Are Ouija boards really linked to mental illness?

[ExMinister]

Trying to research the ideomotor effect and I am continually coming across references to the use of the Ouija board being linked to the onset of mental illness. A lot of this is probably just silly woo superstition, stories about somebody's mother's sister's friend, usually based on the idea that there are demons behind it all, but I got to wondering if there might be any truth to it from a medical/psychiatric standpoint. Can it unbalance the mind? If so, how?

I wonder if it might actually create some kind of dissociative state that could be dangerous? Would it be more dangerous for certain people - temporal lobe epileptics, people with manic depression, the potential for schizophrenia, etc?

I found a statement that Dr. Curry, "former medical director of the State Insane Asylum of New Jersey, felt that they were a dangerous factor in unbalancing the mind and that if the popularity continued asylums would be full of users." If he expanded on the reason he believed this, it isn't mentioned.

Just wondering if anyone here might have some factual information one way or the other.

 

[Marduk]

I found a statement that Dr. Curry, "former medical director of the State Insane Asylum of New Jersey, felt that they were a dangerous factor in unbalancing the mind and that if the popularity continued asylums would be full of users." If he expanded on the reason he believed this, it isn't mentioned..

you'd have to buy the book that quote appeared in to be sure
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ouija-Board-Doorway-Occult/dp/0875522475
I hope you note that the company responsible for its publication is P & R Publishing which states on their home page

P&R Publishing company is dedicated to publishing excellent books that promote biblical understanding and godly living as summarized in The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. Titles on our list range from academic works advancing biblical and theological scholarship to popular books designed to help lay readers grow in Christian thought and service. Our mission is to serve Christ and his church by producing clear, engaging, fresh, and insightful applications of Reformed theology to life.

Most of the reviews I've seen describe the book as an attack on non Christians
The Dr (Marcus) Curry quoted was working around 1910, he musy have retired by the early 20s as they named a new reception wing after him in 1927, he wasn't a doctor in the modern sense, he was a superintendant, I expect they called him Dr in the book to make his quote seem grounded in science. Quite simply, he was speaking at a time when mental illness wasn't very well understood and his statement wasn't aimed at Ouija specifically but at spiritualism in general, heres the original quote

In his annual report for 1920, during the post ouija craze, Dr. Marcus A. Curry, medical director of the New Jersey State Hospital for the Insane, said “people who seize on spiritism in its various forms are too often either those who are naturally of a high-strung nature or neurotic tendency or who have just passed through some great trouble which has deprived them of their normal resistance.”

seems to me that he isn't blaming the ouija at all, just having a pop at the mentality of people in general, I bet he'd hate Sylvia Browne and recognise her for the grief vulture that she is immediately
you'll find him mentioned here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greystone_Park_Psychiatric_Hospital#Overpopulation
in other words, you've been had

 

[ExMinister]

you'd have to buy the book that quote appeared in to be sure
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ouija-Board-Doorway-Occult/dp/0875522475
I hope you note that the company responsible for its publication is P & R Publishing which states on their home page

Most of the reviews I've seen describe the book as an attack on non Christians
The Dr (Marcus) Curry quoted was working around 1910, he musy have retired by the early 20s as they named a new reception wing after him in 1927, he wasn't a doctor in the modern sense, he was a superintendant, I expect they called him Dr in the book to make his quote seem grounded in science. Quite simply, he was speaking at a time when mental illness wasn't very well understood and his statement wasn't aimed at Ouija specifically but at spiritualism in general

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greystone_Park_Psychiatric_Hospital#Overpopulation
in other words, you've been had

Figures. Thanks for that. You do good research! I figured his statement had to be old since it mentioned the "popularity" of the game, as if it were a somewhat new trend.

Leaving him aside, though, my question still stands. Is there a link between the use of a Ouija board and the onset of mental illness?

I am still wondering if this type of thing might be dangerous for certain people or if it's all just harmless and the only danger is in the imagination of people who think there are spirits involved.

 

[Marduk]

Figures. Thanks for that. You do good research! I figured his statement had to be old since it mentioned the "popularity" of the game, as if it were a somewhat new trend.

Leaving him aside, though, my question still stands. Is there a link between the use of a Ouija board and the onset of mental illness?

I am still wondering if this type of thing might be dangerous for certain people or if it's all just harmless and the only danger is in the imagination of people who think there are spirits involved.

I'm not an expert of course, but imo, there could be a link, but its the other way round, a paranoid schizophrenic ex partner of mine used to get religious mania, when she was in that state she'd scour the bible for passages that might relate to her, she'd talk to the spirits in her head and use Ouija to contact the other side for advice, eventually she realised that she was the messiah reborn and wrote to the Queen demanding that she step down and install her as the new monarch so that she could control the army and take over the world creating her new kingdom. Next stop was a secure mental health institution
but I digress, she was already mentally ill causing her to believe that Ouija was a real spiritual contact medium. She wasn't made mentally ill by the board.
Another personal experience, when I was in the Army our squad used a Ouija board, no one believed it was genuine, but you could use it to spook people by deliberately using it to relate personal details that they had forgotten they'd told you (great fun if people are drunk). As we were all on active service, so mentally exceptionally fit it presented no problems. I guess its one of those things where what you believe is responsible for directing your actions rather than your actions directing what you believe.

its been scientifically proven to be the ideomotor effect when people aren't deliberately fudging it for shock value and no amount of scare tactics by Christians lying for Jesus will change that

 

[quarky]

Weird word, that Ouija.

Is it pronounced "woogie"?

 

[Halfcentaur]

Back in high school 3 of my closest friends at the time were messing with an old Ouija board from the 1960s that belonged to a relative who was reputed to haunt their house as a friendly ghost. I frequently am told this story as irrefutable evidence of the paranormal, having decided to go somewhere else that night rather than participate with them.

Anyways, this night they were all messing with the Ouija board, and my friend's father had some kind of trick device he'd put in the light bulb socket which caused the light bulb to strobe after a while of being on and then get so bright it burned itself out.

Supposedly, after the flashing light scared everyone to the point of emptying their bowels and fleeing the room, they later got back on the board. At this point, one of the boys' dead grandmothers was said to have started communicating and giving dates and answers that only one of the boys knew to be true. He began to cry and violently sob and shake for a while.

I never thought about it much, but not long after he deliberately gave away all his musical equipment, planned his funeral, took some LSD and killed himself while tripping by walking into the path of a car going 50 miles per hour at 3am. I can see now that he probably deliberately caused the Ouija board to channel his grandmother and worked himself up into such a violent emotional outburst which was actually one of a long list of emotionally and mentally disturbed outbursts he was known for.

 

[Marduk]

Weird word, that Ouija.

Is it pronounced "woogie"?

if you know how to pronounce the french word for yes and how to badly pronounce the german word for yes, thats how its pronounced

 

[Beady]

Weird word, that Ouija.

Is it pronounced "woogie"?

Wee-jee, or wee-ja. It's an invented word, made by combining the French and German for "Yes" (one of the quick answers on the board).

BTW, if there were the slightest danger of any sort attached to ouija boards, I doubt that Toys R Us would be allowed to sell them. AFAIK, this is the only national chain to stock them.

 

[ExMinister]

Interesting, Halfcentaur. Sad story.

I'm not an expert of course, but imo, there could be a link, but its the other way round, a paranoid schizophrenic ex partner of mine used to get religious mania, when she was in that state she'd scour the bible for passages that might relate to her, she'd talk to the spirits in her head and use Ouija to contact the other side for advice, eventually she realised that she was the messiah reborn and wrote to the Queen demanding that she step down and install her as the new monarch so that she could control the army and take over the world creating her new kingdom. Next stop was a secure mental health institution
but I digress, she was already mentally ill causing her to believe that Ouija was a real spiritual contact medium. She wasn't made mentally ill by the board.
Another personal experience, when I was in the Army our squad used a Ouija board, no one believed it was genuine, but you could use it to spook people by deliberately using it to relate personal details that they had forgotten they'd told you (great fun if people are drunk). As we were all on active service, so mentally exceptionally fit it presented no problems. I guess its one of those things where what you believe is responsible for directing your actions rather than your actions directing what you believe.

its been scientifically proven to be the ideomotor effect when people aren't deliberately fudging it for shock value and no amount of scare tactics by Christians lying for Jesus will change that

Yes, agree. Sad about your ex. Funny army story.

I have temporal lobe epilepsy and I wonder if my tendency toward spiritual and mystical experiences, and being so heavily involved in spirituality over the years might be related to that. I have never mentioned it to a neurologist. Probably no need to now, as I seem to be cured.

But I do wonder if my ability to get a Ouija board to work on my own (without other people) might be related to the condition of my temporal lobes. Maybe, though, the only real risk is that I am more pre-wired to believe it.

Weird word, that Ouija.

Is it pronounced "woogie"?

Ha, I like woogie better.

 

[Professor Yaffle]

Wee-jee, or wee-ja. It's an invented word, made by combining the French and German for "Yes" (one of the quick answers on the board).

Wee-jee (weegie) is also a nickname for someone that comes from Glasgow. I wonder what you call a glaswegian ouija board...

 

[Beady]

A weejie woojie?

 

[BStrong]

Weird word, that Ouija.

Is it pronounced "woogie"?

Don't lay no Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll.

 

[ExMinister]

"There are demons coming through that woogy board." Sort of loses some of its impact.

 

[Baloney]

Figures. Thanks for that. You do good research! I figured his statement had to be old since it mentioned the "popularity" of the game, as if it were a somewhat new trend.

Leaving him aside, though, my question still stands. Is there a link between the use of a Ouija board and the onset of mental illness?
I am still wondering if this type of thing might be dangerous for certain people or if it's all just harmless and the only danger is in the imagination of people who think there are spirits involved.

The more likely causal scenario to me is that people with mental illness are attracted to the game, as opposed to the game causing mental illness. Or just as likely: no causal link at all.

(ETA:

I'm not an expert of course, but imo, there could be a link, but its the other way round,

What he said.)

 

[Baloney]

I'm not an expert of course, but imo, there could be a link, but its the other way round, a paranoid schizophrenic ex partner of mine used to get religious mania,

Marduk,
As an off-topic aside, based upon personal experiences, I'm developing a hypothesis that schizophrenics are terrible in the sack -- dispelling the myth that "crazy = wild in bed." Care to comment?

 

[Careyp74]

I have no factual information, but I do want to caution the OP, that when talking about a link, it doesn't necessarily mean a causal link. For instance, as an anecdote, look at the links between ice cream and murder. As sales of ice cream go up, so does the murder rate. This is interesting until you realize that more murders are committed in the summer time, when you are more likely to eat ice cream.

 

[Marduk]

Marduk,
As an off-topic aside, based upon personal experiences, I'm developing a hypothesis that schizophrenics are terrible in the sack -- dispelling the myth that "crazy = wild in bed." Care to comment?

she had MPD too, some of them were terrible, some were awesome
I have always stipulated that sexual prowess is more dependant on the male than the female.
e.g. the female could be an olympic level sexathlete, but if the guys a limp dick its going to be awful
the reverse
if the guys an olympic level sexathlete then anything the woman does isnt going to mess that up
havent you heard, a hard man is good to find

 

[ExMinister]

I have no factual information, but I do want to caution the OP, that when talking about a link, it doesn't necessarily mean a causal link. For instance, as an anecdote, look at the links between ice cream and murder. As sales of ice cream go up, so does the murder rate. This is interesting until you realize that more murders are committed in the summer time, when you are more likely to eat ice cream.

Yes, I remember this as "correlation does not equal causation" from college statistics classes. I agree, and I just used "linked" for lack of a better way to say it. I am somewhat interested in the associations, too, but I agree they do not in any way imply causation and can even be misleading.

I am really questioning whether there is any basis in fact of the seemingly widely held belief that use of the board is linked to the onset of mental illness in some way, even if only in those with preexisting conditions.

 

[Marduk]

I am really questioning whether there is any basis in fact of the seemingly widely held belief that use of the board is linked to the onset of mental illness in some way, even if only in those with preexisting conditions.

Christian inspired anti spiritualism nonsense imo, as Beady already mentioned in post 8, they are regarded as childrens toys, the copyright for Ouija boards is currently held by Hasbro, the childrens toy manufacturer. You can bet if there was any credible evidence that they caused mental illness Hasbro would withdraw them from sale, or the government would force them to.

You must understand why Christians hate them so much, they claim that the only way to heaven is via Christ, that becomes invalid if you can talk to your dead grandma from your kitchen table eh.

 

[ExMinister]

Christian inspired anti spiritualism nonsense imo, as Beady already mentioned in post 8, they are regarded as childrens toys, the copyright for Ouija boards is currently held by Hasbro, the childrens toy manufacturer. You can bet if there was any credible evidence that they caused mental illness Hasbro would withdraw them from sale, or the government would force them to.

You must understand why Christians hate them so much, they claim that the only way to heaven is via Christ, that becomes invalid if you can talk to your dead grandma from your kitchen table eh.

You and Beady made a good point.

There is so much nonsense surrounding this board between the Christians, who claim it's an abomination to God and attracts evil spirits, and the New Agers/assorted other non-Christians, who claim it attracts evil spirits unless you are supposedly spiritually strong and know what you are doing. I am trying to sift through all the nonsense to try to get at whether there is some truth hiding in there somewhere.

My guess. though: It's likely a case where it's reputation precedes it. People have heard the stories, they expect something spooky to happen, they get what they expect, and then they add their own stories, and so it goes. If you play Monopoly and then wind up in an insane asylum a few days later, nobody makes an association; if you use the Ouija board and wind up in one, it's seems significant because of the spook factor.

Also, it does likely on occasion attract people who are already slightly unbalanced, like your ex, and perhaps it's not healthy for people prone to delusions to delude themselves further, regardless. It seems likely to me that this includes people who would have wound up seeking or needing mental health treatment anyway, perhaps as in the case of Halfcentaur's friend, and the use of the board just added some fuel to the fire. Maybe it's as simple as that.