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Plus - as has been pointed out more than once - Derek Acorah has been very quiet since he died.
That's because he has nothing to say to you. Here, he just won't shut up...
 
In Peter Laws' fantastic board games article in the FT, he puts the blame on the popular notion that ouija boards are the work of the Devil squarely on The Exorcist. Before 1973 (when the film was released) they were regarded as a fun parlour game at best, but after it, and that scene where Linda Blair invites in Pazuzu through one, they became the centre of a moral panic that continues to this day.
 
In Peter Laws' fantastic board games article in the FT, he puts the blame on the popular notion that ouija boards are the work of the Devil squarely on The Exorcist. Before 1973 (when the film was released) they were regarded as a fun parlour game at best, but after it, and that scene where Linda Blair invites in Pazuzu through one, they became the centre of a moral panic that continues to this day.
I'm not buying that theory. In the US at least the churchy criticism of the ouija board goes back to its invention, talking to spirits being considered a bad thing to do. (Note that the critics had no doubt that the users were in fact talking to spirits - the servants of satan.)
 
I'm not buying that theory. In the US at least the churchy criticism of the ouija board goes back to its invention, talking to spirits being considered a bad thing to do. (Note that the critics had no doubt that the users were in fact talking to spirits - the servants of satan.)
Yep. I was raised as a RC in the US, and ouija boards were always warned against.
 
I'm shocked that my religiously-minded Mom didn't care that my friends and I "played" with Ouija boards as kids. Maybe she thought all her saint statues in the TV room where we held seances were protecting us.
 
The FORCE was with you.
We did have a few strange events during slumber parties when we tried summoning whoever wanted to speak to a bunch of obnoxious teenage girls. Once there was knocking on the walls (could have been the wood paneling expanding, same thing happens here in the paneled bedrooms, or someone in attendance could have been the culprit) and another time a book went sailing off the bookcase (again, it could have been all the jumping around we were probably doing).

Another time it was just myself and my friend and we allegedly spoke to a victim of the Great Chicago Fire :oops:

Nobody would ever own up to pushing the planchette. I know I never did. I wanted it to be real :hahazebs:
 
Yep. I was raised as a RC in the US, and ouija boards were always warned against.
Interestingly enough, the only time I recall ever seeing one in use was on the playground of the Catholic elementary school I attended in the mid 60s. I'd have been eight or nine I think. The kids querying the spirit realm asked how old the school's principal, a nun, was. The reply came back clearly: 42. We all thought that was great, thinking 42 was ancient. Might have been her age though. Anyway, nobody's knuckles got rapped, we were not rounded up for a stern lecture from the priest, who lived next door. I don't recall the thing being hidden from the nuns, who were generally eagle-eyed and always well armed with rulers and short fuses.
 
I'm not buying that theory. In the US at least the churchy criticism of the ouija board goes back to its invention, talking to spirits being considered a bad thing to do. (Note that the critics had no doubt that the users were in fact talking to spirits - the servants of satan.)

The article does mention the 1944 film The Uninvited too, which right enough does feature a spooky message through a Ouija board, so it if the Satanic connection wasn't originated by The Exorcist, it was revived (or continued) with renewed vigour.
 
Interestingly enough, the only time I recall ever seeing one in use was on the playground of the Catholic elementary school I attended in the mid 60s. I'd have been eight or nine I think. The kids querying the spirit realm asked how old the school's principal, a nun, was. The reply came back clearly: 42. We all thought that was great, thinking 42 was ancient. Might have been her age though. Anyway, nobody's knuckles got rapped, we were not rounded up for a stern lecture from the priest, who lived next door. I don't recall the thing being hidden from the nuns, who were generally eagle-eyed and always well armed with rulers and short fuses.
!!! I believe you; but I was educated in a medieval RC school as a child. Old school beliefs. Very very old school. very very....
 
Let's face it, even though the Ouija planchette movement can easily be explained by science, if it looks like magic there will always be somebody crying "Satan!"
 
!!! I believe you; but I was educated in a medieval RC school as a child. Old school beliefs. Very very old school. very very....
It actually sounds preposterous, I know, but I remember the place near the hedge row where the session took place, and there is the detail of Mother Superior's age. This was in the Bible Belt, but we didn't have to wear uniforms. There were strict rules on what we were allowed to wear, and the nuns were big on using humiliation for, well, pretty much anything. There was one who did not like boys. Many years later, I heard a comedian say something like, "Well what do you expect? You take a young woman, dress her in wool from head to toe, and tell her she can never have sex!"

If I had taken a Ouija board home, my father would have freaked out. He was never religious, but had a superstitious streak that was stirred up by my explorations of the unknown. That got pretty weird during my high school years, when I was able to buy my own books and such. He told me one time that if I wanted answers, I should look in the Bible. I asked him when the last time was he opened a Bible. The conversation went downhill from there. I have never missed being a teenager.
 
We did have a few strange events during slumber parties when we tried summoning whoever wanted to speak to a bunch of obnoxious teenage girls.
:rollingw:

(Edited to add: This is not an insinuation that Austin Popper and friends were obnoxious teenage girls! So difficult sometimes for parents and their teenagers to understand one another—and painful to work through it all. :()
 
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" As the scientists explain, a person’s sense of agency, or the feeling that one has control over their actions, arises primarily from the brain’s ability to predict “the sensory consequences of an action, and then [compare] this prediction [with] the actual consequences. When prediction and consequence match, the result is the feeling that ‘I did that.'” "
What ramifications to situations and eras where things are so unpredictable!

" “Our study suggests,” say its authors, “that successful Ouija board sessions critically depend on joint action.” The “spooky” or “paranormal” feeling that Ouija boards induce is due to the fact that participants take turns in predicting the next letter. "
Does this explain why that weird institution marriage feels like it does? :p
 
1643549343294.png
 
" As the scientists explain, a person’s sense of agency, or the feeling that one has control over their actions, arises primarily from the brain’s ability to predict “the sensory consequences of an action, and then [compare] this prediction [with] the actual consequences. When prediction and consequence match, the result is the feeling that ‘I did that.'” "
What ramifications to situations and eras where things are so unpredictable!

" “Our study suggests,” say its authors, “that successful Ouija board sessions critically depend on joint action.” The “spooky” or “paranormal” feeling that Ouija boards induce is due to the fact that participants take turns in predicting the next letter. "
Does this explain why that weird institution marriage feels like it does?:p
No, there is more to the Ouija board than that. I can vouch to that.
Years ago when my Dad was still around, someone had brought in the board
(my younger Sister I believe) and we all sat down (all except my Dad, as he was doing something in the kitchen) and we all had a bit of a laugh about it, and what rubbish was being spelled out. But, then it started to get very serious - bearing in mind that my Dad wasn't sitting down at the board with us, the Ouija spelled out words and started to relate to us something that had happened with my Dad during war time, he - and also my Grandfather never told us much about their experiences and none of us knew anything much about his war time events.
This completely blew all of our minds about the serious side to the Ouija so-called family 'game,' which it certainly is not!
I never knew what happened to the board since then, but I can only imagine that somebody either burnt it, or got rid of it.
 
I was listening to an old art bell on Coast to Coast and the subject was the disappearance of six American servicemen and women based in Germany, who did a runner and fled back to the USA after playing with a Ouija board. Apparently they were to deliver a message to the highest authorities. According to the podcast the GI’s were never charged with being AWOL and were released on the orders of President Bush.

I‘m amazed I was never aware of this beforehand. Anyone know of the story and have any thoughts?

News Story
https://apnews.com/article/b9e0d739f39711021689494e4933c637

Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podca...uest-vance-davis/id1623841495?i=1000560801086
 
I was listening to an old art bell on Coast to Coast and the subject was the disappearance of six American servicemen and women based in Germany

I‘m amazed I was never aware of this beforehand. Anyone know of the story and have any thoughts?

New one on me. Two of the members appeared on TV in 1993. Go to 9min. 50secs.

 
New one on me. Two of the members appeared on TV in 1993. Go to 9min. 50secs.

One of my girlfriends always had a deep husky voice. When she would call me at work, my co-workers would say, 'Ronnie, your boyfriend is on the phone', and we would always laugh about it.
She told me that she had once used a ouija board with someone, and that the board had told her she had a previous life. She had been a man by the name of 'Max'.
I could never get anywhere with a ouija board, but maybe there is something to it.....
 
For those with a sense of humour, this is great...

ouijafuneral.jpg


Cheeky grandmother has ouija boards given out at her funeral so people can stay 'in touch'​

A cheeky grandmother has ensured ouija boards were distributed to all her loved ones attending her funeral.
Gracie Perryman received the ultimate parting gift from her grandmother Jodie after attending her farewell in Breckenridge, Texas.
Jodie, who died of cancer at age 81, had quite the sense of humour, according to her granddaughter.
So it’s no surprise that each guest received a card bearing an ouija board with the words 'Let's keep in touch!'.

And if that wasn't legendary enough, the brazen grandma also included a photo of herself with her tongue out while she put up her middle fingers.
https://www.ladbible.com/news/iconic-grandmother-has-ouija-boards-given-out-at-her-funeral-20221020
 
Well I tried this once as a youth, yes the glass did move very smoothly as if it were not touching the surface but I feel the circumstances weren't right, essentially the other parties were more interested in making out than making contact... But there were plenty of tales from school and college of various dalliances with home-made ouiji boards and claimed messages etc.

Back in the 80s our school seemed to take them seriously, as we final year students were warned to stay away from them. The teacher who delivered this warning said that some former pupils had used one and received a message that their minibus would crash in London on a forthcoming school trip. It gave precise details about the location. So spooked are these pupils that they confided in this teacher, who had the clever idea of driving a different route through London. Unfortunately, once they got there the road was closed and they were diverted along the predicted route where their minibus was also wiped out by an out-of-control HGV that had suffered brake failure (or some other vehicle, my memory of the actual details has faded, but I remember they narrowly avoided a crash at the exact location predicted). Fair to say this put the willies up us...!

So do the kids today get involved with this or is the lure of online gaming too much? It seems to me their is little interest from today's adolescents. After all, why waste time trying to contact the dead when you can shoot them up in HD with your mates...
 
Wile I have no fear of anything else paranormal and tend to want to see
it for myself a Ouija board is the one thing I wont bugger about with.
I agree with you, that and anything to do with demons/the satanic. I have a gut feeling 'it' may manifest as psychosis and mental instability that in 'normal' life our brains are able to suppress.
 
I agree with you, that and anything to do with demons/the satanic. I have a gut feeling 'it' may manifest as psychosis and mental instability that in 'normal' life our brains are able to suppress.
Just to add that I don't consider poltergeists to be either satanic or demonic, any such link owes more to Hollywood than the evidence.
 
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