Ouija: More Than Just a Game?

By Gabrielle Devenish, Christian Post Reporter Monday, October 24, 2011

An integral scene in one of the “Paranormal Activity” films involves a Ouija board moving on its own and spontaneously igniting. But the board game manufactured by Parker Bros. may be more than a fictional scare.

In one of the features of a special “Paranormal” series on CBN.com’s “The 700 Club Interactive,” airing this week (Oct. 24-31), Tara Lawson tells audiences that her first experience with a Ouija board led to a presence that haunted her into adulthood, much like in the films.

Lawson said when she was 12, she and her brother wanted to get a Ouija board just for fun.

“We just got a Parker Brothers Ouija board at a toy store,” Tara tells The 700 Club hosts. “We didn’t realize that it was more than just a toy.”

Lawson said the board started moving on its own, spelling out profanities.

“To me it was like a game; it was just fun for me. I didn’t realize the extent of the damage it could do, what I was opening myself up to. I didn’t realize that it was something demonic, something evil.”

In the aired segment, Lawson continues to explain how the fascination with the Ouija board became stronger and stronger. Another experience with the board ended in the board spelling out “I’m gonna kill you Tara,” she said. After that, she said she felt a dark could of oppression that followed her as she grew up and got married. Strange things would happen to her, including an evil chanting and a dark figure appearing to her husband.

She didn’t feel free until she found Jesus, she said.

In another “700 Club segment” now posted on CBN.com, Jeff Harshbarger related how his experience with a Ouija board actually led him into Satanism, and to be demon possessed.

Even the stars of the “Paranormal Activity” series were spooked by the mystical game.

In an effort to promote their movie, cast members Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat went on “The Totally Rad Show” in 2009 to play Ouija board with the show’s hosts, Alex Albrecht, Danny Trachtenberg and Jeff Cannata. After the five gathered around the Ouija to ask it a simple question of whether the film would do well, they started asking it more serious questions. They all swore the board was moving on its own, spelling out things like K-T (one of the stars’ names) and “5” (the number of people in the room). This sparked Featherston to groan nervously and glance around her.

“I kinda had my mind blown when it nailed how many people were sitting here,” Cannata commented later in the show.

So does a Ouija board really channel other forces? It’s best if you don’t even try to find out, Christian author Wayne Jackson says.

“Attempting to contact the dead by means of a Ouija Board is a practice that is in violation of several biblical principles,” Jackson, an editor at The Christian Courier, wrote on the news site.

He continued, “It is a grievous tragedy that many people are enmeshed in antiquated superstition. But when people turn away from the Bible as the source of supernatural information, experience demonstrates they do not believe simply in nothing; they believe in anything!”