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Rosemary Ellen Guiley 12.07.29

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trainedobserver

trainedobserver

Paranormally Disenchanted
I'm enjoying the show. I remember the day my Mom bought me an Ouija Board at the toy store on main street. It never worked for me and I think my Grandmother thought it was at least as evil as playing cards and dancing.

Here is the latest version:

internets-ouija.jpg
 
Is it just me or was this one of the best shows to come around in a long time? I thought it was extremely interesting. I've long been interested in the subject of spirit communication, though good, credible information on the subject is hard to find. Guiley has always struck me as a credible source.

UFOs are great, but I would like to see The Paracast branch off a little more and bring on solid guests to tackle other paranormal topics.
 
Thanks for asking my question. Nice to hear someone mention T. C. Lethbridge. There is a very good recent bio on him by Terry Welbourn, The Man Who Saw the Future.

Overall a very good episode, though I wonder where can you find her book? I couldn't locate it on amazon myself…
 
Good show. Does anyone know if William Fuld is mentioned in the book? Some credit him as the father of the Ouija Board.
 
Anyone here have thoughts on the subject of the ouija board and the possibility of spirit communication in general?

I've long been interested in mediumship, automatic writing, the ouija board and EVP. But I am undecided on how much truth there is to it all.

Can we actually communicate with discarnate spirits? And even if we can, considering there is no way we can know who or what we're really communicating with, is it of much use?
 
SPX said:
Anyone here have thoughts on the subject of the ouija board and the possibility of spirit communication in general?

I've long been interested in mediumship, automatic writing, the ouija board and EVP. But I am undecided on how much truth there is to it all.

Can we actually communicate with discarnate spirits? And even if we can, considering there is no way we can know who or what we're really communicating with, is it of much use?
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It may be like communicating with someone by email or over the phone. Compel it to reveal information about itself that only a certain person would know. Its imperfect, but how do you identify anyone in this forum? By inference based on evidence. There's always the chance that its a telepathic imposter, so at that point you rely on consistency of presentation. Its the same way you know who anyone is who's not right in front of you.
 
I guess the problem is that, if spirits exist, we just don't know anything about their existence or their capabilities. We don't know what they know or how they know it.

On the show, one thing that Rosemary pointed out is that spirits will often masquerade as Old Aunt Suzy to gain your trust before going into douche mode.
 
I found the show interesting. The one thing that made me scratch my head is how she would say it was a dangerous tool one moment and the next she seemed to call it harmless.

I only used one once with a group during a party and it freaked everyone out when one of the girls asked how she was going to die and it spelled out cancer. I'm not going near one toy or not.
 
Fcseven said:
I found the show interesting. The one thing that made me scratch my head is how she would say it was a dangerous tool one moment and the next she seemed to call it harmless
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Yeah, I did sense some amount of double-speak there. It was like oh yeah yeah . . . use it . . . it's just a tool . . . I have a whole collection of them . . . but be careful because it might blow your whole world apart.

Fcseven said:
I'm not going near one toy or not.
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I have also stayed away for the most part. I don't need anything destabalizing my reality. It's already destabalized enough.
 
I've thought more about this show. I think a better name for her book would be "Ghosts Being Dicks."

That Zozo dude especially needs his attitude checked.
 
I never used a (an?) ouija board, so I might be completely wrong, but it seems to me that any dangers of it could perhaps stem from the user. That is, any sort of divination, spirit communication, or magic practice in general runs the risk that you bring your own baggage into the process. Your fears, resentments, and insecurities may pollute the process, and your own problems may fuel that entity who used to be so nice but now haunts you. All of these things are creative processes. I'm not saying "made-up;" but I mean that they seem to engage the creative, right-brain processes similar to the way that creating art affects us. And what seems to be the case is that these activities (as well as art and intensive creative activity) tend to amplify one's personal instabilities and eccentricities. Moreover, all of the belief systems that you grew up with tend to bleed into the experience. So, I would think it very important to be honest with yourself about what you want out of the experience, remain grounded, and prepare for the possibility that the entity you contact, much like someone in physical life, might just be a butthole. But all that is just my two cents.

Having listened to the show, I am curious about the following:
  • How does ouija differ qualitatively from other communications, e.g. automatic writing?
  • Rosemary mentioned geophysical signatures, but did not give details. This one I would really like to learn more about. What features correlate with an active area?
  • With ouija, to what extent, if any, are entities likely to emanate from the user? That is, might a spirit be created by the user unconsciously?
 
Digital Trickster said:
It would be great to have an episode with Chris and Greg Bishop presenting what they believe to be the best EVPs and other evidence of the afterlife .
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A bit out of Greg's realm, but a good suggestion. I would also include field investigator and analyst Michael Esposito (Paracast episode Oct 17, 2010) who gets my vote as one of the field's most knowledgeable and cutting-edge EVP protoscientists and Ro Guiley... plus, why not bring in a NDE researcher? You are right: this approach would make for a really cool show!
 
I have to agree Michael Esposito would be a great guest to have on with you.I mentioned Greg because of a recent Radio mysterioso I was listening to and he seems to be interested in the subject and always has a great opinion on any subject.You should talk with Gene and see if you guys could make this happen in the future.
 
I really enjoyed this episode, though I would never again use an Ouija board. Like a lot of kids, my group of friends experimented with one when I was about 14 or so. Much like was mentioned on the show, it started as harmless fun. The entity/board did provide a lot of accurate answers to questions like "What is Steve's favorite color?" and "Who does Scott have a crush on?". However, things did get a bit creepy after several sessions. When we started asking for signs or proof of a spirit's presence, a couple of weird incidents took place.

The first one took place when the entity instructed us to wait outside our house for 2 minutes. The five of us who were there did go outside, and I remember checking the clock as we stepped outside and shut the door behind us. We used the second hand on a watch to count the two minutes, and returned inside feeling crestfallen that nothing had happened. However, when I checked the same clock upon entering the house, it showed that more than 5 minutes had passed. Not exactly the movie Poltergeist, but it blew our minds.

Then, a few months later we started messing around with the board again. Again we were instructed to go outside, and this time walk toward the east. We didn't know how far to walk, but we ended up walking into the woods, a total of about 200 yards from the house. Right then, we literally stumbled on an enormous, dead raccoon in the middle of a stream. Of course, we were freaked out again.

There were quite a few other creepy sessions, but I was done with Ouija shortly after that. It just creeped me out.
 
I have to say that it just makes me laugh to hear people tell spooky tales about a toy. George Noory apparently has a real phobia about them. I almost cracked a rib laughing so hard listening to the Coast to Coast on the drive in this morning. They were talking about the evil unleashed on the world by Ouija boards in one segment with such seriousness and fear in their voices and all I could think was, "It's a toy people." A board with letters and numbers and a marker to point with. Beyond that it is all the operators imaginations and fears playing with them.
 
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