The Ouija Board Syndrome and the Trouble with Mainstream Religion

I have always steered clear of Ouija boards out of instinctive horror. Though I have seen and conversed with full-body apparitions, had my share of astral travels gone wrong, and as the old fairy tale goes "lacked the ability to shudder", I have a loathing of Ouija boards that seems born of past life experiences. When I unpack the skeeviness of Ouija boards in discursive meditation, this is what I have come up with:

It's Not Just a Game

My first experience with a Ouija board was at age fifteen, when some friends and I gathered around at someone's house and had a go. Nothing happened. Nevertheless, though lumped in the same general BAD BAD BAD category as occult books and Tarot cards by Christian suburban Karen-moms, there was always something about Ouija that seemed far more off and and far less relative to the acquisition of knowledge. Ouija boards are often manufactured by Hasbro, the same outfit that puts out Nerf guns and My Little Pony. The idea of Hasbro making a tool that can easily devolve in allowing a demon to enter and potentially possess a random pre-teen is grotesque. I highly doubt anyone at Hasbro ever gave such a possibility a second thought, but that is what I believe Ouija boards do: they quickly devolve from party game to demonic portal in a way an occult book or deck of Tarot cards will never emulate.

The reason why this happens is a sort of Lowest Common Denominator effect that happens at parties. Hoping for the best -- usually romance, fun, or exhiliration -- brings out the worst, especially in teenagers who are already dramatic by nature. Once it is tacitly understood that the party is not going to be a positive revolution that changes her life for the better, the excitement of the party turns into a vicious ennui for some guests, and that's where the Ouija board comes in as a desperate attempt to "make something happen".

A similar phenomenon happens during seances, where a crowd lathers itself up in anticipation of a life-changing experience. Most people go to seances hoping for a connection with a dead loved one. This can happen either with or without the possession of a medium.

No banishing rituals are done before or after a Ouija session or a seance. Considering the popularity of Ouija and seances over the last 200 years, it is no wonder the collective astral is so grubby. A channelling of random spirits without a banishing ritual both before and after is like going into surgery after a week without washing your hands. Septic is a nice word for it. At this very moment, some doofuses are having a seance somewhere, opening a floodgate of demonic energy into our already demon-infested plane. Somewhere else, a bunch of would be edgelord teenagers are doing the same thing with a Ouija board.

Take Me to Church... JK, Actually, Please Don't

I have yet to walk out of a church, temple, or religious center feeling cleaner than I did before I entered. Before I could talk to spirits, I could not explain why I routinely felt this way, so hopefully now that I've had some quality conversations with non-corporeal beings, I can give it a better shot. Like Ouija sessions and seances, the magical work of channeling spirits (thought to be God) is only as good as its weakest link. From what I have noticed, there are plenty of good souls in the pew seats and at the folding tables at any given service, but what tends to happen is a sort of drag effect from both mentally disturbed people among the worshippers as well as massive problems caused by the hypocrisy of the chosen leader/leaders.

When I have been in Christian churches, there is often the feeling of a fledgling attempting to rise against a strong wind and being blown back to the ground by a gust of crass materialism that makes a mockery of any honest aspiration or spiritual work. Among Buddhists, I could feel the spirits of place desperately vying for my energy and attention, begging me to come back to try and see the beauty they had cultivated. Alas, the leaden virtue signaling and status obsession of the center's leaders was not a force to be overcome by me or anyone else, and I explained this to the gentle spirit who pleaded with me to give it a second chance. In Hindu temples, I was fatigued by the insistence on empty-mind meditation as a panacea when this is not and has never been the case, at least not for me personally.
What I see happening in all of these places is similar to the Ouija Board Syndrome: a septic floodgate is opened by the naive who always presume they are channeling exactly whom they think they are channeling, as if demons were not good liars.