FAQ: What About Ouija Boards?
Monday November 5, 2007
Image © Patti Wigington
Well, here's the thing. A Ouija board by itself isn't evil, any more than your Tarot deck or your Ogham staves or your Magic 8-Ball are evil. Unlike those divination tools, however, a Ouija board involves voluntary possession by the spirit you're trying to communicate with. Think of it in Internet-terms: a chat room in itself isn't dangerous... until you find out you're getting IM'd by a serial rapist. And regardless, that doesn't make the chat room - or the Ouija board - evil, but it does mean there's the potential for disaster in the hands of someone who doesn't have a clue what they're doing.
You can read more about Ouija boards (and the FAQ entry) here: Ouija Boards: Harmless or Not?
I used a Ouija board once with my sisters and a friend and I discovered something in the stranger-than-fiction category. As an experiment, I tried to answer the questions the others asked and soon the indicator started to point where I wanted it to even with my lightest touch. Weird enough for you?
In using the ouija or any other spirit board you definitely have to know what you are doing. My sister and a friend who are not experienced were using the board and they contacted a spirit to them. All was fine and dandy, they chatted for over an hour. After the excitement of actually contacting someone on the otherside the conversation flowed freely and they made a “friend”. So after that they continued to call on this “friend” and they were really comfortable with him. Then after awhile of working with this spirit things started turning to a darker nature. He now was running the conversations rather than answering questions and when they tried to summon someone else he outright told them he would not let anyone else through. The conversation turned to information that he was from the 1800’s and he detailed murders he had committed. Eerie enough! Luckily even though scared, they had their wits about them, ended the session as “friends”. They then wrapped the board in its box with bricks taped on and took it to the deepest part of an old river and threw it in. They cleansed the house and area and no problems after that. I know for a fact now, neither one has touched a spirit board since!
It’s amazing how much interest there is in these boards. I think that too many people mess around with them though without realizing the dangers.
When I was a kid I can remember my English teacher telling the class about a party he had been to where they had a home made Ouija and were using a glass with it. Apparantly someone had said something that the spirit didn’t like and the glass shot up into the air and exploded.
The strange thing is that I have heard similar tales since. So many in fact that I would be tempted to believe that the story was just a retelling of an urban legend. I doubt that my teacher was lying though, and my wife has a similar tale to tell.
if you played someone else’s ouija board and then they play it and they release a spirit can the spirit go after other people or only the people that are there when they are playing it?
Excellent question, Brooke. My thoughts on this would be that since invoking the spirit is an act of voluntary posession on the part of the people using the Ouija board, people who were not part of the session should be fine.
However, there’s a flip side to that. If Sue and Bill are using the board but Jim and Joe are not, and a spirit attaches itself only to Sue, then it will certainly have an effect on the people Sue comes into contact with, including Jim and Joe, because of the fact that it will be operating through Sue.
Does that make sense, kinda? It’s the best way I could think of to explain it
patti
well my sister played it and she said its so creepy because when they try to throw the game away it kept coming back???? wierd i think they should stop selling this game real talk im not even joking
I got an old ouija board for christmas and I don’t know where to start. Do you have to cleanse an old board or what?
I would, simply because I think any sort of magical tool benefits from being cleansed before you use it.
i’ve always had the understanding that it’s not the board it’s self but the mallet made of wood that allows the spirit to make contact.
When I was about 16 my friend asked me to try it with her..She said she used it a lot by herself to talk with her mother…or try….so we used it and after that day I have never touched one again…something bad happened…unexplainable….
I don’t like them……