Ouija Board Questions

[Spudrick68]

Hee hee! You'd be in the right place if you were really scared.

 

[rev_dino]

This thread has inspired me to buy one of those antique ouija boards for my new office!

 

[linesmachine]

Good work rev_dino, I applaud you. Let us know of any reactions you get from staff/guests?

 

[rev_dino]

It'll probably just cement my reputation as "eccentric Brit"!

 

[OneWingedBird]

What about a handmade ouija board toilet seat?

Why didn;t I think of that first?

Might have to make one now. :lol:

 

[OneWingedBird]

Strangely no-one in the internet cesspool has done one yet and shared the results, but these two are quite good!

The second one is an optical theremin.

 

[Pete Younger]

What about a handmade ouija board toilet seat?

Why didn;t I think of that first?

Might have to make one now. :lol:

If a spirit comes through while you're sitting on it you might shit yourself.

 

[titch]

That joke stinks!!

 

[Mythopoeika]

It was a loo-d joke.

 

[Mystereaux1]

sPOOky.

 

[Spudrick68]

Found this article today.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4720338e-fbf3 ... z1cHEaXULk

 

[Spudrick68]

Ooh, and this!

http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/fa ... ee-a-ghost

 

[escargot]

So... anything to report?

 

[Pete Younger]

I saw quite a few spirits around at Christmas.

 

[rev_dino]

Talking of Xmas spirits, one of the kids at the party I was at got a Ouija board as a Christmas present. I was very pleased that the general reaction was, "Woooh. Awesome!".

I'll be sure to report back if he becomes possessed by demons. Although, he is a typical 7 year old, so it may be difficult to tell.

 

[Mythopoeika]

It sounds like an odd present for a 7 year old.
Must be a very high-spirited young man.

 

[rev_dino]

He is quite precocious.

Found it! It's this exact one, made by a toy company and aimed at 8 years and up...

http://www.hasbro.com/games/en_US/shop/ ... F9D4:en_US

 

[Pete Younger]

Unbelievable!

 

[rev_dino]

More here on the history of Ouija boards as a child's toy, the fact that Hasbro owns the trademark to them and that there is also a US patent on them!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouija

 

[Cultjunky]

Well, y'no, if ya can't get your kid into a good school to help with literacy, where else are you gonna turn?

 

[Cochise]

Talking of Xmas spirits, one of the kids at the party I was at got a Ouija board as a Christmas present. I was very pleased that the general reaction was, "Woooh. Awesome!".

I'll be sure to report back if he becomes possessed by demons. Although, he is a typical 7 year old, so it may be difficult to tell.

I thought all 7 year olds were posessed by minor demons. At about 12 they all go on holiday and get replaced by the major ones we have to put up with for the rest of our lives

 

[Heckler]

Most practictioners of the talking board perform some form of ritual before and after to protect and clear the location and the participants. Which either discourages those non-human entities with decidely human ascribable tendancies (i.e. malign) or acts as a placebo version of the same for the sub-conscious, if you prefer the ideomotor explanation.

 

[Waymarker]

I've already read enough about ouija experiences to know it's like playing Russian Roulette, very dangerous!

 

[Waymarker]

Alright, my point of view is that ouijas are a "stargate" for malign spiritual entities to enter our plane of existence, are you able to see my point of view?

 

[Waymarker]

Guys, guys, let's remember that the starter of this thread is asking for advice about ouija boards, in other words "trying to contact spirits", which means it inevitably overlaps into religion, as spirits/demons/djinn etc are mentioned in many religions.
So trying to airbrush religion out of the equation would create an unbalanced thread which would be of no use to the original poster or anybody else!

The fact remains that there are recorded cases of some people having distressing experiences with ouija boards, so if the original poster wants to risk that, it's up to him..

 

[Cochise]

Since the purpose of Oujia boards is to contact spirits, we are not talking scientific rationality in the first place.

 

[Heckler]

Since the purpose of Oujia boards is to contact spirits, we are not talking scientific rationality in the first place.

Exactamundo. The Ouija 'works'* despite the explanation being a relatively well known effect, because the method behind it is so well concealed. People will substitute the 'you pushed it' or even 'the spirits did it' explanation because the idea that it is muscle impulses driven by the subconscious isn't as easy to connect to the movement of a planchette as it is to the movement of say a pendulum or dowsing rods. Obviously the occult reputation of the thing only adds to this misdirection as the most obvious explanations are one of the two mentioned (depending on which side of the spiritual/not-spiritual fence you are on).

Of course one could argue that momentary possession by demonic entities causes the muscle spasms.......

*By 'works' I mean the planchette moves and spells out words without any form of apparent intervention.

 

[Cochise]

Nor, incidentally, do Ouija boards have anything to do with Christianity ... They are an occult tool, like the Tarot and numerous others.

 

[Rourke_Wality]

... Let's face it Ouija was a parlour game and was never intended as a means of contacting spirits. The original intent - amusement - was subverted by the leaders and credulous followers of spiritualism round the time of WWI about 20 years after the invention of the game and during that 20 years there was never any suspicion of demonic or spiritual influence.

If spiritualism was, as I suspect, a reaction to the inadequacies conventional religions then the rumours of demonic influence would have been a normal theocratic response.

 

[Cochise]

... Some people do assume because the Ouija board implies an afterlife that it ties in with Christianity or other religions that 'offer' an afterlife. They make the same assumptions about mediums / psychics. These people come from both sides of the atheist/believer divide.

Of course even if any of those 'work' there is no evidence that you are actually contacting your loved ones and not demons or mischevious aliens, and also I seem to recall that Christianity is against any form of 'contacting the dead' although I can't remember the exact context.

I'm to some degree a fence sitter, though logic dictates that the afterlife must be somehow on a different plane of existence or at least have strict rules about contacts or we'd be pestered by generations of antecedents disapproving of our behaviour