Ouija boards, psychics, etc.

Please don't touch this. Look at Ben Alexander's site ASP MINISTRIES. He was very much involved in the occult & escaped from it. I met him. Believe me there is a spirit world good & bad.

Fair comment Elegran but i have to say we were mostly non Catholics so that would have lengthened the odds a bit i suppose. And really there was no way of checking if the mural had lit up other than believe the girls who saw it simultaneously. So no solid proof but the atmosphere and jolt of fear gave us enough of a scare to never mess around again. And older and wiser and MUCH more cynical as i am now there's still that arcane superstitious sense of leave well alone..unless it's under lab conditions with bright lights and lots of people around of course lol!

That cured you all! But how many of those gathered in that Catholic youth club had grandmothers called Mary? Not exactly the least likely answer to the question - and did anyone waste any time checking to see whether the statue really had lit up?

I agree that ouija boards are best left well alone. We experimented with them as young daft teenagers. The last time we tried was in the quiet room of our local catholic youth club which had a big mural of Our Lady on the wall. There was six or seven of us around the table and about ten lounging about looking on. Me- in the interests of science and authenticity-suggested we ask a question that only the asker..my mate Potter lol..knew. They would tell another person ie me what the answer was and neither was to touch the glass. Sure enough it started to move and we asked 'what's Potter's gran's name?'. The glass rapidly whizzed over to M..A..R..and just as it touched the Y a blood curdling scream rent the air and someone yelled 'the picture! The picture's lit up!!' It was probably comical to see us all scrambling, shrieking, for the door but we never ever dabbled after that. And yes..Potter's gran was called Mary...

It is mucking around with your susceptiblity, whether it is cold readers or demons behind it prducing "answers" out of the hat. It is like taking mind-altering drugs - dangerous because altering back again gets increasingly more difficult as you are drawn in.

There are some fantastic cold reading scripts online - you'll see how you can personally identify with them even though they're not aimed at you

but Ouija - I'm watching The Exorcism of Emily Rose on telly (great film..) and what's striking is that the "possession" is real, it's real whether its deamons, or spirits, or psychosis, or suggestively, or some other medical cause. - It's "real" whether you believe in spirits or not. - it's the same for ouija, they're real and dangerous, you don't need to believe in spirits to believe that, they still do harm even if the experiences people have after them are due to vulnerablity and susceptibility rather than spirits.

Nobody should pooh-pooh it

That's exactly how it's done by cold readers.

Here is a version. Imagine yourself talking to a medium who has a warm friendly face and speaks directly to you, looking into your eyes as she does so.
"I am getting a G here. Do you know anyone whose name starts with a G?"
(Rack your brains, now. Think hard. You want to be helpful, and you must know ^someone - Graham? Gordon? Gracie? )^
You - "Ummmm, no - . . ."
"It could be a C"
(Think again. Don't know any C's either)
You - "No . . ."
"Did you know anyone in the past whose name began with C or G?"
(Well there was Uncle Charlie who we used to see a lot of, until he died of lung cancer when you were about six)
You - "Oh it could be Charlie. That was a long time ago.
"I think - yes - it is a Charlie. You were very young."
You - "Just a child."
"He was - it isn't clear - a brother? uncle?"
You - "Yes! Uncle Charlie!"
"He is saying . . . something about . . . Oh! was he ill? "
You - "Yes! very ill!"
"He says all is well with him now. And you are not to be upset, or about your mother either."

Etc Etc. You write the script that the medium gives back to you, with insertions that are suggested to them by what has gone before, and by what you react to, either verbally or by your expression.

They move position very smoothly if their tentative cold reading doesn't get a reaction. The hints go from very general to prgressivle more detailed, until they have a "fact" which strikes a cord.

There is a skill to it, but what they are tapping into is not the "other world" it is the world inside the client's head. They may not even be consciously aware that they are doing it. Some people who wouldn't dream of claiming to be a medium are very good at this, and it improves with practice. They can meet a stranger and chat, and in a few minutes they have their life history.

who is B, is he your father

That's basic cold reading. From your answer she would have moved to whichever relative you said it was.

Cold readers can tell a huge amount from the clients age, body language, dress etc. For example if the client is elderly there is every chance that she had a busband/father/brother called William or George or Fred. Younger client the same names could be father/grandfather.

There's even a possibility that they're not relatives but you know someone of those names.

Look at these Derren Browne recordings. He cold reads so convincingly, it's amazing.

www.bing.com/videos/search?q=derren+brown+cold+reading&&view=detail&mid=6B26CF2094C0D5CEC9F36B26CF2094C0D5CEC9F3&FORM=VRDGAR

www.bing.com/videos/search?q=derren+brown+cold+reading&&view=detail&mid=179E253E29E1FEDF590B179E253E29E1FEDF590B&FORM=VRDGAR

I saw a psychic a couple of months ago. She had an assistant who wrote down what was said and gave it to each client.

As I sat down she asked me "who is B, is he your father, he's talking to me. M is your mother, she is with him, "

She said " your son is very clever, he lives abroad and has fabulous ginger hair and a ginger beard.

She said "you are with your lovely second husband called ..MrCoolgran, your first husband was mentally ill and has now died very suddenly"

And much more..... ie. S had to leave you, her cancer was too much, she's here now and says hi."

I can't explain it, but it didn't feel sinister or wrong. It felt reassuring and comfortable.

Did it quite a lot many years ago, non of us took it seriously but I'd never do it now.
I would still llove to know how that glass moved though.

My late husband was a psychology lecturer. He used to conduct an experiment with the second year students to demonstrate self-deception and suggestibility and how this correlated with personality. It involved a ouija board game in which the ouija board was 'wired' for movement and the whole thing was filmed from above. Some of the students were deliberately pushing the glass, and others were not aware of doing so, but could clearly be detected to move the glass by the apparatus and on film. Even when this was revealed, about half of the subjects were convinced that the glass was moving under supernatural influence and about half thought it was faked. This correlated very nicely with certain personality traits. He used to complete the Ethics form required by the university as follows: Risks of this experiment "Eternal Hell and Damnation". I think that ouija stuff is silly b****cks as my husband's experiment showed, but then, as it also showed, approximately half of the population will believe it is supernatural shenanigans regardless of evidence to the contrary. OP - I think your friend is very suggestible!

Ouija Boards are IMHO very dangerous - we don't know what we may unleash, for the same reason I never dabbled in Drugs - I like to have some control over what is happening.

My DD often goes to see a Psychic & she is convinced that she is genuine, me I'm sceptical but then it's not me spending my money.

I firmly believe there are lots of things we don't understand - but it each to their own. I am not a practicing Christian in that I rarely go to Church but now I am settled within my new area I will probably start to attend my local Methodist Church (I was brought up as a Methodist although I have attended other Denomination Services) But Mediums/Psychics & Ouija Boards are out for me

I think they are dangerous. I meddled with one as a stupid teenager. A friend and myself played with one for weeks, and odd things started to happen, a horrible smell developed one Sunday morning, it was as if something had been buried and dugup, my mum went bonkers! I went to my friends and the same smell was in her home, her mum went mad too, I have never touched it since, and tell people to leave well.alone.

It's not nonsense I've been to mediums quite a few times and some of them even give names of people that are in your life or have been in your life. I went a few months ago and a medium actually wrote down the names of two people and she was correct. it wasn't just giving me their names it was telling me my connection with them.

Didn't someone in the past do that? Was it Houdini? It rings a bell. As far as I remember, he never did make contact with the correct password.

DH and I have agreed that whoever dies first will try to come back and have chosen a bizarre code word. We won't go looking for a spirit sign but if someone tells us they have a message from the other side but can't say the word then they're def fake.

Neither of us expect to be contacted or if the situation arises be told the word

I'm sure I would think it was nonsense if I hadn't had an unnerving experience myself once. As you do some friends and I decided to set up a ouiji board and have a go. As others have experienced soon the glass started whizzing around. Two of the four people leaped away leaving just two of us. At one point there was only me touching the glass and it was still whizzing around (with no help from me). The message was from a relative of someone i knew (who i didn't know was deceased). Never again!

A small group of us did this at college (with letters and a glass I think). It came up with some letters and while we were doing it there was a major incident a couple of miles down the road. Looking at the letters they spelt out the beginning of two words, one the beginning of the noun for the incident and the other the beginning of the location. In my early twenties I went to a seaside clairvoyant (no idea why, maybe for a laugh, can't remember if my companion went too) and she came up with something she couldn't possibly have known. Unnerving.

(to Rosina)

But what's the point if they only tell you things you already know? I thought people wanted some sort of message from their departed loved ones, not trivia about their own lives...

Ouija boards are dangerous because only one person is using/controlling it. So there is only you to be possessed. A glass with letters on a table is usually used by several people at once. If you are using a ouija board then there is only you to be possessed by a nasty spirit. If you can believe in these things, then don't use it. I would like to say that I don't believe and that it's nonsence, unfortunately I have had wierd experiences that cannot be explained, some of them without a ouija, seance, or a medium being involved. Just avoid!!

Some things are best left alone, and Ouija boards seem to be one of those things..however, I went to a Psychic/Clairvoyant once to accompany a friend. I was very sceptical and didn't tell her a thing about myself, not even mentioning that I was with the woman who had consulted her before me, and she told me some small matters that happened when my mother died, and which I had almost forgotten, and also made several remarks about my children which were spot on. I hadn't told her I had children, and I have to say I left there with mixed feelings.

I'm sure many people believe in the existence of a spirit world without also believing that it's 'evil'.

Of course human beings are perfectly capable of behaving in atrocious ways without incitement by any supernatural entity, but I don't think anyone's saying that on this thread, are they?