Peruvian School Closes After Ouija Board Session Summons Spirits
Ouija boards can be pretty divisive – some consider them a toy, while others vehemently believe they can invoke spirits from the other side. But even if you fall within the former belief, some bizarre news out of Peru has locals believing in demonic possession from the use of a Ouija board and a book of black magic at a remote university.
The San José de Saramuro school, a local college in a jungle town three hours outside of Iquitos, shut down after 27 students became hysteric from Ouija spiritism, according to Peruvian news organization RPP Noticias. The occult grimoire was brought into school by one teacher’s daughter for the unexpectedly dark show and tell.
According to reports, teachers heard screams from the classroom before finding students writhing around on the floor, unable to form coherent sentences. Word spread around school that students were possessed by a demonic force. Parents brought their kids to churches until they calmed down and their possession subsided, and the school decided to close its doors for a week.
Now, let’s give these kids the benefit of the doubt, but is there a possibility this may have been a concerted effort to get out of school for a week? Or maybe something along the lines of a senior prank?
This is especially plausible when you consider the fact that a similar event occurred just two years ago at another school in Peru, in a near-identical situation; girl brings Ouija board to school, tries to contact dead spirits thought to be buried in a mass grave below school, mass hysteria ensues, demonic possession blamed.
But in this 2016 case, students reported hallucinations of a “tall man in black with a beard” chasing them and, in some cases, strangling them. In videos aired on a Peruvian news channel, one can see students convulsing, crying, and screaming en masse, as first responders and fellow students try to calm them. According to reports, the school brought in doctors, priests, holy men, and anyone with a modicum of expertise in these situations to quell the chaos, while parents, again, took their children to churches until they calmed down.
And while this too could be the product of collusion amongst a group of teens wanting to play hooky, there is also a paranormal phenomenon in which people report seeing shadow people, or a Black Hat Man, who attempts to strangle them. Could there be a connection?
This same shadowy apparition was reportedly seen in a Malaysian school, shortly after it was the Peruvian incident in 2016. In this case, not only were students privy to sightings of the terrifying entity, but even teachers corroborated their sightings, saying they felt a “heavy” or “supernatural” presence.
Cases like these are often labelled as instances of mass hysteria – a collective behavior in which one person’s hallucinations, real or contrived, can make others believe they are seeing or feeling the same thing without there actually being any physical or real stimulus. This sets off a chain reaction in which some part of our brain makes us go along with the crowd and become panicked without any realistic foundation.
Could this be a case of mass hysteria or is there a supernatural phenomenon at play haunting these students through a Ouija medium?
For more on the spiritism surrounding Ouija boards watch this episode of Beyond Belief with expert Karen A. Dahlman:
About the Author
The Many Faces of Wicca and Witchcraft
Forget your mid-century modern, sexy housewife witch — a submissive Hollywood sorceress who denies her powers for her mortal mate. She and her ilk, including the diabolical femme fatale, a temptress archetype, eternally scheming to lead good men to damnation (think Morgan le Fay of the King Arthur legends), are products of centuries of fantasy and propaganda — all facets of female “original sin” by default.
Other stereotypes, such as Shakespeare’s hags muttering over a bubbling cauldron, are equally fictitious, though likely derived from elderly “wise women” archetypes; village healers, counselors, and keepers of women’s’ secrets.
Today’s witch, or Wiccan, may appear as a cookie-baking British grandmother who, at Beltane, can be found dancing “skyclad” with her coven in the forest. You may also meet a feminist and environmental activist like Starhawk, author of the classic The Spiral Dance, a modern sourcebook on Goddess-based neopaganism. Or a young housewife and mother blogging about Wiccan parenting.
