, 84 volunteers—both skeptics and believers—used a Ouija board outside an abandoned Spanish Civil War–era hospital at night. While believers reported anxiety, altered states, and supernatural sensations, skeptics experienced none of these effects. Researchers concluded that the board itself is harmless; it is the participants' own beliefs that summon fear, not spirits from beyond.