Zozo and Spiritual Communication: A Mini-Essay

     The 2012 low-budget film I am ZoZo brought into popular culture the century-old premise of Zozo, an ancient demon that purportedly attacks novice mediums and ill-informed dabblers in the occult who attempt to commune with the netherworld through automatic writing, seances, ands spirit boards.[1] A parasitic being which attaches itself to individuals and causes physical and psychological harm, Zozo announces its presence through breaking glass, marking the skin, throwing objects, and spelling its name repeatedly in an infinity sign across spirit boards.[2] Since the movie’s release, personal claims of encounters with Zozo have flooded the internet and several texts have been published exploring the legend, with Celina Summers and Tim Wood conducting an experiment into the validity of the myth by contacting the entity every night for a month and Darren Evans and Rosemary Ellen Guiley delving into the history of the folklore by drawing connections to everything from ancient religions to extraterrestrials. Although the origins of Zozo and the legitimacy of its involvement in communications between this world and the next – particularly the recent renditions following the film – are debatable, the being’s longstanding presence in the supernatural community can be validated as far back as 1818, when Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy’s book on demonology, Dictionnaire infernal, recounted the exorcism of a pregnant young woman two years prior who was possessed by three demons: Crapoulet, Mimi, and Zozo.[3] Controlled by the entities, the Frenchwoman walked contorted throughout the streets of Teilly and terrorized fellow villagers until her exorcism in the local church, where Zozo broke a window as it escaped the body of its host, ceased the behaviors, sent the woman to a hospital, and forbade the exorcist from practicing further ceremonies without police intervention and arrest.[4]

Works Referenced

Bagans, Zak and Kelly Crigger. I am Haunted: Living Life Through the Dead. Las Vegas, NV: Victory Belt Publishing, 2015.

Collin de Plancy, Jacques Auguste Simon. Dictionnaire infernal. 1818. France: Maxtor, 2011.

Evans, Darren and Rosemary Ellen Guiley. The Zozo Phenomenon. New Milford, CT: Visionary Living, 2016.

Summers, Celina and Tim Wood. Stalked by the Zozo Demon: Real Life Paranormal Experiment. Los Gatos, CA: SmashWords, 2017.
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[1] Bagans and Crigger, 170-175.
[2] Bagans and Crigger, 170-175.
[3] Collin de Plancy, 420-421.
[4] Collin de Plancy, 420-421.