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Ouija boards sold as "toys" - a good idea ?


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Personally, I have witnessed spirits of the deceased manipulate physical objects on several occasions. In some cases they seemed to be positive in nature and just wanted some attention or even just to say hi, in others they were negative in nature and wanted people to leave them alone. We cant see them so we don't know we are invading their space, but they never stop seeing us.

Often times it seems they attach to either a specific location or a specific person. I have never witnessed a haunting associated with an object.

My personal experience with Ouija boards, while fairly extensive, was ultimately inconclusive. The spirits contacted were convincing at times, telling tales in great detail and moving the planchet with such speed and accuracy over such a long period of time that it seemed fairly impossible for one of the operators to have been guiding it (consciously), but with many years to think over the information received, I have come to believe that no true information was ever transmitted. Its my guess that some spirits are entertained with the communication, but are not, for some reason, allowed to impart knowledge of any supernatural origin and so what you end up with is a bunch of intriguing lies, meant to keep you coming back for more.

On the other hand, I have heard numerous horror stories from Ouija board users. The most frightening also happens to be from the source that I consider to be the most reliable. It involves a handmade ouija board of unknown origin, made from the lid of a coffin, with a planchete made from human vertebra, found in a 200+ year old house in England. No less than 10 witness (all non-occult orientated people) are convinced that the board was responsible for a house fire and, at a later date, the mysterious death of the, apparently healthy, middle aged owner of the board. Its present location is unknown.

In another case a family friend is convinced that her roommate became possessed while using a board over the course of a number of weeks and narrowly escaped being murdered by said roommate.

Personally, I would not want my child to play with one at age 8, but there is no scientific evidence to suggest that a ouija board is anything more than laminated card board. :P

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Although they do seem to tend to cause hysterical reactions in people, especially children and teens, who apparently don't have the intellectual critical thinking skills or intent needed to approach it as an experiment for the mind and reasoning,

Oi! I resent that!

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Paranormalcy, on 05 February 2010 - 12:35 PM, said:

Although they do seem to tend to cause hysterical reactions in people, especially children and teens, who apparently don't have the intellectual critical thinking skills or intent needed to approach it as an experiment for the mind and reasoning,

Oi! I resent that!

In all seriousness, I wondered about that line when I was writing. To clarify, I did not say all people that have negative reactions have the named qualities, but those are the kinds that tend to be more likely to have these experiences. People who are emotionally or mentally not quite mature or having completed the process of individuation, who are still unsure about things, themselves, their place in the world, many abstract concepts, "God", trying to find an identity, etc, but also some people, including adults, under stress or repression some sort of issue. For some reason, this sort of turmoil seems to manifest as negative experiences with the board.

A solid sense of critical thinking and discernment (I don't think I'm going to go over to the corner and stand just because the board told me to) is needed when dealing with any sort of unknown quantity, Ouija board or not. The firm grasp and application of reasoning to what is being received is really the only way to make sense or keep a level head in a session, and a lot of people just haven't developed their faculties for such to that point. Like I said, I'm not saying everybody, but it is usally a pretty solid bet that some of these features are present in people that have had bad Ouija experiences.

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When I was 12 I got a ouija board for Christmas. We all had fun with it for a while with no negative side effects and we all turned out alright.. I think :lol:

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LOL that is hilarious!

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internets-ouija.jpg

I want one of these REALLY bad LOL. I work on the Microsoft Security Updates team now.... this would be a HUGE hit in my office!!!! LOL.

Otherwise, Ouji boards are stupid toys, They're fun when you're like 14 at a slumber party... and that's it.

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A Ouija board is just a piece of cardboard with pictures on it. It's not any different from other pieces of cardboard.

The problem comes when people who don't know what the hell they're doing decide to do things they should avoid doing. Most of the time, they fall for stupid crap, kill a chicken, drink its blood and then realize that the only thing that spell did was prove that they're a bottomless pit of stupid. Other times though, people do the "right" things, which winds up being very, very wrong. Turning into a schizophrenic = bad, if you get what I mean.

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Hmmm does a kid want a xbox 360 for Christmas or a ouji board to get a Christmas greeting off their dead granny???

............xbox

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Other times though, people do the "right" things, which winds up being very, very wrong. Turning into a schizophrenic = bad, if you get what I mean.

I suspect that it isn't that Ouija boards turn people into schizophrenics so much as schizophrenics are drawn to this type of stuff like flies to manure. I have a schizophrenic relative who has been interested in the occult and conspiracy theories for all of her adult life, but as a child she also exhibited traits associated with those who will develop the disease later on.

Schizophrenia usually manifests harmful symptoms around young adulthood. Most reports of Ouija board use I've read come from people who experimented with it in their teens. A potentially-schizo teenager would be far enough along in life to have the interest in the weird and mysterious that schizophrenics often have, but still young enough that they wouldn't be manifesting the nastier symptoms.

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internets-ouija.jpg

This is an object of EVIL! Cunningly distributed among the unaware human population by MANBEARPIG to lure innocent lives into his cesspit of malice. :o

manbearpig.jpg

On topic: the Ouija board is a toy. Whether it is a toy suitable for 8-year old children is another matter.

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It's not about them being a hoax, they obviously "work" - it just what is at work making them work that is in question.

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And if the purpose of a ouija board is to contact the spirit world, and they instead manifest the users' unconscious intent, then I'd say that counts as 'working' as well. Yes?

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Although they do seem to tend to cause hysterical reactions in people, especially children and teens, who apparently don't have the intellectual critical thinking skills or intent needed to approach it as an experiment for the mind and reasoning

I truly wish that I could believe some of the stories I've read surrounding ouija boards, even some of the demonic ones, because they're so fascinating. The idea that a person could obtain a discarnate spirit as a guide and friend is very appealing to me. Unfortunately, my experience with these boards has led me to believe that they are nothing more than awkward tools for spelling out your own thoughts. I am surprised that anyone could seriously entertain the belief that there are real, separate entities coming through these things. Like Paranormalcy mentions above, many of these stories tend to come from people who don't seem to know the meaning of the word 'skepticism'.

Edited by Cybele
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THE LAKE OF FIRE IS A LIE, my friend. According to the board once. But the board personality also said he was ABDUCTED BY THE CROSS (which we learned meant the Church). Trees can be used as portals for travel, and there is a book that exists only on the astral plane, in a cave sealed by magic I guess, that has this kind of information and more. And we got one board personality that was freaking out and claimed he was at Loyola University (don't know where) and was apparently another living Ouija user and didn't know what to make of contacting another group of living people. Whatever the reality of that, it was a very amusing and interesting result.

Edited by Paranormalcy
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I played with ouija boards a fair few times when I was young, with varying degrees of 'success'. Scared the pants off of us every time, it was great fun! It's encouraging kids to be imaginative and explore the potential for other worlds aside from the one we immediately see around us. And as there's never been any actual evidence of anyone being harmed by a ouija board, I don't see why it shouldn't be sold as a toy.

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What's not understood is how it's used and by whom. Teens that are already into the occult may be pushed further into it. Adults that believe it has some kind of power may be further directed by what they glean from it. If there were nothing to it then there wouldn't be millions of dark incidents associated with it out there. We already have too many people that believe in werewolves, Vampires, etc.. This is the kind of thing they don't need to influence them, artificially or otherwise. IMO it's not a toy no matter what it does or does not do.

They need a warning on them "For entertainment purposes only. Not for the self deceiving or mentally unstable. Use at your own risk. Parker Brothers is not responsible for any entities you may or may not contact with this item"

With Ouija boards, people want to be contacted by bad things, need to be contacted by something, anything, because its fun to be scared. That doesnt mean that their "dark incident" was real, just that they want and need badly for it to be real. Wanting and needing, and imagining however, dont make it real any where but in the users mind(s).

Edited by MirrorImage
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Don't you mean subconscious?

Anyway, what my friends and I experienced was not the results of our own minds. We were not always all present. In fact, when we first started and there were claims of "you're pushing it" pointed at each other, each of us in turn took our finger off the glass and it kept moving. Other things that could not be put down to our subconscious minds working.

Edited by O'Malley
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They need a warning on them "For entertainment purposes only. Not for the self deceiving or mentally unstable. Use at your own risk. Parker Brothers is not responsible for any entities you may or may not contact with this item"

W).

This warning would make no sence , well the self deceiving and mentally unstable part , but no entities going to happen there...

The reason it is in the toy section is simple , it is a TOY......

I need to point out again , I have on diferent occasions in life , just to prove a point ( and about 3 years ago also ) used a Ouiji board , invited in , actually begged , any demon , satan , boogieman , you name it , to come into my home.....

Think anything happened?...Nope , why , because is is a toy , and demons do not exist.

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What?

Well i don't believe that spirits can harm people...i mean their not physical so how could they? So I don't think their dangerous....i used them a lot when i was a teenager...and i know they work because i saw the glass actually spin around the board on it own! Pretty freaky, but nothing bad ever happened.

I will tell a weird experience with it that i witnessed....i was having a ouija session with my brother and his friends...and my brother was smoking a ciagrette and being stupid he asked the spirit we were talking to if "It wanted a drag?" Well it said yes and my brother held his cigrette over the glass (i thought this was pretty stupid of him)and i will never forget what i saw....it was like something invisible was dragging on the cigarette...i don't smoke so i don't know if i described that properly....but it was incredible and proved to me that there really was something there.

Does anyone have any idea how that happened? I mean how can a spirit actually smoke someone's cigarette in the physical world??

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This warning would make no sence , well the self deceiving and mentally unstable part , but no entities going to happen there...

The reason it is in the toy section is simple , it is a TOY......

I need to point out again , I have on diferent occasions in life , just to prove a point ( and about 3 years ago also ) used a Ouiji board , invited in , actually begged , any demon , satan , boogieman , you name it , to come into my home.....

Think anything happened?...Nope , why , because is is a toy , and demons do not exist.

Sakari i think that it depends on who you do it with....because everytime i tried it on my own or with a particular friend it wouldn't work....but with certain friends or family members it always did.....and if you read my post before this one you will see why i believe that it was not my friends mucking around.....and with the people that it did work with it would sometimes take 10 minutes for anything to happen...or it would work straight away.........so just because it didn't work for you doesn't mean it's not real....i suggest having another try at it with some different people.

I don't know why it works with some people and not others..........anyone have any insight on that?

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