I imagine most of you have seen one of these boards, maybe even played with one at one time or another. I've been fascinated by them from my early teens, when a friend introduced me to a crude facsimile--flour sprinkled on a kitchen table, slips of paper with letters of the alphabet on them placed in a circle, and a wineglass used as a pointer. The first message I got with that method turned me off a bit; I asked the *Weejie* if it liked me. Its answer: "You just hell". In spite of that, I consulted it whenever I could find a willing partner (which wasn't often) and got the same kind of silly answers.
Later in my life I purchased a "real" Ouija board, and coerced nearly everyone I knew to work it with me. This alienated a few of my friends, but it was fun! We were receiving messages from a nameless, formless entity, some of them rather sinister. Strangely enough, it occasionally told us something that we later verified--things we could not have known but might have guessed, although the messages were a little too accurate for mere guesswork. As a natural skeptic, I never really took it seriously. Most of the messages were extremely silly--the darned thing had a sense of humor!
It wasn't until I learned that a singer I had not heard of previously had died, and after I had uncharacteristically purchased one of his recordings, that Mr. Ouija acquired a name and personality of his own. He claimed to be the spirit of the deceased singer, and from that time on literally "owned" the board. You can read the whole story in my book, "Fritzy", so I won't take up any more of your time on it here.
There are many myths about this instrument, which I'll try to dispel or explain away.
The most common one, I think, is that if you play with the Ouija you are inviting evil spirits into your life. The fact is, spirits, evil or otherwise, are in your life. Instruments such as the board only make you aware of them. It's only when you become too emotionally involved with a communicant that you can get into trouble. Any strong emotion can affect you, stirring your imagination to dizzying heights. That is a danger, as I well know, and should be avoided. When communicating, try to keep it impersonal while retaining a healthy portion of skepticism. If you feel you need other protection while using the board, ask your Angels to stand by, and ask that only a High Spirit or Guide come through to you.
Another common myth is that only evil spirits are on the other end, and can possess your body or soul if you use the board. Well, this is nonsense; no one can possess your body unless you invite them to, and then it is only in your mind that they do so. It is possible for a lower entity to influence your thoughts so that you might think your body has been invaded, but again, without an emotional reaction on your part, this is highly unlikely. As to possession of your soul, that's something that essentially belongs to God. You can neither sell it, trade it, nor give it away, so if you're worried about that, forget it.
Who can you contact? Anyone or thing you wish to. This is not a myth. I have "talked" to cats, spirits, even living people. An example of the latter: A friend and I were working the board, not asking for anyone in particular, when we received a message from another friend, with whom I had had a serious argument and hadn't seen or heard from in over a year. He identified himself, then said he had been thinking about me. I asked him what he was going to do about it, and he replied that he was going to call and invite me to lunch. The next day at the office I received a phone call from this person, after a year of silence, and he did indeed invite me to have lunch with him. Coincidence? I don't think so. We contacted many other living persons this way, some of them famous, and received information about them which we were able to verify. And they never once tried to possess our bodies, though a few beings from the lower astral tried to do so at times. We handled those misfits by telling them no way would they get our bodies, then kicking them off the board with a shot of white light.
Another form of automatism is commonly called automatic writing. This is usually done by holding a pencil or pen over a blank sheet of paper while turning the mind to something totally unrelated--like watching television or reading a book. Ideally, within a short time the hand holding the pen will begin to move independently and write a message from a disembodied spirit. I've heard of and actually knew a couple of people who could do this--I never could. My method is like receiving dictation; I consciously write whatever comes into my mind, often not knowing whether it's from an outside source or from within my own mind. Ordinarily, when I'm writing--like now--I have to go slowly, think what I want to say and how to say it. When I'm taking "dictation", however, I don't pause to think. I write very rapidly, often not realizing what I've written until I have finished and read it over. In a way, this is a "safer" method of communicating with spirits. The emotion all seems to be on their side of the fence--you are just the "secretary"--and the messages are much smoother and more complete than they are with the board.
If you have any questions about either of these methods, please email me and I or someone will answer them as best we can.
The next pages hold some interesting stories and other information about Ouija.
