It’s a dark and stormy night. A group of friends are huddled around a table in a room lit only by candlelight. There’s a board with writing on it on the table, and in the center of the board a triangle shaped planchette. The friends rest their fingertips on the planchette and ask a question. Suddenly, the planchette begins to move! Cue scary music.
The Ouija board has been around a lot longer than you might think. It’s believed to have been used as a form of divination by the Greeks before the time of Christ, and could also be found in the time of the Roman Emperor Valens in the fourth century. Historical documents from the Song Dynasty in China record the use of planchette writing as a form of divination in 1100 AD.
Fast forward to 1891 when a patent was granted to Elijah J Bond for the first modern Ouija board. The following year the rights to the Ouija board were purchased by William Fuld. It was regarded as an innocent parlor game unrelated to the occult until American Spiritualist Pearl Curran popularized its use as a divining tool during World War I. In 1966 the Parker Brothers purchased the rights to the Ouija board and shifted its manufacturing facilities to Salem, Massachusetts.
The purpose of the Ouija board is as a conduit to spirits you wish to communicate with. Typically the board is set on a table in the center of a group and everyone rests their fingertips lightly on the planchette. The spirits who are called upon to answer your questions move the planchette around the board to spell out the answers, letter by letter.
Some believe benevolent spirits are at work here, while others believe the Ouija board is a dangerous occult gateway that can lead to demonic possession. And of course there are those who believe it’s all complete bunkum.
There is, in fact, a scientific explanation for the mysterious movement of the Ouija board planchette – it’s called the ideomotor, which is simply a way for your body to talk to itself. The ideomotor effect is an involuntary, unconscious, physical movement. Your subconscious creates images and memories when you ask the board questions. Your body responds by causing the muscles in your hands and arms to move the planchette to the answers you unconsciously want to receive.
So technically, you are communicating with something mysterious – your subconscious mind. Psychologists believe that it may offer a link between the known and the unknown.
If you’d like to give it a try without going to the expense of buying one, you can easily make your own Ouija board. All you need is a smooth table or board to work from and small pieces of paper to write on. The best layout is to place the word yes at the top and the word no at the bottom.
The letters of the alphabet are placed in a circle starting with the letter A next to the word yes and continuing around until the final letter Z ends up on the other side of the word yes. The numbers from one to nine should be placed at the bottom next to the no.
Any glass will do for the planchette , although a wine glass is the most effective. The responses you get from the Ouija board will really depend on your attitude and commitment.
The Ouija board usually requires a minimum of two people to operate it. The two people should sit opposite each other and place the tip of only one finger on the glass. The fingertip should only gently touch the glass.
Someone starts by asking a simple question, such as "is there a spirit present?" If there is no response the question should continued to be asked. The glass eventually moves and answers the question. Once you have your first answer, you can take turns asking simple questions and awaiting the answers.
Once you become experienced at the Ouija board you will find the pace of responses coming from the glass will increase. In fact sometimes the glass will speed across the table at such great speeds it is almost impossible to keep up.
OUIJA BOARD TRIVIA:
The Ouija board ended up outselling the game of Monopoly in its first full year at Salem. Over two million copies of the Ouija board were shipped.
Aleister Crowley advocated the use of Ouija boards, and they played a major role in many of his magickal workings.
Poet James Merrill used a Ouija board for years, and even encouraged entrance of spirits into his body. He wrote the poem The Changing Light at Sandover with the help of a Ouija board. Before he died, he recommended people not to use the Ouija board.
Alice Cooper claims that an Ouija board suggested that he was the reincarnation of a 17th century witch with the name Alice Cooper, which is why he uses that name.
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