by The-Borg 170 Replies latest jw friends
I did not grow up a JW.
Me and my cousins used to play with it when we were kids, and it gave us a name of the woman who one of them married, even though, at that time he didn't know her or anyone by that name.
As for any other "predictions", none come to mind.
I do not agree that those who are using it make it move.
Warlock
come on! if Santa's into it, it's gotta be good!
My plumber used the board with 4 of his friends, it told them that 3 of them would die before they were 20. Guess what happened.
hmmm... your plumber was convicted of premeditated murder?
[inkling]
The planchette doesn't move at all by itself. It's pretty useless when someone is alone.
When a group of skeptics try it, the results are usually nonexistent. Even when something seems to be remotely intelligible, each persons suspects the other of influencing the result either consciously or subconsciously.
It only really seems to start working when a group of people who are at least open to the existence of the supernatural try it which is why Ouija boards and other forms of automatic writing were so much more popular at the turn of the last century.
But the really best results are experienced by those utterly convinced in the supernatural.
To me, that spectrum of experience alone makes anecdotal experiences suspect. Results are directly proportional to a person's willingness to believe there will be results.
Don't misunderstand, I don't deny that Petacostal evangelists at tent revivals can work the crowd to the point where people keel over in a hysterical rigor when he touches their forehead or appear to speak in tongues. I don't deny that Biblical charaters and early Christians fasted or were tortured until they hallucinated. Similarly, I don't deny that people have disturbed themselves mentally through the use of a Ouija board.
I wouldn't argue with the lady down the street who is convinced that her Pastor heals people and I wouldn't argue with anyone who is convinced that Ouija boards are a doorway to the supernatural. --I don't have any use for any of that stuff though.
It's pretty useless when someone is alone.
TD,
Funny you should bring this up.
One of my family members tried using it by himself and the planchette started moving. He was so frightened he threw it off his lap and would never use it again.
To this day, he will not, and this was 30 years ago.
Warlock
It says on that picture above that you can ask it anything.
Would someone that has one ask it when "the End" will be here?
Maybe it can be a little more accurate than some religions about setting dates for this to occur.
Penn & Teller did a good episode on the Ouija board, having 'professional spirit mediums' using the board (They were so special, they were using a board they custom designed for their use).
Guess what they learned? It's all a bunch of shinannigans! The board couldn't correctly answer anything that none of the individuals didn't already know. They would claim to be talking to someone dead, so the investigators would suggest simple known questions about the person (where they were board, when did they die, etc.), and the mediums would get back wrong answers or it would be 'muddy'. They could only answer things that were subjective and untestable ("He feels sad right now"). They also played a few jests on the participants by blindfolding and rotating the board... and of course, the participants continued to point to positions on the board that they THOUGHT were yes and no (apparently the spirits can't see the board is flipped).
They also described some of the 'mystereous forces' at work. If two people hold an object, and it moves, you know it's the other person. But if three people hold an object and it moves, there is no one person to say 'you're moving it'.. and the object becomes more difficult to keep stationary.
They had some random individuals try it that had never done it before. Roughly half of them felt 'something special was happening', and the other half thought that too many answers were wrong and it was just a game.
My JW mom played with a ouija board when she was a kid, and to this day swears that it told her things nobody else in the room could know (but SHE didn't move it that way), and that night she saw 'shadows' moving around her house, and one of them centered on her and posessed her for a few minutes. Actually, the story gets better every time she tells it. (She was also using drugs at the time, but SWEARS she didn't take drugs that night, and it had NOTHING to do with it.)
- Lime
They also described some of the 'mystereous forces' at work.
Ideomotor effect. It's also what makes dousing rods "work."
They also described some of the 'mystereous forces' at work.
Ideomotor effect. It's also what makes dousing rods "work."
So every time, in every case, this is why the planchette moves?
Warlock
So every time, in every case, this is why the planchette moves?
Have you ever seen it move without at least one person's hand on it? What is the most obvious answer to your question, then?
