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Ouija board as therapy.


Guest Tricia

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Don't. Look this Doctor, I'm sorry, is arrogant, just because he does not believe in anything does not make him the sage of all knowledge and frankly he is an idiot and you should burn that book. Even people who don't have OCD his advice would be stupid. Look..I know spiritualism, I have experience in this subject and I would NEVER use a quija board, EVER. Even if you don't believe in anything quija boards are believed to react to your subconscious thoughts, IE you move the glass yourself without thinking. And with OCD nothing good can come of that so which ever perspective you look at it from it is a bad idea, everything he suggests is a bad idea.

No one has ever had a good experience with a quija board even though it started life as a simple parlour game.

If you want to do some exposure to something spirit related why not join in a seance with a proper medium who knows what they are doing. Or do some gentle crystal divining. Buy a pack of tarot and keep them in the house, buy a scrying mirror keep that in the house.

Also, someone should tell him that the quija board has zero to do with religion, it is used to contact the dead but in more instances your own subconscious and fears.

Edited by Phili
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Based only on what's written in this thread and the quote from the book I think it's simply suggested as an exposure, nothing more than that.

Sorry I missed the quote from the book, although I have just spent 10 minutes scanning the book and I still cant find it. But based off the quote in here, I am still not totally sure that is a good practical advice to give someone with OCD, even just for an exposure exercise.

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So he doesn't actually recommend it as therapy, he says use it as a possible exposure if you're obsessions are to do with blasphemy, religion etc.

Quite a difference from the thread title.

Ascend, I am sorry if the title of the thread is misleading, but to me exposure is therapy!

Ashley, It's a different page number in different editions, but once I've retrieved my copy, I'll give you the page number. I believe it's fairly early on in the book - quarter of the way in, maybe.

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but to me exposure is therapy!

Slightly off topic, but this is where I think there are huge problems with the US model of treatment when people simply talk about ERP (I think many do cognitive too, but they always talk about therapy being just ERP). Therapy falls into two parts, cognitive and behavioural and I personally think trying to attempt exposure without the backup of good ongoing cognitive work is a problem.

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I do agree. For most that does seem to be true, and yet the best result I ever had was when I just faced the exposure. (There was no cognitive therapy at the time - or rather few professionals were using it).

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Guest Adam Samson

Someone who uses a ouija board as exposure therapy sounds as sensible to me as someone who attempts to cross the M25 at rush hour to try to overcome a phobia about crossing roads, or someone who visits an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone without wearing protective clothing to try to overcome an extreme fear of germs. Flooding isn't meant to drown you!

Edited by Adam Samson
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Well okay then. This thread started out with a claim that someone suggested ouija boards as therapy. There was no mention that it was specifically an exposure idea. Totally different scenario.

That said, i think the suggestion is a little misguided.

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It doesn't matter if it is therapy or exposure, suggesting using a Quija board to anyone for anything is ignorant, arrogant and stupid, the guy must have nuts for brains. There are a lot of ways to get exposure to supernatural situations which is the only thing a quija board is going to expose you to that are save and much more effective.

Tricia what exactly are you trying to expose yourself to? Is the fear rooted in the supernatural, religion or evil spirits or all three?

Edited by Phili
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Guest heartplace

You're all right, it's a horrible idea.

Taken from Awake!, the second most widely distributed magazine in the world. Tricia asked me to share this here.

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Invented about 1890, the Ouija board is a board with an alphabet and other signs on it. Friends sit around the board, place their fingers on a pointer and ask questions. The pointer moves from one letter to another on the board, spelling out answers.

What kind of answers does it give? One purchaser of a Ouija board wrote to the manufacturer: "It was with great distress that we finally decided the total inaccuracy of the answers means only one thing - the Ouija board we own lies." Another wrote: "I have one of your Ouija boards and use it with my friends. It gives very good answers early in the day and very dirty answers at night."

Selena used to own a Ouija board and she reports that on one occasion the board spelled out that it liked her. When she asked why, the answer was: "Because you are a woman, and that makes all the difference." There are many similar reports of lies, immorality and obscenity coming from the Ouija board.

What makes the board answer questions? An English newspaper noted: "The game, Ouija, is based on a Spiritualist method of 'communicating' with the dead, and is played with a board like those used at seances." Consistent with this, many who use the board speak of getting in touch with spirits.

Denise wrote to a newspaper and said that through a Ouija board she contacted a spirit that called itself Bob. She complained: "Bob has turned mean. He says he’s not a good spirit, but a demon in hell. He tells me I’m going insane and that soon he will take over my spirit and give me to the devil."

If the Ouija board is made to work by spirits, what spirits are they? Certainly not spirits of the dead, because “the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) It is unthinkable that any spirit from God would be responsible for giving out lies or immoral messages. So we can only conclude that the Ouija board is activated by demonic forces, the foremost of whom, Satan, is “the father of the lie.” (John 8:44) Clearly, the Ouija board, as well as all other forms of spiritism, should be shunned by those who wish to avoid Satan’s unclean influence. - Deuteronomy 18:10-12.

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Ouija Board Dangers

The Toronto Star reports that a 12-year-old girl spent a very frightening year after having been told incorrectly by a Ouija board that she would die by the time she reached the age of 13. In his new book Ouija: The Most Dangerous Game, Stoker Hunt points out that apart from giving blatantly incorrect messages, the board has been known to induce psychosis in some users, while others lose all sense of reality due to their obsession with the game. The Toronto Star notes that use of the board could expose one to demonic influences, and that it isn’t something to be toyed with.

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Some people may believe that there could not be dangerous consequences from playing with anything that looks as innocent as the Ouija board. Yet, a group of bus drivers in England who played with one during rest periods found that their attitude toward one another began changing. Some became unusually aggressive. This attitude even affected their driving. They reported feeling a strong urge to drive their vehicles into the oncoming traffic for no reason at all.

Then there is the young woman who experimented with a Ouija board and developed an obsession with the past. She believed she was in love with a man who had died 300 years earlier. She kept trying to make contact with him. Her mania finally led her to commit suicide by laying down on a railway track. Police investigating the case found diaries indicating she wanted to die so as to join her beloved.

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Results of a Parlor Game

Persons merely curious about the occult are often lured into active involvement by means of allegedly harmless items such as Ouija boards. The familiar boards are advertised and sold as a harmless parlor game. There is no question that the boards make a lot of money for the manufacturer—but are they harmless? A lot of people don’t think so.

A popular Canadian singer tried to commit suicide several times after being invited by her board to "come to our side." A lonely Alberta woman was advised that she would meet 'the man of her dreams' at a Calgary night spot. She was beaten and raped instead. In Miami, Florida, mass hysteria broke out when young students playing with a Ouija board claimed they were possessed by demons. "The whole school went berserk," said a police officer. Students kicked holes in walls and tore a door off its hinges. According to a teacher, "There were girls crying and screaming that there was a spirit inside (the Ouija board)."

Clearly, persons lured into using a Ouija board as a 'harmless parlor game' are often not prepared for what may happen to them. Their fascination with the occult produces results all right, but are they results that you would want?

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In the United States both spiritualists and astrologers have spoken out against toying with the Ouija board. They call it “harmful and fraudulent,” causing people to become emotionally upset even to the point of becoming insane. According to one of these, the Ouija board is “the first step into the demon world—and don’t think demons do not exist.” - The Oregon Journal, December 12, 1968.

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Ouija Board Side Effects

According to the Australian Sunday Telegraph of January 10, 1971, Ouija boards are corrupting and depraving teenage children in Britain. It said: "Teachers and clergymen declared the Ouija cult, which is sweeping the country’s schools to be a graver menace than sex, drink or drugs. . . .The story came into the open when thirty teen-age schoolgirls began to rant, rave and scream every time the religious mistress entered the classroom. They became uncontrollably violent and kept shouting 'There is no God.' The girls were, normally, well-behaved." It was found that the girls were addicted to the Ouija board and that the spirits had told them that there is no God. The paper goes on to report: "A girl tried to commit suicide after the Ouija board gave her a message, supposedly from her dead father, saying: 'It’s wonderful here. Why don’t you join me?'" The secretary of the Spiritualist Association of Great Britain said: "Public sale of these . . . boards should be banned . . . The forces they release are irresponsible and dangerous." The Bible warns against such efforts to contact wicked spirit forces.

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I agree Phili, and I don't support extreme exposure or flooding in OCD.

in any case, what about determining a graded hierarchy of exposure, which for me is the correct safe and sensible approach to exposure, where ERP is required?

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There are two points of view on the Quija board, one is that it contacts some messed up spirits on the other side the other is that it plays with the subconscious. Religious girls, likely feeling oppressed by a highly religious setting get told there is no God so act out. Woman who is lonely told to visit a spot to meet man of her dreams, someone bereaved told to come to the other side all of the messages are connected to there life so either some very malicious spirits are playing very malicious pranks or the board is telling them what they want to hear. Either way, it is a bad idea.

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Guest heartplace

It doesn't matter if it is therapy or exposure, suggesting using a Quija board to anyone for anything is ignorant, arrogant and stupid, the guy must have nuts for brains.

I highly agree with this. It's a horrible idea for both therapy and exposure.

There are two points of view on the Quija board, one is that it contacts some messed up spirits on the other side the other is that it plays with the subconscious.

The idea that it plays with the subconscious doesn't sound correct to me. Our minds simply can't do what the Ouija board does. My conclusion is that something evil is behind it.

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Come now. It's a piece of cardboard for a base and a wood or plastic plank. There is nothing evil nor good about it. It is a thing. The only importance put on it is by users, who got sucked into forking out good money for what is basically a scam. Believing there is anything more to it is to embark on the road of magical thinking.

Throwing salt over your shoulder does nothing except getting salt on the floor. Avoiding walking under a ladder does nothing but make your trip longer. Playing with a ouija board does nothing but use up your time on a game, as innocuous as checkers or chess..

Edited by PolarBear
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Guest Gale1982

Hi Tricia,

I think someone has already asked but how come you're so concerned with this?

Does the idea really scare you? If so then you really don't have to do it. Please don't take what this book says to heart. Its just a book.

I did a few times when I was a kid and nothing happened.

Interestingly, people who have bad experience always do Ouija BoardsTM, in abandoned asylums, churches or grave yards or somewhere else really dramatic..... never by the sea-side whilst having ice-cream. Strange that.

Edited by Gale1982
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Guest heartplace

Come now. It's a piece of cardboard for a base and a wood or plastic plank. There is nothing evil nor good about it. It is a thing. The only importance put on it is by users, who got sucked into forking out good money for what is basically a scam. Believing there is anything more to it is to embark on the road of magical thinking.

Throwing salt over your shoulder does nothing except getting salt on the floor. Avoiding walking under a ladder does nothing but make your trip longer. Playing with a ouija board does nothing but use up your time on a game, as innocuous as checkers or chess..

I have to disagree. If it's just a thing, then what moves the pointer on the board? And how does the board give you such bizarre answers, that actually answer your questions? Why do people get strange messages telling them to commit suicide and join the spirit realm when playing them? I have a logical basis for my beliefs about this.

There's more than what meets the eye. I don't think you always have to see to believe.

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Guest heartplace

Interestingly, people who have bad experience always do Ouija BoardsTM, in abandoned asylums, churches or grave yards or somewhere else really dramatic..... never by the sea-side whilst having ice-cream. Strange that.

They do it in the comfort of their own homes too, and often have bad experiences.

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Agreed, the way forward with OCD is to acknowledge that the problems come from within the brain, and tend to have a false message..

So a pysychological approach coupled with approved behavioural experiments including graded exposure and response prevention is the standard way forward.

For me, magical thinking is another type of false message - the belief that we have the power by carrying out some compulsive ritual to prevent some catastrophe happening.

I had a friend who was worried sick she was going mad - she constantly feared that something bad was about to happen to her husband 9the obsession) , and she constantly felt she needed re-assurance that he was alright (the compulsion) - this type of thinking was with her all day.

When I told her she wasn't mad, she simply had OCD and this could be treated with CBT, the relief for her was immense.

It's all about false messages linked to an inherent fear , isn't it, whatever flavour of the OCD gravy?

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I have to disagree. If it's just a thing, then what moves the pointer on the board? And how does the board give you such bizarre answers, that actually answer your questions? Why do people get strange messages telling them to commit suicide and join the spirit realm when playing them? I have a logical basis for my beliefs about this.

There's more than what meets the eye. I don't think you always have to see to believe.

The obvious answer is that the people using the game move the pointer on the board. That is obvious. If some kind of spirit was moving the pointer, no one would have to touch the pointer. People either consciously or unconsciously answer their own questions.

The only logic with ouija boards is the simplest explanation. It's all a scam. And not advisable as an OCD exposure in my view.

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Guest heartplace

The obvious answer is that the people using the game move the pointer on the board. That is obvious. If some kind of spirit was moving the pointer, no one would have to touch the pointer. People either consciously or unconsciously answer their own questions.

The only logic with ouija boards is the simplest explanation. It's all a scam. And not advisable as an OCD exposure in my view.

I agree it's a scam, and a bad exposure.

But don't some people hear strange voices when experimenting with them? I haven't used one and don't plan to, so I don't know much about what it's actually like to use one. What I do know is pretty bad though.

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I think people in the time of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were pretty interested in spiritualism and the supernatural , and I don't think it did them a great deal of good then, and I certainly don't think it does anyone now.

So ouija boards have been around an awfully long time - I am quite surprised to hear that they are still around.

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I have not heard one good story about people using ouija boards. Everyone I know who has used them for 'fun' has ended up experiencing horrible things, symptoms of posession and other mental illness where there was none before. There are things on the spiritual level we have not yet understood fully as humans and dabbling in it can be very dangerous.

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Guest Gale1982

Ascend mentioned the mechanism responsible earlier - The ideomotor effect.

Its really similar to our experiences of subconscious learning. Sometimes I can really struggle with a piece of music so I'll leave it for a few days and forget about it. When I come back, I can play it as well as if I had been practicing for all that time. My fingers have already learnt what to do.

We also do it with body language. The movements we make with our hands are all subconscious. This is the ideomotor effect.

When we engage with supernatural activities, we already have a preconceived idea of what "might" happen. We've all seen films and we've all heard stories. It's of little wonder that most people have terrifying experiences as a result. Their brains have already decided what is going to happen, long before they are conscious of it. Just like me and my guitar.

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The obvious answer is that the people using the game move the pointer on the board. That is obvious. If some kind of spirit was moving the pointer, no one would have to touch the pointer. People either consciously or unconsciously answer their own questions.

The only logic with ouija boards is the simplest explanation. It's all a scam. And not advisable as an OCD exposure in my view.

A spirit is not actually usually able to affect the physical world, those touching the glass channel the spirit and in doing so allow it to affect the physical world within the confined space of the board. through them. Only very powerful earth bound spirits such as poltergeists can affect the physical realm on there own. The ouaji does not contact earth bound spirits is contacts spirits in the astral plan, after life, limbo whatever you like to call it and in doing so you cannot control what spirit is contacted and allowing that into your body is very dangerous. That is the spiritual version of how it works.

It is not the board, you could keep the board in your house with no ill effect it is the act of summoning, calling and welcoming the spirit.

Honestly, no matter what you believe it is a bad idea.

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