Thor's Day: Something to it?

The King of Spades?

By Ed Rogers

There has been much ado about religion on "Thor’s Day." While here and there I have added my two cents, I have tried to stay out of the sure thinking that goes on by those for and those against.
    Is there a God? The non-believers say NO. The true believers say YES. I say I don’t know.
    I do not believe there is a God as depicted by the Bible, but that does not exclude the possibility that there could be something out there or over there that could be called God.
    The sixties were a time not only of upheaval, but also of searching. Young people were looking for their own truth. Having been lied to most of their life, they turned to drugs, religious cults, Ouija Boards, mediation, Indian folklore, and psychic powers...At least, these are the ones I tried.
    I had not given much thought to religion. I grew up in a household that did not belong to any Church. I was sent to Sunday School when I was little, but I went by myself. At some point I decided I wasn't going anymore and no one said I had to go, so that was that.

In 1966 I was at a friend’s house (let's call him Tom), with a girl I was living with at the time (Sally), when a couple who knew Tom showed up. Tom's wife (let’s call her Peg) had a Ouija Board, which she swore worked. Next thing I know I’m sitting next to the wife of the other couple (Mary). Neither Mary nor I had ever touched a Ouija Board. We started out asking simple, stupid questions, as I guess most people do who are pushed into doing something they don’t want to do—a cover for their uncomfortableness (my word).
    The little board we were resting our hands on began to move. It would go to yes and then to no, depending on our question. I asked Mary if she was moving the board and she said no, she thought I was. Which I wasn't.
    Then we started asking harder questions, some that neither of us knew the answer to.
    By this time the little board was moving so fast it was hard to keep in touch with it. It would slide along on its own power. Sally (my girlfriend), had a piece of paper and was writing down the letters the board pointed to. She would go back and mark them off to see what had been said. I know how crazy this sounds and I know all the studies that say there is nothing to it, but there the board was moving like lightning.

I guess at that point we all could have stopped for a good laugh and a drink, but I had one more question. “Who do you answer to?”
    The little board spelled out one word, “Lucifer.” I had never used that name in my life. The only name I ever had used was “The devil.” At that time I don’t think I even knew how to spell Lucifer. Anyway, I kept asking the Ouija Board questions about him (the board) and his boss.
    Remember, the board is still moving so fast we have no idea what it's saying until Sally breaks the letters into words. It said there was a great war coming and those who were against Lucifer would die.

That was when I started to argue with the board. I later told another friend this story and he said, “I believe you are the only person I know who would want to argue with the devil.”
    The back-and-forth went on for a while, and all at once the board shot back between Mary and me and hit the icebox so hard it left a small dent.
    But I was not finished with my argument, so I picked it up and came back to the table, but I couldn't get it to do anything. Peg (my friend Tom's wife) took the little board and she and Sally got it to work once more. Peg asked why it would not speak to me anymore and all it would say was, “He is my enemy.”
    I have never had a Ouija Board work for me again. There is no doubt in my mind, something moved that board and it sure as hell wasn't Mary or me.

Move ahead four years and in 1970, I was no longer with Sally. Another friend (Jack) and I were splitting the rent on a small house. We were smoking a lot of pot back then and reading one book after the other. Most of the stuff I read was non-fiction.
    Someone—can’t remember who—gave me a book titled: Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain. It was very interesting to read, especially while high. In the back of the book were some tests you could take to see if you were psychic. There were four cards with different signs, and we created a set of these later.
    But right then we wanted to try out this new thing, which at that time in history was very uncommon. We took four objects, a fork, a spoon, a wire scrub brush, and a lighter. As Jack, in another room, picked these things up I would call out what they were. When he picked up the scrub brush, I could feel the wire. That was when we stopped—it was time for some talk and a beer.
    I got very deep into this psychic thing. We contacted a hypnotist and things got a little crazy after that. I know you think it passed crazy a long time ago, but now it went into high gear. The hypnotist started inviting us to parties. It seemed that Jack could send, but he couldn't pick up a cold. He was there for free booze, chicks, and a fun party. The hypnotist—let's call him Larry—and I would put on a dog-and-pony act. Only it wasn’t an act. Some people would hold up the cards and I couldn’t see anything, then with the next person I would hit 7 or 9 out of 16. Anything over 5 is beyond chance.
    At a party one night Larry took a deck of cards and held them up one at a time to a young lady. I would tell him what it was, and if I was right it went into one pile, if wrong into the other pile. I got 36 out of 51 right. That is way beyond chance.

I had started to hypnotize myself to go to sleep at night. There seemed to be something just out of sight on my right side, and it seemed as though it was trying to take over the vision I had created and replace it with another. It became a game of will power, which I began to look forward to. Then one night a voice from somewhere in my head said, “All you have to do is lose once.”
    Real or not, it scared the hell out of me. To this day, I have never been hypnotized and have never played around with psychic crap again.
    This has been a long way around to just say, “There may be something out there!”
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Copyright © 2013 by Ed Rogers

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