Any athiest tried a Ouji Board?

by Marilyn 68 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  arachnia

  Ranchette -

  I noticed your mention of the Runes, interestingly enough I was using those while still a JW, my boss had a set at work. <g> Of course, being a big bad eeeeeevil Pagan now, ;) I have a couple of sets of them and I'm actually starting to make sets of them from shed deer antlers.

  Anyways I thought I would mention one of the best authors of books on the Runes is Edred Thorrson. He is quite scholarly and has sought to find the most historically accurate information on them from original sources whenever possible. I'm not sure if you have one of his books already, but I recommend his books highly. The best one for just getting a basic knowledge of the Runes is "Futhark."

  Enjoy! :D

  Cheers,
  ~arachnia

  Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."
  -Kahlil Gibran
• 

  Sirona

  Funkyd,

  Stop saying things that insinuate my beliefs are false! You simply cant prove that they are false, if we're talking about testables.

  I do care who's right or wrong. I hate the idea of someone spending their life devoted to a belief that's demonstrably untrue. That's one of the reasons so many people visit this site. Human subjectivity is not always reliable which is why people believe ridiculous things, why people are willing to die and to kill for beliefs that cannot possibly be true.

  I care if someones belief hurts them, or someone else. However, I think everyone is entitled to spend their life believing anything they want to, whether others agree or not. I do not belong to a church. Being pagan, I would not let my life be lost if someone didnt agree with my beliefs, neither would I kill. The problem you describe is not that peoples beliefs may be false, just how they act on those beliefs.

  Im also amazed that you liken anyones beliefs to the JWs....lets face it, there are sects and cults, in religion there is control, but that doesnt make any belief invalid.

  You use the words "demonstrably untrue" and "cannot possibly be true". Well I would not say that of YOUR beliefs (namely that things like the Ouija are NOT contacting supernatural forces). You CANNOT say that of mine - e.g. apply your own rules. prove to me my beliefs "cannot possibly be true".

  There may be reasons that you are unaware of that make the existence of spirits unverifyable. You just dont know.

  I think you should be tolerant and respectful towards other's beliefs. Personally I dont believe the same thing as Christians, but I dont go around telling them that they are superstitious and gullible, I dont talk to them in a condescending manner. I accept that there is a chance that they are right and I am wrong, possibly. Or we are both right in our own way. Have you ever heard of phenomenological reality?

  Sirona
• 

  rem

  When I was a kid camping in the mountains a group of adults decided to take us youngins on a "sniper hunt" at night. They told me all about the little snipers and how dangerous they were. They even had a special call to attract them. We had sacks to catch them with. After a few minutes trek into the woods we started hearing rustlings in the woods and sniper calls. I was a bit freaked out. Then after a couple minutes, it dawned on me that I had been had. It was just a prank! There were no "snipers". The adults were just throwing stones in the woods to make noises and making clicking sounds with thier mouths.

  Very clever, I thought. I learned on that day how easy it is to fool people.

  When people use Ouji boards for the first time, they tend to be in the company of an "experienced" user. Who's to say the experienced user is not playing a prank on the newbies? The "Lwood" story comes to mind as a complete hoax. The phonetic spelling sounds like a very convenient story - I've never heard that before, but the newbies to the Ouji board bought that explanation hook, line, and sinker. The fact that the board didn't spell the name correctly even made the board seem more genuine. Unfortunately, some people are a little slow on the uptake and don't figure out when they've been had for a long time. Sometimes never.

  The first thing I'd do if I used a Ouji board would be spelling freaky things backwards, shaking the pointer, and it would be cool to fling it out of everyone's hands. That would scare a few of the superstitious ones right quick! The Ouji board is just a game. It's not even as old as you might think it is. It's just silly to believe in such bunk as adults.

  rem

  "We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking." - Mark Twain
• 

  proplog2

  I remember studying with an "atheist" on a college campus back in the mid '60s. The guy was raised an atheist. He agreed to study but only in a discussion format that didn't allow JW literature. We argued several times per week for about 8 months. I tried every proof of God I could think of. I finally worked the demon angle. Spiritism was popular on college campuses during the "dawning of the Aquarian Age". Sometimes the student lounge was full of people working Ouija boards. I suggested to my bible student that if the demons exist then God could exist also. He reported back to me that whenever he entered a room where Ouija boards were being used everyone would complain and ask him to leave because their boards wouldn't function.

  My bible student became a JW. He was in for 30 years but is now disassociated.

  One more anomaly for the heap.
• 

  Marilyn

  Prolog, What an interesting story. Do you carry guilt for talking that poor guy into the WTS? :-( I know I do re all the lives I wrecked. All mine are still in - and their lives have been miserable.

  It kinda doesn't make sense that teh demons would stop fooling around in front of an athiest. If you get my drift. Btw I loved your reasoning with the stubborn student. It was a favorite line of mine - and I'm still vulnerable to that reasoning too. IF DEMONS exist then so must God. It's probably a legacy of JW thinking, but it's still there in the corner of my mind. <sigh>

  Marilyn
• 

  Mulan

  I played with one when I was about 11, not knowing it was supposed to be demons. I just thought it was a game. It said I would get married when I was 17 and have a baby by 18. All happened.

  Now, I wouldn't care at all. I am not longer looking for demons under every rock and bush. They don't scare me, if they exist.

  Marilyn (a.k.a. Mulan)
  "Those who know, don't say, and those who say, don't know."
• 

  teejay

  I'm not an atheist per se, but even when I was a dub there was one thing about ouija boards that I always wondered about: Why do participants have to touch the pointer?

  I have no fear of trying it -- would try it in a heartbeat -- but the weakass 'demon' is gonna have to move the damn pointer on his own.
• 

  teejay

  Sirona,

  I have this very bad habit of answering an initial post of a thread before I read anyone else's responses. So, I'm just reading through this thread (after responding to it already).

  Above, you offered the advice to us skeptics to, "be very careful with things they dont understand."

  Very good advice. I spent a lot of my life thinking I knew everything... now-a-days I don't mind saying, "I don't know"; "Maybe I'm wrong"; "You might be right." Thanks to having been bamboozled by the WTS for 30 years, I don't think that way anymore.

  In the scheme of things, I'm so young that I'm barely here and there's a universe of things I don't understand. Still, board games manufactured by Milton Bradley (?) are a weird way for supposedly powerful, ageless spirit beings to contact puny humans. It just don't make sense.

  tj
• 

  think41self

  Hi Marilyn,

  I tried one out last night and it spelled out

  Spank Me

  What do you think that means?

  think41self

  Holy Flying Screaming Buddha, Batman!
• 

  teejay

  it means you found a freaky demon. go for it!