Oujia boards.

[MidnightSun]

Ooh! This might be a good time to repost this.

(url) Web Ouija - Welcome to the Museum of Talking Boards

Woah...that really scared me...

Haha...I don't really get scared much..I find the movie; The Excorcist quite lame...

But that was so damn creepy.

I don't think I'm ready to use a real Ouija board:run:

 

[black cat royalty]

I was wondering how many of you have used or do use a Oujia board?
I know there is some hype if they even work, it's been my experence that if you bulid one you have a better chance of it working then you would buying a new one. If you have used one I'd love to hear of your experences from them.

I haven't owned one in years just because I believe that if you do not close them you can let something into your home.

What say you?

I have used a Ouija board plenty of times, but solely as entertainment, never as part of a serious ritual or for genuine edification. Most of the time, I believe Ouija boards are the tool of slumber parties, not evil entities. That said, I have had some very strange experiences occur whilst using them and also for a while afterward. Personally, I think they are safe devices but I do think your mind can play a lot of tricks on you, and although demons are not really a part of my belief system, I do think things can be dangerous when you dabble. Most of the time, my experiences have centered around the usage but haven't included the board. For instance, I was told I would meet someone under certain conditions, and then did. Another time I was told entities were trapped in the house a friend had just moved into; hours later at her house a lamp burst, a window broke and we heard footsteps in the basement. I had been using the board solitary on some occasions when things happened. I no longer have one. I don't consider them a valid tool for anything serious and as a game I've had enough.

 

[Ossian]

I have a couple of antique wooden ouija boards that I have around as collectables more than anything else, but I have used one on different occassions and it seemed to work. The idea of "talking boards" first originated in among a Spiritualist community in Ohio in the mid-1800's, as an improvement over the "automatic writing" plancette, which was used to hold a pencil to write out messages from the other side. Since the planchette used with a talking-board required no pencil, it was seen as a "modern improvement" and easier to use. The first mass-produced Ouija Boards were made and sold in the late 1800's by the Kennard Manufacturing company, the firm that William Fuld worked for before he began producing and selling his own talking boards under the Ouija name in the early 1900's. Fuld's family owned company continued to make and sell talking boards under the "Ouija" and "Mystifying Oracle" names right up until the mid 1960's when the rights to produce them were bought out by Parker Brothers, who now own the trademark. The Spiritualist movement that gave birth to Ouija boards and seances gained a great deal of popularity in America following the Civil War, owiong to the large numbers of lives lost in that conflict. Begrieved families sought to communicate with their lost loved ones, and Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, was a strong believer in Spiritualism.

 

[Lindsey-Loo]

I've used one before. Nothing happened, so I was vaguely disappointed. My mom supposedly had a terrible experience with one when she was a teenager, though, and she never talks about it. I think that we see what we want to see.

 

[Ukonkivi]

Does anyone find the Automatism theory no less paranormal sounding than the other?
When you start blaming mysterious, unexplained areas of the psyche as your explanation for the paranormal, it's not exactly paranormal negating. Considering a lot of what's considered paranormal, revolves around the human mind and it's mysterious processes. Especially the subconscious.

Why would such a board game induce automatism? Why would automatism negate any paranormal leanings? Perhaps the Ouija board is not but a sharpening tool upon the gates to the spirit world, but of the mind and it's paranormal function. The mind can already contact the spirit world without help I believe, and the fact that something such as a Ouija board can alter the brains workings and to do something unconsciously, shows that it may aid the brain in it's desired trip to the spirit world. I believe that the brain is one of the most powerful spiritual mechanisms on the planet.[SIZE=+1]
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[Smoke]

I never could get one to "work."

 

[Sunstone]

I never could get one to "work."

Silly Smoke. Only a leftist would try to put a oujia board to work. Any clear thinking right winger would put children to work instead.

 

[Rayne]

I own a Ouija board, and I've played with it in the past. No success, and nothing is inhabiting my house as of now, and as I speak, the board is sitting in the corner behind me. It may work, but it certainly isn't going to let spirits into your house. These things are sold in Toys R Us, and bought by thousands a day, probably. If this was the case, we would have a spirit epidemic by now.

 

[Nepenthe]

Does anyone find the Automatism theory no less paranormal sounding than the other?

Yes, because the ideomotor effect is not paranormal.

When you start blaming mysterious, unexplained areas of the psyche as your explanation for the paranormal, it's not exactly paranormal negating. Considering a lot of what's considered paranormal, revolves around the human mind and it's mysterious processes. Especially the subconscious.

I wouldn't call it blaming but well tested experiments that show people who dowse, use pendulums, ouija boards, etc., are motivated by suggestion. It is paranormal negating unless you're arguing the brain and nervous system is a paranormal process.

Why would such a board game induce automatism?

For the same reason the ideomotor effect is induced by dowsers, etc.: expectations and a predilection for belief. The same reason people see the paranormal in mundane experiences like encountering ghosts in the shadows or Jesus in an ambiguous pattern.

Why would automatism negate any paranormal leanings? Perhaps the Ouija board is not but a sharpening tool upon the gates to the spirit world, but of the mind and it's paranormal function. The mind can already contact the spirit world without help I believe, and the fact that something such as a Ouija board can alter the brains workings and to do something unconsciously, shows that it may aid the brain in it's desired trip to the spirit world. I believe that the brain is one of the most powerful spiritual mechanisms on the planet.

I'd consider that possibility if there were anything even remotely convincing when it comes to the paranormal in any of its manifestations. To date nothing like a spirit world, afterlife, psychic phenomenon, etc. has an ounce of evidence to support its validity.

 

[Ukonkivi]

It is paranormal negating unless you're arguing the brain and nervous system is a paranormal process.

I would say that the human mind and it's workings has always been a big part of the paranormal, paranormal research, and paranormal belief.
And is one of the most commonly talked about in the New Age movement today.

From the hallucinogen takings of Animists. To the idea of ESP. To Lucid Dreaming.

And that blaming the subconscious is no less paranormal sounding to the paranormal minded.

When someone says things like "silly Pagans, Ouija boards don't have any paranormal connect, the mind is just moving it with it's subconscious, that's not anything like the paranormal or anything sounding like it!" my mind just screams parapsychology. Something that has a much bigger history with the paranormal than Ouija boards.

To make it less paranormal sounding, you have to analyze WHY it is most unlikely there is no special qualities can be given to automatism.

Blaming the mind only adds one step to the matter. And it's another paranormal sounding one. Also, I would say that the mind is still naturally a very paranormal matter, not necessarily implying "spiritually" in mean, but that in the mind there is much to still be explained.

Pretty much any unusual things that lack an easy explanation or have many possible theories, are paranormal. I think of quantum physics as a paranormal science because it's one of great mystery and difficulty to explain things. Whether spirits are involved or not, it's still paranormal in my understanding of the term.

I don't think there's anything science can't understand. Or that shouldn't be put to try to understand. I simply think there are some areas to be rounded in that not only leave room for the areas we call "spiritual", but seems well probable.

Is saying that it's not only possible for ball lighting to exist, but a good possibility, psuedoscience?

 

[Renji]

I was wondering how many of you have used or do use a Oujia board?
I know there is some hype if they even work, it's been my experence that if you bulid one you have a better chance of it working then you would buying a new one. If you have used one I'd love to hear of your experences from them.

I haven't owned one in years just because I believe that if you do not close them you can let something into your home.

What say you?

I tried using it once but nothing happened. Just curious, why do some people accidentally talk to an evil spirit when they used Ouija board?

 

[Peggy Anne]

I need to buy one. yes. I love having ghosts come by.

 

[Smoke]

Woah...that really scared me...

Haha...I don't really get scared much..I find the movie; The Excorcist quite lame...

But that was so damn creepy.

I don't think I'm ready to use a real Ouija board:run:

I thought it was kind of fun.

 

[Nepenthe]

I would say that the human mind and it's workings has always been a big part of the paranormal, paranormal research, and paranormal belief.
And is one of the most commonly talked about in the New Age movement today.

From the hallucinogen takings of Animists. To the idea of ESP. To Lucid Dreaming.

And that blaming the subconscious is no less paranormal sounding to the paranormal minded.

When someone says things like "silly Pagans, Ouija boards don't have any paranormal connect, the mind is just moving it with it's subconscious, that's not anything like the paranormal or anything sounding like it!" my mind just screams parapsychology. Something that has a much bigger history with the paranormal than Ouija boards.

To make it less paranormal sounding, you have to analyze WHY it is most unlikely there is no special qualities can be given to automatism.

Blaming the mind only adds one step to the matter. And it's another paranormal sounding one. Also, I would say that the mind is still naturally a very paranormal matter, not necessarily implying "spiritually" in mean, but that in the mind there is much to still be explained.

Maybe I'm not understanding your definition of "paranormal". I'm saying that the ideomotor explanation is not paranormal in that it's been directly observed and replicated in studies- it has a scientific foundation. I'm not claiming that we fully understand the subconscious much less how to explain consciousness, but I am saying there's no need to ascribe anything paranormal.

Pretty much any unusual things that lack an easy explanation or have many possible theories, are paranormal. I think of quantum physics as a paranormal science because it's one of great mystery and difficulty to explain things. Whether spirits are involved or not, it's still paranormal in my understanding of the term.

I don't think there's anything science can't understand. Or that shouldn't be put to try to understand. I simply think there are some areas to be rounded in that not only leave room for the areas we call "spiritual", but seems well probable.

Is saying that it's not only possible for ball lighting to exist, but a good possibility, psuedoscience?

My definition of paranormal would be different: a paranormal event involves "forces or agencies that are beyond scientific explanation." The ideomotor effect, quantum mechanics and ball lightning are not beyond scientific investigation.

 

[Ukonkivi]

There is a difference between the term paranormal and the term supernatural.
Supernatural implies that something cannot be known by science, paranormal implies that which is currently not fully understood by science.
I do not believe in the supernatural, I do believe in the paranormal.

Though I may have a misunderstanding of the term paranormal and the term supernatural.
Which would mean I neither believe in the paranormal or the supernatural. But in many things that are often attributed as "paranormal" or "supernatural".

I do not believe that some things are beyond scientific investigation. Even though some quantum physicists claim that some things are unmeasurable. I simply believe we do not yet have the means to measure them.

Tell me, what is it to believe in determinism, materialism, naturalism, not believe in things outside the realm of science, but also believe in Gaia Theory and the Spirit World? I do not believe that spirits are a Supernatural Phenomena. But I believe in them.