30 Exorcism tips from Holy Souls Hermitage – Fortune telling and Ouija boards: ideomotor or idiotmotor? A note on the vulnerability of cynical skeptics of religion

What I say in this post about Ouija boards by way of anecdote is analogously applicable to fortune tellers of all sorts, those who work with cards, crystal balls, who are chiromancers, tea-leaf readers, or whatever. There are plenty of such people.

In this post, I’m going to give you a little anecdote about my own childhood, when I was only 3 1/2 years old. Some might think it is not possible, according to the best of pediatric psychology, that an infant might remember anything of such early years. But I remember pretty much everything, even back to the time when I was only 1 1/2 years old (and very many months before this). Our family moved to a different house when I was 1 1/2 years old. About the time I was 4 years old, my older sister asked me if I remembered the other house. I said that I did, and proceeded to describe the inside of my crib, what was hanging above my crib, the ceiling, the living room where my crib was usually set, the couch to the right, the ranch doors to the left, how those doors led to the dining room and kitchen, the back porch, and the back yard. I recounted what that back yard was like, with the kinds of trees and bushes, and the kind of games played in that back yard. She was shocked, almost frightened by this, arguing that I couldn’t know anything since I was only 1 1/2 years old at the time, and was still too young at four years old. I guess I was a pretty intense little kid.

Now, in the Summer of 1963, when I was just 3 1/2 years old, a good sized crowd of the neighborhood kids, aged mostly from about 5 to 9 years old, came over to our house and tumbled down the steps into our little basement, all excited about something they had with them. It was a Ouija board with a planchette, not that I knew what that was. I followed them down to the coolness of the basement, but stood back a bit from the group as they fell to the cool tile floor, sitting as close as they could to the board. Some of the kids knew how to spell and others knew how to put their fingers on the planchette. I guess I’ve always been put off by hyperventilating yet breathless superficiality of the gnostic kind, however eager such superficiality is to let others know the secrets possessed: “I know something you don’t! Nyeah, nyeah, nyeah, nyeah, nyeah! But let me show you what I know!”

I didn’t know how to spell at the time, but they made me sit down and put my hands on the planchette, and I moved it around with a rather conscious determination. They all complained that I wasn’t doing it right, that I had to let it move itself. I moved it around with even more conscious determination, right off the board, and they took the planchette back, afraid that I would break its castors. I thought it was all stupid and said as much, getting back up to watch them from a few feet back. Had I known the word ideomotor for such a thing as they were trying to force, I would have called it idiotmotor.

“It’s working! It’s working!” one of them squealed prematurely. Others said, “No, it’s not!” Soon, however, they spelled something but didn’t know what it meant, and tried it a few more times, asking the piece of wood their questions. Where the planchette went depended on who was stronger, since many sets of hands were on the little pointing device. A couple of others complained that it wasn’t the same as they had experienced in their own basement (being in basements being an unspoken rule), where they had felt the strength of an unseen hand drag the planchette, along with their own hands, around the board.

Their being so mesmerized over a chunk of wood, a smaller chunk of wood, and some creepy ink on the board put a bit of a fright in me. I wasn’t scared of the Ouija board, but of their creepy enthusiasm of being so caught up in themselves. I was happy enough that, because of the fact that there is nothing more boring than being caught up in oneself, before they knew it, they were soon on to other things.

I wonder how much this was formative of their world-view, if there was a proportionality between the superficiality of their enthusiasm and just how far-reaching was their being open to be led to “answers” by an unseen force other than God. The Ouija board is nothing in itself, but it is, by definition, an occasion for people to let themselves be drawn into a superstitious attitude. However much ideomotor / idiotmotor activity goes on, it is, nevertheless, an invitation to Satan to possess people, to be, with more new-agey type language, “channeled” by people. That channeling bit is being possessed, by the way, if it is not also just another example of ideomotor / idiotmotor activity of the incredibly complex human psyche.

There are people who have gotten themselves into trouble using a Ouija board. The example everyone knows is the case of the little boy who was possessed, and was part of the inspiration for the original exorcist film of the mid-1970s, though his part was played by a little girl who liked pea soup a little too much.

Satan is not bound to help the marketing strategies of those who copyright such rubbish by harassing a few people who use such things, but I’m sure he’s happy to do this on occasion, as a tool to get people to be more stupid than ever, turning to superstition and to Satan instead of to reason, common sense and God.

Here’s the NAB translation of 18,9-14 of the book of Deuteronomy. Surely you remember this from you bible reading…

When you come into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of the peoples there. Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the LORD, and because of such abominations the LORD, your God, is driving these nations out of your way. You, however, must be altogether sincere toward the LORD, your God. Though these nations whom you are to dispossess listen to their soothsayers and fortune-tellers, the LORD, your God, will not permit you to do so.

Such a lust to know the future comes from insecurity. Insecurity comes from a lack of love of others, from being caught up with oneself. One cannot find security hiding in oneself. One can only find security – amidst all the dangers in this world and amidst our own sickness and death – only with a love that is stronger than political correctness, stronger than danger, stronger than sickness and even death, a love that is eternal, a love that is living, a love that is God Himself, a love that will manifest love in all truth to others, even if that love is rejected, mocked, even to the point that the one who is showing that love will be put to death, as was Christ our God.

I remember being called in by the Diocese of Rockville Center many years ago to go to give a conference at a Catholic highschool at the far Eastern end of Long Island. Lots of creepy idiocy goes on at the far end of Long Island. Quite a good number of the teenagers were given over to superstitious idiocy, making of themselves the planchettes of political correctness, of each other, even of the devil. Those using planchettes are planchettes themselves, no? Are their souls not being nourished with charity in all truth in their parishes? Do they not know Christ and Him crucified? Do they not know how wonderful the sacrament of confession is? Are they bereft of Eucharistic Adoration? Are their lives so empty that they have to turn to the idiocies of fortune telling, having become so bored with themselves and with life? Young people are thirsty for the reality of the in-your-face love unto death of Christ and Him crucified for us. They are so eager to live the life of His resurrection, manifesting His life changing love already in this world. Who is there to invite them? If you haven’t heard such things from your parish priests, challenge them about this. If you are a priest, do you offer opportunities in the faith to those of your parish? Do you preach up the joys of going to confession?

When I was a little kid, our own parish had some pretty serious problems. Already back then. Times don’t change too much. But we can have an effect on our own corner of the world for the good, should we ourselves be given over in humble thanksgiving to our Lord, participating in the sacraments, knowing His friendship, encouraging others.

The alternative of atheism/cynical skepticism doesn’t work. It is empty, a life filled with distraction from the boringness of self, a life of mocking others so as to test the veracity of their love, much like the soldier who pierced the heart of Christ with his sword, only then to say, having pushed that love to death, that truly this was the Son of God. One hopes that the cowardliness of atheists/cynical skeptics will be changed to know the greatness of love unto death so that they don’t continue to foist their weak selves on others as the soldier did with Christ. Perhaps their being bored with themselves even amidst their multitudinous distractions and mockeries (which can include, oxymoronically, Ouija boards and all sorts of Satanism), will be an occasion for them to look for that love which is consonant with a non-relativistic, living Truth, who is the Lord, Christ our God.

Many cynical skeptics would be quick to point out that fortune telling is the thing they mock the most (rightfully, of course), but they can be sadly unaware that they have made of their own lives a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy of lonely individuality, of insecurity seeking distraction, at least the distraction of merely filling their days with the mockery of others (instead of providing something positive). They have friends, a like-minded lot, congratulating each other, rationalizing cowardice by taking refuge in numbers. But how many profound friendships are to be enjoyed by cynical skeptics when they are too cynically skeptical to let themselves be in such friendships? Ironically, they are wide open to being played like a planchette by the ideomotor / idiotmotor manipulation of others, the prestidigitations which are so easily accepted by the insecure, the cowardly, those who are eagerly politically correct, those who are cynically skeptical of religion. It’s a bit of a fright to see the conscienceless planchette-esque behavior of cynical skeptics, but with Christ’s love, in all truth, we hope they lose their cowardliness before the future, and provide something positive for others in this world with the love of Christ right now. How did they become cynically skeptical? Being hurt? Perhaps. In that case, we need to pray for a spirit of forgiveness as well. Being a planchette is not the answer.