106 replies to this topic

[Paranormalcy]

That's the great thing, so many times, you don't have to direct it to do hilarious things.  That was something I always enjoyed about our sessions, was ours had a very subtle and very obscure but potent sense of humor, dry but very clever.  Your sessions are only as good as the people on the board, in my experience.

[Althalus]

This brings back memories of it being banned in the now closed Woolworths due to the abilities of the board.  However, that typed, as you can make your own OuiJa board, then I think that it should be available to be purchased over the counter at toy shops, with the emphasis that it can be dangerous if miss-used.

[eclectic 1]

If we are going to ban Ouija boards from stores, we'd also better get rid of playing cards. Regular cards are used-like Tarot cards are-to divine the future, contact spirits, etc. Of course,we will also have to ban statuettes of saints, Mary, etc, as they are 'graven images' forbidden by The Bible. Dice, too, are used for divination, seances, and the like, so they would have to go as well. Candles are used in pagan worship services, seances, Satanic masses, etc, so they would have to be banned. Once you start down this silly road, there is no stopping. Everything will be banned, and nothing will be sold. Herbs, flowers, flower vases, brooms...you name it, and it is somewhow magic, satanic, occult, pagan, or otherwise unapproved.

[Vampresz]

witchfinder general, on 05 February 2010 - 12:30 PM, said:

i still fail to grasp how a piece of laminated cardboard with the alphabet, numbers 1-9 and words like hello and goodbye could ever be able to contact the dead/demons. coulnt you just make your own out of construction paper? and if ouijia boards actually could contact benevolent spirits, wouldn't there be a recall?

You can make your own Ouija Board... Anyway you want. its not about how its made its about how you use it.

[voiceofreason]

Can anyone here, in all honesty, say that they know someone who has been harmed or seriously affected by one of these victorian parlour tricks?

Edited by voiceofreason, 01 May 2010 - 03:54 PM.

[KatyAD]

I got mine from a toy store when I was like....13.
The guy that worked there tried to talk us out of buying it.
I really wish he did.

I think its a bad idea.
-Katy

[pixiii]

To be honest I've never ever seen one in real life let alone in a toy store.

[pokahontaz]

me personally i dont think dat board can do any harm i still want to try one out i think it looks like fun

[OldTimeRadio]

a vampire wears my boxers, on 05 February 2010 - 12:30 PM, said:

coulnt you just make your own out of construction paper?

     Yes, of course. And automatic writing, which operates according to the same psychological principles, uses no board at all.

Quote

and if ouijia boards actually could contact benevolent spirits, wouldn't there be a recall?

    Why would anybody object to a device which contacted only benevolent spirits? They'd use 'em in every church!

[OldTimeRadio]

If a powerful psychological tool for breaking down the barriers between the Conscious and Subconscious minds is to be sold at a "toy," why not add surgical knives, hypodermic needles and x-ray machines? Those also have legitimate uses.

[Mattshark]

Best selling board game till the release of the Exorcist, says it all really.

OldTimeRadio, on 02 June 2010 - 08:54 AM, said:

If a powerful psychological tool for breaking down the barriers between the Conscious and Subconscious minds is to be sold at a "toy," why not add surgical knives, hypodermic needles and x-ray machines? Those also have legitimate uses.

Don't be daft, it has always been sold as a toy. It is copyrighted to Parker Brothers and Hasbro.

[OldTimeRadio]

Mattshark, on 02 June 2010 - 10:04 AM, said:

Don't be daft, it has always been sold as a toy. It is copyrighted to Parker Brothers and Hasbro.

     So if we emboss surgical knives with "Parker Brothers" we can sell 'em as toys? And here you're calling me daft!

     And as far as "it has always been sold as a toy," so were lawn darts for decades.

[Paranormalcy]

I agree, the "daft" comment was uncalled for, even though I realize/hope it was used in jest as a cliche. However I do not agree that boards = knives in any meaningful, objective way, only in a metaphoric, abstract and faith/superstition-based aspect, based in hyperbole.

[luminousphoenix]

I played around with one with a few friends when I was pretty young and had no idea they could be viewed as a means to communicate with the spirit world or whatever. Anyways we were just kids, like 7 or 8 years old and when we would play with it, it would be things like us asking "Am I going to get a good grade on my test?  Does Billy like me?"  Etc, etc... just innocent questions.  

However eventually it seemed that the thing would start to give us weird messages that were out of context and one day it kept saying that it was some name that I do not remember and that it was in the hallway and to go see it.  That freaked me out like no end and I took off running out of my friend's house with goose bumps.  LOL!  However my friend decided he would go investigate the hallway.  He swears he could see a shadow in the hallway and that it was cold in there but otherwise he wasn't sure of what he saw or didn't see.  

Either way, that was the last time I played with that thing!  LOL


Another story about these things....one afternoon after getting out of school (this was when I was in HS) I had gone home to find my cousin and his friend were sitting outside on the porch all freaked out.  They said they had been playing with a board in the house and that some things were beginning to happen that freaked them out so bad that they had to flee the house.  I didn't even ask.. I just got mad and told them to stop playing around because I thought they were trying to scare me.  But they were serious.  And after that day it seemed that there were alot of strange things happening in that house that we still cannot explain to this day.  All I know is that it got so bad that I REFUSE to ever go sleep in that house ever again now that I'm older and don't live there anymore! LOL  And my Grandmother who is a huge disbeliever in the paranormal has recently started to admit that things are happening in that house that she can't explain that are freaking her out.  

Now whether or not these events are related to the ouija board?   IDK....  All I know is they are very real experiences to me AND my family and they seemed to begin happening in the house after the use of one in the house.

Edited by luminousphoenix, 18 July 2010 - 05:19 PM.

[Drayk]

I apologize if I offend anyone, but these boards are popular for the exact reason this is even an article in the first place.

Do you know why the experience is only as good as the people you are playing with? That's all it is, the people you are playing with. There have been many sorts of myth busting shows, even Pen & Teller, completely demystifying the Ouija Board in more ways than you can begin to count, but largely none of it will ever mean a thing to the desperate believers because they will just ignore the evidence anyway.

The center piece is moved completely by the people playing the game. There is absolutely nothing you can say to refute this, and no amount of anecdotal nonsense you believe proves it does work, because that is precisely how the board was engineered. It's just a smart toy. It's brilliant really.

If you so fervently stick to the presumption that you are actually contacting spirits, I would like you to try a few things...

- Try blindfolding everyone and playing with the board upside down. Guess what happens when you ask a yes or no question? Just guess.
- It requires that you play with at minimum 2 people, and that both people do not put any extra force on the piece. Is this really so hard to understand? They advertised it as a way to contact spirits and dead people, so 11 times out of 10 people are playing because they want it to work. When you are playing with 3+ friends and you see that the piece is moving towards no, but you want it to be yes...try putting the SMALLEST bit of push towards yes, don't push it all the way, just give it a small nudge about a centimeter in that direction...guess what - everyone will play in to it and push right along with you it will not hastily retrace that 1 centimeter of flogged distance to go back to no, people will be convinced that answer is already yes, and to yes it will slide.

I've even purchased mine own to study it myself. I've played it with all sorts of people, tried all sorts of things, asked the insane range of questions. The game works how it's supposed to, people are just gullible. You can just google this kind of stuff and find all sorts of explanations and scientific reasoning behind the "function" of the board, it's not hard.

Case and point, Ouija boards are not dangerous, the people who use them thinking they get to chat with demons - are.