Miranda's Zozo Discussion
In this article, we will be looking at an experience I've transcribed which was shared by an audience member for OVERNIGHT's web-series 'Haunted Homies'. OVERNIGHT is a paranormal investigation team based in America, and they upload their investigations to YouTube. During their 'Haunted Homies' series, they discuss the paranormal to an audience, and they read out experiences which the audience members have submitted to them prior to the event. Once the experience is read out, the team invites the person the experience belongs to on stage, and then the person is questioned about the experience by the OVERNIGHT team.
This particular experience was shared by Miranda. I have tried my best to transcribe the experience and the interview word for word to keep everything discussed as authentic. Where, in the interview segment, you see (...) it means I've cut out a portion of the conversation. I'm always reluctant to do this, and so cut out as little as possible, but the OVERNIGHT team have a habit of going off topic and joking about things; so it's an unfortunate necessity. Anything I couldn't understand is marked by *inaudible*. The interview was conducted by Elton Castee, and Corey Scherer; the two lead members of the OVERNIGHT paranormal investigation team during the time of this interview. Since this interview was conducted, Corey has left the OVERNIGHT team. As with all articles, my own thoughts will be included at the end of the article.
Miranda's Experience
"I've had many encounters with ghosts throughout my life as I'm sure many people who will be attending have as well. The event that made me believe in hosts was when I was a child, maybe five or six, I woke up in the middle of the night. I'm not sure what woke me up, but when I looked up there was a little girl holding a stick and pointing it out my bedroom window. I freaked out and hid under the covers and when I looked again she was gone. Alright, so you might say 'well, you were so young you probably made it up' or 'maybe you were still sleeping', but here's the weird part; when I told my family about it years later, they all had similar stories about the girl. My dad said that he would wake up and see a shadow of a little girl standing in the doorway and he thought it was me. So, he just told the girl 'go back to bed' and he closed his eyes. He opened his eyes a second later because he didn't hear me walk away and saw that there was no one at the door.
My sister told me her story only a few months ago where she was sleeping on the sofa and apparently I was sleeping on the floor below her. She woke up in the middle of the night to having a little girl staring at her. Once again, she thought it was me and told 'me' to go back to bed; but the little girl wouldn't move. She just stayed there and kept staring. She then looked down and saw that I was still asleep on the floor below her. My sister also claimed she saw a figure of a shadow man in one of our windows while we drove past the house, which no one else saw until our cousins moved into that same house years later and would complain that they felt uncomfortable in the back bedroom where my sister and I had used to sleep.
Along with seeing shadows in the room constantly, I still have no idea to this day why that house was so haunted. No one died in the house. It's on a major highway, so maybe an accident on the road. I'm not sure, but there have been many times since we moved out of that house that I tried to disprove it since I was so young; but then I wind up having more unexplained events. There was this one time in middle school I was up in the middle of the night watching TV and I went out to the kitchen to grab water, and I heard a loud bang coming from the attic. It kinda sounded like a box falling over. To give some background, this attic was a crawl space and because it was a crawl space, we didn't put anything up there; so, there was nothing up there at all. It wasn't in my head either because, when I heard the bang, my cat jumped off the counter and ran off.
The last story I want to tell, which I just can't get off my brain since it only happened a few weeks ago; I was at the gym in the college I used to attend. Since no one is there over the summer, the way they have the treadmill set up you are facing the wall and the doors to enter the gym ate behind you so you can't see anyone come in or out. Because of this, I had my music low (*missing content*) which there shouldn't be anyways since no one lived in this part of campus over the summer.
Anywho, I was running on the treadmill and I heard a male voice say 'excuse me' and I was like 'oh great, the public safety is gonna yell at me for using the gym since I'm no longer a student'. I turned down my speed and looked behind me in order to say something like 'I'm sorry' and there was absolutely no one there; no one in the hallway. I peeked my head out the door and couldn't hear anyone around the halls. I think what freaked me out the most during this, the whole thing, was how clear and how loud it sounded to the point where I thought there was a man standing right behind me on the treadmill.
Since college, I've done a ton of exploring abandoned places, places known for urban legends like 'Dead Man's Hollow' and I did a few paranormal locations like 'Hill View Manor', 'Belair House', and 'Ohio State Reformatory'. So I have many ghost stories with weird conversations from the spirit box, ouija board where the planchette went too fast and started to spell Zozo, and a few pictures of orbs. Anywho, I can't wait to meet you guys. Thank you for letting me tell my story. I'm so excited for the show."
Miranda's Q&A
Corey: "So, I, I wanna, I wanna hear more about, like, some other experiences. What, what kind of got you into this space and then has anything demonic happened since the ouija board in the Zozo situation 'cause I've had the, you know, it spell out Zozo a few times with me on the ouija board when I was younger and I kinda feel like that's what opened up some bad portals"
Miranda: "It honestly just started with a bunch of friends saying, like, 'hey, you wanna go to, um, Dead Man's Hollow' and then I'd be like 'oh yeah, let's do it' and we just messed around with the ouija board and most of the time we've got nothing. Like, we just sit there for like an hour and we'd be like 'this is dumb, we need to leave'. Um, but then there's a lot of times where, like, we would sit there and we were down in, I think it was Dead Man's Hollow, that we were s, it was a group of us, maybe six, and we had the ouija board set up and nothing was happening for us all of like fifteen minutes and then it just kept spelling out 'run' over and over again and we were like 'oh, we gotta get out of here' and one of our friends who's, she's in a rough place in her life basically, um, she when we were walking out, she completely passed out. Like, I was walking behind her and she just fell to the floor face first..."
Corey: "Oh my"
Miranda: "...and I was just like 'I don't know what to do, like, do we try to pick her up' and it was just a mess, so I've had a lot of experiences, I just, I guess, what do you want to hear?"
(...)
Elton: "So you, you had a, a situation where the ouija board was spelling 'run'; do you know why?"
Miranda: "No, 'cause it literally wasn't spelling anything before it. It literally just out of nowhere just spelled run and then I said 'that's not real, there's no way' and then, um, it did it again, and then one more time, and I said 'guys, we need to leave, like, right now' "
Elton: "How do you know it was not like a, a, a threat? Do you think it was a threat or a warning?"
Miranda: "I think it was a warning"
Elton: "A warning?"
Miranda: "Yeah"
Elton: "Tell you need to run because something else is coming?"
Miranda: "Yeah. Honestly, that whole time I was there I felt like somebody was watching me, so I feel like it was a warning, not like a threat"
Corey: "And what, what about the little girl?"
Miranda: "Alright, so I don't remember much. I, and because I've told this story to so many different people, it kind of just feels like, it kind of feels like, er, a dream in a way. Um, but it freaked me out for a long time, um, but that house was crazy because I would have, um, night terrors all the time and I haven't since then. Like, since we moved out of that house I have not had those, like, dreams that bad"
Corey: "Did something happen there, like in the house? Like; how, is it, is it an old house?"
Miranda: "Yeah, so I think it was built in the 1970's but we knew the people that we bought it from. So, it wasn't like 'oh somebody mysteriously died' or 'it's been there for years so somebody could have died in it'. It was literally we knew the people before that lived there, we moved in, and like the only thing that I can think of is it's on 512 which is on the east side of Pennsylvania..."
Corey: "Yeah"
Miranda: "...but, yeah, um, it's all I could think of is that there's an accident or anything"
Elton: "Is, is 512 near Belair?"
Miranda: "No, Belair House is, like, South of here"
Elton: "Okay"
Miranda: "Yeah"
Elton: "Oh, you said east side. I'm so sorry"
Miranda: "East side. Yeah, yeah, yeah"
Elton: "Geographically challenged, my bad"
Miranda: "No, you're good"
Elton: *To Corey* "So, Zozo to you means something"
Corey: "Mhm"
Elton: *To Miranda* "Zozo to you means something. Zozo to me means nothing"
Corey: "Yeah"
Elton: "So where, wha, what it, what is Zozo because every time this pops up in the slightest if a ouija board goes to Z and then O he's out. Like, it's just, like, every single time; so what is that because I've never encountered it. I don't know, you've briefly told me here and there. Like, why is this such a big thing?"
Corey: "I don't know. I mean, when did, when did Zozo first kind of get noticed? You know, was it from... oh, I, I remember hearing a story about this a while ago but I remember somebody was telling me how... Pe, people would tell me that Zozo's not real but then I'm like 'ok, if Zozo's not real then how is everyone getting it on the ouija board' and, you know, 'why is everyone having these crazy experiences after getting Zozo on the ouija board?' So, to me, I've kind of taken it as, 'cause, you know, manifestation is real. I think enough people believed in it, that Zozo is a demon named Zozo and is literally running the ouija board realm, and so whenever I see Zozo, especially, you know, back when I would play with the ouija board when I was younger. That wasn't instantly, you know, say goodbye and close it out because all of my ouija board experiences were very, you know, traumatic to me and it was, you know, it's just, I don't know. Zozo, Zozo to me is kind of like another way of like Satan. At least I would, I would say; but when it was spelling out Zozo to you, nothing attached to you? Like, nothing crazy happened?"
Miranda: "We saw it go Z-O-Z and then we stopped and pulled it to goodbye because what I've always heard is that it's a demonic entity and that you do not want it to spell that out because you're basically inviting it into your life, and then if you forget something as simple as saying goodbye it's attached to you"
Corey: "Yeah"
Miranda: "And so we've, I've luckily been with a group of friends that is really good at being safe so when I say it's time to stop, they stop; which is nice"
Corey: "Okay, did you ever play the ouija board in that house where the little girl was?"
Miranda: "I haven't lived there since I was like seven"
Corey: "Okay, and nobody was doing anything there 'paranormal' wise, you know..."
Miranda: "Not that I'm aware of"
Corey: "...paranormal investigating. Like, you were so young"
Miranda: "Yeah"
Corey: "So, you think it could have been like a car accident and that she kinda made her way over to y'all?"
Miranda: "How is it that so many people saw that one girl?"
Corey: "Exactly"
Miranda: "Like, I don't understand 'cause I, I told, brought it back up to my dad, uh, recently and he was like 'oh no, that, that was just my imagination. I just dreamed that' and then both my mum and my sister looked at me and goes 'that wasn't an imagination, like, we all saw it' and I was like 'oh, okay' "
Elton: "Are you afraid of getting an attachment?"
Miranda: "Not really, no"
Elton: "Oh, okay, cool. I was just kind of curious. Well, so why'd you stop with the Zozo thing?"
Miranda: "Maybe because I don't want anything negative, like, I'm not afraid of it. If it happens, I'll figure it out, but"
Corey: "Wow. That's brave"
(...)
Miranda: "I'm just simply saying that if it happens because I'm not being careful, then I'm being a dumb-ass and it happens, you know, and then you, you get whatever you need to get; but I am not going to purposely go out of my way to get possessed or to have something attached to me"
Corey: "Do you know the people that, you know, currently live there? Or how long has it been since you've been to that house?"
Miranda: "So, my grandparents live down the road from it, so I see it all the time. Um, and my grandparent's, like, friend lives there now but I"
Corey: "Oh, your grandparent's friend lives there now?"
Miranda: "Literally. So, my grandparents bought it, then we lived there until I was like seven, and then after us my, my cousins moved into that house and then they moved out I think four years ago, and that's when my grandparent's friends moved in"
Corey: "Did your cousins ever say anything about a little girl?"
Miranda: "Oh yeah"
Corey: "Yeah?"
Miranda: "Yeah because, all right, I never talked to these cousins at all and then one time I saw her and I was like, we were going for a walk, and I was like 'did you see anything in that house, just asking' and then he, she was like 'yeah, you know what, the back room. My mum keeps feeling like uncomfortable' because they had turned it into like a crib area for their baby"
Corey: "Mhm"
Miranda: "And she was like 'yeah, she's constantly seeing shadows and all this' and I didn't even bring up paranormal, I just said something weird going on in that house, you know?"
Corey: "I would love, 'cause you're saying that your grandparent's friends live there now, right?"
Miranda: "Mhm"
Corey: "I think it would be so cool, I mean obviously you would have to ask them, but if you could go back there"
(...)
Corey: "Imagine if you could go back there with tools"
Miranda: "Yeah"
Corey: "And you could literally put together exactly what's there and why it's there and actually be able to talk to her. Like, would you feel comfortable doing that?"
Miranda: "I think my, honestly I struggle with social anxiety, so I feel like my most, like, difficult part would be asking her, not..."
Corey: "Yeah"
Miranda: "...not investigating"
(...)
Corey: "I just think that would be really cool because I've always wanted to, like, I want to go back to my house that, you know, I grew up that was haunted but I also don't, just, because it's traumatised me in a way but, like, your experience in that house; it doesn't sound like it's bad. Like, it sounds, you know, friendly at least; but the fact that you said it was, like, holding a stick, right, and pointing out the window, like, what was that message? Like..."
Miranda: "I have no idea, did it want me to go there?"
Corey: "...it was, it was trying to tell you something"
Miranda: "I have no idea. I think about that all the time because it, from what I remember, and as long as my, like, memory hasn't faded; it was clear, like she was in a white dress and she was pointing a stick out the window and like I, I mean, it's like she was a real person standing there. It, I don't know. I have no idea what that means"
My Thoughts
I think everything Miranda has shared is very interesting, and I'm really glad the Overnight team took it seriously and didn't veer off into jokes. There was an event which occured as the Q&A was happening, and I will cover it in a future article, but aside this moment the team mostly stayed on track with the interview. A point I definitely want to cover before I get into my thoughts on Miranda's experiences is Elton's lack of knowledge around Zozo. Granted, I haven't looked into Zozo properly yet and so I don't have much knowledge on the topic; but, I know the basics that Zozo is said to be a demon which people commonly encounter while using a ouija board. I also know they're supposed to be a really bad and serious entity to encounter, so I'm really surprised that Elton made a point about him not knowing about Zozo.
I thought Elton, an experienced paranormal investigator, not knowing about Zozo was odd. However, he could have been playing dumb in order to steer the conversation more into the 'did you encounter a demon' route instead of the 'little girl pointing a stick' route because paranormal related things on YouTube tend to be obsessed with demons. A good bit of evidence for this is Overnight's YouTube episode title for the video containing this experience is literally 'IS THE DEMON ZOZO TRYING TO KILL US?' with a thumbnail of a demon face. I do find it incredibly interesting though for them to interview someone claiming to experience the Zozo phenomenon as multiple people do report it.
Now, my thoughts on Miranda's experiences. The experience with the little girl happened when she was very young, so she could have dreamed it or 'seen' it while half asleep. The interesting part is the fact she claims her sister, mum, and dad all saw the girl too on different occasions. Interetingly, she doesn't say that her cousins saw the little girl; only that they saw shadows. If they also specifically said 'little girl', especially 'little girl with a stick', then that would make the experience far more significant; especially as the fact she has a stick is so obscure of a detail. Instead, the further reports of things such as shadows imply to me that the location could be haunted; but I'm hesitant to believe it.
The reason why I'm hesitant is Miranda was very honest in saying her dad backtracked and said he imagined the girl. Depending on how often the girl was mentioned, the vibe of the house, the time of day, and so many other variables; it's possible that one family member could have recounted a dream, or thought they had seen something, said it to another family member, and then that family member experiences it too. The second family member could have dreamed it, or could have thought they had seen the same thing, memories could have changed over time, and suddenly the whole family thinks they have legitimately seen the same thing in the house. It's possibly like when you watch a scary film in the dark and suddenly your pile of clothes on a chair looks much more like a humanoid figure sitting there watching you. These kinds of stories can play on your mind, and on your memory of events, and so I feel this could be what happened here. I could also be very wrong though.
Also, I want to point out that there is no aftermath mentioned regarding her sister's story. Miranda says her sister saw that Miranda was still asleep on the floor, but the girl remained. We never hear if the girl walked away, or vanished, or did anything at all aside stand there and stare. This detail makes the experience sound like a vivid dream to me instead of a legitimate paranormal experience. The dad's experience sounds more genuine because girl was said to have vanished. Also, the bang heard in the attic crawl space could possibly have been a bird of some sort as I know they can have a habit of getting into those kinds of spaces.
Regarding the experience on the treadmill, this is more interesting and a little harder to explain given Miranda had her music on low. If she didn't, I would have said that she could have zoned out a little and during this moment the music could have played something her brain interpreted as someone saying 'excuse me'. I've experienced this kind of thing before, only it was my name being called, and I figured this out by rewinding my music and listening to the previous part again to see if if sounded similar. As Miranda's music was on low, and the voice seemed loud, I don't know if the music would have been behind this effect. I assume it would have been quiet though, aside the sounds of her on the treadmill; so the low music could have seemed louder and maybe could have produced this effect.
When it comes to the ouija board experience, I'm going to put that down to the people present subconsciously moving the planchette. I have tried many times to summon 'Zozo' by using a ouija board, and the planchette has never moved outside of me moving it. So either Zozo doesn't like me, or Zozo doesn't exist. Regardless, I think the ouija board experience was likely Miranda and her friends scaring themselves without any real paranormal events occuring at the time.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading this article! It was interesting to write about Miranda's experiences, although its a shame that I could put somewhat of an explanation to all of her experiences. I do think her house would have been haunted, as I believe everywhere is, but I doubt that it would have been actively haunted; especially to the point she claims. If you want to watch the full OVERNIGHT interview, please click on the link below:
The next article will hopefully be published on Monday the 15th of December and it will document a location in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. The following article, hopefully to be published on Friday the 19th of December will document a paranormal artifact.
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