Portal to evil or harmless game?

THERE’S AN ongoing debate about the powers and realities of the Ouija board. Essentially, there are three basic positions:

• It is inherently dangerous, can open portals to evil entities and should never be used.
• It is only dangerous if used with evil intent, but can be a useful tool for spirit mediumship if used properly and with good intent.
• It is inherently harmless and has no real powers of mediumship for good or evil; its effects, if any, are only psychological in nature.

Which is true? Talk to any group of people and you’ll find strong proponents for each argument. A few years ago, I conducted a survey of readers on this subject. It results showed that 65 percent of those who responded felt the Ouija was dangerous, and 35% felt it was harmless. There is also a lively discussion on the matter in our Paranormal Forum.

Inherently evil

As expected, most religious leaders are strongly anti-Ouija. More interesting, however, is that many of the top paranormal researchers believe the Ouija to be a dangerous instrument, to be avoided at all cost.

Brad Steiger, one of the most prolific authors on matters supernatural, has consistently stated his opposition to the use or even the ownership of a Ouija board. In his article “Mothers, Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Play with Ouija Boards,” Steiger recounts his investigation of a 17-year-old girl who began experimenting with the Ouija – with dire consequences. “She thought she had the knowledge to contact spirit entities through the board,” Steiger writes, “but unfortunately she had neglected to assume a prayerful attitude to guard against malignant influences.”

Dale Kaczmarek, founder of the Ghost Research Society, says, “I would strongly advise against the use of the Ouija, automatic writing or séances” in his article “Ouija: Not a Game.” “Most often the spirits whom are contacted through the Ouija are those whom reside on ‘the lower astral plane’.”

One of the most respected paranormal investigators or the past fifty years, Hans Holzer, adds his voice in warning against the Ouija. In the book The Ouija Board: A Doorway to the Occult, author Edmond C. Gruss quotes Holzer as saying, “Those who wish to use the Ouija board as a parlor game I advise to think twice. There is always the possibility – rare, I admit, but conceivable – that one of those playing the board is a genuine trance medium without realizing it. In such a case, the board can become an easy entrance for a disincarnate person… who might next take over the personality of the medium and manifest under conditions where no controls are possible.”

Some people have also had bad experiences. “I'm wondering if anybody else out there knows how dangerous Ouija boards truly are? “I had my own experiences a long time ago when I was around 13 years old. To make a long story short, I came face to face with pure evil.”

“I do believe without a doubt that Ouija boards open doors,” “The entity that we brought out actually manifested itself to my best friend’s mother….”

Ok, if used with caution

The article “Ouija, Using it Without Harm” on the PaganPath website states: “The Ouija is only as dangerous as you and/or your friends make it. The Ouija can be a useful tool for mediumship (spirit contact) but can also be a tool to tap into the subconscious minds of the users. If you begin your Ouija session with the intention of just seeing what will happen, but without letting superstitious fears scare you, you're well on your way to a fun, entertaining, and informative experience.”

Even those who say the Ouija can be used without harm often suggest performing a “cleansing” before any experiments. “Some people like to say a prayer over the board – or do some other ritual. In this case envision a protective white light of energy surround yourself, the board, those you are working with, and even the room.”

Inherently harmless

Author and ghost hunter Loyd Auerbach is one of few seasoned paranormal investigators who doesn’t put much stock in the Ouija’s powers. In his book, Ghost Hunting: How To Investigate the Paranormal, he writes: “There is nothing inherently evil or demonic about Ouija boards.” The answers come from “unconsciously driven minor muscle movements and not spirits of dead people. Ouija boards have never been shown to tap into spiritual sources. Any danger…is in taking the ‘communications’ literally.”

Many people, like me, who have attempted to use the board get little or no results. “I brought one from the Internet and have tried to use it several times, including on my own and with friends and family. The planchette didn’t move an inch, ever. So nothing to fear.”

The “Skeptic’s Dictionary” agrees with Auerbach’s position and may have the most reasonable advice about the Ouija. “The movement of the planchette is not due to paranormal forces but to unnoticeable movements by those controlling the pointer, known as the ideomotor effect,” the website says in its article on the Ouija.

“Observing the powerful effect of messages on impressionable people can be impressive. Yet, as experiences with facilitated communication have shown, decent people often harbor indecent thoughts of which they are unaware. And the fact that a person takes a ‘communication’ seriously enough to have it significantly interfere with the enjoyment of life might be a sufficient reason for avoiding the Ouija board as being more than a ‘harmless bit of entertainment,’ but it is hardly a sufficient reason for concluding that the messages issue from anything but our own minds.”

Apocalypse in 2012?



We all know that the Mayan culture existed many thousands of years ago and created thriving cities (such as Teotihuacán) long before western civilisation was, well civilised. Mayans also had an advanced understanding of astronomy and in particular time, with Mayan calendars being famous for calculating various astronomical events such as eclipse, conjunctions and planetary alignments. Mayan calendars can also be synchronized and interlocked, with their combinations giving rise to further, more extensive cycles and predictions.

One calendar in particular, the Long Count, has recently spawned a new wave of Apocalypse theories as the date, 21st December 2012, marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle, or a Classic Maya millennium. This is when the Maya calendar will turn over to all zeros - 13.0.0.0.0 by the long count. Speculation in is rife about why this date was chosen. Was it because they thought something terrible would happen? Why does the Mayan calendar stop at 5,126?

How was this date chosen? Well, the Mayan calendar is based on few units, similar to our years, months and days. One Baktun is equal to 394.3 years or 20 Katun, which is equal to 19.7 years. The Mayan calendar started on the Mayan epoch of August 11th 3114 BC, and comes to an abrupt end in 2012AD, 13 Baktun after the epoch.


Baktun Katun Tun Uinal Kin
Equals: 20 Katun 20 Tun 18 Uinal 20 kin
Days 144,000 7,200 360 20 1
Years 394.3 19.7 0.97



This date also happens to correspond with the winter solstice and it also marks an alignment of the sun with the centre of the Milky Way.

Some say that the Earth will pass into a stream of gamma radiation from the black hole at the centre of the galaxy, while others think that the alignment will trigger a solar flare or geomagnetic storms on Earth. Some are even predicting severe and violent earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis and hurricanes, all caused by the galactic alignment. Even further fetched is the notion that the Earth's magnetic poles will switch, or that we start spinning backwards!

But it isn't all doom and gloom. While 2012 marks the end of one cycle, it must also mark the beginning of another, one in which some Mayan mythology predicts that the ancient wisdom of the Maya will be rediscovered by the world and it will be a new dawn for mankind!

Other Mayan mythology predicts the end of mankind. The Popol Vuh is a sacred book of the Maya, and describes how the Mayans were living in the fourth world. The Popal Vuh describes the first three worlds in which the gods failed in making a perfect world, but the creation of the successful fourth world gave life to mankind. They Maya believed that the fourth world would end in catastrophe and the fifth and final world would be created that would signal the end of mankind.

So, did the Mayans know something we don't? or did the simply not get a chance to finish their calendar system? Will the doomsday theorists get it right in 2012, or will this be another Y2K?

One final thought: The doomsday theorists will get it right one day

Believe it or not most astral attacks are not caused by curses or witchcraft. Half the time astral attacks are not intentional. They take place on the subconscious level and are the result of negative thinking, verbal abuse that goes round and round in the head, stale energy that has been left behind in a place and bungled rituals that may have been done by amateurs hoping to create prosperity or love. Below I have identified the different kinds of astral attack that can take place and hopefully it will help you avoid cursing yourself as well as others. Thoughts are like seeds …once planted and allowed to grow they can take root and choke the potential out of your life. The idea is to keep your psychic garden free of the spiritual equivalent of suckers, weeds and anything else that might abort your spiritual growth, personal will and soul freedom.

Thought Forms

Thought forms tend to affect our lives on a mundane level. That is because they tend to be sent by ordinary people. We may experience more day-to-day and practical frustrations. This kind of attack is usually from someone you know, with whom you've had an unpleasant encounter with. Perhaps you have had a disagreement and they have been disgruntled with you all day. You might feel the "bad energy" from that person's thoughts.

The Subconscious Curse

This kind of curse usually comes from someone that we know quite well and actually cares for us. They may even be praying for our well being to our actual detriment. A good example of this is the individual who prays for the person with AIDS to have an "improved immune system" when the disease itself is an overkill of immunity. This is where others think they know what's best for you, but actually don't and you feel as if you are leading a life directed by someone else, and not you.

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Attack

This kind of astral attack is often stated verbally in the form of a negative affirmation such as "You'll never make your rent unless you get a job.", "There's no way you can write that book in two weeks" and "Your aunt had diabetes so you will probably get it to." These kinds of words have a powerful effect on our subconscious mind and set to programming the conscious mind to write a disaster script for us.

Unsolicited Criticism and Verbal Abuse

This might seem obvious, but this is actually a form of direct astral attack. The Unconscious Mind is very much influenced by words and picks up these cruel words. Because they hurt we often repeat them over and over in our minds. When we do this we are basically subconsciously cursing ourselves with another person's words.

The Collective Wish for Failure

The more successful you are, the more you attract envy and jealousy, and therefore the ravages of the evil eye. There are many people out there who will happily congratulate you on your success and then secretly go home and wish that you would fail for once. This can be especially powerful if you find yourself at the mercy of a large group of people who are all wishing for your demise at the same time.

The Psychic Vampire

If you feel exhausted, fatigued or drained just by encountering a person, then chances are you have encountered a person who is adept at hooking into your third chakra and sucking your energy.

If this person is always on your mind, to the exclusion of all other thoughts, than it is possible that you have become engaged in an energy exchange with someone who is trying to dominate or bend your will to their way.

Kundilini
Kundilini Flow - SpringWolf Designs Kundilini is basically the flow of energy through the chakra system. The energy flows in a clockwise motion from the root chakra to the crown, and back to the root continuously. This energy stimulates each chakra point as it matures and opens.

While many schools believe activation occurs all at one time, experience has shown that activation occurs one at a time. In Tibetan teachings, Kundilini flows through all energy centers, but may not open them until the individual is ready to work on the lessons governed by that energy vortex. It follows a concept of right time, right place, and right energy.

Some schools suggest specific types of energy and other vibrations, such as sound and words, can also stimulate these major chakra centers. Edgar Cayce prophesied that by saying the Lords Prayer, all the chakras could be opened successfully for work.

In order for the soul to begin it's work on karma or spiritual lessons, the chakra that is in line or associated with that spiritual energy must also be open and ready to join in the process for work. Kundilini stimulates the chakra center and helps prepare the point to open and release the karmic energy held within it.

For instance, to work on intimate relationships on a spiritual and karmic level, the root chakra needs to be matured and open for expressing this type of sexual energy.

There are exceptions, for karmic reasons of course, but for most people, Kundilini isn't ready to open all the chakra centers until the physical body has developed and progressed to the point of puberty.

Total activation of the chakras through Kundilini is said to bring total mental enlightenment. Though this enlightenment the need for death and rebirth is no longer necessary. Which means the individual spirit has achieved total enlighten and oneness with the Universal Divine Spirit. Reincarnation then becomes unnecessary, unless the spirit desires to do so. But at this time, it's a matter of choice.

This path to Divinity may take many lifetimes to achieve. But in each lifetime an individual follows this basic plan:

Birth Choosing karmic and spiritual lessons to be worked on in the physical embodiment
Kundilini Opens The chakras are activated and opened
Trauma / Drama The soul goes through karmic paybacks, learning spiritual lessons and receiving karmic debt owed to it.
Accepting the
Cosmic Consciousness Acknowledgement, Acceptance and Action
Divinity Achieving At-one-ment

Chakras
Chakras are the energy vortices at a sub-atomic level of your spiritual body. They are the spiritual DNA holding the trace memories from past lives and act as the input centers for the cells of the body. The chakras are the physical manifestation of the soul in the human body. Simply put, the Chakras are the Soul in a physical sense.

There are a few different schools of thought for how many chakras there are, their exact placement and the purpose or function of each. Hatha Yoga indicate 7 major centers. In Tibetan practices there are 9 major chakra centers and multiple minor chakras. The Tibetan view is the one I have come to feel connected with and utilize in my practices.

In all schools of thought that utilize chakra concepts, each major center carries with it a special purpose, energy and color vibration. Turning that around, these major chakra centers can also be stimulated by specific types of energy and other vibrations, such as sound and words. Edgar Cayce prophesied that by saying the Lords Prayer, all the chakras can be opened successfully for work.

Starchild Skull
Around 1930, in a mine about 100 miles southwest of the Mexican city of Chihuahua, buried underneath a human skeleton a mysteriously deformed, smaller skeleton was discovered. Dubbed Starchild, this skull has some very abnormal features, not seen anywhere else.

Mexico, Peru and the Inca people have long produced strangely deformed skulls as the ancients practiced the art of skull binding. This process creates a misshaping, flattened or elongated skull by tightly wrapping the skull of an infant. The wrapping is often done with rope or cloth, either by itself or against a wooden board.

Amateur anthropologist Lloyd Pye was first shown the Starchild skull by its owners in late February 1999. His initial reaction was some kind of rare genetic deformity, however the skull has peculiar features, which are too perfect to be a genetic anomaly.
Examination

The skull is almost perfectly symmetrical, even more so than a human skull. All of the bones (most of which have human counter parts) are perfectly formed, but they are shaped differently.

Scientists and medical experts have investigated it and they all agree that it is a child's skull. Dental examination shows a lack of erupted adult teeth so the child was around four to five years old. The face is missing from the upper bridge of the nose to the foramen magnum (the hole where the spine enters the skull), but the cranium and most of both eye orbits (the external parts of the sockets) are intact.

After examination the cranial cavity was found to be excessively large, at 1600cc it is 200cc larger in volume than an adult skull. A 200cc increase in cranial capacity represents a potential increase in brain capacity. Homo sapiens have a 200cc larger capacity than their predecessor, which in turn has 200cc increase over its predecessor.

A CAT scan has shown that none of the sutures between the bones in the child's skull have sealed themselves off from further growth. Nearly all examples of congenital deformity exhibit some degree of premature sealing of cranial sutures. This makes it highly unlikely for the child's skull to be the result of deformity.

Other peculiar features of the starchild skull include round, shallow eye sockets with the optic nerve channel at the base of the orbit, rather than the rear. There are no frontal sinuses and the back of the skull is flattened. The skull consists of calcium hydroxylapatite, which is the normal material of mammalian bone. Carbon dating has placed the skull at 900 years ± 40 years old. DNA tests revealed the child to be an X-Y human male, and to belong to a known Native American haplogroup C.
Alien Hybrid?

The Star Being Legends are well-known legends with roots spreading throughout Central and South America. In general they state that on a regular basis "Star Beings" come down from the heavens and impregnate females in remote, isolated villages. These women carry their "starchildren" to term, then raise them to age six or so. At that point the Star Beings return to collect their progeny and remove them to places, and for purposes, not clearly outlined in the legends. It has been suggested that improving a stagnated gene pool could be a motivation.

So did this child have a rare birth defect, or was it some kind of human/alien hybrid? Why are there no other skeletons like this?

Akashic Records
Akashic (Sanskrit akasha, "primary substance")

The Akashic records are the file cabinet of an individual's past lives and deeds. Think of the records as individual folders each holding the knowledge, talents and experiences from a particular lifetime. All these folders combined into one cabinet are your personal Akashic Records or Akashic library. You can open a file and look in a mirror, so to speak, at who you were 100 years ago and discover how that life influences this current one.

These ethereal records store the attitudes, emotions, and concepts from the mental mind as the physical body experiences taste, smells, sights, sounds, emotions and thoughts during each incarnation. These records utilize the law for every action there is an equal reaction and a person in a present incarnation creates their new experiences based on the past events of their pervious lives.

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone can tap into your Akashic records. These are pretty sacred folders that hold the very essence of who you are as a spiritual being and as a physical human. So there is a great responsibility given to the individuals who can tap into that information. These records are the most important piece of your soul and access to them is granted to the person them self, or to a few channels who have proven their understanding and acceptance of the responsibility, even accountability.

It's vitally important for psychic's to realize this. A psychic can 'pick-up' on the energies around you that make up the essence of who you are. But the details, the karmic lessons, and patterns that many try to interpret really can't be pinpointed without looking into the Akashic. Those that try to provide interpretive information, could be creating some very serious karma for themselves as well as the individual seeking their assistance. To manipulate a person's path or direction based on false information is a severe transgression in the spiritual realm.

There are many ways an individual person can tap into their own Akasha. Meditation is one of the easiest and best methods. There are others, from creative visualization, past life regressions or dream therapy. The best thing to do is find out which method will best work for you.

Ouija: Zozo Once Again


I was always very skeptical of spirits and ghosts until I had this experience. I don't know what they are, all I know is that I believe these entities exist now.

I was reading through the true stories section and I saw something that caught my eye: Zozo. I had a run in with this entity via a Ouija board, and I thought I was crazy until I saw that many other people had the exact same experience. My friend and I had just gotten a Ouija board and decided to play it all night. Well, I got ahold of someone, or something, called Zozo. The planchette would move very violently, and when it would get frustrated it would just sway from Z to O continuously. Every time I used the ouija board after that, Zozo would be the only one I could talk to.

One night it asked me to say something, and I was very apprehensive about it because the fact I had contacted the same spirit so many times in a row I figured it was watching me. It asked me to say, "Ramazama Jamal." I did some research and couldn't find these words in any language. Zozo was very pushy about it and got very frustrated and caused the planchette to actually shoot off the board a couple of times. Being the adventurous (and now I know stupid) person I am, I said it anyway, and I wished I hadn't.

Anywhere between 3-4 a.m. every morning I would be awoken by my cupboards slamming, and I would have to get up and ask them to stop. And they would, promptly. I would have terrible nightmares every night that caused my chest to tighten and become cold. I would wake up panting from loss of breath, but one night I felt eyes upon my back. I wasn't woken up by my cupboards this time; it was as if something called me from my dream to wake up.

When I turned around, I saw a shadow on the wall. I thought a friend had come in, so I asked them what they wanted. No reply. And then the shadow came out of my wall and became this black mass, faceless and blacker than black in the silhouette of a woman. The only distinction I had of its sex was that it tilted its head at one point and it had long hair. I was paralyzed with fear, and could barely push the words out of my throat. I asked it if it was Zozo, and it seemed to nod. Its head just moved from side to side like it was inquisitive, yet already knew everything. I asked it to go away and I covered my eyes. When I took my hands off it was gone. I moved out of that apartment a month later.

OUIJA STOLE THE PHONE

Zoe also had an experience with the Ouija and a cell phone, perhaps not surprising since teen girls seem to love their cell phones as well as a bit of Ouija drama. Zoe’s story took place in mid-September, 2008. She and her friends Maddie, Kelly and Brianna were all hanging out at Nora’s house after school. “We all knew the story that went along with her house,” Zoe says. “In the 1800s, a woman had killed her husband and then hung herself upstairs. So, we thought, this would be a great place to have fun with her Ouija board.”

The girls set up the board and almost immediately got a response from a 45-year-old woman named Tyra. They asked Tyra all the typical questions teen girls would ask about boys in their grade and other friends. They really weren’t taking it very seriously, however, never considering that something paranormal might be going on. In fact, they suspected that one of the girls was purposely directing the board to its answers. As they were arguing over who was secretly pushing the pointer, Nora suddenly shouted with excitement. “She asked us if we felt an area of coldness around the triangle,” says Zoe. “We all put our hands near it and found that the area was freezing! We knew that it was something paranormal as our hands brushed against the pocket of cold, so we stopped arguing and continued asking Tyra questions.”

Getting bored with the routine questions, one of the girls got more daring and asked if Tyra could possibly show herself. They waited for a minute... but nothing happened. Becoming impatient, Kelly shouted out that Tyra should steal Brianna's phone. It was just a joke and they were all laughing -- until Brianna discovered that her cell phone was missing. Instantly, the laughter turned to chaos as the group of five screaming girls ran around the room looking for Brianna's phone. “Some of us sat back down and asked Tyra where the phone was a couple times,” says Zoe. “Each time she replied that the phone was with her. We were getting seriously freaked out, so Maddie tried calling Brianna's phone. What happened next changed me into a firm believer of the paranormal. Maddie dropped her own phone, screaming that when she had tried to call Brianna's phone, the line had been busy, meaning that someone was using Brianna's phone to call someone. As Maddie and Nora bawled their eyes out, Brianna, Kelly and I asked Tyra where the phone was again. Tyra told us that she had put the phone in the bedroom across the hall, and that we should go get it before someone else finds it.”

Banding tightly together, the girls inched toward the closed door of the room. Suddenly it banged open on its own, causing more screams. Terrified, the girls huddled in a corner of the room until they finally got up the courage to go into the bedroom across the hall. “Maddie tried calling Brianna's phone again, and we heard a muffled ringtone,” Zoe remembers. “After looking for at least fifteen minutes, Kelly finally found Brianna's phone, sitting in a shoe underneath Nora's bed, freezing cold to the touch.”

THE ENTITY ZOZO

In this last story, Darren seems to confirm the warnings that many have given about the Ouija board. In particular, he warns about this thing that calls itself Zozo. Several other readers have reported contacting this entity also.

Darren read these stories, too. I took after this spirit told me to take a picture of it,” he says. “The spirit said it resided in a skull necklace, which is being held above the board. After taking this picture many strange events took place.

“The spirit said it was going to possess my girlfriend. She became deathly ill and violent. My daughter almost drowned in a bathtub the same day. She also came down with a horrible disease that required 16 days in the hospital, to which she was quarantined. The house became haunted, stuff flying around the kitchen, and we could hear ‘conversations’ emanating from within the house.

“I was shocked to read about other people who also had strange occurrences with this same spirit. This puzzles me greatly... why so many people claim the same name... who have no connection other than this evil named spirit coming to them via a Ouija board. I am convinced that this Zozo is a dangerous demon who wishes to cause destruction. It also seems that in Greek mythology there is a demon by the same name who is known as ‘The Destroyer.’ Don't believe me – look it up for yourself. Please help me to warn people that if this name comes to them, whether by dreams or through Ouija contact, be very careful. Don't go through what others and myself have had to go through. It is real... and it is harmful.”