YES FOR LIFE, NO FOR DEATH, GOOD BYE FOR MYTHS
“It is only a game. Isn’t it?”
-Anonymous
The human fascination with the spiritual and metaphysical things is old like the mankind. There are no people that would close their eyes for the mystical things without give a try to understand them, Some will embrace the cold logic of science, finding themselves more secure in the area of facts but some will accept the unknown and unexplained as the essential elements of the life.
It’s Friday evening. The whole family is at home, they are spending the pleasant time together but Mary has something to share with her husband Steve. She was in the antique store, after work and found one interesting game, Quija Mystifying Oracle, William Fuld Talking board set. Steve Harper was not so impressed by the game because he comes from the ultra religious family, with the catholic believes. According to them , all kinds of chances for talking to spirits from another world is consider as witchcraft and the outcome could be only demonic. However, Mary does not give up so the teenage children, Lara and Mike. They are burning in fire to call the spirit of grandmother Ema or grandfather Tom. Mary convinces her husband that all gonna be ok, especially because she also got the book “How to Safely Use The Ouija Board: An Instruction Manual” by Daniel Cumerlato with. There is no place for mistakes, nothing could possibly go wrong or simply everything could go wrong. None knows what has happened that night in the Biddle Street 1578, in Baltimore, MD but after two days, all members of the Harper Family have been found dead. The one thing that has survived all was the Mary’s Quija Board and that’s exactly the point where our story begins…
The Quija Board is known as a witch or spirit board. It is imprinted with the alphabet letters and numbers from 1 to 9, including 0. On one side is written YES and on the other is written NO. At the end of the board is written Good Bye. The part that belongs to the board is heart-shaped device named as a planchette, that slides over the board for forming the answers. It is stated that this game has been invented in 1890s and sold to Hasbro in 1966. I found it interesting that the game started as a parlor game, for afternoon tea and fun, almost like a bridge. After some times, people have believed that it can contact the spirits.
People have always tried to reconnect with the dead family members or friends, That was the substantial idea of human spirituality through the centuries. The death itself has been considered as unknown field and all they could have done is to try to reach the beloved one, believing they are still wandering in the world between. From the early stages of the civilization history, the homo sapiens has wanted to trick the Mord and to bring the light into the tunnel of darkness. The eschatology has offered some answers but not all of them. The main core of all religions is to comfort us in our fear from the unexplained dimension of life after death. Even in all classic literature, the spirit communication is an inseparable ingredient of social values. In victorian England, it was a trendy to conduct the seances and gather the people interested to speak with the dead one. The mediums have always been accepted as the special one because they are the channels of the ghosts. When we have the Quija board, we are able to communicate directly with our dead one or at least to make an attempt to find them, Real professionals in demonology warn that often comes the bad spirit pretending it is one you love. However we look at, the game is outrageous popular, especially because it has been glorified in Hollywood movies as the tool to the invisible world of dead. There are evangelical groups that firmly believe that playing with this board can cause the demonic possession. The King James Bible doesn’t like it either ” Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”(Exodus 22:18) in modern version from 2000 :” You shall not allow a witch to live” It is more than famous how the Christianity has dealt with the witchcraft and all steps in the front of occultism are automatically considered as companionship with evil.
While some claim that the supernatural force moves the board and gives us the answers on our questions, the rational force of our common sense denies it and explains it through the theory of ideomotor effect and according to one psychologist :“What happens is that the people touching the planchette unconsciously move it around the board without knowing they’re doing it. Since they don’t know that they’re moving it (and believe others aren’t either) they assume that some unknown force must be at work. So how does the planchette give accurate answers if it’s just being moved unconsciously by one or more of the participants?It doesn’t. The problem is that little if any of the information from the board can be verified.The fact that people must be touching the board for it to work offers an obvious clue: if ghosts or spirits (instead of people) are moving the planchette to spell out messages, there would be no reason anyone would need to touch it. Anyone can test the Ouija board to see whether the messages it spells out are real or not: Simply put blindfolds on the participants, or block their view of the board with a cloth or piece of cardboard. The results become gibberish.Talking to the dead or asking them questions requires no special abilities; the real trick is getting meaningful answers back. Unfortunately the vast majority of “information” from beyond the grave (whether the source is a Ouija board or a psychic) consists of reassuring messages from deceased family members, such as “Grandma is happy now,” or “Your mother is watching over you.” These banal messages are harmless, but the dead never seem to convey any useful, accurate, or previously unknown information.”
The same researcher asked himself if Quija board is really effective in contacting the dead one, then it should be used for a benefits of big science discoveries or unsolved police cases, particularly in homicide. The problem is that people are so easy to be manipulated and affected with the group feeling. That is some kind of primitive tribe reaction on something. If one thinks, the others will do the same, like it is not allowed to come out with the own common sense. Beside it, the majority of people are suggestive and if their brains are working in that direction, they will find the signs by the road and link them with the absolute ridiculous source of explanations. Sometimes, I think that people would rather chose to believe in supernatural than to accept how majestic is a human brain and mental possibilities.
I can be pretty sure that Quija board is a mysterious game but only if you like creepy things and do not seek the reality behind the commonly accepted myths. It is proved that human can cause the terrible accidents just because they are being obsessed with their own belief in supernatural. It is so easy to blame God or Devil for all our failures but it is so hard to set up our own responsibility for the life we have and that is not between Yes or No that some funny board offers.
SARAH MAX RESEARCH 
This is very evil stuff dear friend, this opens the door to evil spirits, harm and tragedy. I can’t tell you enough to be sure you never dwell into this world. If you have and finding yourself having lots of bad misfortunes, demons have come thru this portal. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not ever mess with this love!!!!
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Very good article dear Sarah. Thank you for sharing it with us. The Ouija board game in my opinion is a dangerous game. It poses a real danger to those who believe in its answers. It is not different from going to a fortune tellers and soothsayers. It poses a danger because of what has happened to many people believing in its answers, and being affected by mental illness, anxiety and fear that ruined their lives. In addition, regardless of whether they believe in the answers or not, the players of the game become so attached to it and wasting their time, which at the end accumulates to wasting their lives.
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Sarah’s insightful and intriguing article reminded me of another article I perused many years ago while I was living in the Nipponese archipelago: it concerned ‘Fuji’ (i.e. 扶乩 – planchette writing); an ostensible means of supposed necromancy and communion with what is termed ‘the spirit world’, in Late-Mediaeval China.
Fuji employs a suspended tray to guide a stick which inscribes Chinese characters into the sand or incense ashes beneath the tray. This method first arose during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was conducted via specific supervision and rituals, with its central institution of practice in the Quanzhen School (a branch of Taoism). Fuji became illegal during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912); as the Qing elite felt threatened by the influence of the elite of the Fuji following. It was not an issue of religious rivalry, but one of commercial competitiveness.
The dominant religious beliefs during the Ming Dynasty were the various forms of Chinese folk religion and the Three Teachings of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. The early Ming emperors particularly favoured Taoism; granting its practitioners many positions in the state’s ritual offices. Taoist ideas penetrated mainstream Chinese thought and spurred new interest in Taoism and Buddhism.
The Qing elite wanted to silence the political influence of the Ming Dynasty Taoists, because people began to question the validity of the social hierarchy and the idea that the scholar should be above the farmer. One Taoist advocate even taught that women were the intellectual equals of men and should be given a better education. He was imprisoned on charges of spreading ‘dangerous ideas’. However, these ‘dangerous ideas’ of educating women had long been embraced by some Chinese mothers and by courtesans who were as literate and skillful in calligraphy, painting and poetry as their male patrons.
Taoist ethics vary depending on the particular school, but in general tend to emphasize ‘wu wei’ (i.e. effortless action), naturalness, simplicity, spontaneity and The Three Treasures: compassion, frugality and humility. Again, the Qing elite perceived this as being detrimental to central government control; much in the same way as the Spanish Inquisition eradicated ‘witches’ (mostly, midwives with traditional and expert knowledge of herbal medicine).
Compared to the flourishing of Science and technology in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the Ming Dynasty witnessed fewer advancements in Science and technology compared to the pace of discovery in Western Europe. In fact, many advances in Chinese Science in the late-Ming Dynasty were enhanced by contact with Europeans.
Similar methods to the Fuji were being practiced in ancient India, Greece and Rome, and the noun ‘Ouija’ may derive from the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for ‘good omen’. Certain board games have ancient origins, and ‘senet’ (Egyptian) is the oldest (circa 3500 BCE).
It is only when an activity becomes associated with commercial and political influence that elite rulers become nervous about their own influence. Since Ouija came about (1890), it has been criticized by several Christian groups; including Roman Catholic hierarchies. Catholic Answers, a Christian apologetics organization, states that ‘The Ouija board is far from harmless, as it is a form of divination (seeking information from supernatural sources)’. In 2001, Ouija boards were burned in Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA, by Christian fundamentalist groups alongside Harry Potter books as ‘symbols of witchcraft’.
In addition, religious criticism has expressed beliefs that the Ouija board reveals information which should only be within the sphere of ‘divine authority’; thus, it is a tool of the Biblical Satan. A spokesperson for Human Life International described the boards as a portal to talk to spirits and called for Hasbro (copyright holder) to be prohibited from marketing them. Bishops in Micronesia have called for the boards to be banned and have warned congregations that they were talking to demons and devils, when using the boards.
Sarah concludes her interesting article with a reference to people being their own worst enemy, when it comes to being influenced by ‘supernatural’ entities. In the context of the major religions of the world (e.g. Christianity, Hinduism and Islam), this is most definitely true. The Roman Procurator of Judaea, Porcius Festus (reigned c. 59-62 CE), once remarked ‘To much education and religion results in a vast number of unstable minds…’
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Thank you, Sarah, for this intriguing and very interesting article!
I have never personally been part of it, but heard from people just what you said in that the people, who are holding the board, are the ones that make it move.
This is corroborated in your article by the following quote “according to one psychologist :” “What happens is that the people touching the planchette unconsciously move it around the board without knowing they’re doing it. Since they don’t know that they’re moving it (and believe others aren’t either) they assume that some unknown force must be at work.” ”
As a mathematician and a scientist, I cannot and do not easily, or readily accept illogical and non-scientific facts !
This is fascinating, as I see a definite connection between this article and two more of your prior articles, namely, Area 51-Warning, Do not cross the line, February 2, 2017, and Alien Abduction Claimants: why Americans believe in ET?
In essence, Sarah, this is a trilogy of human predilection to accept “paranormal activities” !
The premise is the same, in my mind and opinion, as the people who believe in Alien activity as in Your Article about Area 51, as well as the people who believe that they were abducted as in your article about Alien abduction, and the people who believe in Ouija in this article, are all predisposed to believe in such paranormal activities!
Thank you again, Sarah, for your beautiful and riveting writing that takes us, the readers, from the beginning to the end while keeping us both absorbed and intrigued !
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