Board games that claim to connect people with the dead are being sold for £1 in supermarkets, with some Christians warning caution. 

Spirit boards (the Poundland version of Hasbro's Ouija board) are flat boards with numbers and letters on with a pointer, through which people have tried to contact the dead. 

Some Christians believe the game is nothing by itself but can lead to people getting interested in the demonic and occult practises, while others believe it is dangerous because people can contact a 'spiritual realm' - but instead of hearing from the dead they can invite demons into their life or cause psychological damage. 

Poundland is selling its Spirit Board for £1 under its Creepy Town brand. 

Michael Thomas, chairman of the Reachout Trust, which aims to equip churches in talking to people with an interest in spiritualism, told Premier: "We are meant to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. We're meant to be obedient to God. And once you start messing about with Ouija, particularly Ouija of all the occult practices out there, you're completely losing control of what's happening with you.

"There's a text in in 1 Timothy 4:1, where Paul writes that the Spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. And that word 'devoting' is really important. We're meant to be devoted to God. So, if we're devoting ourselves to something like this, then actually what we're breaking is the first commandment, 'Have no gods before me'."

Matt Arnold, who runs a website called 'Ghosts, Ghouls and God', told Premier why he thinks they're in a cheap supermarket now: "Over the past hundred years, we've had a few instances where there've been large scale deaths in society where people haven't been able to say farewell to deceased loved ones, especially when they were abroad when they died in foreign fields of World War One and Two. 

"The trouble is that the church has been reluctant to engage in the theology of the dead...and that is why in the 20th Century, you had the rise of spiritualistic practices of contacting the dead, either through mediums or DIY divination objects like the Ouija board. And because of the Covid situation that we've got at the moment, there are a lot of people who are having to say farewell to their loved ones, just as they go into an ambulance and that's the last time they see them alive.

"So as a result of them not being able to properly say goodbye, there are times when you would expect the opportunity, I would say cynically being marketed as such, to provide a supposedly quick and easy way of saying farewell or finding out what granny or granddad, or whoever, wanted to say to you before they died."

He warned people against buying the board because of the psychological damage it could cause and said the Church needs to address people's questions about death. 

"How do we address the need that people have for engaging with a theology of the dead? What is what is the church's response?"

The supermarket told Premier: "Poundland is the home for Halloween and the Spirit Board is part of this year's extensive Halloween Decoration range.  

"We understand the spirits shook in disbelief when they were told it was only £1."

The product is restricted to over 18s and is labelled for adults only.