Ouija

Ouija board

A Ouija board (from the French and German words for "yes", oui and ja, and usually pronounced /ˈwiːdʒiː/ in English), also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with letters, numbers, and other symbols, supposedly used to communicate with spirits. It uses a planchette (small heart-shaped piece of wood) or movable indicator to indicate the spirit's message by spelling it out on the board during a séance. The fingers of the séance participants are placed on the planchette, which then moves about the board to spell out messages.

Ouija is a trademark for a talking board currently sold by Parker Brothers.^[1] It has become a trademark that is often used generically to refer to any talking board.

Following its commercial introduction by businessman Elijah Bond in the late 1890s, the Ouija board was regarded as a harmless parlor game unrelated to the occult until American Spiritualist Pearl Curran popularized its use as a divining tool during World War I.^[2] Mainstream Christian religions and some occultists have associated use of the Ouija board with the threat of demonic possession and some have cautioned their followers not to use Ouija boards.^[3]

While Ouija believers feel the paranormal or supernatural is responsible for Ouija's action, it may be more parsimoniously explained by unconscious movements of those controlling the pointer, a psychological phenomenon known as the ideomotor effect.^[4][5][6] Despite being debunked by the efforts of the scientific community, Ouija remains popular among many young people.^[2]

History

Wang Chongyang, founder of the Quanzhen School, depicted in Changchun Temple, Wuhan

China

One of the first mentions of the automatic writing method used in the Ouija board is found in China around 1100 B.C., and it is first recorded in historical documents of the Song Dynasty. The method was known as fuji 扶乩 "planchette writing". The use of planchette writing as a means of ostensibly contacting the dead and the spirit-world continued, and, albeit under special rituals and supervisions, was a central practice of the Quanzhen School, until it was forbidden by the Qing Dynasty.^[7] Several entire scriptures of the Daozang are supposedly works of automatic planchette writing. Similar methods of mediumistic spirit writing have been widely practiced in Ancient India, Greece, Rome and medieval Europe.^[8]

Toy

During the late 1800s, planchettes were widely sold as a novelty. The businessmen Elijah Bond and Charles Kennard had the idea to patent a planchette sold with a board on which the alphabet was printed. The patentees filed on May 28, 1890 for patent protection and thus had invented the first Ouija board. Issue date on the patent was February 10, 1891. They received U.S. Patent 446,054. Bond was an attorney and was an inventor of other objects in addition to this device. An employee of Kennard, William Fuld took over the talking board production and in 1901, he started production of his own boards under the name "Ouija".^[9] Kennard claimed he learned the name "Ouija" from using the board and that it was an ancient Egyptian word meaning "good luck." When Fuld took over production of the boards, he popularized the more widely accepted etymology, that the name came from a combination of the French and German words for "yes".^[10] The Fuld name would become synonymous with the Ouija board, as Fuld reinvented its history, claiming that he himself had invented it. The strange talk about the boards from Fuld's competitors flooded the market and all these boards enjoyed a heyday from the 1920s through the 1960s. Fuld sued many companies over the "Ouija" name and concept right up until his death in 1927. In 1966, Fuld's estate sold the entire business to Parker Brothers, who continues to hold all trademarks and patents. About ten brands of talking boards are sold today under various names.^[9]

Use in literature

Ouija boards have been the source of inspiration for literary works, used as guidance in writing, or as a form of channeling literary works. As a result of Ouija boards becoming popular in the early 20th century, by the 1920s many "psychic" books were written of varying quality often initiated by Ouija board use.^[11]

More recently, Sylvia Plath's poem Ouija was influenced by the experiments she and Ted Hughes made with a board. Her Dialogue over a Ouija Board, written in 1957, incorporates the text of one of the sessions.

Author John G. Fuller used a Ouija board in his research for his 1976 book The Ghost of Flight 401. As he was skeptical of its effectiveness, he worked with a medium and claimed they both contacted Don Repo, the flight engineer on the flight which crashed into the Everglades en route to Miami. According to Fuller, the information divined described facts that neither he nor the medium previously knew.

Pulitzer Prize winning poet James Merrill used a Ouija board and recorded what he claimed were messages from a number of deceased persons. He combined these messages with his own poetry in The Changing Light at Sandover (1982).

Author Thomas Disch, in his book The Businessman: A Tale of Terror (1984), included a somewhat humorous scene where ghosts attempt to manipulate a Ouija board session to expose a murderer. However, since the ghost attempting to influence the board is dyslexic, they are unable to identify the killer.

William Peter Blatty, in his novel, The Exorcist, used the Ouija Board as the device by which Regan, the possessed child, became open to demonic infestation.

Notable users

G. K. Chesterton used a Ouija board. Around 1893 he had gone through a crisis of skepticism and depression, and during this period Chesterton experimented with the Ouija board and grew fascinated with the occult.^[12]

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 that people not use Ouija boards.^[13]

Former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi claimed under oath that, in a séance held in 1978 with other professors at the University of Bologna, the "ghost" of Giorgio La Pira spelled the name of the street where Aldo Moro was being held by the Red Brigades in a Ouija. According to Peter Popham of The Independent: "Everybody here has long believed that Prodi's ouija board tale was no more than an ill-advised and bizarre way to conceal the identity of his true source, probably a person from Bologna's seething far-left underground whom he was pledged to protect."^[14]

In 1994, In London, convicted murderer Stephen Young's lawyers lodged an appeal against his conviction after his learning that four of the jurors had conducted a Ouija board seance and had "contacted" the murdered man, who had named Young as his killer.^[15]

Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous used the Ouija board to contact spirits.^[16] His wife said that he would get messages directly without even using the board.^[17] For a while, his participation in AA was deeply affected by his involvement with the Ouija board. Wilson claimed that he received the twelve step method directly from a spirit without the board and wrote it down.^[18]

On the July 25, 2007 edition of the paranormal radio show Coast to Coast AM, host George Noory attempted to carry out a live Ouija board experiment on national radio despite the strong objections of one of his guests, Jordan Maxwell, and with the encouragement of his other guests, Dr. Bruce Goldberg, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, and Jerry Edward Cornelius. In the days and hours leading up to the show, unfortunate events kept occurring to Noory's friends and family as well as some of his guests, but these events would likely be considered coincidences. After recounting a near-death experience in 2000 and noting bizarre events taking place, Noory canceled the experiment.^[19]

Dick Brooks of the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, uses a Ouija board as part of a paranormal and seance presentation.^[20]

The Mars Volta wrote their album Bedlam in Goliath based on their alleged experiences with a Ouija board. According to their story (written for them by a fiction author, Jeremy Robert Johnson), Omar Rodriguez Lopez purchased a Ouija board while traveling in Jerusalem. At first the board provided a story which became the theme for the album. Strange events allegedly related to this activity occurred during the recording of the album: the studio flooded, one of the album's main engineers had a nervous breakdown, equipment began to malfunction, and Cedric Bixler-Zavala's foot was injured. Following these bad experiences the band buried the Ouija board.^[21]

Other musically related uses: Early press releases stated that Vincent Furnier's stage and band name "Alice Cooper" was agreed upon after a session with a Ouija board, during which it was revealed that Furnier was the reincarnation of a 17th century witch with that name.^[22] Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of The Killers, believes his death will be associated with the number 621 (which is also his birthday, June 21) from having used a Ouija board.^[23] The Fiery Furnaces said that they used a Ouija board to write lyrics for their album Widow City.^[24]

Other types of boards

Other iterations of the board exist in Asia. The Japanese version is known as "Savios board," eponymous of the entity who is said to communicate with the user. (The horror film Kokkuri-san is based on this.) The Vietnamese version is known as "Bàn cầu cơ" ("heart" invocation board). These are all home-made, with words written on paper in local languages. The planchette is replaced by other items, most commonly a pen, a dish (Chinese condiment saucer) or a coin. It is often played by inquisitive teenagers. Sinister consequences of using such 'Angel' boards appear in episodes of the television anime series xxxHolic, Great Teacher Onizuka, and Ghost Hunt.

Various horror movies have been made about the consequences of playing with these incarnations of the board, most notably by the Hong Kong and South Korea movie industry. One of the more well-known movies to date is the 2004 South Korean film Bunshinsaba.

References

Books/Articles

• Cain, D. Lynn, "OUIJA - For the Record" 2009 ISBN 978-0-557-15871-3
• Carpenter, W.B.,"On the Influence of Suggestion in Modifying and directing Muscular Movement, independently of Volition", Royal Institution of Great Britain, (Proceedings), 1852, (12 March 1852), pp. 147–153.
• Cornelious, J. Edward, Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board. 2005 ISBN 1-932595-10-4 ^[25]
• Gruss, Edmond C., The Ouija Board: A Doorway to the Occult 1994 ISBN 0-87552-247-5
• Hunt, Stoker, Ouija: The Most Dangerous Game. 1992 ISBN 0-06-092350-4
• Hill, Joe, Heart-Shaped Box
• Murch, R., "A Brief History of the Ouija Board", Fortean Times, No.249, (June 2009), pp. 32–33.
• Schneck, R.D., "Ouija Madness", Fortean Times, No.249, (June 2009), pp. 30–37.

Footnotes

External links

Information on talking boards

• Museum Of Talking Boards
• Paranormality A-Z Paranormal Phenomena
• User anecdotes
• The Official Website of William Fuld and home of the Ouija board

Skeptics

• The Skeptics' Dictionary: Ouija
• An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural
• How does a Ouija board work? from The Straight Dope

Trade marks and Patents

• (1): Trade-Mark Registration: "Ouija" (Trademark no. 18,919; 3 February 1891: Kennard Novelty Company)
• (2): "Ouija or Egyptian Luck Board" (patent no.446,054; 10 February 1891: Elijah J. Bond — assigned to Charles W. Kennard and William H. A. Maupin)
• (3): "Talking-Board" (patent no.462,819; 10 November 1891: Charles W. Kennard)
• (4) "Game Apparatus" (patent no. 479,266: 19 July 1892: William Fuld)
• (5) "Game Apparatus" (patent no. 619,236: 7 February 1899: Justin F. Simonds)
• (6) "Ouija or Talking Board" (patent no.1,125,833; 19 January 1915: William Fuld)
• (7) "Design for the Movable Member of a Talking-Board" (patent no.D56,001; 10 August 1920: William Fuld)
• (8: "Design of Finger-Rest and Pointer for a Game" (patent no. D56,085; 10 August 1920: John Vanderkamp — assigned to Goldsmith Publishing Company)
• (9) "Message Interpreting Device" or "Psychic Messenger" (patent no.1,352,046; 7 September 1920: Frederick H. Black)
• (10) "Design for the Movable Member of a Talking-Board" (patent no.D56,001; 10 August 1920: William Fuld)
• (11) "Ouija Board" (patent no.D56,449; 26 October 1920: Clifford H. McGlasson)
• (12) "Psychic Game" (patent no.1,370,249; 1 March 1921: Theodore H. White)
• (13) "Ouija Board" (patent no.1,400,791; 20 December 1921: Harry M. Bigelow)
• (14) "Game Board" (patent no.1,422,042; 4 July 1922: John R. Donnelly)
• (15) "(Magnetic) Toy" (patent no.1,422,775; 11 July 1922: Leon Martocci-Pisculli)
• (16) "Psychic Instrument" (patent no.1,476,158; 4 December 1923: Grover C. Haffner)
• (17) "Game" (patent no.1,514,260; 4 November 1924: Alfred A. Rees)
• (18) "Amusement Device" (patent no.1,870,677; 9 August 1932: William A. Fuld)
• (19) "Amusement Device" (patent no.2,220,455; 5 November 1940: John P. McCarthy)
• (20) "Finger Pressure Actuated Message Interpreting Amusement Device" (patent no.2,511,377; 13 June 1950: Raymond S. Richmond)
• (21) "Message Device With Freely Swingable Pointer" (patent no.3,306,617; 28 February 1967: Thomas W. Gillespie)

Others

• "'Ouija board' appeal (against second guilty verdict) dismissed" — R. v. Young (1995)
• BBC video on Ouija Board
• Clare Randall haunted castle
• Ouija at the Open Directory Project