When I die, will you Dopers try to contact me on a Ouija board?
Because that would be pretty cool.
Anyone who isn’t frightened of a piece of cardboard with stuff written on it ( :rolleyes: ) can perform a simple experiment (as described by slipster and in the Staff Report) to demonstrate the fact that the Ouija board is, in fact, a piece of cardboard with stuff written on it.
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Get a small group and use the board “normally.” Ooh and aah at what is produced.
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Have one of the group step out, and blindfold everybody else.
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The blindfolded group attempts to use the board, while the nonparticipating observer remains silent and records the results.
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Everybody takes off their blindfolds, looks at the results, and feels stupid about being scared of a piece of cardboard with stuff written on it.
Of course, if you’re too scared of a piece of cardboard with stuff written on it to perform this experiment, you will remain scared of a piece of cardboard with stuff written on it.
Ideomotor movements and the notion of using a piece of cardboard to communicate with the dead aside, the fact that I’ve seen Parker Brothers brand Ouija boards is enough to make me think the whole thing’s utter nonsense.
A true story.
In Junior College, a woman friend, “Betty” was a big fan of the occult and was always trying to organize seance’s and such.
At a party, she convinced me to use the Ouija board with her.
“Betty” beau was “Stan.”
She asked if they would get married. Yes
She asked if they would be happy. Yes
She asked how many kids they would have. 30
She asked the kids question again. 30
One more time, how many kids will we have. 30
Fast forward to 25 years later. I returned from Europe, was passing through my old home town and met up with a few people from the old Junior College.
How’s so and so and what’s going on.
I ask, “So how is Betty?”
“She’s fine.”
“Did she ever marry Stan?”
“Yep - been married close to 25 years now.”
“Did they have any kids.”
“No - Betty had three miscarriages and they stopped trying.”
No one else could have known that story, and I bet even Betty doesn’t remember that night when the answer was 3 0.
No, it was not. You are entitled to your religious beliefs but this isn’t a religious belief, it’s a verifiable historical fact that you can find in any book on the history of stage magic and magic tricks. Ouija boards were invented in the 1880s as a parlor trick. It was absolutely, inarguably NOT created for any “Spritualist Church” and anyone who says it was is ignorant of the history of 19th century magic tricks.
It is a trick based on a simple physical phenomenon. That’s what it was designed as, and that’s all it is. Ouija boards move due to the ideomotor effect and nothing else.
No, it is not. There is no such thing as “divination.” The Ouija planchette is moves by your own muscles and nothing else. There is no debate to be had here; it’s a provable fact.
Thanks for the links about Mike Warnke. That guy is a festering boil on the face of the evangelical church. The fact that he has a “ministry” after that article was published is a complete disgrace.
I got the original article back when it was published in Cornerstone, but I’m a little surprised to see it referenced here. Good going.
Lotsa Ouija Stuff. The gallery is worth a lookthrough.
Oooh, neat site!
Actually, they CAN be dangerous:
My cousins and I made our own board-on the back of an old sketch of me made by a characature artist and a drinking glass. We were playing with it in my room at my little sister’s birthday party, and my best friend was also there.
All we had on was my small reading lamp.
We did the whole, “Spirits, are you here? Send us a sign!” thing.
The lamp winked out.
Screams and panic abound, we all charged out of my room, tripping over each other and racing down the stairs. In the process, I stepped on my best friend’s hand.
One of my cousins was hiding under the bed. Right after we did the whole spirits thing, he turned off the surge protector that my reading lamp was plugged into.
And my friend’s hand was pretty sore, and we almost fell down the stairs.
So see, they are dangerous!
There is something else: one of the people involved is a trickster, steering the pointer thingy intentionally. I don’t have any way to measure the statistics of it, but I have the impression that this explanation dwarfs the ideomotor effect.
In a lot of cases I’m sure that’s true, but I can tell you from firsthand experience the ideomotor effect is amazingly effective at producing remarkable, lucid responses from a Ouija board. (It also works to produce remarkable results in other things too, like Facilitated Communication.) A trickster will produce the answers s/he consciously wants, but two honest people can unconsciously produce quite impressive “answers” without even trying.
I’m reminded of the old Calvin and Hobbes comic, where the two use a Ouija board and ask something like which of them is smarter.
“See that, it’s clearly trying to move towards H!”
No, you stupid oaf, that’s just you pushing! It’s obviously trying to go towards C!"
I don’t know what I make of ouija boards, but one time some relatives were playing around with one and asked who I would marry. The board replied, “cheese”, which was the secret code me and my best friend had at the time for a guy I was secretly interested in. (I was fourteen at the time. heh) It did freak me out because these were relatives I barely ever saw, and certainly didn’t confide in about my secret crushes and secret code names for things. No one knew that nickname besides my best friend, and she wasn’t there that night. I wasn’t touching the board.
I’m mostly a rational person but I’m not sure how that happened. There is absolutely no way anyone touching the board knew that nickname.
I just have one comment:
Damn, are they making them out of cardboard now? When I was a kid, they were made of wood. Damned cheap game companies; what’s next, a rice-paper Twister? Changing the car in Monopoly from a roadster to a Yugo?
Parker Brothers manufactures, as well as holds the trademark to, the Ouija board and the word “Ouija.”
The question is, did you marry “cheese?”
Sorry guys - but like david copperfield ( or whatever his name is) some one in the audeince is always in on it.