I’d like to take a slight detour and tell something that comes from my youth. I just thought of this story a couple days ago. I did not live this, but this is something my mother told me when I was a boy. She liked to tell a story of a friend of hers who had lost her husband in the war. The friend had come over to our house and she was sad because her husband had been killed in action in the war. The friend said that one thing she really regretted was that she didn’t have her husband’s wedding ring. The state department had returned all of his effects and she had looked through them and hadn’t found the ring.
My mother said, why don’t we try the Ouija board. A Ouija board is sold as a game, but it can be really a serious device. The board has all of the letters of the alphabet and the 10 numbers. It also has the words Yes and No. How it’s supposed to work, is that there is a triangular devise called a planchette on which there is a pointer. The person or persons put their fingers lightly on the planchette and then loudly ask the spirits a question you need an answer to. You are supposed to be talking to the dead. There is a lot of debate as to whether you should mess with that sort of thing. It’s kind of a paranormal activity. Personally, I wouldn’t do it, but my mother back in the early 40’s thought it was OK.
So you put your fingers on the planchette and ask your question. The planchette will start moving by itself. If the question can be answered by a yes or no, the planchettte will move of it’s own accord over to the yes or to the no. Now, if the answer is more complicated than that, the planchette will move to one letter at a time and spell out the answer. The person asking the question just puts his fingers lightly on the planchette. You are not supposed to do anything to influence it. The spirits of the dead do the moving.
So, my mother and her friend were playing with this board. The friend says in a loud voice, “Where is my husband’s wedding ring?” The Planchette began to move and it began to spell out a sentence. She was told to go get the duffel bag of stuff that the state department had sent back of her husband’s belongings and empty it. At the bottom of the bag was the ring that she was looking for.
So, was that a coincidence? Or was her dead husband talking to her from beyond the grave? Just another mystery of this world. We of the church do not use Ouija boards. Why open yourself up to what could be an evil spirit. I will not make a judgment. I just know what my mother told me. You can believe or not.
Dad