What’s one of the hottest “must have” gifts for this holiday season? It’s something most people wouldn’t expect, it’s the Ouija board! But this gift comes with a warning from top religious leaders around the world – they’re saying not to buy a Ouija board for your kids because their souls might be in jeopardy.
I think we’ve all played with a Ouija board at one time or another, experimenting as children or maybe as an adult at a party perhaps. Ouija boards are a device said to be a method of contacting the spirit world. Well, thanks to the success of the recent Universal horror film, Ouija, sales of the boards are up 300% this holiday season, reports Google. But along with the spike in Ouija sales comes a warning from religious leaders. A vicar from the Church of England, Peter Irwin-Clark, has a message to parents about not buying the toy for children this Christmas:
It’s like opening a shutter in one’s soul and letting in the supernatural. There are spiritual realities out there and they can be very negative.
The Ouija board was first introduced in 1890 as a harmless parlor game. The game was mass produced and sold as a toy board game since the 1960’s from toy companies Parker Brothers and more recently, Hasbro, which also co-produced the recent horror film. Ouija boards have long been staples of horror films for several decades now but really came into prominence in 1973 with the release of the mega-hit film, The Exorcist. In that film, a young girl played by Linda Blair communicates with an unseen entity by means of such a board. The entity tricks the girl and she becomes possessed by a malevolent demon, and we all know the rest of the story. Since that film, the Ouija board has become associated with the negative side of the supernatural.
Are Ouija boards just a harmless board game or are they something more? Something more sinister that may very well be a doorway for evil to break into our world and cause harm to unknowing participants.
Reverend Irwin-Clark believes the threat is real. “I would hugely recommend people not to have anything to do with the occult,” he says. “People find they are having strange dreams, strange things happening to them, even poltergeist activity.”
Anthony Hayne is a Catholic priest who specialized in exorcism before his retirement. Interviewed a few years ago, Father Hayne said he had dealt with a few teenagers who “had been using Ouija boards and had let the darkness into their lives”.
Regardless of your beliefs, the sales of Ouija boards seem to be skyrocketing which means the board game will not be disappearing anytime soon. Does that leave our children open to evil and the supernatural? The way I look at it – why tempt fate? You can if you want, but not me.
Source: UK Daily Mail
