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This always comes up in these discussions. And I agree that there is such a thing. However, while it's likely a lot of spirit board movement is done by those 'playing the game' - this does NOT explain such sittings with a board like the one in the post just prior to the post quoted above.
I take my spirit board work very seriously and do not use the board with people who are looking to be 'entertained', thier intent and energy fouls things up.
It is perfectly reasonable to suggest that the movement is all down to muscle movement. BUT it could also be similar to dowsing rods and pendulums which are also moved by minute energy signals causing muscle movement.
The way dowsing rods and pendulums work is that the body is much like an aerial and it can tap into energies which we do not recognise on a conscious level. If you focus on water, then water energy is picked up, if you want to look for metal, then metal energy is picked up. This energy is translated to muscle movements in the arm of the operator which causes a movement in the arm which acts like an amplifier for the signal.
Some people who do water dowsing with a stick say that the stick is impossible to hold still when water is indicated. That must be quite a large muscle movement and possibly almost a cramping action in the arm muscles.
You can see that ouija board movement of the planchette could be a similar thing but picking up on different energies. Now, whether those energies are 'good' or 'bad' is a different matter.
^ Except none of the above holds up in tests. For example the Randi foundation checked out Water Divination in a controlled environment. They had people who can "do" it try it out on locations with and without water, while the person doing it knew where the water was. And of course sure enough when testing the source with water the rod was "impossible to hold" in it's powerful reaction to where the water was.
However when the repeated the experiment and the ONLY thing that was changed was that the person "doing" it was no longer in possession of the knowledge of which sources had water and which did not....... the results were entirely unclear. The rod became "impossible to hold" over sources with water.... and without. And overall statistically the positive results were commensurate with pure guess work.
So the "energies we do not recognize" narrative does not appear to hold up, especially given we have no other measurements as to the existence of these "energies" either. And the ideomotor effect, while interesting in itself, is likely once again the mundane explanation for this "mystery".
To be fair to the water witches I always try to remember to point out that, unlike all of the other claimants to his challenge, James Randi has always said that the people who claim to be able to divine the location of water are sincere in their beliefs. Deluded, to be sure, but not con artists.
Since we are not discussing water divination but ouija boards, I was only giving an example of how the ideomotor effect can cause movement and is a possible cause of the planchette movement.
There are other things which possibly work on similar principles such as automatic writing for example. Maybe even musicians get carried away when playing or thinking of certain types of music?
I dont think we have really studied how the human body works to pick up small amounts of these different energies but I do know it is supposed to be through focusing the mind of what you want to detect. That means it may be the mind focus which is the key to all of this. That goes back to intent and probably some aspects are influenced by the overall fear? integrity? quality?, intent?, attitude? (I dont know what to call it, maybe personality) of the mind using the ouija board.
Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors can identify over 30 different qualities of 'pulse' in the human body. How they do it, I have no idea but medicine has been practiced like this for thousands of years in China and if it was all just rubbish then TCM would not still be going on today all over the world.
The point is, there ARE these small energy streams which we, as humans, can detect if we are trained to do it. In some people the muscles move as a result of this detection, in others they dont.
To be fair to the water witches I always try to remember to point out that, unlike all of the other claimants to his challenge, James Randi has always said that the people who claim to be able to divine the location of water are sincere in their beliefs. Deluded, to be sure, but not con artists.
That is indeed one of the most interesting aspects of the "unexplained" and "paranormal". It is easy for the skeptic to merely dismiss it all as charlatanism and foolery. But I think quite often, probably more often than people realize, the person perpetuating it genuinely does believe it themselves and believes themselves to have the power they think they do.
And quite often this is because people around them have been complicit, consciously or not, in ramifying the idea in the persons head that they have this "power".
Which is why when they run into a Randi or other skeptic and they fail to prove their powers, they leave genuinely confused and hurt and disillusioned.
And we have so many examples of this it is past being funny. The most striking (no pun intended) for me was the nature of complicit delusion that we see in the case of Yanagi Ryuken, a purported master of aikido who could strike people to the floor without touching them through the power of Chi.
When you look at THIS VIDEO it is clear why some people are impressed by it. But what we are actually seeing is a group of students who have become complicit in an old mans delusion and are throwing themselves to the floor.
And unfortunately (for him) this reality only became apparent when, in full confidence of his powers he stood up to an ACTUAL martial arts combatant and tried to use his "chi" on him. The result of his collision with reality is one you should only watch in THIS VIDEO if you are not perturbed by the sight of a defenseless old man being repeatedly punched in the face.
So while I am ENTIRELY and justifiably skeptical of the claims of his powers..... I am not AT ALL skeptical about his belief that he had them. He clearly genuinely believed he had a magical gift of chi. And he was probably left really confused and upset by his complete lack of it when this reality was made so painfully apparent to him.
So our investigation into the unexplained to separate the merely unexplained from the truly remarkable or even paranormal has this hurdle to over come. That the people claiming it, genuinely do believe it themselves. To the point they will literally stand up to fight based on their belief and get smacked around senseless for their efforts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ocpaul20
Since we are not discussing water divination but ouija boards, I was only giving an example of how the ideomotor effect can cause movement and is a possible cause of the planchette movement.
I have studied those effects quite closely and know them well enough to play with them and have fun. I have, for example, fully mastered the skill of having a group of innocent bystanders move a table around with the power of their minds and spirit. And despite the fact that these people are only LIGHTLY barely touching the table..... collectively they are able to move the table around a room unconsciously with a surprising quantity of force and direction and effect.
There is nothing there to suggest there is some magical "energy streams" that we have not detected with our science but somehow a trained mind can access.
Here is Derren Brown demonstrating the same trick I have mastered doing with groups. He does everything exactly like I can/do. He just does it with a lot more charisma, panache and presence than I do
I recommend trying it and mastering it. You get some great effects and responses from the people you do it on. People are genuinely left moved and emotionally unbalanced by the experience. IT can be quite effective and trans-formative for them.
I am somewhat sensitive to paranormal stuff...have had many experiences
I am really good friends with a woman I used to date...she is a medium, spiritualist...has had many experiences
I told her a few of my Ouija experiences...all were dark and negative
she told me..."there are NO good spirits out there to contact with oiuja...al the good spirits have moved on to heaven or wherever it is they go...all that's left are the abandoned, forsaken, pissed off, and evil spirits"
But what we are actually seeing is a group of students who have become complicit in an old mans delusion and are throwing themselves to the floor.
So obviously fake that even the WWE would reject them.
Ouija boards are just a slab of wood, Masonite, or cardboard, printed with ink. They were made in a factory in Baltimore, until Hasbro (a TOY company) bought the business.
The reason why Ouija is so awful for Christians is that it entertains the communication or even just the existence of other Gods. One of main points about Christianity is that the worship of false gods is blasphemy. This is one of its core religious strengths.
Most religions during the classical time were quite happy to entertain many Gods. When the Jews began to be hounded mercilessly by different states, they developed the idea that only one God existed and should be accepted. This idea was original and new at the time, and Judaism (then later Christianity) was quite instrumental to Western thought with this: that there is only ONE God.
The horror of Ouija doesn't come from the havoc of unknown gods which could threaten the world in a physical format, but because of the disruption they a) suggest to our idea of logic, knowledge, and how we process logic and knowledge, and b) because the "one and only God" is the dominant theory of religion. Once this is overturned, all hell breaks loose! To suggest more than one God? How dare they!
There are also over a billion Hindus walking the earth today, quite calm and satisfied with the idea that more than one deity exists. Should you promise wickedness upon them using your Ouija board, I expect they will promptly pick it up, fold it, and clout you on the head with it for being an idiot.
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