Before proceeding I strongly urge you to read and hear the 10/20/13 seance transcript and video regarding the “Buddhist exorcism” the audience and I attempted to conduct in an effort to help “V,” the spirit of a 2-year-old toddler, escape and pass through the door to Heaven in accordance with the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
During the next show on 11/2/13 I was happy not to have heard from V, as it hopefully meant our so-called exorcism was successful and she moved forward.
Boy was I wrong. The following (and final) show on 11/3/13 left me completely floored. This is one of those good Ouija board stories. No possessed kittens, no dire warnings of doom, but a truly positive and spiritual experience. The Ouija board at its best. Read on…
During the seance at the show’s climax audience volunteers Joe and Steve personed the board while I stood aside and asked most of the questions as usual. I stress that I was not the one touching the board and that Joe and Steve were total strangers to each other. Immediately upon my asking, “Is anyone there?” it shot to V and refused to move. My heart sank. My exorcism attempt had been a failure.
ME: V, is that you?
YES
You’re still here?
YES
Holy cow…wow. (Neither Joe nor Steve were at the previous shows when the Buddhist exorcism occurred so this was coming completely out of left field). Okay, V, just to make sure it’s really you, do you know me?
YES
Holy cow… (I sought confirmation) Okay, we did something together last time. What was it?
EXORCISM
Wow…that means the Buddhist exorcism failed. V’s still here. Dammit.
HELP … HELP
What do we do, what do we do? … (seeking further confirmation based on descriptions of the Bardo in the Tibetan Book of the Dead) V, do you see a door with a bright blue light shining through it?
YES
Did you hear everything I read aloud last time from the Tibetan Book of the Dead?
YES
Then why didn’t you walk through the door?!
SCARED
Are there scary-looking monsters between you and the door trying to keep you out of it?
YES … BAD
Tibetan Buddhists call these Wrathful Deities. Okay, listen to me, V. I know they look scary but they are not evil. They are not demons. You have to go through them. I know they look like monsters but they can’t hurt you. They’re just manifestations of your own bad stuff. Just take off running and dart through them until you get through the door. Okay?
NO
Okay, what if we all stay here with you until you run through? Joe, Steve and I will count to 3 and then you run like heck through them. Okay?
NO … SCARED
Sheesh, she’s only 2 years old. What can we do, guys? V,would you like to speak with us electrically?
YES
(At that I crossed the room and fired up the P-Sb7 spirit box as usual and then returned to the Ouija board)
V, will it help if we pray for you? Would you like us to do that?
YES … PRAY … JOE
You want Joe to pray for you?
YES … TREAD AGAIN JOE … JOE … AGAIN …
What do you mean Joe again? I don’t think Joe knows you.
JOE
If Joe prays will you run through the door for us?
YES
Joe, are you up for it?
(Joe nodded. I touched both his and Steve’s shoulders to complete the circle as they were both already touching each other via the planchette. Joe bowed his head and silently prayed as the planchette stopped dead center. Silence. I don’t know to whom Joe prayed or what he said; that’s his business. Ditto Steve. Speaking for myself I prayed to the Lord Shiva, or as the Tibetan Buddhists call him, Mahakala. He’s the Lord of Time, or Death, or the Finite Physical World Which Must One Day Pass Away, depending on how you want to view it. In fact, my pre-show music is Tibetan monks singing a chant invoking Mahakala. My hope is that I am inviting him to preside over my show. But that’s just me, you worship your own gods. Welcome to my world. After about a minute of silence Joe raised his head.)
Are you done, Joe? (Joe nodded) Okay, V, time to run. All together, guys.
ALL: One, two, three, run!
A few moments of silence. We watched the board apprehensively to see the response, hoping for some kind of positive sign … Finally the planchette moved again, creaking slowly down the board and seeming to sigh. It floated gently down to GOODBYE and then took a sharp left turn pointing directly across the board at him. It inched steadily toward him, drifting until the front foot fell off the edge of the board onto his lap. We stopped.
Joe looked up at me, near tears. I felt the same way. He confided that his father had been a clergyman and he had grown up in an extremely religious Christian home. Perhaps that’s what V meant when she asked him to “tread again.” She needed a prayer to Jesus. Why not, I reasoned with Joe? She’s probably not a Buddhist, had probably never heard of the Tibetan Book of the Dead before me so it meant nothing to her (even though, I must point out, she agreed 100% with my description of the Bardo in terms of what she was seeing). If she needs a prayer to Jesus to give her strength to run past the wrathful deities then so be it, good for her.
First time I’ve conducted a Ouija session that ended in a prayer, much less ended my show with a prayer. Life is full of magic and meaning if you’ll only open your eyes. All 3 of them.
You’re not done yet, gentle reader. Seance video and transcript with comments below. The raw footage is 8 minutes. I have cut it down here to the best 90 seconds or so of highlights:
Buddha no … Now a different way. (They’re telling us to try something a little different for V.)
Remember again. (V herself talking directly to Joe in sync with her insistence on the Ouija board that he “tread again.”)
[Agonized moan.] (Forget your Disney Halloween record, this is what a real ghostly moan sounds like; perhaps even one of the Tibetan Wrathful Deities V was so frightened of darting past.)
Love. (I’ll take this as a word of encouragement that we were on the right track with our otherworldly rescue mission.)
Died. (Yep it’s stating the obvious but I think it’s referring specifically to my explanation to Joe and Steve at the Ouija board about how in the 10/20/13 session V had told us she had been killed by her mother, wanted to find her mother, but that her mother had also died and V couldn’t locate her.)
Scary til the end. (Direct reference to the Wrathful Deities menacing V, and apparently all of us when we die. I stress that in the Buddhist tradition these are manifestations of our own negative traits and not to be feared. We must run through them as a way of conquering them and leaving them behind en route to our next existence).
Child funeral. (One of the other observing spirits telling us more about V and her short, tragic life.)
Is he scared? (Ha, they could be referring to any of the 3 of us men at the board. I know I was shaking in my shoes.)
Maybe you could pray? (A direct interjection to our conversation amongst ourselves on how best to proceed.)
Prays good. (A reference to Joe as he prayed. He indeed “prays good.” Or it could be Praise good which also makes sense here.)
Jeffrey.
Come inside. (I’ll interpret this as someone calling V through the door; perhaps her long-sought mom?)
There’s nothing, V. (More words of encouragement to V from the other spirits gathered, telling her not to fear the monsters).
They’re sinful. (The monsters themselves are sinful, they represent one’s own sins. This is an explanation to V of the monsters.)
See V gone. (She’s off and running!)
She is darting. (Darting in and out of the monsters just as I cajoled her to do.)
Dead people run! (This perhaps answers one of my questions about all this. Why are all these dead people standing around encouraging V to go through the door but not going through it themselves? I don’t know. They’re scared? They were so bad in their past life that they dread their next incarnation? OR … these encouraging words in this session aren’t coming from ghosts at all but helpful spirits, or angels if you wish, urging all of them onward to a happy conclusion. And perhaps indeed some of the other 12 Synagogue Saints did take this opportunity to run through the monsters along with V and they’re now long gone from 2015 S. 4th Street.)
You, Joe. (A thank you spoken right in sync with the planchette moving into his lap at the session’s end; a seeming action of gratitude.)
Boneyards‘ 11-show run is now complete. We hope to rise from the ground again in 2014 after the spring thaw.
