Ouija Boards

[Red_Dazes]

...So skipping over here from This (http://www.customerssuck.com/board/showthread.php?t=59606) discussion on CS... since it is getting dangerously close to fratching territory anyway.



Personally, I have had, and known people who have had, some really creepy borderline scary experiences with the things. I am not a religious person by any means, but I do believe there are certain energies things bring with them, and I have never been around an Ouija board and felt comfortable.
On the same line, however, I also believe that objects only gain power when we ascribe it to them. A Ouija board with out belief is just a scrap of cardboard with fancy letters, and a neat glass pendulum. But it only takes one person to ascribe power to something. and I also believe that objects can retain energy from people who have them before us.

So I am of mixed feelings with the boards... I would never allow one in my home, but I would certainly not freak out on someone if I were at a party and they pulled one out. I just would not participate.

However, Ouija boards are just about the only 'pagan' thing I feel uncomfortable with. Everything else is fine by me... I even own a deck of Tarot cards, doesn't mean I take them seriously... but it is something to entertain myself with.


SO! Ouija Boards... Your thoughts? Your comments? Your beliefs? Dis-beliefs? Let us try not to bash any religions/non-religions. But healthy debate is always good!
Scrying, Tarot cards etc... anything else like this can fall into this discussion.

^_^ Enjoy... I thought it needed doing!
~Red

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Call me cynical, call me mundane, but I've never for even a second believed that rubbish. The only fascinating thing going on during the use of a whatsy-board is the workings and interaction of the human mind. That, is incredibly fascinating and I'm quite frankly annoyed to within an inch of brick-throwing when people I used to know (see: morons) got all wishy/washy pagan mystical whenever the subject was brought up.

At best it's a parlor trick, and at worst it's crack for pagan-junkies. Neither is needed, so why bother?

[Boozy]

Do I believe in Ouija boards?

Hell, I've seen one!

[jackfaire]

I have Karma Cards but they are to help me.

Not because I believe they have mystical gifts but because I lay them out for an answer and then either like the answer and that helps me make up my mind or I dislike the answer and argue it out.

[fireheart17]

Not because I believe they have mystical gifts but because I lay them out for an answer and then either like the answer and that helps me make up my mind or I dislike the answer and argue it out.



I've done the same with Tarot cards. I've laid them out, seen the answer and either chosen to go ahead with it or not. If I don't, I know that I'm not gonna get in trouble.

I'm wondering though if the game I mentioned sounds more like a sleepover-type thing....

[McDreidel09]

As a person who believes in ghosts and spirits, I do believe these work. I've used a homemade one and it really worked. In fact, it helped me find out about the ghosts in my own house! It was a scary experience because I found out that there are 5 ghosts of children in my house and they actually started messing with us.

[Dreamstalker]

Hell, I've seen one!
I own one (1908 Wm. Fuld wooden board rescued from my grandparents' house, it's sitting innocently on the bookcase waiting for a shadowbox frame). Nothing weird has happened since we brought it home, and I've never been tempted to use it.

There were two entities in that house; one good (who I've seen, and we think came with us when the house was sold) and one decidedly evil. The evil one seemed "bound" to a 50's board which was sold to some creepy guy at a yard sale.

[elsporko]

I tried to use on by myself and nothing happened. Without your friends to push it around Quiji boards are way less effective

[smileyeagle1021]

I follow George Norrey's (not sure on the spelling) advise on Oije boards. Don't use them. If they really are nothing than junk, then you are wasting your time, if they really work, you can't control what doors will or won't open and what you might let through.

[Rapscallion]

Do I believe in Ouija boards?

Hell, I've seen one!

I'm one and so's my wife!

Rapscallion

[Gravekeeper]

I'll subscribe to my mom's advice on this one: The more you pay attention to it, the more it pays attention to you.

A practical down to earth skeptic is going to scoff at it as a toy and indeed that's all it will be to them. Someone on the other end of the spectrum may be in for a more unpleasant experience ( Albeit maybe not with a hot pink board. )

I personally don't like them, they make me uneasy and in the few times I've been roped into using one they have told me things about other people I had no way of knowing. Unpleasant things. Which while cathartic in the long run for the people ( and things ) involved were quite upsetting initially.

[powerboy]

I never used one and I never plan on it.

[MaseMan]

I think the Noory advice is pretty good to go by.

As a Christian, I don't believe in ghosts, but I do believe the devil and demons are real. If you play with fire, you're going to get burned.

[Red_Dazes]

I'll subscribe to my mom's advice on this one: The more you pay attention to it, the more it pays attention to you.

.

I really do think that is very good advice for most things that dabble into the...."spiritual" realm.

I only know that I have had some down right scary experiences with them, and have known people who have had experiences that border on terrifying. So I leave them well enough alone.

[Amanita]

One of my books describes a ouija board as akin to a phone- you have no idea who you are dialing, and they can come crawling back through the phone line to you.

We used one at a girl guide sleepover- the thing went nuts when the other girls used it, but fell silent when I touched it. The other girls thought it was the ring I was wearing- "take it off, ouija doesn't like it". So I took it off. And still, nothing.

I believe in spiritual things. I'm an urban animist, after all. But ouija boards STFU when I have tried to use them.

[Bloodsoul]

This seemed appropriate, considering the topic:
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF220-Passed_On.jpg

I believe my mom said she used one before, but I don't recall what her reaction to it was. I've thought about buying tarot cards to use as a D&D "Deck of Illusions/Deck of Many Things," but I think sticking with my Devil's Panties playing cards would be more humorous in that regard.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I used one once at school; never again. Wasn't a hot pink one XD but a home made board. I and a few other girls sat down on the floor of an empty classroom, put some pieces of paper with the letters and "yes" and "no" in a circle and put our fingers on a glass stolen from the canteen. At first, it just spouted a lot of garble, but then the glass started moving all by itself. We took our fingers off it, and it still moved. O_o

We freaked out and smashed the glass, but ever since that day, that classroom had a really weird feeling. The teachers wouldn't believe us, but we could sense something watching us, and it was always really cold in there. Some people even saw stuff falling to the ground when there wasn't anyone close enough to knock it over.

I don't think they're a good idea; and they certainly shouldn't be sold as a toy to little girls, any more than you'd paint an AK47 hot pink and sell that as a toy.

[IDrinkaRum]

I went to TRU on Valentine's Day with the family. There, in one of the game board aisles of the store was the infamous Pink Ouja Board! OoO!

Didn't buy it. Though I was highly amused.

I just want it 'cos it's pink.

Wouldn't use it though. Oh well.

I'm weird like that.

[Fryk]

I wonder if pink ouija boards only connect with the really frilly froo-froo spirits.

[Arcade Man D]

One of my books describes a ouija board as akin to a phone- you have no idea who you are dialing, and they can come crawling back through the phone line to you.

We used one at a girl guide sleepover- the thing went nuts when the other girls used it, but fell silent when I touched it. The other girls thought it was the ring I was wearing- "take it off, ouija doesn't like it". So I took it off. And still, nothing.

I believe in spiritual things. I'm an urban animist, after all. But ouija boards STFU when I have tried to use them.

It could be whichever spirit was communicating through it was trying to cause trouble, but when it saw it was going to be dealing with someone who actually knew that the spiritual/paranormal/occult can be really dangerous, not some giggly teenage girl, decided to try its luck somewhere else.

Which brings me to my thought about Ouija boards, which is similar to that already expressed by others.

"Leave the occult to those who know what they're doing."

Because it can be really dangerous. Especially Ouija boards and other communication devices like those. I had a friend (she's Wiccan, just to mention it) say that if the only occult-related item in your house is a Ouija board that it was a lot like locking all the doors and windows, but leaving the keys hanging on the newspaper hook under your mailbox.

[Boozy]

I'm amazed at the number of professed atheists here who believe in Ouija boards.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I believe my own eyes and what I experienced. I don't believe in devils or gods, but something moved that glass. Being an atheist doesn't mean that you can't believe in ghosts, you know; in fact, seeing as religious people believe that everyone goes to either heaven or hell, surely they shouldn't believe in ghosts?

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Every night I lie down and fly through alien skies, talking to people who died years ago. It's called dreaming.

The mind is a funny thing, put that together with all the neat tidbits of physics and such that most people don't know and nearly anything can 'happen right before your eyes' for completely mundane reasons. In my senior year of highschool all the doors in the english wing slammed shut by themselves... because the AC was turned up.

Unexplained things happen, doesn't mean ghosts did it.

[Nyoibo]

But it doesn't mean they didn't either.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

But it doesn't mean they didn't either.

And?

At best that means that the assumption ghosts exist is on equal footing with that they don't exist. Given scientific explanation's terrific track record in disproving things that people believed were magical/mystical, I'm going with science as the likelier candidate :D

[Lace Neil Singer]

Whether it's the mind or ghosts, it's still not something little kids should be messing around with.

[Boozy]

Whether it's the mind or ghosts, it's still not something little kids should be messing around with.

Why not? I played with a Oujia board when I was a kid. My sister and I used to ask who we were going to marry, silly things like that. Completely harmless.

[elsporko]

Quija boards are only dangerous in the hands of those with over active imaginations

[smileyeagle1021]

Why not? I played with a Oujia board when I was a kid. My sister and I used to ask who we were going to marry, silly things like that. Completely harmless.

Quija boards are only dangerous in the hands of those with over active imaginations

Boozy, as elsporko said, it's the people with over active imagination that you have to worry about. You went into it thinking that you were playing a silly little game.
Someone who goes into it thinking that this is a serious thing and is at the age when the imagination runs wild... that could easily turn ugly.

[elsporko]

Turn ugly in the sense that they might get scared. Its almost on the level of scary stories in the danger department.

[Gravekeeper]

As I said, I dislike them. That was validated by it, one night, telling me and my g/f at the time to go log onto the computer, find a guy I knew and tell him "Melissa is sorry".

We did that. He broke down. Turns out Melissa ate a shotgun in front of him when he was 12. There's zero possible way I could have known that through any other means as he had never told anybody and had moved out of the town where it happened. He was just as disturbed as I was.

So yeah, Ouija boards make me uncomfortable, thank you very much. =p

[ArenaBoy]

I've always found them funny to be honest. You really want to scare somebody use sounds, such as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGUi6spQ9M0

[BlaqueKatt]

I've done the same with Tarot cards. I've laid them out, seen the answer and either chosen to go ahead with it or not. If I don't, I know that I'm not gonna get in trouble.


personally I think that's what their purpose is-a medium to help the "seeker" bring some order out of their own possibly disorganized thoughts....

[Amanita]

A few days before 9/11, I tried to use the tarot to do a simple reading on myself, using the cards of the major arcana. I randomly pulled three and laid them out. One of them was the Tower. What was on my bed at the time? A picture of the WTC towers. (Even prior to 9/11, I was a huge fan of skyscrapers, and a WTC admirer).
Freaky, huh?