The Saturday Evening Post.
The Ouija 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”, occasionally “hello” and “goodbye”, along with various symbols and graphics. It uses a small heart-shaped piece of wood or plastic, called a planchette, as a movable indicator to spell out messages during a séance. Participants place their fingers on the planchette, and it is moved about the board to spell out words.
Spiritualists believed that the dead were able to contact the living. The Ouija board was regarded as an innocent parlor game until American spiritualist and professional Chessmaster Pearl Curran popularized its use as a divining tool during WWI. Paranormal and supernatural beliefs associated with Ouija have been criticized by the scientific community.
Mainstream denominations have warned against the use of Ouija boards, considering their use Satanic practice. Occultists are divided on the issue. Some claim it can be a tool for positive transformation, while others caution inexperienced users against using them.
One of the first mentions of automatic writing—also called psychography—a claimed psychic ability that allows one to produce written words without consciously writing—is found in China around 1100 AD. The method was known as ‘fuji’ or ‘planchette writing.’ The use of planchette writing as a means of communicating with the dead and the spirit-world continued until it was forbidden by the 17th century.
Following the Civil War, American mediums did significant business in allowing survivors to contact lost relatives. The Ouija itself was created and named in Baltimore in 1890, but the use of talking boards was common by 1886.
Ouija boards were already criticized by scholars early on as a con to part fools from their money. In 1921 The Scientific Monthly described reports of Ouija board findings as ‘half truths.’ In 2001, Ouija boards were burned in Alamogordo New Mexico, by fundamentalist groups as “symbols of witchcraft.” A spokesperson for Human Life International described the boards as a portal to talk to spirits and called for Hasbro to be prohibited from marketing them.
Religious objections have given rise to cautionary tales that the board opens a door to evil spirits and turn the game into the subject of a supernatural dare, especially for young people.
