Of Ouija Boards and Angels…real or not?

It is one thing to say that God may speak directly to a person. Although I think that God has spoken to everyone through scripture, I also leave open the possibility that God has also speak to people through such things as dreams, vision, angelic encounters, and prophetic messages.

But from what I see in the Bible, it is always God who takes the initiative to speak. We humans are not invited to try to push open the doors to what may be called the spiritual realm, and try to force our way into it.

As such, then, the biblical condemnations of people like fortune tellers, those who channel spirits, and necromancers, is more easily understood–when people try to use those means to dip their toe into the spirit realm, they are not contacting good spirits, but evil ones. They are opening themselves up to liars and deceivers.

I suppose Ouija boards are a form of fortune telling. It’s something to avoid.

Saw that part of the interview and it struck me as a bit contrived and embellished. It Occult America by Mitch Horowitz, he goes through all the literary works inspired by the board. None of them struck me as significant. I have a buddy who is from Vietnam who told me it is big over there. They use some kind of garment or animal pelt to increase it’s power? Something like that.

Will say that I did not know just how big the occult was. Thomas Edison used a board to try and get new inventions. He even tried to invent a “Spirit Phone,” so that people could speak with dead relatives. Some people think that CERN, the particle accelerator, is really just a way for some of these people to try to tap into energies and talk to spirits or other entities.

Agree with the comments here that in the case studies that I read about, it usually ends badly. I did really like the Knowles interview though because the guy said things that I read about with others. In the beginning, getting high or doing weird delusional type occult things may actually work. They might even help, but with repeated use, eventually, the person ends up hooked, addicted, or enslaved by a substance or by something else.

I think these people are either hallucinating, have some kind of mental illness or – more likely – are craving the attention.

Some girls brought an Ouija board to our school once. Almost everyone was invited to try it. Most of the girls claimed they felt it move or do something. And they would giggle and revel in the attention.
A lot of the kids were eager to see my reaction, because I was known to be literal minded and would be the first to point out that the emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes, even if it got me in trouble.
I initially looked at it and thought it was so stupid, that it had to be some kind of prank on me. Like I would touch it and then get stuck by a hidden needle or something. When they finally convinced me to try it, I first checked under the board and under the table to be sure I wasn’t in for any nasty surprises. Then I tried it and the expected happened. Nothing.
They accused me of trying to resist it, told me I had to let go, let the board guide my hand, blabla. And I did (I wanted to genuinely know if there was anything to it). Again, nothing. I look at them like they’re idiots. “This doesn’t do anything.”   One girl who was earlier really into it “I swear, I felt something guide my hand”   “You imagined that because you’re stupid.”  Kids started laughing at her. Once the dam was broken, some of the guys tried it and all agreed it was BS. The girls never brought the board to school again after that.

A few of them had actually believed the board and were crying because of whatever result they got. Some people aren’t good at critical thinking and will believe anything. You just gotta be the adult in the room in that case.

This guest in the video has the IQ of a hamster. He’s been taking mushrooms, heroin and even DMT, which is similar to the substance that the brain dumps when you die. The hallucinogenic effects of DMT are well documented. Anyone who thinks hallucinations are angels or voices from another dimension is a headcase.

The concept of paranormal activity matches an information technology pattern, that of the nested auditing context. This can occur when a child operating system runs in the kernel of a parent operating system. (Solaris 10 is where I encountered that technology.)

In practice, a user in the “world” of the nested OS can do normal OS things, like create, edit, and remove files, and all of those activities will leave forensic traces within the auditing context of that OS. That’s all normal and scientific. The paranormal pattern, however, occurs because a user in the parent OS (or “higher” world) with the right permissions can -also- do those same activities in the nested world, but within the auditing context of the parent.

So, from the perspective of a user in the nested world, files might randomly appear, change, or disappear, without any forensic data generated (and thus no way to prove it happened to a scientist who might arrive on the scene later).

It seems possible that our universe is such a nested system, and if only for that reason, I don’t dismiss paranormal claims, even if there are also other potential explanations (such as human imagination). I also find it significant that one of the fundamental principles of information systems is permissions, which is also the core of many paranormal claims: you must give permission to entity X for something to happen.

And no, I wouldn’t. :)

@vknid  have you ever taken LSD or mushrooms? The hallucinations can feel incredibly real. I’ve taken both during my youth. But the surest way to know they’re not real is to be a trip-sitter for someone. When I was young, we would always have one person there who was sober, to ensure that none of us would do something stupid like run onto a highway or jump off a bridge or roof or overdose on whatever stash there was.
It’s dangerous to do hallucinogens without a tripsitter. While I was never one to be drawn towards lights (aka oncoming cars), I did witness several friends literally playing in traffic.
I also once had an hour long existential discussion with a tree in my garden about existentialism and the meaning of life. It told me about the family who lived there before us and how it had watched people grow old and die. And it told me I wouldn’t find happiness with drugs. The next day, I looked at that tree, wondering if I could detect any sign of the friend I had made that night, but no, it was just the same plain ol motionless tree. Banal and pedestrian, and yet, I liked it a bit more afterwards. I was quite angry when my parents cut it down without consulting me first.
Did the tree really speak to me or was it my subconscious? I actually did stop taking drugs afterwards.

Well the way hallucinogens work is this:  They restrict the bloodflow in certain sectors of the brain. The brain kinda panics and opens up unused cerebral pathways, which allows different sectors of the brain to communicate with each other in ways they didn’t before. This is how hallucinogens are able to help patients overcome PTSD or chronic depression. Depression in the inability to construct a future. The brain is stuck in a loop. Hallucinogens are like a hardware reset for the brain. The brain learns to communicate with itself in new ways. This is also why creatives, artists, musicians, even programmers like the stuff. It helps you be creative. In small doses at least. Large doses are rarely productive.

The surest way to know that hallucinations are just that? Be a trip sitter for someone on LSD. He’ll be tripping balls, seeing colors that dont exist, seeing music, all senses sharpened and overloaded. He’ll have the most profound thoughts and experiences. But to you, he’ll look more like a spaced out junkie. We had a saying “There’s a great movie playing behind the eyes of every junkie sitting motionless in the corner.” When you’re sober and you witness this, it’s funny at best, pathetic and sad at worst. They feel like a cat or dog coming home from the vet and stumbling over their own feet. Now, I don’t want to condemn hallucinogens. On the contrary, I think almost everyone would benefit from trying them once in their life, and the recently discovered medical uses can be life saving. But they’re not gateways to another dimension.  There’s truly nothing there other than an overloaded brain running on fumes as it’s trying to filter out the toxins and reboot back to normal.

Just as a Ouija board doesn’t move your hand. To prove that, one would only need to blindfold the person using the board. I predict the board will henceforth speak gibberish. Even if the player  memorized the position of the letters and numbers, the results would be hilarious.
“What year will I die in”  then  they miss the 2 and hit the 4.   Awesome, gonna live till the year 4165!

In 1960s California, a fake medium’s daughter tries to communicate with her late father through a Ouija board, but unleashes a demon instead.

It was never just a game. Inviting audiences again into the lore of the spirit board, Ouija: Origin of Evil tells a terrifying new tale as the follow-up to 2014’s sleeper hit that opened at number one. In 1965 Los Angeles, a widowed mother and her two daughters add a new stunt to bolster their séance scam business and unwittingly invite authentic evil into their home. When the youngest daughter is overtaken by the merciless spirit, this small family confronts unthinkable fears to save her and send her possessor back to the other side.

2016 movie

So, the above is a sequel to a 2014 movie. I do not follow this stuff, so didn’t know.