Ouija Board, Spirit Board or Talking Board, Just a Harmless Game?
Ghost/Paranormal
Tuesday 18th, January 2022
From China around 1100 AD mentioned in documents from the Song Dynasty automatic writing has mentions in the form of 'fuji' (planchette writing), planchette writing was used in necromancy and in communication with the dead but was to only be used under supervision. Planchette writing was forbidden by the Qing Dynasty. There are other references to talking boards in the world of spiritualism to communicate with the dead.
In 1890 in Baltimore, Maryland is where the name Ouija was created. A man named Elijah Bond came up with the idea of using a planchette with a board that had the alphabet printed on it and on the 28th of May 1890 Bond filed the patent which went on to be credited for the creation of the Ouija board.
There is a lot of mixed feelings when it comes to Ouija boards and their use, some people are very quick to say it's 100% communication with the spirit world while others are very quick to shut it down and say it's just a board game and anything that happens is created in the mind of the user.
The Catholic Church from day one have called out Ouija boards as dangerous and that no one should use them as the board opens the door to demonic spirits, it's said that demonic spirits, like humans, can lie, cheat and deceive the users of a Ouija board. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 2116, it explicitly forbids any practice of divination (seeking information from supernatural sources) which includes the usage of Ouija boards.
The scientific take on the Ouija board is that it's the result of the ideomotor phenomenon. The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon where a person makes motions unconsciously, this in turn is said to almost reinforce the Ouija board user's belief that an unseen entity is moving the planchette.
A professor of neurology Terence Hines, in his book Pseudoscience and the Paranormal said, "The planchette is guided by unconscious muscular exertions like those responsible for table movement. Nonetheless, in both cases, the illusion that the object (table or planchette) is moving under its own control is often extremely powerful and sufficient to convince many people that spirits are truly at work ... The unconscious muscle movements responsible for the moving tables and Ouija board phenomena seen at seances are examples of a class of phenomena due to what psychologists call a dissociative state. A dissociative state is one in which consciousness is somehow divided or cut off from some aspects of the individual's normal cognitive, motor, or sensory functions.".
It is said that once you open a session with a Ouija board you need to close the session and say goodbye otherwise the spirit that you have supposedly contacted can linger around and won't leave.
It's said that Ouija comes from the French word 'oui' and the German word 'ja', both mean "yes".
In 1890 in Baltimore, Maryland is where the name Ouija was created. A man named Elijah Bond came up with the idea of using a planchette with a board that had the alphabet printed on it and on the 28th of May 1890 Bond filed the patent which went on to be credited for the creation of the Ouija board.
There is a lot of mixed feelings when it comes to Ouija boards and their use, some people are very quick to say it's 100% communication with the spirit world while others are very quick to shut it down and say it's just a board game and anything that happens is created in the mind of the user.
The Catholic Church from day one have called out Ouija boards as dangerous and that no one should use them as the board opens the door to demonic spirits, it's said that demonic spirits, like humans, can lie, cheat and deceive the users of a Ouija board. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 2116, it explicitly forbids any practice of divination (seeking information from supernatural sources) which includes the usage of Ouija boards.
The scientific take on the Ouija board is that it's the result of the ideomotor phenomenon. The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon where a person makes motions unconsciously, this in turn is said to almost reinforce the Ouija board user's belief that an unseen entity is moving the planchette.
A professor of neurology Terence Hines, in his book Pseudoscience and the Paranormal said, "The planchette is guided by unconscious muscular exertions like those responsible for table movement. Nonetheless, in both cases, the illusion that the object (table or planchette) is moving under its own control is often extremely powerful and sufficient to convince many people that spirits are truly at work ... The unconscious muscle movements responsible for the moving tables and Ouija board phenomena seen at seances are examples of a class of phenomena due to what psychologists call a dissociative state. A dissociative state is one in which consciousness is somehow divided or cut off from some aspects of the individual's normal cognitive, motor, or sensory functions.".
It is said that once you open a session with a Ouija board you need to close the session and say goodbye otherwise the spirit that you have supposedly contacted can linger around and won't leave.
It's said that Ouija comes from the French word 'oui' and the German word 'ja', both mean "yes".
