Ouija for Christmas?

According to Google, sales of Ouija boards are up 300%. At this rate, Google, the internet sales giant contends that sales are threatening to become a Christmas “must buy”. Ouija boards interests have spiked since the new horror film, Ouija. The film tells the story of kids looking for something scary during the Halloween season.
Ticket sales would seem to suggest that kids loved the movie. Ouija benefited from audiences looking to get into the Halloween spirit by topping charts with $20 million from 2,858 locations. The film cost less than $5 million to produce, allowing Universal Pictures to realize enviable profit margins.

Actually, the Ouija board is just a piece of compressed wood, sold at virtually all toy stores and occult supply and book stores. Ouija is a combination of two words: "oui" and "ja" which mean "yes" in French and German respectively. The board itself is not dangerous but the form of communication that you are attempting often is. 

To some, the Ouija board represents a harmless form of enjoyment, “a pretend-scary rite of passage” for teenagers in search of thrills on a stormy night. The board has been used by thousands for spirit
communication and is very similar to automatic writing - an alleged psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. The words are claimed to arise from a subconscious, spiritual or supernatural source.

Playing with the Ouija board is often linked with playing séances – attempts to communicate with spirits. As a safety precaution, some researchers advise that the board be used in the presence of a psychic, medium or clairvoyant.

Like me, by now you might be asking, if this game is so harmless, why is it desirable to have psychics present when the game is being played? Or, what is so funny about contacting ghosts and spirits? Some scholars believe the Ouija must be avoided in that it is a trigger for psychological harm.

Dr. Carl Wickland, an American psychiatrist, wrote his classic work on mental illness, Thirty Years Among the Dead in 1924, within which he warns:

The serious problem of alienation and mental derangement attending ignorant psychic experiments was first brought to my attention by cases of several persons whose seemingly harmless activities with automatic writing and the Ouija board resulted in such wild insanity that commitment to asylums was necessitated. Many other disastrous results which followed the use of the supposedly innocent Ouija board came to my notice, and my observations led me into research in psychic phenomena for a possible explanation of these strange occurrences”.

On balance, the use of the Ouija board should be strongly discouraged. Due to the nature of the way this instrument functions it is much more likely to attract malevolent low-level spirits entities than well-meaning or even helpful inner-level beings. Those who do attract lower level beings ultimately stand a very high chance indeed of suffering possession and/or serious mental illness, both of which would be nearly impossible to overcome by modern medical means. 

In his book, One Ultimate Reality, Adrian Cooper makes the point that “the only solution to such a serious situation involving inter-dimensional forces would be an exorcism carried out by a highly experienced practitioner. The most sensible solution therefore is to resist any such temptations completely, leaving the Ouija board and similar instruments such as a tumbler with playing cards and automatic writing very well alone for your own safety and for the safety of those around you.”

By now it is very obvious that the Ouija board is not the kind of game I would want to give to any of my grandchildren – or to anyone as a matter of fact. Why would I want to expose anyone to the occult? This is no “pretend scary rite of passage”. This is witchcraft – Webster's dictionary defines witchcraft as the act or instance of employing sorcery, especially with malevolent intent - a magical rite or technique. 

Both the Old and New Testaments strongly condemn witchcraft and all forms of communication with unknown spirits. The instructions were clear to the Jews as they were preparing for the Promised Land: “Let no one be found among you who...engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritists or who consults the dead” (Deuteronomy 18:10-11).

Among Paul’s list of “the sinful nature” is “idolatry and witchcraft”. He concludes his list with a stern warning – “...that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).

The use of Ouija boards is psychologically and spiritually harmful. It is not a game – rather, it is a subtle introduction to the occult – and that is not harmless, funny or merely scary.