Using The Ouija Board

By James Donahue

I never had much luck using a Ouija board. Whatever the reason, the instrument of communication . . . be it a button or some other personal item . . . never moved under my fingers. But when my late wife Doris put her hand on the board, the spirits seemed to move her.

Now that she is joined the spirit world, I wish I could use the board to communicate with Doris. She used it to talk to dead relatives and took comfort when on her death bed that she believed her brother and father were both on the other side, waiting for her. They told her that they would be there.

I read a recent story about how the Ouija board was a popular Christmas gift item last year. People experienced in the paranormal were warning that these boards can be dangerous when used by people who do not understand what they are working with, or how to use them properly.

The Ouija is an odd instrument. It was invented and marketed by Elijah Bond in 1890, and sold as a harmless parlor game. But it slowly became popular with occultists after Spiritualist Pearl Curran used it as a divining tool to allegedly speak to the dead during the First World War.

The Ouija board is basically a flat wooden board with a circular row of letters, a flat row of numbers, and the words "yes" and "no" printed on it. The operator then uses a piece of wood, plastic or some other object as a planchette. Participants in the "game" collectively place their fingers on the planchette and wait after a question is asked. Eventually the planchette begins to move in a circular motion. It then begins to guide over certain letters of the alphabet, slowly spelling out words, or it simply answers "yes" or "no."

People who have done Ouija swear that the planchette moves outside of their control. There is debate, of course, even among the spiritualists as to the validity of this statement. Scientists say it is all hokey-pokey. Christians warn that it opens the door to demonic possession.

My wife grew up with Spiritualists. Her grandparents were members of the Spiritualist Church and were able to make tables raise up off the floor and do other strange things. Doris said that after her grandfather died, her grandmother used the Ouija to communicate with him. She remembers the board, but said her grandmother refused to use it when she was in the house.

Late in her life, not long after her grandmother was in the grave, Doris had a notion to try to use a Ouija board. She didn’t have one to use, so she drew what she thought was the design as she remembered it on a blank piece of paper. Then she used an old Indian head penny, given to her by her late father, as her planchette. Sitting at the coffee table in our living room, she found that by placing her fingers on the penny, and asking questions like: ‘Is anyone there?" and "Who am I speaking to?" the penny moved in a clockwise rotation and slowly answered her questions. She swore that she was not controlling the motion of the penny.

Her first contacts were frightening. She discovered that she was, indeed, communicating with demonic forces. They insulted her and sometimes predicted terrible things that were about to happen. Of course the predicted events never occurred, but the warnings were personal enough to concern the family. Eventually Doris learned how to clear the board, clear the room and open the way for good spiritual contact with what we believed were angelic and friendly entities. After a while she also discovered that she could communicate with her deceased brother and other family members.

Her ritual before ever working with her "board" was always to first light incense and walk through the house, ordering evil forces to leave. Then she would do the same with anybody that would be in the room with her while working the board. Then, with the incense still burning, and a beeswax candle glowing in one corner of the table, she would put herself into a trance before working the board. I noticed that her aura Her favorite plancette eventually became a smooth stone that she found while we lived in Arizona.

It was amazing to think back on some of the information we received on that board. While communicating with Aiwass (we believe the same entity that dictated the Book of the Law to Crowley) in 1995, we were told that President Bill Clinton was going to be impeached. The Monica Lewinsky scandal didn’t break until 1998 and Clinton, indeed, went through impeachment hearings.

Some of her early "contacts" included Elohim, one of the names of God listed in the Old Testament; Adoni, identified in the old books as one of the angels; the archangel Michael and finally Aiwass, who remained with her for more than a year. Finally the Abba Father appeared, and he was the main communicator on her board up until the day she died. Some of the primary Abba Father dialogue is published on this website.

Doris used the board to communicate with dead relatives and on occasion she used it to help friends speak to the dead. She never charged for those services, and refused to allow me to promote her abilities, although I believed she was more legitimate in what she was able to do than many of the public charlatans who became popular on various television programs.

Yes, the Ouiji board is much more than a toy for parlor games. And people who receive them as Christmas gifts should be very careful about how they are used.