The Ouija

Jul 15, 2009 | No Comments | @andrewmarcec

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The Ouija board is something that most, if not all of us have experimented with at least once.  Many claim that through this board one is able to communicate with ancient spirits and gain knowledge of the past, present, and even future events.  The board is surrounded by controversy with organized religions claiming it is a gateway to hell, and the more scientific minds saying that it is all controlled by subconscious actions.  How did this board come into existence?  Is it different from any other sorts of divination techniques?  The answers to some of these questions may never be known, we can still learn a lot from this tool.

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The origins of the Ouija board go as far back as an ancient Chinese form of divination called “Fuji”, a form of spirit writing where a person used a stick to write characters in sand or incense ashes.  However there is also a theory that links the Ouija to Greece and the philosopher Pythagoras.  Around 540 b.c. he and his pupil, Philolaus, would conduct seances at a mystic table, moving on wheels, that moved toward signs.  Pythagoras would then interpret these readings to an audience claiming that they were revelations from an unseen world.  No matter which of those stories you would like to believe, there is no arguing that in the late 1800s Elijah Bond and his business partner Charles Kennard developed and patented the planchette that was sold with a boards that had the alphabet written on it.  The ownership of the board was then taken over by William Fund in 1901 who gave it the name “Ouija” (a combination of “oui” or yes in French, and “ja” or yes in German), and then sold again to Parker Brothers in 1966.

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The Ouija board, seen by most as a child’s toy, has always come under much scrutiny from religious and scientific organizations.  Many organized religions claim that by playing with the Ouija board, you open a portal to hell and invite the devil himself into your home.  This is due to the fact that the board was heavily used by Occult and spiritualist groups, most notable Alister Crowley.  This theory has further been ingrained into the public’s heads by Hollywood’s portrayal of the board.  Ouija is very normally used as the catalyst for unlocking evil, torturous spirits, or even the way that we communicate and anger already existing spirits.

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(Captain Howdy, that’s not very nice!)

The scientific community sees the board as a farce claiming that the players who hold the planchette are subconsciously creating the answers that they wish to hear from the “spirits” that live inside the board.  This is known as ideomotor action.  One famous test that furthers this theory was performed on “Penn and Teller: Bullshit!”, they gathered several unbiased participants in their study and asked questions to the late William Frawley, receiving very strong answers.  After the session the participants were then blindfolded and the board was turned 180 degrees without their knowledge.  The question and answer session then resumed, and when the planchette moved this time, it moved to blank areas on the board, where the participants thought the “Yes” or “No” sections were.

No matter what your viewpoint on the board is, this is a tool that should not be taken lightly in any sense.  Remember the board is used as a tool for divination, meaning that you are inviting something unseen to freely pass through, or make contact with you in order to provide you with insight.  Below are some simple rules to use before practicing with the Ouija…

  • NEVER use an Ouija board on a surface like a bed, dinner table, or in the bathroom.  These places are unclean, and you hold a greater chance of contacting an “evil” entity
  • Should you use the Ouija on a table such as a dinner table, be sure to clean the table thoroughly.  If you have access to a glass table use that.  This allows for only pure spirits to pass through.
  • Wear something silver, this is said to protect you from evil spirits.
  • Be polite!  Manners are important even to the dead.  Always say goodbye to a spirit when you are done…unless you want them to stick around.
  • MOST IMPORTANT…do not take everything the spirit says as truthful.  More sly spirits will claim to be who you wish to speak with, when they are really just a malicious spirit playing games.
  • NEVER as for physical signs of the spirit’s presence…also, never ask it to manifest.

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