Ouija Boards......What do we think?

[regulo]

Been following the ghosts and the paranormal thread with interest, so I thought we'd like a heated debate about this!

When I was about 17, (long, long time ago), I was persuaded to take part in consulting an ouija board. This took place at a flat converted from an Edwardian terraced house, which one of my friends had recently moved to with his new bride. She wanted nothing to do with it, and left us to it. One of our number had done this before, and took on the role of questioner. Immediately, he'd asked if any spirits were present, the glass shot to "Yes", and the 5 of us doing it s**t ourselves. When we'd calmed down, we continued, asking questions, and getting replies. When asked "When did you die" we got 5J as the answer, over and over, on asking "Do you mean January", the glass shot to Yes. We then decided that we would check whether our host was pushing the glass around by asking him to sit out. We then asked "What is the colour of the wallpaper in the bedroom". The glass stopped, as though someone had gone to have a look, and came back to spell out, not only the colour, but the pattern of the wallpaper. None of us at the table had ever been in that room. The glass then spelt "Tired" twice, and stopped dead. I have an open mind as to what might have happened that night, but I never want to try the ouija again. What do you think, AB'ers?

[naomi24]

You're likely to get lots of people here who will give you very good explanations for why this appears to work - but I've seen it in action, and I think there is something to it.

[society]

"What do you think?"

I don't think, I stay away from them. I've Heard many negative tales about them, enough to keep me away from them.

[Mr Veritas]

Total and utter rubbish,and dangerous rubbish at that;because gullible persons like you actually ask a question about such things!

[Canary42]

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[regulo]

Guys and gals, There's no need to get personal, I never said I believed in the dead communicating with us, just relating what happened. I am not gullible, but if you had experienced the phenomenon of the glass moving, you would know that it is not being manipulated by anyone's finger. We tried to replicate that and it was immediately obvious that you could tell someone was pushing it. I personally think there might be an unconcious "collective conciousness" at work here, but I just don't know.

[chakka35]

regulo, we have discussed this quite recently, on this site, I think.

The movement is caused by what is called the ideomotor effect, the totally unconscious transfer of thought to a muscular action not purposely intended by the person or persons taking part. I have also had a go at this and it is quite astonishingly spooky. But there is nothing involved except the movements given to the glass by the players.

It has been tested many times, the simplest test being to blindfold the players so that they can't see the letters on the board. That always produces either gibberish or no movement at all.

No-one can explain your bedrom wallpaper result without knowing exctly who around the table knew what. As always with anecdotes, the incident is over before others hear about it and so the chance to investigate is lost.

[mrmoonshine]

As poodicat stated, this is usually done by giggling 16 year olds that frighten easy and believe anything, im not saying that i don't believe in it as i haven't looked into it too deeply, but i would like to see a bunch of fearless marines give it a go and see their reaction.

[regulo]

Chakka35, sorry if I'm going over old ground, I'm new to here, and I should have checked back old threads. As I've got older, I must admit I too have come to believe it's to do with the unconcious movements of the participants, but as you say, it's a very weird sensation. Probably, the subconcious desire of the participants to want it to work. I'm still to this day puzzled by that wallpaper answer, I swear none of us had been in that flat previously, and the only one in the room who would have known was not even near the table. Weird.

MrMoonshine, Point taken, we were young and foolish (weren't we all, once), but once the initial shock of the glass moving was past, we found nothing "scary" in it at all. We were all reasonably intelligent lads, who just wanted to try to understand what exactly was going on. Still not sure!!

[naomi24]

I don't doubt Chakka's theory is correct in many instances, but not always. There's one example I know of that cannot possibly be explained no matter which way you look at it, so I think there really is more to it than meets the scientific eye.

[mrmoonshine]

Regulo, there's only one way to sort this out once and for all.......do it again!

[chakka35]

naomi, you know how much I love and admire you but you sometimes worry me with your vagueness when it comes to things like this.

Please give us more details so that we can see why you think it can't be explained. Ta.

[naomi24]

Sorry Chakka, I only hesitated because I've posted it before. Pin back your ears (or eyes). My mother and her sister did this during World War II - only in those days people used a polished table, with paper letters and numbers, and an upturned glass. Anyway, they did it, and the message they got was from someone claiming to be their brother-in-law (a third sister's husband, who was a soldier serving abroad). He said he had been killed in action that very day, and gave details of where, when and how. Some time later his wife (the third sister) received the sad news from official sources, and that concurred precisely with the message from the ouija board.

I have no explanation.

Sorry, must dash.

[keyplus90]

Of course there are so many things human have no explanation of. Human themselves are good example of that.

[ummmm]

I don't care what anyone says. I've done them loads of times when I was younger and information came out that no one in the room would know.

[mrmoonshine]

Why not do one now ummmm just to prove what you heard was real and not human interaction or a joke colluded by the people you done it with?

[ummmm]

I was doing at the time. The people who were asked questions about me.