Walt Kelly among some other humorists had fun with the folks that used a Ouija Board. As a child I recall my mother had one of these and taught my brother and me to use it, so from childhood I could understand people talking about it and some of the movies where it would appear. For example, some of you will recall an Abbot and Costello movie where it was prominent. Unhappily, even as a child it seems I was a skeptic. I just didn’t seem able to believe the thing was working as advertised. But unlike the ambience of the séance setting in the movies where the “talking board” appears mom did not provide this environment.

Maybe mom didn’t have much faith in the thing either. But not only has the Ouija Board had a long history, it continues to enjoy popularity today. Bill Watterson had a strip where Calvin and Hobbes are using one and Calvin asks whether he will become President? The planchette begins to spell out God forb—whereupon Calvin kicks the board and shouts “Stupid thing!,” which, of course, makes me wonder if Bush as a child ever had such recourse to a Ouija Board. If so, no doubt had he gotten the same answer as Calvin he would have kicked it also. But given the choice for President, I’d take Calvin. And certainly Hobbes would be a far better counselor than Rove.

My last experience with Ouija was as a young man. I found myself alone with an attractive girl in her apartment and she had one. She insisted we use it, but when it became obvious she was manipulating the planchette to make the board say I would marry her I beat a hasty retreat. I really liked the girl, but it seems my skepticism about the occult in any form had carried into adulthood. When it comes to things like reading palms, crystal balls, horoscopes and so on, when they are only for fun and entertainment like the small strips in fortune cookies I find no fault. But when folks begin to take such things seriously, I remain the skeptic. And while the many facets of Spiritism in one form or another continue in our “modern” world, I have found some to be downright fun if not taken seriously.

I really got a kick out of the Mayberry episode where Barney Fife gets a chain letter and pretends he isn’t influenced by it. But in so many ways like the charms carried by those in the military from the most ancient of times to the present there is no getting around the fact that people do find comfort in such things. Some people have difficulty believing these had such significance to those young men in “Memphis Belle,” but I knew such young men personally. And for some of these, those lucky charms were taken very seriously. You will find many of those in our present military carrying about “lucky pieces.”

Far beyond the ordinary like four-leaf clovers and rabbits’ feet there are those who believe their very lives and destinies depend on totems of some form. Maybe mom wasn’t really serious about the Ouija Board, but there are many that do take it seriously, just as there are many educated and powerful people that continue to take Astrology seriously as did Ronald and Nancy Reagan, though biographers and others attempt to downplay the past president’s degree of credulity in such a thing. However, the occult is nothing new to the White House. And as I have written in the past it would not surprise me to learn Bush has recourse to some secret room where various forms of the occult are practiced. In point of fact, if so it would at least make some sense of his seeming lunacy that has resulted in disastrous decisions. What is too bizarre to believe of anyone that claims God speaks to them? From such lunatics we live with the results of people continuing to kill each other in the name of their respective deities, prophets and totems.

The studies ongoing in neuroscience hold promise of explaining some of the things that result in particular beliefs. But throughout human history this thing of believing has made for a demon haunted world wherever personal beliefs have resulted in the systematic organization of hatred as we are facing with the Muslim threat to the civilized world. However, the equally evil threat of greed and avarice on the part of the leadership in the civilized world remains as well.

When our mother had my brother and me catechized and baptized into the Roman Church I wanted to believe the amulets blessed of a priest had magical powers, but I continued to confront that skepticism that seemed always a part of me. Even during the years when I became a student of theology and a minister there was always that skepticism to confront. It became primarily a question of what was God’s part, and what was our part as human beings? It seemed good people would remain good people irrespective of what they believed, and bad people would remain bad people. My opinion in this regard did not change during my doctoral studies in Human Behavior. Certainly some behaviors can be modified, but quite simply it still came down to good people are good people and bad people are bad people.

However, when a system of belief is such that it punishes those that do not conform it makes for hell on earth, and this holds true for any system of religion or politics. What would an ACLU, NAACP, or La Raza America look like for example? No one needs a crystal ball or Ouija Board to tell there would be little difference between such an America and one ruled by any other system driven by fanaticism. The biggest fault I find with the ACLU is that it has never left its historic roots in Communism. It was on this basis our earliest nuclear secrets were betrayed to Stalin, the most infamous mass murderer in all of human history. But America would not be any better off under the control of those that believe our nation should fall into the hands of those with a racist agenda, though such people have made careers of calling anyone “racist” that does not agree with their agenda. Just what, for example, is this thing of politicians prostituting themselves for the “colored vote” of Negroes and Hispanics? No real American of whatever “color” can fail to be insulted by such pandering by politicians directed at any particular race. In such manner We the People are losing our distinction as Americans.

Now if prayer changes things just whose prayers are being honored by what deity? For my part, like Lee Marvin in “Death Hunt” I’ve never had much luck praying. The faithful of whatever religion will say I’m not praying correctly or I’m not in a good relationship with the deity. But though I’ve never had much luck praying, I continue to talk to loved ones and friends gone on before me, I continue to talk to God; and often in anger. Maybe that’s the problem. But I doubt it. After all, surely God knows I have a lot to be angry about in this messed up world. However, I’m not about to fault those who believe in prayer. By all means, if people find comfort in praying so be it, as long as they are not praying for their deity to kill those like me that don’t go along with their beliefs, or as some Muslims are presently doing attempting to give their deity a hand in my demise.

You know, despite the obviously inherent injustice of life fat or ugly remains fat or ugly. Attempting to make fat or ugly people “attractive” is an exercise in futility. The stories are legion, “You just have to meet him/her; they have a great personality.” When has that ever failed to raise the red flag? But those attempting to force their beliefs on others whether of evolution or deities are too often guilty of trying to sell personality rather than anything attractive. What will ever make a Rosie O’Donnell anything other than fat and ugly? She knows this, so she lashes out at others because of the injustice of what she is. She knows life has not been fair, so she does what she can to get even with life, much as Doc Holliday said of Ringo wanting revenge for being born. And no matter the amount of fame or fortune, nothing will satisfy such people from lashing out at what they perceive to be the cruel injustice of what they are. I say the same thing of Rush Limbaugh. But your own beliefs will determine who you favor.

Life is filled with injustices and inequities, but in the end good people will remain good people, and bad people will remain bad people. And good people will live by the principles of the Golden Rule regardless. But in a demon haunted world filled with so many injustices and inequities the circumstances of life will often prevent acting out all the goodness of even the best of people. I have witnessed what the extremes of poverty and ignorance can do to even good people. But so long as there are those that believe in Ouija Boards, Astrology, etc., so long as there are those that attempt to force their beliefs on others whether of science, religion, or politics there will continue to be ignorance and poverty, there will continue to be those that take advantage of such beliefs.

Is our own leadership in America like Bush and those in Congress using occult practices much in the way of the ancients? It would not surprise me. Some of these things as with many superstitions are so engrained throughout history it seems impossible to be rid of them. But if people die as a result of the failure of reason or because of the occult, it will not matter to those who die. Whether lighting candles or resorting to Ouija Boards what’s the harm so long as you do not harm others? But to believe any words of men are the words of gods, to attempt to force your beliefs on others; that is another thing entirely.

Some of us live long enough and are of a temperament to resent old age. I recall having such resentment and then having to come to terms with it, though the resentment remains and is encouraged every time I need help with anything I used to handle ably alone. However, as one acquaintance put it when someone told him he was getting older, “I don’t know anyone going the other way.” But this other fellow and I are doing our best to accommodate the realization, we are not trying to punish others for what is after all only a process where our physical bodies are succumbing to age. We can be grateful neither of us have any encroaching Alzheimer, though there is a lot of clutter. Still, why should anyone old enough to know better commit young people to the wars of old men? Which brings me back to the Ouija Board. No harm as entertainment, the harm is taking such things seriously and trying to force others to do likewise. But the disquieting question to my mind, a question I consider a legitimate one, is whether Bush, Cheney, and Rove consulted a Ouija Board whether to invade Iraq, and now doing the same thing about the question of whether to nuke Iran?