To Ouija, Or Not To Ouija
One of my favorite haunted hotels has a ouija board that they keep handy for guests who want to borrow it during their stay. I've always been on the fence about those things. On the one hand, it's nothing more than cardboard and plastic, manufactured by a board-game company. On the other, its use is supposed to open a portal to the "other side". The part about opening the portal has kept me away from the ouija.
I had a guest touring our home last weekend who had used the hotel's ouija board, and it gave them all kinds of things - names, messages, etc. My wife asked if they'd done anything special in the way of opening and closing the session, which they hadn't. Now, I'm certainly no expert on the subject 'cause like I said - as a general rule, I say away from ouija boards. I did run across a not-so-pleasant account using one, though. Check it out at:
http://www.rense.com/general70/ouija.htm
I had a guest touring our home last weekend who had used the hotel's ouija board, and it gave them all kinds of things - names, messages, etc. My wife asked if they'd done anything special in the way of opening and closing the session, which they hadn't. Now, I'm certainly no expert on the subject 'cause like I said - as a general rule, I say away from ouija boards. I did run across a not-so-pleasant account using one, though. Check it out at:
http://www.rense.com/general70/ouija.htm
posted by mitchel at 12:34 PM - 
3 Comments:
Hi
Came across this article quite by chance - or was it?
My work concerning psychic development and R & D for a company called Haunting Breaks has led me to study this subject matter in depth!
I attach below a brief historical description of the Ouija Board and would just like to add that personally I have only ever once attempted communication with any other realm using this method! Once was enough as my experience was extremely unpleasant and unnerving! Whether one believes that the affects are purely psychokenetic or influenced from another energy source, the results according to my research are nearly always the same - NEGATIVE!!
Last point- Although Haunting Breaks do not use Ouija Boards they do encourage their guests to take part in practical dowsing, table-tipping and glass divination exercises - all done in the best possible haunted inns, castles, hotels, in the UK and abroad!
Check us out!! www.hauntingbreaks.co.uk
HISTORY OF THE OUIJA BOARD
In 1853, a French Spiritualist named M. Planchette invented a device that could do much more than tap on the table. The “planchette” was a small, heart-shaped table with pencils attached to its legs.
However, a short time later, another invention would come along that could be used by everyone. No experience was required and no real psychic skills were needed. This new device would revolutionize the Spiritualist movement and have an impact that still resounds today. The Ouija board was born.
Shortly after the planchette came to America, a cabinet and coffin maker from Maryland named E.C. Reiche created a new method of communicating with the dead. He devised a wooden lap tray with the letters of the alphabet arranged in two lines across the center of the board. Below these letters, he placed the numbers 1-10 and the words YES and NO in each lower corner of the board. He used the planchette with his board but removed the pencil tips and placed wooden pegs on the bottom of it. In this way, the planchette was free to move about the board.
It was always believed that Reiche named his board the "Ouija" because the name represented the French and German words for “yes” (oui and ja) but this was not the case. He named it that because he believed that the word "Ouija" was actually Egyptian for luck. Needless to say, it's not, but since he claimed to receive the word from a spirit on the board, the name stuck.
But Reiche was more interested in spirits than making money and he sold the invention to his friend, Charles Kennard, who soon founded the Kennard Novelty Co. with borrowed money and began producing the first commercial Ouija boards around 1886. The first patent for a "talking board" was filed on May 28, 1890 and listed Charles Kennard and William H. A. Maupin, both of Baltimore, as the assignees.
The Ouija Board was anything but a curse to Fuld's company though. It became the most successful talking board manufacturer of all time, selling millions of boards as well as other toys and games. Fuld had created a new industry with the Ouija board, which he claimed to have invented himself. He started the apocryphal tales of the naming of the board (using oui and ja) and claimed many of his successful sales plans came from the board itself.
His heirs maintained the company until 1966, when they sold out to Parker Brothers. This company, also known for their success with toys and especially board games, produced not only reproductions of the Fuld board but also made a deluxe wooden edition of the board for a time. They hold all of the patents and trademarks to the board today and they still produce it in large numbers. In spite of the fact that it is now sold in toy stores, it remains a near duplicate (albeit a more cheaply made one) of the Spiritualist board that was sold many years ago.
USING A TALKING BOARD
The Talking Board is perhaps the most controversial method of spirit communication, mostly because it can be used by anyone and requires no special powers to navigate. This may be why most psychics discourage the use of the board. It enables the average person to produce “medium-like” effects without a psychic actually being present.
Regardless, the boards have been both condemned and praised in equal amounts as a way to communicate with the spirits and as a direct link to the dark side. Many people ask if these boards are dangerous, but I think that this depends on the person. In all honestly, I can’t offer many clear-cut observations on the power of talking boards because my own experimentations with them have been uneven (at best). When asked, I usually just tell people that they probably shouldn’t mess with it unless they are prepared to handle whatever consequences may come up. However, I can offer instructions on the best way to use the board (should you wish to try it) and you can decide for yourself if you are actually talking to spirits or if you are merely taking part in an interesting experiment in psychic phenomena.
The board should be used by at least two persons at a time and can be placed on the laps of the sitters, or on a small table within easy reach of everyone. The sitters place their fingers lightly on the edges of the planchette, being careful not to push down too hard.
Once the session begins, it is recommended that the sitters invite a spirit to come through and speak to them. The sitters are advised to add that they wish to communicate with a “willing” spirit. The reason for this is that it’s been suggested that negative spirits will try to come through and confuse the sitters. For this reason, it’s best to state up front what you are looking for from the session.
Then, the questions should be asked and repeated in a slow and deliberate manner. Only one question should be asked at a time, and by a single person, to avoid confusion. The answers to the questions will be theoretically spelled out using the planchette.
How it works
But how does it work? Many feel that the answers provided by the board are simply the unconscious movements made by the people touching the pointer. If this is true, then the board is operated by nothing more than the power of suggestion. But how can we explain the accounts of boards providing information that none of the sitters could have possibly have known?
On that note, it has been suggested that the Ouija is actually powered by the psychic portions of the human mind, spelling out answers to questions either by precognition, telepathy or unknowing communication with spirits. By the latter, the board would be a mystical tool that is guided by the sitter’s unconscious movements, which are in turn manipulated by the spirits. On the other side of the same coin, many researchers use the Ouija as a way to experiment with the effects of psychokinesis, noting the movement of the planchette as it is propelled by the human mind.
Some people believe that it isn’t that complicated though. They believe that the planchette is actually moved by the direct force of spirits, guiding the hands of the sitters. The Spiritualists believed this, as do some ghost hunters today, feeling that the Ouija is an important tool in spirit contact, both good and bad.
Ouija boards are just toys. I can't believe people are so superstitious. I've played with them before. Even when I was a kid I knew it was just a game.
In some ways I agree with Mark - like I said in my original post, it's cardboard and plastic, and something that you can buy at most toystores.
The questions that I have come from the way that people use them; whether its a board game version, or a hand-made version handed down through generations, I wonder if it isn't the mindset of the people using the ouija that (for lack of a better term) opens the portal to the "other side".
And maybe there is no portal - perhaps it's just the subconscious of the people working the planchette that pushes it around to give answers.
I honestly don't know... but from my experiences I know that ghosts are real, so I have to put some stock in the idea of the supernatural as a whole. And that said, ouija boards make me a little apprehensive, toys or not.
Just my 2 cents, of course! :)
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