To not understand ouija boards?

[FairyPig]

So I've been reading on here (and other places) how these things aren't to be messed with, they're dangerous, they bring unwanted things into the house, how they're scary, etc.

I'm not wanting to dispute people's experiences but I honestly don't get it. It's a board with letters on and a glass in the middle. How does a board with numbers on and a glass enable ghosts and evil spirits to get through? How does a board enable a portal to be open to all sorts of evil spirits? What make an ouija board different to any other board to make them 'dangerous', 'scary' and 'not to be messed with'?

Speaking of ghosts and demons, why would they even need a portal to get through, can't they get through themselves?

Again not trying to dismiss anyone's experiences but I am seriously baffled how a board with numbers on and a glass can be magical and be able to do these things.

I've also recently learned that Toy's R Us in the US sell them, not sure if they sell them in UK branches, but that did make me go considering how many adults take them seriously and seem scared of them.

That aside, even though logically it seems silly to me I would still never use one. You know, just in case...

[MollyHooper]

Oh golly, I know the 'answer' to that too thanks to summer spent on the sofa watching ITV2 in my teens. It still doesn't make sense though, you're right.

I am not a sceptic, I do however take issue with so-called mediums who take advantage of people. Even more so as one recently preyed on a vulnerable family member of mine.

[Stinkle]

I got talked into accompanying a friend to a spiritualist meeting a couple of years ago.

I hated it.

Full of bereaved people, especially really elderly ladies, desperate for some kind of message from their loved ones. My friend had recently lost her father unexpectedly and just wanted some final message from him

Lots of "I'm getting a message from a D, oh, maybe P, or B, or C" "they're young, maybe 5 or 6, actually maybe 16" "I can see Jack, or John, maybe it's Paul holding a fishing rod, or maybe it's a watering can".

It made me really angry, these people were so clearly desperate for some sort of comfort - at £25 per head

[SirChenjin]

I went to a spiritualist church several years ago with some people from work - cost me nothing, and it was complete voyeurism, I freely admit. One of the men in our group, a complete non-believer who fancied one of the woman we went with, decided to come along, and sat and sniggered and rolled his eyes. Then the spiritualist asked if he could give him a message. Told his all about his mother who had died in a fire several decades earlier, about his childhood in a home, and how a man of the cloth had been instrumental in raising him and guiding him, and how he was very fond of this man - but how he had never heard him preach, and how he knew him by his first name as opposed to Father. All of it true.

I have no idea how he knew this - but it certainly wiped the smile off his face. He was not happy, and very unsettled by it. If it was pre-organised then they did a very good job of planning it!

[Turquoisetamborine]

That's creepy Sirjenchin!

[Sallystyle]

I used to go to a spiritualist church for years on end as I was raised as a spiritualist.

I had some really good messages, really good ones that I find hard to find a logical explanation for. Things like date of births, talking about the music I listen to (which was not the typical music a 15 year old listened to) they even talked about my mums old house, the colour of the walls and lots of other stuff which wasn't exactly groundbreaking, but put together it made me wonder. I still can't think of a logical explanation for how they knew this stuff as I had never met them before and no one else up the church knew anything about me and most of the mediums travelled from London so didn't even know anyone in the area. A few of the messages were very personal that only my mum knew about me. How did the medium know I had a son at the age of 17 and for my 18th birthday I got a photo blown up and it was hanging in my bedroom and where the frame came from, which had sentimental value? How did they know that my mum's first boyfriend lived at number 36 and died when he was 36 years old of a heart attack? my mum hadn't thought about him for years.. I didn't even know that! I have no idea how they knew that I had a child with special needs when I never took him there or told anyone up the church about him. They knew about a health condition I had which was not common in my age group and has no outward signs so the only people who would know about that were my parents, friends and my GP.

However, on the flip side, I have seen so many people feed them the answers. A medium will tell them they have someone with red hair and they will reply with 'oh that's my nan, she died of lung cancer' and they continue to feed them information. I never did this. I would only shake or nod my head.

All the skeptics cry coincidence, but really, the stuff I have been told is not a coincidence. I don't think it is a coincidence that they guessed my mums ex boyfriend's age of death and how he died, a long with the number house he lived at, for example.

I don't know what it is though. I am a skeptic myself these days and left the church years ago and became an agnostic. A part of me, because of my experiences still has that tiny bit of belief, but I think most likely that when we die we leave energy behind and some people can tap into that.. I don't know if it is spirits, but some mediums are so good at what they do that I think there is something to it; even if it isn't actually spirits giving the information.


Right now I kind of want to believe again because my ex died and I love the idea that he can still see our children grow up, it breaks my heart to think that he is missing everything and it offers a bit of comfort to think he might be looking down on them. On the other hand, I hate the idea that there might be a spirit world because when I die, I just want to die and not go anywhere else, thank you very much.

There is so much we don't know, I think it is arrogant to think you know either way for sure. Which is why I am agnostic I guess.

[Panzee]

I reckon the preacher knew his mum.

[Bizkit]

I find it all very fascinating.
I've not used a Ouija board myself but have heard stories from others, my mum thinks my uncle has never been the same since he used one. A friend at work has used one twice I think both times the end result was the glass flying off the table with a unexplained force. Just the thought of a Ouija board seems to freak some people out.
I watched a film a few years back which really freaked me out and they done one in that then something came and killed them one by one it stuck with me for years, I think it was freaky because you never actually saw what was doing the killing, can't remember the name of the film though!

[Hakluyt]

"If it was pre-organised then they did a very good job of planning it!"

The good ones do. That's how they make their money.

[Beeyump]

I like your determined spirit, Hakluyt.

Ooo, spirit!

[KidLorneRoll]

It's all nonsense. All of it. What do we really think is more likely, that these people can really talk to the dead, or that they are just (admittedly clever) frauds and charlatans often preying on the vulnerable and desperate?

[thegreylady]

I had experience of this 50 years ago when I was a teenager. It was terrifying. It spelled out the exact date of my grandma's death with her initials. Coincidence? Maybe but I would never ever do it again.

[noblegiraffe]

Cold reading can look very impressive. Derren Brown does it brilliantly and he's not psychic. It's a magic trick.

[MollyHooper]

I think cold reading is a tricky one for me.

There are of course the people out there who are doing it to are consciously dong this to make money (like the person I spoke of earlier). However I do believe there are others who are unaware that they are actually cold reading and truly think they have clairvoyant ability and are helping people.

Then there are accounts such as SirChenjin and U2 have posted about which are pretty hard to explain.

Just saying 'Oh they just planned it! They obviously did their research!' is a pretty lazy response. How?

[MollyHooper]

There are of course the people out there who are doing it to are consciously dong this to make money

I have no idea what happened with that sentence. :o

There are of course the people out there who are doing it consciously to make money.

[Pipbin]

Ouija boards are made and sold by Parker Bros which is now part of Hasbro.
Originally they were designed as a parlour game and had nothing to do with contacting the dead. They have always be sold as a toy.

Derren Brown did an interesting thing where he 'disproved' ouija boards entirely.

[londonrach]

Be careful. My sisters mil and fil went to a party with one in the 1970s. When the board was brought out they didn't feel happy and left. Within the next yeAr the four couples who stayed died in various accidents.

[Meid]

I am also in the camp of tried it once and never again. Was stunned when the glass moved swiftly around the table spelling out a name.

But do I believe we were communicating with a dead person? Nah, that doesn't make sense to me. I have also seen 'ghosts' but the idea that i saw dead people is just weird. I don't have another explanation for these things but communicating with the dead is not the first thing that comes to mind.

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

Cold reading's really interesting - and it is possible to do it and not realise.

For example, at home we used to play a lot of whist, and I could often tell what my sister would play (not exact card, if I hadn't counted, but if she'd win the trick or not). It took me a very long time to realise I was picking up a 'tell' of hers, in fact I only realised because when my DB was old enough to join in he had a very very obvious one (no poker face at six ). Once I began to look out for my DSis's I could see it, but yes, up until that point I had wondered if I was accidently mind-reading!

[SirChenjin]

I reckon the preacher knew his mum

Don't think so - his mum had died when he was a boy some 40 years earlier in a completely different part of Scotland. The preacher was younger than him. I honestly don't think there was any planning involved - we got completely lost on the way to the church, ended up in the wrong part of town, only got there as it was starting. If he and the spiritualist had planned it before hand then he did an incredibly good job of acting, both at the church and afterwards - he seemed genuinely very upset and unsettled.

[SirChenjin]

The whole "I see a woman, her name is Jean, Jane" type thing is ridiculous though - just about every family in Scotland has an Auntie Jean

[alemci]

I would stay away from them, not nice

[noblegiraffe]

Molly how do psychics do it?
Well there was the interesting case of when Sally Morgan, psychic to the stars, managed to contact a dead person who was entirely fictional www.theguardian.com/science/2012/mar/06/sally-morgan-best-loved-psychic possibly based on information she had gleaned before and during the show.

Then there's the healer who was getting his messages from god. Or rather, as James Randi exposed, from his wife who chatted with audience members before the show and then fed him information via a hearing aid en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Popoff#Investigation_by_James_Randi

Of course you get audience members who go away remembering the incredible 'hits' and forgetting the inexplicable numerous misses, or ascribing their own meaning to vague statements or even who just go along with what the psychic says because they are too embarrassed to call them out in public. I bet Facebook and the internet has made a psychic's job a lot easier too.

Anyway, even if I can't explain how psychics do it, I'm perfectly comfortable with disbelieving their claims. I went to a Derren Brown show where he read tonnes of information from audience members minds, that he couldn't have possibly known. I don't know how he did it but given that he can do it without the supernatural, it's reasonable to assume that there is a non-supernatural explanation for psychics.

[Hakluyt]

"I like your determined spirit, Hakluyt.

Ooo, spirit!"


My dd has a pony called Spirit. She is very determined. It must be a Sign.