Midwest Preternatural Research
Old "Tech": The Ouija Board
by Loyd Auerbach
I feel it’s important to mention just a few words about the possible
use of Ouija Boards in case investigations. We don’t make use of Ouija
Boards in cases. But not for the reason one thinks.
There is nothing inherently evil or demonic about a Ouija Board. The
device itself is simply a patented form of a method of ostensible
spirit communication in common play during the latter 19th century.
People wishing to contact spirits would lay out cards with the alphabet
and numbers in a circle on a table. An overturned glass would be placed
in the center, and each sitter at the table would place a finger on the
glass.
They would ask questions and the glass would often move around to spell out answers.
But there was never any real hard evidence that spirits were directing the glass.
In fact, the glass and the Ouija Board’s pointer (planchette) generally
move because of something called the ideomotor response. If you’ve ever
used a pendulum, holding its chain or string, and made it move in a
particular way simply by thinking, then you’ve experienced the
ideomotor response. This is a result of unconsciously driven minor
muscle movements. In other words, the unconscious/subconscious mind
makes the things move. Not spirits.
The planchette was a stand-alone device, with a pencil or pen inserted
in a hole at the front, thereby making it the front “leg.” It was used
both as a possible communication device with spirits (by spiritualists)
and by others attempting to do more creative automatic writing. [Note:
You can now buy a planchette with a hole for a pen or pencil, for
automatic writing. It's called GHOST WRITER]
Putting the planchette and a printed-on-a-board form of placing letters
out on a table allowed the “inventors” to patent the device. It was a
money-maker.
People who protest religious objections often do so because of one of two main reasons (though others are cited):
1. Using the Ouija Board allows demons, evil spirits and the like to
take control of the planchette and spell out messages that could be
“bad.”
2. Communicating with spirits is something the Bible says not to do, and some interpret it as a sin.
Well, as for the first, of course weird crap comes through the Ouija –
it taps the unconscious mind(s) of whoever is playing, and that can
lead to some strange (and often incoherent) stuff. Are your dreams that
literal and coherent? Same source of “info.”
As to the second, if you consider communication a sin, then you’d
better be following the other “sins” in the Bible – you know, you
should not be eating pork or shellfish, you should not be gambling,
greed is a sin, and so on. Do you follow ALL the no-nos of the Bible?
If not, think about how hypocritical this is.
Then there are the ghost hunters who are so emotionally against Ouija
Boards (not that I’m saying you should/should not use one in a case).
Doing EVP is more spirit communication than a Ouija Board because the
whole purpose of EVP is just that AND there’s no real alternative
(unless you want to include PK by the living on the recording device)
other than misinterpretation. With Ouija Boards, the more likely
alternative is the unconscious of one or more people whose fingers are
on the planchette at the time.
And why would using a Ouija Board be any more likely to bring in an evil spirit than a recorder?
If using a Ouija Board opens any gateways, doorways, etc. it’s because
of the Intention of the user(s) not the board itself. That means the
intention behind doing EVP, ITC or any spirit communication devices
will do the same. But it’s the Ouija Board that has gotten the bad rep.
In other words, unless you’re using a human intermediary (that’s what a
medium is) who can ostensibly regulate the communication, any method
used by someone who doesn’t have the experience or background is as
likely as any other to be problematic.
If, that is, you believe in “evil” as a force and/or “demons” as the
representation in the real world, something Science does not.
The real problem with Ouija Boards is that they have never been shown
to tap into spiritual sources*** – the messages, with rare exception,
don’t usually provide anything verifiable unknown to the player(s) that
can be laid in the lap of a deceased person. They have sometimes shown
that the unconscious mind of the users have access to information via
their own psychic abilities on some occasions.
They have been shown to tap into the unconscious.
***[Added Note: I was asked for a little explanation as to my seemingly definitive statement:
This is an issue of evidence vs "proof" -- we cannot really show that
any spirit communication is definitively from a spirit (spiritual), but
the anecdotal/observational evidence is huge in mediumship,
apparitional experiences and such. Though we have colleagues who still
stick with "It's Super-Psi."
With the Ouija, the evidence is incredibly sporadic and minimal, at
best. The quality of the information ostensibly from spirits has been
very low, from what I've seen (in literature, from colleagues and
otherwise) over the years. Whereas it's been very clear the unconscious
connection is present.]
The real dangers of using the Ouija Board surround taking the
communications literally. If the device allows the single user to tap
into his/her unconscious, the user should no more take the information
literally than one should take a dream literally.
Add other people to the use of the planchette at the same time, and
it’s next to impossible to figure out whose unconscious is putting out
the communication. So, if you shouldn’t take your own
unconsciously-derived communications literally, you should definitely
not take advice from someone else’s unconscious.
Then there’s always the possibility that someone using the board with
you is purposely moving the planchette to particular letters and
numbers (this is especially true when college students, teens and kids
are using them).
Today, there are boards with angels (which only connects to "angels" --
aren't "demons" fallen angels?) and hearts and other ”positive” imagery
on them, ostensibly to counteract the bad rap Ouija Boards have.
But in reality, keep two things in mind:
1. The Ouija Board taps the unconscious, NOT the spiritual.
2. The vast majority of outlets one can purchase a Ouija Board are toy
stores! Don’t take it any more seriously than any other toy or game,
and you’ll never have a problem with it.
And by the way, I've heard folks say that having a Ouija Board in one's
house is an open invite to evil spirits. To my knowledge, there's only
one Toys R Us store that's ostensibly haunted, yet I'm guessing ALL of
them stock the glow-in-the-dark Ouija or the new pink Ouija Board (for
little girls!).
And I own three official Ouija Boards and six home-made (and beautiful)
spirit talking boards, and a Hellboy Talking Board -- no ghosts in my
house (except for occasional visits by Cayte, the Blue Lady of the Moss
Beach Distillery -- but she's invited).
Finally, as a note of history: With the exception of some very, very
few voices in the new age/occult community and even fewer in the
religion arena (and there, typically religious fundamentalists), the
Ouija Board was considered just a game until the movie THE EXORCIST
came out.
Unfortunately, because of the religious footing of the film, believing
what the movie said about Ouija Boards is par for the course (since the
book was “based” on several “true” stories, combined). But then, if you
take your lead about the boards from that film, I guess you might
believe people’s heads spin around.
Hey – anyone (besides me) tried an Etch-a-Sketch yet?