The Ouija Board. It is feared and equally loathed by millions of people, but not many actually understand how they work and what they actually do. Fear comes from a lack of understanding, and in most cases because our parents instill ideas and suggestions into our mind's from an early age. Knowledge really is power and this controversial and and misunderstood device has been at the forefront of many so called demon possession and exorcism stories.
Firstly, let's start by knocking the term, Ouija Board, on the head. These oracles are not called Ouija Boards, but in fact Spirit Talking Boards. Ouija, is merely the name of the particular design by Elijah Bond, which was named and manufactured by William Fuld and his company, The Ouija Novelty Company in 1892. The name Ouija is bilingual, French for "Yes" (Oui) and German for "Yes" (Ja).
Spirit Talking Boards have been around for centuries and are believed to communicate with the deceased, whom seemingly move a pointed device around to spell out messages using the alphanumerical digits printed on the board. Later designs, such as the Ouija Board, introduced Yes, No and Goodbye for ease of use. The board usually requires a minimum of two participants, that sit around the board and place a pointer on it's surface, upon which they place a finger each and voice out aloud one question at a time. The spirit is then said to manipulate the muscles of one of the players, whom then moves the pointer subconsciously. It is often unknown which person is being manipulated, and the pointer appears to drag the players around the board. Scientific testing has proved that, in instances where is Talking Board is used, muscles in one more of the participants are stimulated and work during the movement of the pointer, in the same way a pendulum is manipulated by the users involuntary and subconscious arm movements. This is incredibly plausible, as it is ourselves that acts as a medium, between the physical and spirit world and all instances of spiritual communication. Therefore, a Talking Board can be seen as a quick, do-it-yourself mediumship tool, for those who lack the ability to gain contact mentally, just as the Tarot can aid a fortune teller.
Glorification and Media Frenzy
British Victorians reveled in all things spiritual. The trend began in New York, when the Fox sisters, Leah, Margaret and Kate began holding seances in their home, welcoming in strangers to watch on in amazement. On one occasion , they claimed to be in contact with the Devil, but later stated he was actually called Charles B Rosna, and that his mortal body was murdered and then buried in the cellar some five years prior. In the early 1900's, a skeleton was indeed discovered in the cellar, but it has never been linked to Rosna, who's identity could never be traced and there is no proof of his existence.
Mediumship spread to the United Kingdom, and charalatans jumped on the band wagon to earn money on the back of the trend. Most notably, Henry Slade from London, was often exposed as a fraudster and proved to have no spiritual gifts whatsoever. Leonora Piper was also exposed as a fake when she made contact with spirits, whom never actually lived or died, but where created in a successful attempt to catch Piper out.
Before long, Victorian fraudsters were raising their game to become the most popular and ultimately profitable mediums in town, thus they began to claim that attendees could actually get to see a gruesome formation of a spirit or hear one out loud. To make the presence of a spirit more convincing, the con men and women introduced slimy substances, which they named ectoplasm, a so called substance rendering of an entity not of this world. These were all, in fact totally fake. Notably, a popular medium by the name of Eva Carriere claimed that ectoplasm came from her ear, which would form a face. She was later exposed as using cuttings of faces from French newspapers, which she would attach to the side of her head along with cloth to ad to the illusion. But so convincing they were back then, that many still believe, and so the seance as we know it today lives on, and the horrors witnessed in those sessions, remain etched in people's minds. Note, that nobody demonstrates that same ability to discharge ectoplasm nowadays. This is because the illusion would look completely unrealistic, in our modern world of technology, and where we are also far more inquisitive than the gullible Victorians.
Those annoyingly, egotistical so-called mediums of today, that lead a group of paranormal investigators to an alleged haunted house, are actually imitating the techniques used to con those aforementioned gullible Victorian citizens out of their hard earned money back the late 1800's. Ironically, it is paranormal investigators that often preach the evil of Spirit Talking Boards, but yet have no qualms about shouting out aloud to a spirit while stood in a circle, or round a table, just as people would do during a Talking Board session. Paranormal investigators take it upon themselves to try and expose a sacred world, one that obviously does not want to be revealed, by setting up video cameras and audio capturing equipment, and yet they claim the Ouija Board is an evil tool. Surely, an attempt to expose an angry spirit would bring much more dire consequences, than a private and respectful Talking Board session would? There are of course many genuinely talented mediums and paranormal investigators out there, whom respect the spirit world and merely take part in sessions for their own personal experience, but TV shows such as Most Haunted, give them a horribly bad representation.
In my experience, any true medium would feel comfortable using a Talking Board, because he understands and appreciates the spirit world, and takes advantage of a very handy tool which saves on a lot of physical and mental strain.
So, how did the Ouija Board become so evil? Prior to 1973, Talking Boards were sold in Britain as board games, in fact they are still branded as such in the United States, to this day. People would play the game late at night, during sleepovers or parties, with relatively positive experiences. My own Grandmother and her two sisters were regular users of the not so controversial Ouija Board. It wasn't until 1973, with the release of the The Exorcist, a film based on a supposedly true story of a boy possessed by a demon (although in the film, a girl is used), that people's fear in the Ouija Board was created. The media is one of the main contributors to myths, conspiracies and untrue theories than any other source, and the controversy surrounding The Exorcist, garnered much negative attention to the Spirit Talking Board. We have all done it. As a child, we watched the scary film where a monster lives under the bed, and when the credits roll, we carry that fear and belief with us to our bed. But it is even more frighting when we believe something is a true story because the media has told us. Of course, The Exorcist is an extremely exaggerated and glamorized depiction of events that took place, where the Ouija Board was an innocent piece of wood.
The spirit world is in parallel with our own. There are entities around us, all the time, so why do people believe that a Talking Board opens up an apparent gateway, to a world that is already open to us in the first place? A Talking Board, does without doubt initiate contact with a spirit, whom if it carried demonic tendencies, could decide to make himself more known, long after the session is over, but he was already there to begin with, passing through, whatever his intentions initially were. I am without doubt that, going into your local town center increases your chances of encountering something demonic and evil, who could inflict much more damage on you than a spirit whom you may communicate with on a Talking Board. In The Exorcist, is it the Ouija Board to blame or is the girl at fault? A girl whom initiated the contact, which she could have easily done verbally, without the use of a board. In true instances of possession, where a Talking Board was supposedly to blame, how do we know that the persons present, didn't act inappropriately and not show the respect that the spirit duly deserves?
The same theories have accumulated upon Tarot cards. To one man it is evil, but to another it is a blessed gift. The Tarot is something that is used by millions of people everyday, and manufactured on a mass scale in a factory. They are simply a deck of cards, cut from trees just as the letter that came through your letterbox this morning was. There is no sacred ceremonial curse or blessings cast upon them. They are printed, trimmed, sealed, packaged and then sent to shops for sale, just as Ouija Boards are today.
My answer to the question, "is the Ouija Board really a tool of devil", is implicitly no. The true tool of the devil in this world is mankind himself, equipped with his ego, deception, fraud, mediatization and misunderstanding. Therefore, in my opinion, as a user of it since a child, and not having once encountered a bad experience, nor bad luck, the Spirit Talking Board is completely safe to use and an incredibly helpful tool for contacting loved ones on the other side. I also sleep with 24 boards of different design in my bedroom at night, and in my environment is a happy and comfortable one.
It is a crying shame that this tool is so feared, when in reality it is an incredibly enjoyable and fun experience, which offers much needed comfort and support to the world of the living, whom, at times are unquestionably more evil than our spiritual friends :)
