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Ouija board)
Ouija (pronounced wee-juh or wee-jee) refers to the belief that one can receive messages from demons, ghosts, spirits, and other anomalous and/or paranormal entities during a séance by the use of a ouija board and planchette ("pointer"). The fingers of the séance participants are placed on the planchette, which then moves about a board covered with numbers, letters and symbols, so as to spell out messages.
An old name for ouija boards is 'talking boards'.
The origin of the ouija board probably lies in the use of the exploring pendulum. The first recorded use of the exploring pendulum occurred around 371 C.E. A priest would bow over a plate, the edge of which was marked with the letters of the alphabet. This "diviner" or "oracle" would hold a ring, suspended from a thin thread, over the center of the plate. A question would be put to the priest. The movements of the ring would then be observed. When the ring was set in motion, it would swing toward one of the letters. This letter would be recorded; then the same process would be used to select another letter. This would continue until one or more words, which answered the question, would be generated. In this, we see the origins of the modern Ouija board.
Some practitioners claim to have invented electronic ouija boards, which make use of keyboards. Some paranormal researchers and Christians claim that use of an ouija board is taboo (inherently evil) 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 ouija players into becoming spiritually possessed.
Some practitioners claim to have had bad experiences related to the use of ouija 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 researcher John Zaffis says that the majority of the worst cases of demon harrassment or hauntings is caused by use of ouija boards.
Psychologists compare the phenomenon to that of automatic writing, wherein the unconscious thoughts of the participants are translated into physical words.
The accepted theory among scientists is that the participants are subconsciously making small, involuntary, physical movements. This is known as the ideomotor effect, which is also understood to give the impression of dowsing/divining. Some experiments suggest that messages come involuntarily from the participants themselves. Penn and Teller have demonstrated that blind-folded participants continue to move the planchette to the old positions when the board is secretly rotated. The only information conveyed by the ouija is what the participants already know - even if it was wrong. Some people have used ouija to speak with ghosts of people they subsequently found were still alive. However, paranormal researchers point out that demons are not stupid and will deliberately do things to make people think that the board is just a harmless game caused by the ideomotor effect.
Ouija boards are not a harmless pastime. A keyboard version of the Ouija board has been used to communicate with autistic children. A 'guide' would hold the hand of the child over the keyboard and through the guide, the child would press the keys (or so they thought). Horrendous stories of sexual abuse by parents, caretakers and family members were recorded this way and many people ended up in court being accused of all sort of things. Only with great effort and difficulty were they able to prove to the courts that the stories were completely false and the result of the ideomotor effect.
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 the board's creator during a ouija séance, and was claimed to be an Ancient Egyptian word meaning "good luck" - 'We-dja' - although this is now known to be incorrect. [1] (http://www.museumoftalkingboards.com/history.html)
Ouija became most popular during, and after, World War I; when it was marketed (and trademarked) as a means of communicating with dead soldiers. Parker Brothers holds a patent for a ouija board; which it markets as a children's toy.
Pulitzer Prize winning poet James Merrill used a ouija board to conduct séances, and recorded what he claimed were messages from deceased persons. He combined these messages with his own poetry in The Changing Light at Sandover. (1982)
Actor and filmmaker Eric B. Borgman is an outspoken opponent of ouija boards since having a bad experience after using one.
Various notes on Ouija
- According to former occultist Greg Reid, author of Teen Satanism: Redeeming the Devil's Children, ouija boards are used by Satanists in the recruitment of teenagers for covens.
- Generally, ouija practitioners believe that the figure eight represents evil.
Books:
- The Ouija Board: A Doorway to the Occult, Edmund C, Gruss, P & R Publishing, 1994
- Ouija: The Most Dangerous Game, Stoker Hunt, Perennial Currents, 1992
External links:
fi:Ouija
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