When I was younger, my friends and I used to take our OB and go to this really creepy cemetery. Of course the thing moved around and gave us all the answers we were looking for. And of course we all denied moving it. Still, it was fun to scare ourselves. After I was in church for awhile, I was told that OBs were demonic and a portal for demons to enter and wreck havoc. I didn't touch one the whole time I was wrapped up in the church.

In my adult life, I know and understand that the OB is just a silly game intended to open the mind to possibilities and help us along with scaring ourselves. The best part about it is that it works. We do think about all of the possibilities something like a OB can open up if it were real.

IMO, the OB is a toy, nothing more, nohing less. But, you knew I was going to say that, didn't you? /wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

In my experience with QB's, nothing ever happened while using it…or after.

To me, it's a game. I think a lot of people just get caught up in the moment, while using them.

First off, I want to say that people who say that the Ouija board is a game in the Milton Bradley sense of it all are right- it is a 'board game'. However, the actual process of a spirit board isn't a game at all. It's an occult tool going back centuries. You don't need good ol' Milton's to talk to the dead since it's not the board, but rather, the action of invocation. Any piece of paper and a button will do.

The action of this invocation is very real and can be very dangerous. I personally never used one but have heard the stories(my best friends great grandmother was a witch) and have seen the after effects of a session gone terribly wrong. Obviously some people never have anything happen, and then you've got the extreme cases of terror. It's a lot like gambling- only instead of money being at stake, you're dealing with strangers. After a close friend went through a terrible experience with one in her already very haunted old home, the first thing I said to her was "What did you expect?" When you're dealing with the spirit world there is no way of knowing what or who is on the other side. A basic concept we all learn as children is "don't talk to strangers". As we get older we can use our own judgement to figure out who we want to talk to or avoid on the street. But we don't have that luxury when dealing with the 'other side'. With the spirit world, even those with a sixth sense about them, still are childlike in their understanding of what's there. Any believer, non-believer or skeptic, after thousands of years of debate, multitudes of religious beliefs, theories, personal experiences, captured "evidence", no one can agree on anything. So when you're dealing with the unknown, it's best to use common sense- don't invite strangers into your home- or to hang out with you in a cemetery. There are a lot of perverts and sickos in this world, and to assume they don't exist on the other side in some form is naive. And I don't care if you're a complete non-believer, it's basic probability. It's easy for some pervert to pretend to be someone else online- and it's just that easy for some cosmic bad guy to pretend to be a lost little girl ghost through a Ouiji board.

Everyone has had some experience with theft, physical or sexual abuse or violence in some form- if it hasn't happened to you, it's happened to someone you know. I can appreciate anyones desire to want to understand, prove or disprove any concept. Curiosity is human nature- but just try to be reasonable. If you wouldn't want to send your personal information out to all the sex offenders in your town, then you probably don't want to send an open invite to the spirit world for a party at your place.

Excellent post!

I had the Ouija board game growing up. Nothing of consequence ever happened while we used it.

I'd like to try it out again.

I don't think the Ouija board is much different than any other form of contacting a spirit. I'd think that it would be about the same as trying to communicate with spirits with audio, video, or other methods.

I think I'd like to try out the board again and run an audio recorder at the same time.

good point, not one i really thought about until i just read it….interesting. I never tried one, always been taught they were bad, but would maybe like to see one in use by people that I know…just to see what happens…

I'm not sure how I feel about the boards. I know that when I was a kid we used one, and allegedly got replies, but it's just so darn easy to fake..I suppose that as a rule, you would have to ascertain for yourself whether it was reliable or not. And unfortunately, they say that using them solo is bad…so what to do?

Excellent post!

Thanks, GettysburgLady! /biggrin.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

I remember using one at recess around 5th grade or so. I think they came out as a board game around 67, or so and were all the rage with us.

I could never get it to move, by myself. If I recall the instuctions with the board, you could ask it about your love life and fortune.

We were young girls so there were always the, who like who questions. I know, lol this has nothing to do with talking with spirits from the beyond.

We did some dabbling in the unknown.

I remember, our teacher came over one day on the play ground and just stomped the board and broke it.

Years later I read about the Ideomotor effect.

I think this is how we made it move.

A Ouija board in itself is nothing but paper, plastic and a little brass tack, it' neither good or evil, I think it's possible one can be used as an occult tool or a play thing. Like most occult items it all depends on intent and strength of belief. If everyone that ever used a Ouija board was putting themselves in imminent danger, there would be thousands of cases of possession and or paranormal attack. There have been possibly millions of these boards sold and I would hazard to guess there is only a tiny percentage of cases where someone has suffered bad consequences. The odds of a demonic, evil entity or bad psychological experience is probably only a slight bit higher than the chance of being killed in an airplane crash. When someone does suffer an attack you then have to ask was the bad experience real or a self attack brought about by some psychological flaw in the user? Of course it is possible that whenever someone sits down to play, deceased family members or angels gather to shield the innocents and its only on the rare occasion that an evil entity does force it's way through. In case you are wondering, I do not own a Ouija board, never have and frown upon it's use in any type of investigation.

I have found that if you believe in spirits, portals, demons and such — then the ouija board will work for you……..

If you don't believe in that stuff -- then it is just a toy, that makes use of the ideomotor effect…..

I think that even if you DO believe, the ideomotor effect can take over. Because people want to believe SO badly, they don't realize what exactly it is that they are doing.

What about the people who don't want it to "work" but it "works" anyway?

Ah, but only that person would know, in their hard of hearts, if they really didn't want it to work, would be that person. Even so, the ideometer comes into play here as well. Even if they don't really want it to work, most people expect it to.