Ouija board

 

Some people may baulk a little at having the Ouija board or Ouiji board under the science heading, however, it is a very physical piece of apparatus, and has even been used in scientific research.

The Ouija board, also known as a spirit board or talking board is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" (occasionally), and "goodbye", along with various symbols and graphics. It uses a small heart-shaped piece of wood or plastic called a planchette. Participants place their fingers on the planchette, and it is moved about the board to spell out words.  The planchette or pointer, is mounted on castors, which can slip about easily, and if two or more persons lay their fingers lightly on it, it will sometimes point from letter to letter making words and even sentences.

"Ouija" was trademarked by Hasbro, Inc., [an American company] which is somewhat nonsensical, since Ouija’s were used long before Hasbro ever saw the financial benefits in selling them. 

 

Ouijas, however, do not have to be made this way.  You can make a Ouija using cut out letters arranged in a large circle on a very slippy surface, and an upturned glass as the pointer.  It costs nothing and works just as well

Aims

The objective of the Ouija is to ‘get in touch with the other side’.  The problem is that you not only have no idea what ‘other side’ you are contacting, but also no control.  There may be some form of group telepathy causing it – there could be communication from spirit beings.  No self respecting Intelligence ever contacts people via a Ouija. 

At one time during the wars – first and second, as so many soldiers were killed, the Ouija became a method used by many an unscrupulous medium to convince people they were talking to their dead loved ones.  A medium is able to read minds, as such they can feed back whatever you want to hear.  It may have given comfort to some, in which case it did no harm, but some people paid a lot of money to have their minds read and be comforted.  And it was certainly no proof that the communicator was the dead person.

Dangers of the Ouija

According to Wikipedia

 

And the warnings are justified, as despite the fact that some people think of a Ouija board as some sort of game, it can result in communications that can greatly distress the people using the board. 

As one example.  When I was in the sixth form at school, a group of us decided we would have a go at using a Ouija device.  We made our own letters, placed them in a circle on a shiny surface and then used an upturned glass as the sliding mechanism.  Each of us placed a finger on the glass – very lightly.  Then we asked it questions. 

My friend Yvonne asked ‘will I ever marry?’ and the board answered ‘yes’. 

She then asked  ‘to whom’?  And the board then spelled out ‘doctor’.  So we all assumed she would marry a doctor.  But it continued to spell out ‘death’. 

A bit nervously Yvonne asked ‘whose death?’ and the board answered ‘husband’, then she asked ‘when?’ and it answered – 'at 50'.

It does not matter whether this was true or not, this fiddling around with the future meant that what had now been implanted in Yvonne’s poor little mind [and she was pretty sensitive and emotional at the best of times] was the idea that she would marry a doctor – meaning that she would subconsciously be looking for a candidate from then on-  and that she would always have in her head that she would watch him die at 50.

So those who warn against Ouija boards are right to do so. 

Observations

For iPad/iPhone users: tap letter twice to get list of items.

• Bishop Tikhon – Has a particularly harrowing experience with a Ouija board
• Black Sabbath - The Clearwell Castle seances
• Catherine Cavendish - Ouija - A Warning To The Curious...
• Dr Minot Judson Savage - Can Telepathy Explain ? – 05 Spirit communication
• Fawcett, Lt Colonel Percival Harrison - Fawcett used a Ouija board to help make tactical decisions on the battle-field
• Heywood, Rosalind - The Infinite Hive - If I had not driven with exaggerated care as you asked me to, I should have had no less than three major accidents today
• Heywood, Rosalind - The Infinite Hive - Using the Ouija board
• Laubscher, B J F - The secrets of Anna; ouiji boards, table lifting and tapping
• Laubscher, B J F – The artist who, when in need of inspiration, would put her hand on the planchette - Moenie bang wees vir die dood nie
• Marryat, Florence - The Spirit World – Hearing voices
• Mary Flewitt and the ghosts and poltergeists of her family home
• Sellers, Peter – Playing with Ouija boards in Ireland
• The Dangers of Communicating with ‘spirits’ via Automatic writing
• Tyrrell, G N M - Trance-Personalities – On telepathy [by the living but ill] as an explanation for trance communication
• Vaughan, Dr Alan - Experiments with a Ouija board, possessed by Nada
• Wereide, Professor Thorstein - The Trance Phenomena of Mrs Ingeborg
• Wushu - An illiterate man writes in a trance state