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Ouija (pronounced wee-juh or wee-jee) refers to the belief that one can receive messages during a séance by the use of a Ouija or talking board and planchette. The fingers of the participants are placed on the planchette which then moves about a board covered with numbers, letters and symbols so as to spell out messages.
Ouija is a trademark for a talking board, currently sold by Parker Brothers. The word has become a genericized trademark and is often used interchangeably to refer to any talking board.
History
The use of talking boards has roots in the modern Spiritualism movement that began in The United States in the mid-nineteenth century. Methods of divination at that time used various ways to spell out messages, including swinging a pendulum over a plate that had letters around the edge or using an entire table to indicate letters drawn on the floor. Often used was a planchette affixed with a pencil that would write out messages in a fashion similar to automatic writing. It should be noted that many of these methods predate modern Spiritualism.
During the late 1800s, planchettes were widely sold as a novelty. In 1890, businessmen Elijah Bond and Charles Kennard had the idea to patent a planchette sold with a board on which the alphabet was printed, and thus had invented the first Ouija board. An employee of Kennard, William Fuld took over the talking board production and in 1901, started production of his own boards under the name "Ouija". [1] (http://www.museumoftalkingboards.com/history.html)
The Fuld name would become synonymous with the Ouija board, with Fuld reinventing its history claiming that he himself had invented it. Countless talking boards from Fuld's competitors flooded the market and all these boards enjoyed a heyday from the 1920s through the 1960s. A true businessman, Fuld sued many companies over the "Ouija" name and the concept up until his death in 1927. In 1966, Fulds estate sold the entire business to Parker Brothers, who continues to hold all trademarks and patents. About 10 brands of talking boards are sold today under various names. [2] (http://museumoftalkingboards.com/new.html)
Beliefs
Many users feel that the spirit with whom they are communicating is controlling their motions to guide their hands, spelling out messages. The board is the tool or medium through which they can communicate to the spirit realm and these believers often take offence at the dismissal of the talking board as merely a game. They do not believe that there is any harm in communicating with spiritual entities, provided that they follow some basic guidelines. These often vary from user to user but usually include things like never playing alone, beginning and ending a séance "properly", and always using the board in "comfortable" environment.
Some paranormal researchers and Christians claim that use of a talking board is an evil taboo as they believe it allows communication with evil demons, which is Biblically forbidden as a form of divination. Some also warn that the evil demons pretend to be co-operative ghosts in order to trick talking board players into becoming spiritually possessed.
Some practitioners claim to have had bad experiences related to the use of talking boards by being haunted by demons, seeing apparitions of evil spirits and even hearing voices after using these boards. Many of these people claim they could only get rid of these problems after Christian deliverance. Paranormal researchers and Catholic exorcists say that the majority of demon harassment or possession is caused by use of talking boards.
Skepticism exists however and many people do not accept that a piece of cardboard sold as a toy can conjure spirits, evil or benevolent. The accepted theory among scientists is that the participants are subconsciously making small, involuntary, physical movements. This is known as the ideomotor effect. Experiments suggest that messages come involuntarily from the participants themselves. The only information conveyed by the talking board is what the participants already know, even if it is wrong. Some people have used talking boards to speak with ghosts of people they subsequently found were still alive.
Skeptics point out that some of the messages can express the participants' fears, such as the fear of death, and such notions can have a lasting effect on impressionable people. Psychologists say that decent people often harbor indecent thoughts subconsciously. Even though a person might interpret a message that alters their life for the worst, it is hardly a sufficient reason to conclude that the message originated from anything but the minds of the user.
In Literature
Talking boards appear in countless books and movies. Their role in such varies from being a benign object to an evil entity. This demonstrates what an iconic part of culture the game has become. A more peculiar role of talking boards in literature stems from authors using the board to channel complete written works from the deceased.
In the early 1900s, St. Louis housewife Pearl Curran used her Ouija board communications with the ubiquitous spirit Patience Worth to publish a number of poems and prose. Pearl claimed that all of the writings came to her through séances, which she allowed public to attend. In 1917 writer Emily G. Hutchings claimed to have communicated with and written a book dictated by Mark Twain from her Ouija board. Twains survivors went to court to halt publication of the book that was later determined a hoax.
More recently, Pulitzer Prize winning poet James Merrill used a Ouija board and recorded what he claimed were messages from a number of deceased persons. He combined these messages with his own poetry in The Changing Light at Sandover (1982).
Etymology
The term "Ouija" is derived from the French "oui" (for "yes") and the German "ja" (for "yes"). An alternative story suggests that the name was revealed to Charles Kennard during a Ouija séance, and was claimed to be an Ancient Egyptian word meaning "good luck", although this is known to be incorrect. It has also been suggested that the word was inspired by the name of the Moroccan city Oujda.
Despite its common usage, "Ouija" is a trademark and the word should be capitalized when used in print.
Non-Occult usage
- In the technique of directional drilling, a mechanical calculator was used to perform calculations necessary to solve "how do I get 'there' from 'here'" problems. This board has traditionally been nicknamed a "Ouija Board". These calculations are done by computers these days, but often the name persists as the public or internal name of the relevant module.
- Weegee was the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig, an American photographer and photojournalist.
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