Ouija, the movie…why you shouldn’t see it

Tomorrow is Halloween, and there is a horror movie being released called Ouija.  I’ve read reviews of it and throughout the movie, the young people “playing” with this extremely dangerous tool of the occult keep saying, “It’s only a game.”

But it isn’t.  I am re-posting today my own terrifying experience resulting from involvement with this so-called “game.”

Sadly, ouija boards are sold in the toy departments of many popular stores.  Tragically, sales will probably increase after the release of this movie.

I hope you will read my story below, which is also an account of God’s Grace and Mercy.

If my story doesn’t convince you, please at least listen to Catholic exorcists who warn about ouija boards being one of the portals though which the devil and his demons can enter into your life in powerful ways.

Praised be Jesus Christ Whose Holy Name makes all of hell tremble!

(St. Michael the Archangel, protect us from evil.)

As I reached the top of the staircase, intense hatred rushed upon me, almost smothering me with its rage.  I gagged as though I were being choked, and the unseen evil fled as swiftly as it had come.

It all started a few months before with that ouija board.  My husband was away on business, and I had gone to spend two weeks with my former college roommate.  We were working on a writing project together.

I arrived on a Sunday evening, which also happened to be March 25, Feast of the Annunciation….but I hadn’t even been to Mass.  I was a confused Catholic, steeped in my sins, ashamed to go to confession, and who with an arrogance which now horrifies me, had decided I would “fix” everything when I was “old”….like maybe  60 or so.

My friend, Anne, brought out some entertainment after dinner….a homemade ouija board.  I laughed.  My mother had one when I was a child, and none of use had ever been able to make it “work.”

But Anne explained that her husband’s cousin had visited recently and that she had the “gift,”  and now Anne had it too.  I was completely skeptical until I touched the base of the delicate sherry glass we were using as a pointer, and it literally flew across the table in search of a letter.

I was astounded.  There was no doubt that something unworldly was happening.  We spent hours at the table, asking questions and getting answers from “deceased relatives,”  all of whom claimed to be in Purgatory.

Thus began my entry into the world of the occult– months of deception and confusion, and contact with evil, the potential danger of which I will only fully understand when God reveals it to me in eternity.

God, O God!  How can I ever praise Him enough for His Grace and Mercy!   Never can I doubt that He can bring great good out of evil…no matter how dark that evil is.  He literally brought me to conversion and a return to my faith at the same time that I was caught up in this dangerous foray into the occult.

Anne and I had no intentions of doing anything evil. Neither of us thought that what we were doing was sinful.  Anne had placed a rosary on the table and we had prayed a Hail Mary before we touched the sherry glass.  But, praying before one enters into sinful activity, especially when it involves opening oneself up to the power of evil spirits is an abuse of prayer.

Why God protected us from worse harm, and even brought great good out of this situation remains another mystery for now.  But He did, and briefly, this is how it came about.

As Anne and I continued to “converse” with spirits on the ouija board for several days, we soon became aware that we could also “hear” them in our thoughts.  This began slowly, with our “hearing” the words before they were actually spelled out on the board.  In our ignorance and foolishness, we were delighted.  We could now “talk” with our deceased loved ones without the slow and cumbersome ouija board.

One afternoon, about mid-week, I was working alone on our writing project when suddenly, unexpected words broke into my consciousness.  As stated above, I had become used to this by now.  But, I was not expecting the message I was given.

“You must go to confession.”  I froze.  Confession?  We had been going to Mass all week.  I was talking to souls in Purgatory.  I thought things were “cool” between God and me.  I thought He had waived the confession thing.  Wasn’t I special….even allowed to talk to “holy souls?”

“You must go to confession, or God will be so sad.”  This second command cut through my resistance and went straight to my heart.  “….God will be so sad.”  How could I refuse now?  I had longed for Him ever since I could remember….ever since I had committed what my seven-year-old conscience deemed a mortal sin.  (Please see https://theholyfaceofjesus.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/on-my-way-to-hell-at-seven/ for a helpful introduction to this current post.)

As it dawned upon me that yes, I would have to obey, I heard a comforting promise, “Don’t worry.  We will be with you and give you strength.”

Over the many years since this happened at age 25, I have pondered the above message.  At first I thought it was the evil spirits putting me to a test they thought I would fail, and thus enable them to have even more access to me.  But, as I have grown in faith and knowledge, and hopefully in God’s Grace throughout the years, I have come to think that it was perhaps my guardian angel……permitted by God to offer an invitation to me.  To offer it in such a way that it would be so very hard to refuse. To phrase it almost as though he were speaking to that seven-year-old.  The tone of this voice was kind and encouraging……something the other voices seemed unable to imitate.

I immediately told Anne, crying in her arms in terror.  She was very supportive and encouraging.  She even suggested that we talk to her pastor after I went to confession, and ask him what he thought about what we had been doing with the ouija board, and how we now had voices in our heads.

When Saturday afternoon arrived, Anne drove me to her parish church, and I did what I had avoided for the past 18  years.  I entered the dark confessional and knelt down, my heart pounding out of my chest.  But, I wasn’t alone.  Just like the voice had said, there was a presence with me, a warm and loving and strong presence.  The priest slid open the little window and I felt surreal, as I somehow stammered out an honest confession.  Although my body was in a panic, my mind and spirit were clear, and strangely calm.

The priest was most kind.  Hearing my situation, he gently led me through the Ten Commandments, listening carefully, but asking only a few questions.  It was all over in what seemed a brief moment, and then I heard the most beautiful words in the world, “I absolve you from your sins, in the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

But, I hadn’t confessed playing with the ouija board.  I didn’t think it was a sin.  However, shortly after Father finished hearing confessions, Anne and I entered the sacristy to tell him all about it, and to ask his advice.  Although well-intentioned, he did not send us away with the wise counsel we needed.  And we were led further into the darkness.

(click here for part II)

To those who will not return to read the next installment, please know this:  never, ever, dabble in the occult.  Do not even read horoscopes for fun.  All of these “fun” things have the capacity to open the door to the powers of evil  (fallen angels) which are very real, and which hate you beyond anything you can imagine.  As I will explain next time, even a soul in the state of grace can still suffer from the effects of past involvement in the occult.

But God is so faithful, so merciful and loving that there is nothing to fear, if one asks His forgiveness and places themselves in His care, determined to never, ever again go near ouija, boards, tarot cards, crystals, fortune tellers, mediums, etc.  Avoid like poison anything even remotely associated with the occult.  Please!

Dangers of the occult, part II…..new voices, deeper confusion, torment

I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and hers….(Gen.3:15)

(If you have not yet read Part I of this series on my involvement with the occult, you can find it here.)

I don’t blame Anne’s pastor.  He seemed as confused as we were over what was happening.  We explained to him that the spirits we had been communicating with were deceased relatives, and that they had encouraged us to pray more, and even to go to daily Mass.  Then I hit him with the news that they were the reason I had gone to confession to him that day, after so many years away from the Sacraments.

Although I wish he had been more informed about the occult, here we were telling him all of the “good” that had come out of what we had been up to.  In the end, he simply told us to continue to look at the fruit.  If we saw any bad fruit, that should be a red flag to us to cease these communications.

With the tacit approval of a priest, we were more eager than ever to resume conversing with our “relatives.”   The voices had been unusually quiet during my confession and our conversation with Father.   The concept of being once again in the state of grace was overwhelming for me.  I almost could not believe it.  I was eager to hear what my “grandparents,” “great-aunts,” etc., would have to say about all of this.

They did not disappoint.  For some reason, we chose to use the ouija board again that night, and my “grandfather” identified himself.  Then he told me that he owed his salvation to me.  He said that God had decided to save him on his death bed because God knew how obedient I would be about going to confession.  He continued to heap tons of praise upon me.  This confused and upset me.

The next day, I received more praise to the point where I was grateful to remember a little prayer from my Catholic school days:  Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.  And, I began to repeat it over and over again.  Something just did not seem quite right.

About three days after I had gone to confession, the voices suddenly announced that “god” himself was going to speak directly to me.  I was terrified, but they reassured me that “god” was very pleased with me.  They told me to be prepared for his coming.

I was literally trembling.  I did not want God to speak to me, but what could I do?  I knelt down and waited, repeating the Our Father over and over again.  When “god” supposedly spoke, he sounded nothing like what I had expected.  He seemed harsh, capricious, almost taunting.  I was frightened to death.  After a couple of days, “he” began to tell me strange things, such as that I would be a great saint, that I would have many children (my husband and I were trying to conceive), and the first would be a boy, etc.  I found myself wishing “he” would stay away, and then worrying, because I knew “he” could read my thoughts, since “he” was “god.”

Something else was happening too.  I began having more and more voices in my head.  It was like a chorus of voices.  When I say “voices,” I do not mean audible voices, but rather thoughts spoken by someone else interiorly.  But even though not audible, the thought patterns conveyed different personalities.

Anne was not having the experience of “god,” nor was she afflicted with multiple voices all clamoring at the same time.  In fact, she and her husband grew concerned for me, because I seemed driven to distraction by all of this noise and confusion.  It was difficult to concentrate on my conversations with them.  They worried what my husband would think when he returned.

I can only guess, but my theory is that because Anne had been a practicing Catholic when all of this happened, she was not nearly as vulnerable to the evil spirits as I was.  I had not been in the state of grace for years, and hence, they considered me their property.  Then, however God arranged it, I went to confession that Saturday, and now I had returned to my Father’s house through the Precious Blood of Our and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and these creatures were utterly furious.

I could sense their anger, although they tried to disguise it.
Sometimes, it would emerge in exclamations of, “We are going to kill you!”  But then they would explain that an evil spirit had said that, not them… the “good spirits.”

If this all sounds crazy and unbelievable….even insane, it was!   As mentioned before, it seemed surreal….like living on the edge of reality.  What are they saying?   Who do you believe?  Who are they, really?  How much power do they have?  Is that really “god?”

Except for rote prayers in school, I had avoided God for years, since I was convinced I was already going to hell.  I did not know how to react to “him” now, especially since “he” would personally address me.

By the time I left Anne’s house, two weeks after this all began, I had lost eight pounds off of my formerly 108 pound, 5’5″ frame.  My jeans were literally falling off of me.  I had scarcely been eating or sleeping.  I was a wreck.

My husband listened patiently on the drive back from Georgia, where Anne lived, to the small North Carolina town where we were currently living.  At the time, my husband was in the Air National Guard, was a graduate student and held a full time job.  I don’t think he took  what I was saying too seriously, and I know he didn’t have time to focus much attention on it.

I was actually grateful that he didn’t ask questions.  Back home again, I concluded that some of the voices were good spirits, and some were bad.  Anne agreed.

Meanwhile, in the midst of the madness, my Most Beloved and True God was at work in me, and Our Lady, my Most Blessed Mother took me under her care.  Even though the “god” I had been introduced to seemed somewhat cruel, I still remembered much of what I had learned about Jesus Christ in Catholic school.

And, by the way, these evil spirits never once mentioned His Holy Name!  Not once!  They said “god” only.

(click here for part III)

Please note:

(1)  Satan and his demons often present themselves as “angels of light.” (2Corinthians 11:14)  They will not hesitate to suggest that you pray or even go to Mass, if they think they can use these things as a means to accomplish their goal.  Like Anne and myself, many Christians will assume that anyone who encourages them to pray or to attend church must be “good.”

Wrong! This is only a ploy to bait the victim and win his/her trust.

(2)  They never inspire humility in a soul, rather they work to increase pride.  You are special.  You are chosen.  In my case, I even “saved my grandfather’s soul…”   You will do great things, etc.

(3)  They are authors of confusion.  They often do not make sense, or they say one thing and then later say they were just testing you.  Their “voices.” in my experience have no warmth, kindness, etc., but are either flat, cunning, or downright cruel.

(4)  They will do anything to keep a soul from God.  When a soul slips from their grasp and returns to God, they are furious with rage.  They will not give up easily and will pursue the soul as long as God allows this.  Although, He Himself always works all to the good of the soul who loves Him and is trying to please Him.  He guides and protects the soul who clings to Him.

(5)  The evil spirits hate the Holy Name of Jesus, and in my experience, will not pronounce this Saving Name.  I have read that they also will not speak Mary’s name.

(6)  These devils hate us beyond belief.  Their sole ambition is to drag all of us down to hell with them.  Opening the door to any contact with them at all is strictly forbidden by the Church, and puts the soul in extreme danger, even to the point of being lost forever.

Dangers of the occult, part I….opening the door to evil

(St. Michael the Archangel, protect us from evil.)

As I reached the top of the staircase, intense hatred rushed upon me, almost smothering me with its rage.  I gagged as though I were being choked, and the unseen evil fled as swiftly as it had come.

It all started a few months before with that ouija board.  My husband was away on business, and I had gone to spend two weeks with my former college roommate.  We were working on a writing project together.

I arrived on a Sunday evening, which also happened to be March 25, Feast of the Annunciation….but I hadn’t even been to Mass.  I was a confused Catholic, steeped in my sins, ashamed to go to confession, and who with an arrogance which now horrifies me, had decided I would “fix” everything when I was “old”….like maybe  60 or so.

My friend, Anne, brought out the entertainment after dinner….a homemade ouija board.  I laughed.  My mother had one when I was a child, and none of use had ever been able to make it “work.”

But Anne explained that her husband’s cousin had visited recently and that she had the “gift,”  and now Anne had it too.  I was completely skeptical until I touched the base of the delicate sherry glass we were using as a pointer, and it literally flew across the table in search of a letter.

I was astounded.  There was no doubt that something unworldly was happening.  We spent hours at the table, asking questions and getting answers from “deceased relatives,”  all of whom claimed to be in Purgatory.

Thus began my entry into the world of the occult– months of deception and confusion, and contact with evil, the potential danger of which I will only fully understand when God reveals it to me in eternity.

God, O God!  How can I ever praise Him enough for His Grace and Mercy!   Never can I doubt that He can bring great good out of evil…no matter how dark that evil is.  He literally brought me to conversion and a return to my faith at the same time that I was caught up in this dangerous foray into the occult.

Anne and I had no intentions of doing anything evil. Neither of us thought that what we were doing was sinful.  Anne had placed a rosary on the table and we had prayed a Hail Mary before we touched the sherry glass.  But, praying before one enters into sinful activity, especially when it involves opening oneself up to the power of evil spirits is an abuse of prayer.

Why God protected us from worse harm, and even brought great good out of this situation remains another mystery for now.  But He did, and briefly, this is how it came about.

As Anne and I continued to “converse” with spirits on the ouija board for several days, we soon became aware that we could also “hear” them in our thoughts.  This began slowly, with our “hearing” the words before they were actually spelled out on the board.  In our ignorance and foolishness, we were delighted.  We could now “talk” with our deceased loved ones without the slow and cumbersome ouija board.

One afternoon, about mid-week, I was working alone on our writing project when suddenly, unexpected words broke into my consciousness.  As stated above, I had become used to this by now.  But, I was not expecting the message I was given.

“You must go to confession.”  I froze.  Confession?  We had been going to Mass all week.  I was talking to souls in Purgatory.  I thought things were “cool” between God and me.  I thought He had waived the confession thing.  Wasn’t I special….even allowed to talk to “holy souls?”

“You must go to confession, or God will be so sad.”  This second command cut through my resistance and went straight to my heart.  “….God will be so sad.”  How could I refuse now?  I had longed for Him ever since I could remember….ever since I had committed what my seven-year-old conscience deemed a mortal sin.  (Please see https://theholyfaceofjesus.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/on-my-way-to-hell-at-seven/ for a helpful introduction to this current post.)

As it dawned upon me that yes, I would have to obey, I heard a comforting promise, “Don’t worry.  We will be with you and give you strength.”

Over the many years since this happened at age 25, I have pondered the above message.  At first I thought it was the evil spirits putting me to a test they thought I would fail, and thus enable them to have even more access to me.  But, as I have grown in faith and knowledge, and hopefully in God’s Grace throughout the years, I have come to think that it was perhaps my guardian angel……permitted by God to offer an invitation to me.  To offer it in such a way that it would be so very hard to refuse. To phrase it almost as though he were speaking to that seven-year-old.  The tone of this voice was kind and encouraging……something the other voices seemed unable to imitate.

I immediately told Anne, crying in her arms in terror.  She was very supportive and encouraging.  She even suggested that we talk to her pastor after I went to confession, and ask him what he thought about what we had been doing with the ouija board, and how we now had voices in our heads.

When Saturday afternoon arrived, Anne drove me to her parish church, and I did what I had avoided for the past 18  years.  I entered the dark confessional and knelt down, my heart pounding out of my chest.  But, I wasn’t alone.  Just like the voice had said, there was a presence with me, a warm and loving and strong presence.  The priest slid open the little window and I felt surreal, as I somehow stammered out an honest confession.  Although my body was in a panic, my mind and spirit were clear, and strangely calm.

The priest was most kind.  Hearing my situation, he gently led me through the Ten Commandments, listening carefully, but asking only a few questions.  It was all over in what seemed a brief moment, and then I heard the most beautiful words in the world, “I absolve you from your sins, in the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

But, I hadn’t confessed playing with the ouija board.  I didn’t think it was a sin.  However, shortly after Father finished hearing confessions, Anne and I entered the sacristy to tell him all about it, and to ask his advice.  Although well-intentioned, he did not send us away with the wise counsel we needed.  And we were led further into the darkness.

(to be continued……)

To those who will not return to read the next installment, please know this:  never, ever, dabble in the occult.  Do not even read horoscopes for fun.  All of these “fun” things have the capacity to open the door to the powers of evil  (fallen angels) which are very real, and which hate you beyond anything you can imagine.  As I will explain next time, even a soul in the state of grace can still suffer from the effects of past involvement in the occult.

But God is so faithful, so merciful and loving that there is nothing to fear, if one asks His forgiveness and places themselves in His care, determined to never, ever again go near ouija, boards, tarot cards, crystals, fortune tellers, mediums, etc.  Avoid like poison anything even remotely associated with the occult.  Please!