The 5-step program for Ouija

I’ve done a lot of work with the spirit board over the years. And I can tell you that it can cause major problems, even when it’s handled well. It’s one of those things that I wouldn’t suggest anyone do without getting some background knowledge beforehand. Nonetheless, there’s aways someone out there who will put together a short cheat sheet or other how-to-do article. I happened across this link that outlines 5 steps for getting started with the spirit board in a safe manner. Actually, it’s not bad, for what it is. But it still leaves me uncomfortable. It’s like an offer to get a 4-year college degree in 12 months with only two nights per week, while you work from home. And you won’t owe any tuition afterward because your work at home job covers the expense of it, along with your living expenses. Ummmm… yeah. There’s a whole lot of depth, involvement, and back-story that’s not being told here.

There are safer ways to contact spirits. But if you’re going to do spirit board, get some education and experience with spirits and mediumship first. At that point, the 5-step program might help.

By the way, Ouija is a trademark of Hasbro.

Halloween candy

Spirit boards, most commonly known by the trademarked name Ouija board, are often reviled and distained by  many people, mediums and non-mediums alike. My view is that a spirit board is merely a door into the spirit world. The door could open anywhere – to the Out House, the Penthouse, or just some random house down the street. Be that as it may, here’s an article I thought to share with you, where the door opened to one of the good places. Looks like communications were established, some hearts were softened, and maybe somebody became a bit of a believer.

So there’s some candy for your basket. Happy Halloween!

Catching the Collector

While I’m flipping through channels on tv, I notice that now there are a lot of shows, particularly reality and paranormal shows, about spirits/ghosts/mediumship/etc. As a medium, you might think I’d be interested in these shows, but to be honest, I’m not. Generally speaking, I don’t think they’re very good. Without getting into details, I’ve seen misguided efforts, from people who don’t know what they’re doing. So I rarely watch any of them.

But tonight I happened to catch a bit of the Firestarter/Haunted Museum episode on Haunted Collector, which is on Syfy. In one of the segments, there was negativity in a house in Connecticut, and the team discovered a broken Ouija board in the house. They took it to a SME (Subject Matter Expert) who was experienced with spirit boards. She described a bit about how spirits can attach to certain things. Afterward, they removed the board from the house, the negativity went right along with it, and things were better.

If I were able to add anything to that segment, I would say that in this case, the problems were directly connected to the spirit board, but one should not jump to the conclusion that all such spirit boards are negative, or have negativity around them. Ultimately, the board is merely a door. Think of it this way. If a door opens to the out house instead of the finest restaurant in town serving your favorite food, should you blame the door? The problem is not with the door per se, it’s with what’s behind it. Important distinction. On the one hand, I’m glad they said nothing about it, but on the other hand, saying nothing could lead someone to that conclusion, hence my desire to qualify it.

Anyhow, I thought they did a pretty good job, particularly compared to other shows I’ve sampled, and the SME was good. If you’re so inclined, you might want to check it out.

 

History of the Ouija board

Here’s a nice video on the history of the Ouija board. In six minutes, you’ll have a good idea of how it became popular in America.

Ouija Museum

The Ouija board has been around long enough to have its own museum. Like most things these days, it only exists in cyberspace, but no matter. Here is the link, along with another that I happened across.

http://www.museumoftalkingboards.com/

http://www.witchboards.net/index.html

By default, everyone thinks of the Ouija board in the classic configuration of letters and numbers that Parker Brothers sells as a game. But spend some time on these links, and you’ll get a new appreciation for the number of variations in both board and planchette. And like any museum, you’ll get a bit of history as well.

Where’s the beef?

The other night, I had a “dream” about one of my spirit folks.  Someone I hadn’t seen or heard of before, but I’m told has been around me a long time.  I saw his face and head, almost like you would if you were looking at a bust, but it was an extreme closeup, so close I could see his eyes very clearly.  He said “from well to Wellington”.  It sounds like total nonsense, but having done a lot of work with table tipping and the Ouija board, I thought differently.  It was a combination of straight-forward information and word play that conveyed multiple meanings.  “Well” meant that I was doing well in general.  “Wellington” starts out with “well” and progresses through i-n-g-t-o-n to get to Wellington.  Each letter after “well” stood for a separate word, which was a thought, concept, or theme I had to go through, in order, to progress upward to the end, which was Wellington.  For example, the “n” stood for negative, because there was something negative that I had to deal with appropriately.  Wellington represents Beef Wellington, which I’m told is a dish based on beef tenderloin, which is a good cut of meat.  I’ve never had it, but it sounds good, perhaps a gourmet-like dish.  It represented something good.

I’m not entirely sure why spirits communicate using this type of word play. The Ouija board and table tipping lend themselves to this, as communication through these methods are letter-based to begin with.  I’ve seen it many times over the years, but never thought to see if there was a word to describe this type of play.  Sure enough, there is, and it is called a backronym. A backronym is is constructed by taking an existing word already in common usage, and creating a new phrase using the letters in the word as the initial letters of the words in the phrase. For example, the United States Department of Justice assigns to their Amber Alert program the meaning “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response”.

Fun and games with names

I got to tinkering with a name anagram site, specifically http://www.deanjackson.dj/nameanagram/index.php  You can put in your name, and it will output words from the name, using every letter.  Here are some interesting anagrams that are spiritual in nature.

Mediums of today:
John Edward‘s anagram name is ODD WHEN JAR.
James Van Praagh‘s anagram name is JAR VAMP SANE HAG.

Mediums of the past:
Helen Duncan‘s anagram name is NUDE CHANNEL.
Margery Crandon’s anagram name is GRANDER ACRONYM.
D.D. Home‘s anagram name is ODD HEM.  Expanded to Daniel Douglas Home, his anagram name is ALIEN AGED HOODLUMS.

Famous Spiritualists:
Allen Kardec is known for Spiritism, and his anagram name is NAKED CELLAR.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s is not only the author of the famous Sherlock Holmes stories, but a famous Spiritualist.  His anagram name is CARRY ON, HOUND TALE.

The Fox sisters, who were famous for communicating with deceased peddler Charles B. Rosna and founding Modern Spiritualism:
Kate Fox‘s anagram name is FOX TAKE.  When spelled “Katie Fox”, her anagram name is ATE OK FIX.
Margaretta Fox’s anagram name is FAT MARX TO RAGE.
Leah Fox’s anagram name is HOAX ELF.
Charles B. Rosna‘s anagram name is NOBLER AS CRASH.

Skeptics and debunkers:
Joe Nickell is a skeptic, and his anagram name is JOKE IN CELL.  Hmmm….. 😉
Harry Houdini, the famous magician, was also famous for debunking fraudulent mediums.  His anagram name is OH! HID URINARY.  His actual name was Erik Weisz, whose anagram name is WE IRK SIZE, or when spelled “Ehrich Weiss”, his  anagram name is SHREWISH ICE.
Other spiritual things:
Near Death Experience‘s anagram name is EXERT NEEDIER PANACHE.
Trance Mediumship‘s anagram name is CRUMMIEST PINHEAD.
Full Trance Mediumship‘s anagram name is MISPLACE MIRTHFUL NUDE.
Ouija Board‘s anagram name is A BIJOU ROAD.
Spiritual Development‘s anagram name is PRIMEVAL, INSULTED POET.

A few that make you think:
Spiritualism‘s anagram name is I SIP ALTRUISM.
Spiritualist‘s anagram name is IT IS ULTRA SIP.
Psychic‘s anagram name is CHIC SPY.
Lily Dale‘s anagram name is IDLE ALLY.
And last but not least, Mediumship is HIP DUMMIES.  Hmmm… 😉

Ouija reputation explained

The Ouija has a long and rather interesting history.  Here are a couple of accounts to check out:

The History of the Ouija Board
The Infamous evil Ouija Board
Apparently, all the bad press about the Ouija came out when the movie “The Exorcist” was released, back in the 1970’s.  It also sounds like that’s when the Christian fundamentalists jumped on the bandwagon.

At least I now know where to put the blame, as if that would help…..  😐

Maybe Ouija and Alcohol do mix

Here is an article about the Ouija board.  It adds some perspectives and ideas that I hadn’t thought about before in the context of Ouija.  I also discovered that Bil Wilson, one of the founders of Alcohol Anonymous, was very involved in it and also received the now-famous 12-step program ideas from the spirits..

I’ve worked with the Ouija board quite a bit, and a few years ago, with the help of the spirit folks, I developed a new board.  They told me that a pencil would be good as a pointer, because they could see the graphite in it pretty well, no matter how thin it was.  I hadn’t heard of it before they told me, so it was neat to read the article and learn that other people have been told the same thing.

Getting kicked when you’re down

There’s a movie coming out about the Ouija board with “horror genre elements that seem reminiscent of supernatural thrillers like “The Ring” and “The Gift.””

Do we need yet another Hollywood-ed, jazzed-up, negative/spooky movie about spiritual things?  Couldn’t it be positive, uplifting, and healing instead??

The Ouija board is a tool, albeit a very misunderstood tool.  It’s a tool in the same way that a gun is.  You would never hand a loaded gun to a six year old and say “go play”.  That’s crazy because they have no training or experience or sense of responsibility, and they’ll go off and hurt themselves.  It’s for adults who understand and know how to handle it.

Spiritually speaking, when it comes to the Ouija board, there are plenty of six year olds, and sadly, some of them shoot themselves in the foot, and cry very loudly to Mommie.  It scares the other six year olds away (which is good), but it also scares the adults away, those who could understand and handle it.

It’s about people, not the tools. A person’s spiritual training, experience, and sense of spiritual responsibility determine whether they’re six year olds or adults with the Ouija board, and physical age has nothing to do with it.  It’s just not for those without spiritual experience/background/knowledge/etc.

Over the years, I’ve had mostly good experiences with the Ouija board, and only a few bad ones.  Now that’s not an open license to recommend it to everyone, just my experience.

My view is that Ouija board has been abandoned by its potential friends (mediums) and beaten down by its enemies (mediums and others) a long time ago.  Since then, it’s been lying quietly in a heap on the floor, doing nothing, and now this movie is going to walk up, kick it right in the nuts, and then go away.

I hope I’m wrong, but don’t bet on it.