The vexed issue of the Ouija board surfaces from time to time as was the case earlier this autumn when the discount store, Poundland, added the Ouija/Spirit Board to its stock of Halloween merchandise on sale throughout the UK.
Harmless nonsense? Spiritually dangerous? From comments on social media platforms it would appear that Christians (including evangelical Christians) were divided on how to respond. This confusion is nothing new of course. As far back as the early 1970s the games maker Waddingtons hit the headlines by adding the Ouija board to its Christmas stock alongside Monopoly, amidst mixed responses from the church. Interestingly, the board was removed from stock after high-profile cases in which large numbers of people were treated for mental breakdown and, tragically, some resorted to suicide following Ouija sessions.
As an Adviser in Deliverance and the Paranormal within the Church of England, I head up a multi-disciplinary team, including clergy and a Christian consultant psychiatrist, which ministers across a diocese in this broad and often inadequately understood area of Christian ministry.
During an average month we will be invited to minister alongside parish clergy in a range of situations and contexts. Some have mental-health roots, others are related to place memories, unquiet spirits and poltergeist activity. Many have an occult source. These include the Ouija board, alongside spiritualism, tarot reading, clairvoyance and palm reading, to name but a few. All can, and often do, provide ‘landing strips’ for demonic entry and activity, and sometimes spiritual oppression and bondage alongside mental and emotional disturbance.
What’s happening?
So, what is actually going on when a Ouija board becomes active? It can and often does start as a bit of fun, as is the case amongst children and young people – and not a few adults. (Interestingly, many spiritualists actually warn against the Ouija board). That something happens is, I believe, beyond any reasonable doubt.
Of course fingers can and do push glasses into motion, yet there is ample evidence that glasses also move by some form of telekinesis. There are also extreme cases in which I have ministered where windows have been blown out, including a flat in central London and a student’s room in a major English public school, resulting in a complete mental breakdown of at least two of the participants.
After a number of years working in the broad area of deliverance and the paranormal, my working assumptions with regard to Ouija boards and what is going on remain inconclusive, unlike other areas of deliverance ministry.
We regularly minister in situations in which I am satisfied we are dealing with the ‘unquiet spirits’ of those who have died and for a range of reasons are unable to ‘move on’. (I am aware this latter comment may mess with your theology and will be difficult for some to grapple with, given their theological presuppositions. I am an ex-Oak Hill College boy and get it!).
Something demonic
In such situations a liturgical (and I believe pastoral) prayer of Commendation, sometimes accompanied by Holy Communion, is effective. I am far from convinced that it is such unquiet spirits which are usually at work in and through the Ouija board. No, the activity so often results not only in supernatural activity but in confusion, fear, mental breakdown, depression, and even suicide. That speaks to me of something demonic, rather than a benign presence or the remnant of a human personality. It is clearly in stark opposition to the living God revealed in Christ.
King Manasseh
On the day I write this article one of the set readings in the Anglican Lectionary is taken from 2 Kings 21 and relates to some ‘detestable practices’ which were encouraged by Manasseh, king of Judah during a never-to-be-forgotten era.
‘He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists’ (v.6).
Ouija boards fall clearly within the category of divination and are forbidden by the living God – and for good reason.
When I teach within this area, my subject title is invariably ‘Deliverance Ministry and the Sovereignty of God’. Time and again, we see individuals turning away from occult practices and turning to Christ. We see lives freed and restored. This is really the story that needs to be told, but that can wait for another time!
