Thread: Talking with dead people

In 2000 when I lived in Ohio, me and some friends decided to mess around with a Ouija board that had been in my house for some time. This Ouija board was very old, an original (before Parker Bros. mass produced it) and it always gave me a weird feeling just being around it. I had tried it before without any real success, but this night was definitely unique. At first we just sat there and it wasn't working, but then it started moving and so we asked some questions and received very detailed answers. We talked to someone named Sarah Kauffman who apparently died 13 years earlier (from 2000). She said that my friend Adam looked just like her son and it kept pointing right at Adam and spelling his name. Then she said her son was in a coma from a car accident and that she had to help him, so she left abruptly.

A few days later (may have been next day) my girlfriend at the time and I used the board and spoke to Sarah again. She apologized for leaving so quickly and said her son is going to be fine. Also that same night we also spoke with my girlfriend's deceased grandfather (side note: both Adam's and my girlfriend's mother have had very weird experiences with Ouija boards/spirits). If that isn't interesting enough, Adam just called me today and told me this:

He was searching for his name in Google just for fun and found a person with his exact name who was married to a Sarah Kauffman and they lived in Miami County, Ohio (where we were at the time) in the 1800's. This was pretty crazy, but it didn't make sense that she said she died 13 years prior, so I searched for her name and found Sarah Kauffman died in 1887 - 113 years prior to 2000! (there was also a discrepancy with the spelling of her last name)

My friend Adam is freaked out by all this, and thinks he is going to get hit by a car, but I told him to look at it in a more positive way (but to also pay attention). I think this is extremely fascinating and am wondering if anyone else has had an experience like this or what your take on this is.

I never messed with Ouija boards because of fear of the spirits coming through the board and inhabiting the area. But, I believe that is a true story. There are reports of experiences like that over the world wide web. Try castleofspirits.com
and check for the titles: Ouija message or Ouija warning. Also check The unexplained section on that site.

So a board actually talked and moved? I want one of those to explain shit to idiots and bring me beer.
The funny thing is... the more often you tell your friend he's going to get hit by a car, the more likely it is, in fact. Great fun...

Isn't it interesting that, while using an ouija board, you are completely capable of moving the pointer yourself? And even more interesting that, even though you may hold your hands completely still, your muscles are always adjusting their position so that they "drift" whether you want them to or not?

No, I don't believe in ouija boards

Do this: Have a friend create an ouija board with scrambled letters (so you don't know where they are). Then find someplace where you can stick your hands through a slot in the wall (like maybe a doggie door or something like that)--the point is that you shouldn't be able to see either your hands, the board, or your friend. Ask specific questions that require more than simple replies.

If you get any more than gibberish, I'll be seriously surprised!

Oh, yeah, and I'm not responsible for the expression on your dog's face when he sees you with your hands stuck through his doggie door...

Originally posted by Callista
Isn't it interesting that, while using an ouija board, you are completely capable of moving the pointer yourself? And even more interesting that, even though you may hold your hands completely still, your muscles are always adjusting their position so that they \"drift\" whether you want them to or not?

I'm sorry, but that's not very interesting.

What I found interesting is that you're capable of subconsciously creating your own results because you can see the board and move your fingers without really knowing you're doing it.

That's something we learned in my Research Methods class which I felt applied to ouija boards: You can falsify your results without knowing it, especially if you are physically capable of affecting what happens or the interpretation of the results is subjective and qualitative.

I don't know why you didn't think it made any difference; I think it does. It's a combination of being a scientist, and believing in an afterlife that doesn't include ghosts, that makes me skeptical: I want to know for sure whether something works or not, get rid of everything that could be affecting it one way or the other, find the rules by which something operates.

Your having control over the pointer is a variable that needs to be eliminated. Otherwise an ouija board can really only be proven to be a tool for talking to yourself (or your subconscious, at best).

One should still not be deluded by false realities though. If I believe in something, it is not because of the evidence I have of it existing. It is because I understand the evidence of it existing or lack, thereof, and choose to believe it anyways.

I agree with Callista. There is a whole lot of supernatural talk on this forum, as well as stuff about the astral plane and shared dreaming. Since this forum is pretty cool, I give users who talk about such things the benefit of the doubt and I don't disbelieve them, but I can't believe it fully until I have good evidence. Another thing is that when someone talks about a supernatural phenomenon as if it is natural or normal, or as if it is obvious that you will believe it that is an instant red flag. I don't know why people do this but on every dumbass made up supernatural site they do this. For example go to psi wiki. The writers of articles act as if psi abilities, which are completely made up, are just natural things that anyone can do, like clearing your mind from meditation or something. Another example is when I read a pdf about astral projection. The author is clearly deluded and just made a ton of shit up because they provide no kind of logical explanation whatsoever. When someone wants to believe something they will manipulate the facts subconsciously without giving it any real thought.

On the other hand, true skepticism and support of the scientific method is self-condemning because if you think about reality as it is completely logically, you will find that anything is possible. You don't even know your life is real. The input from your brain could be a hallucination. Since you can't know if anything is real not, anything is a 50/50 chance. For example if I roll a die there is a 1/6 chance it will be a 4. However, that is only assuming the rules of reality that I can observe are, in fact, real. Since I can't be sure they are real and there is an absolute lack of evidence regarding the subject the true chance is 50%. The true chance of anything is 50% because you can't be totally sure anything is real.

Thus, it seems like being a skeptic is stupid because why live in a world where magic doesn't exist when you can pretend it does, and there is a 50% chance that you are right?