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Are Ouija boards really linked to mental illness?

its just as valid to claim Ouija causes mental illness as it is to claim that suicide causes depression
;)
 
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ExMinister said:
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.
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If you were a teenager in the 1980's, then you would also know that Christians also hated Dungeons and Dragons (and the DEVIL!!!), as well as heavy metal/hard rock -- all of which led to murder and suicide.

http://www.rpgstudies.net/stackpole/pulling_report.html
 
Marduk said:
is that based on your personal experience ?
:D
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Absolutely! When a person suffers an anxiety attack during an encounter, it pretty much ends said encounter. Also, being accused (mid-encounter) if you're fantasing about your roommate instead, also a mood-killer. :eye-poppi In addition, being asked by your partner (once again -- mid-encounter) if you're planning on killing them afterwards, has a similar mood-chilling effect. :jaw-dropp

:(
 
Baloney said:
Absolutely! When a person suffers an anxiety attack during an encounter, it pretty much ends said encounter. Also, being accused (mid-encounter) if you're fantasing about your roommate instead, also a mood-killer. :eye-poppi In addition, being asked by your partner (once again -- mid-encounter) if you're planning on killing them afterwards, has a similar mood-chilling effect. :jaw-dropp

:(
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bloody amateur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shackles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitachi_Magic_Wand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_lubricant
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Stick it in her pooper
:D
 
I don't have anything more than anecdotal evidence, but I don't think it's a stretch to assume that Ouija board experiences could potentially really f*ck someone up in the head.
 
I don't have any anecdotes about this actually. I had two relatives who used a Ouija board for years and were convinced the wife was channeling her spirit guide. They seemed otherwise quite sane, kept journals full of all of this spiritual wisdom and eventually died of natural causes/old age.

When I used a Ouija board in my late teens it gave me nightmares. But then, so did reading the Old Testament.
 
Ask kids, some friends and I played with one once, never produced any discernible responses, asked some ridiculous questions, tittered and giggled, put it away and never did anything with it again.
 
I've been present at a couple of Seances when I was a teenager.

I wasn't into it. But I wasn't a sceptic yet either.

In all cases the session ended with the participants asking the spirits to leave again.
And a chill filled the room. many people suddenly looked insecure. Would this work? Would the spirits leave? The were anecdotes about this kid who took part in a seance and went mad, killing himself a week later.
The last session ended with this atmosphere of real fear.
Then, there was a weird scratching noise over the window. People froze, wide eyed girls screamed. We were on the first floor, how was this possible?

I ran down and around the building. And there was my friend who'd left early, scratching the window with a broom. With a big sardonic smile on his face. :D


It is really incredible how badly people can spook themselves. I would not recommend this to anyone, let alone if they had mental issues.
 
That's funny. Yeah, I can see how this would be risky for someone already delusional or unstable. I also think it's a lot of times just hoaxed.

The times I tried it in my teens I really thought it was one of my friends moving it. I didn't even entirely trust my own relatives, when they sat me down at 16 to show me how it worked. In fact, I would likely think it was always hoaxed, except that I can sit down with the board alone and it works, and I obviously know that I am not moving it intentionally or hoaxing myself

I enjoy the skeptic anecdotes here. There are way too many of the other kind all over the internet. Trying to research a little more deeply into this last night I just kept on running into the same paranormal type stories, "I know demons are real, my friend used the Ouija board to contact his grandmother, spooky things happened, 2 days later he committed suicide/his father died." That kind of thing.

Tragic stories, though it's impossible to know which ones are even true, and I think they mostly just demonstrate the sense of expectation and association that has built up around the board over the years.
 
Not a foaf. I know of a terrible classic paranoid schizophrenic episode suffered with destructive and invasive and clearly malevolent voices in the person's head. This person had used in company and then later obsessed alone with a Ouija board. It had apparently told her to keep using it.

I like to think..well because it's irrational to think otherwise that spirits can not say, move a planchette or a glass. And that such ideas can in turn make a person become irrational. If there is already an irrational or disturbed element to their psyche. Perhaps such an apparent random device can tap into things in the unconscious if the users are sensitive. Or they do not have robust enough minds.

I can well see how a planchette telling you that great grandmother has a message for you, could tip someone over.

Perhaps there is a lot of outside pressure and unresolved problems upon someone who is using a board and is sensitive.

Perhaps if this person had not messed with the board they wouldn't have cracked up. And then perhaps the problem would have shown itself through another trigger. It is impossible to speculate upon it.

I was told straight to my face that a Ouija board had played upon this person's mind and had resulted in an event which led to them being placed in a mental hospital and heavily tranquillized.

It is probably best to see the board as a possible trigger in those that are susceptible for whatever reason and leave it at that.
 
Ya know...

Speaking as someone who deals with folks that are going into or already are in the mental health system, I can say with authority (YMMV) that people who have serious mental health issues often believe in all kinds of flummery and religious hokum. Their understanding of dogma is usually mixed up hopelessly, but no matter how self-contradictory you'd best not tell 'em so.

The general rule I've figured out is: if it sounds religious, they'll incorporate it. I've successfully made up quotes from the Bible, even citing the location ("Matthew 69:69 says...") and gotten swift agreement.

Though that works often with non-nutbar religious types sometimes as well.
 
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