Chapter Six. Reflections Part III.

Chapter Six.

Reflections Part III. 

The only thing dogmatic about our ouija sessions was the principle of regularity; the content of the sessions themselves involved no ritualism as far as I can see; well, that’s if you don’t count the candlelight we often conducted them in, a lighting condition employed not so much for its association with the occult as much for its pleasantness. 

Oh, and there was the occasional incense, well, joss sticks, to be precise. Hmm, it’s starting to look a little ritualistic! But in defence I would mention that we’d very often get the board out in broad daylight in the most sterile conditions, and the glass would perform no differently.

Whether it’s a direct line to the spirit world, or the unconscious, there is no way I can satisfy your or my curiosity to know exactly what was taking place, but we can look at what others may see as explanations, as well as learn a little about its origins and history. 

Although its origins have been said to go as far back as ancient China, the Ouija board, as we know it, originated from a wave of spiritualism that swept the United States back in the 1800s.  

In 1890, Elijah Bond began to produce the Ouija commercially, a product that’s continued to be marketed to this day by a number of companies, maybe the most notable being Parker Brothers who have even come up with a model that glows in the dark - how spooky! 

I found the Parker Brothers version being sold on Amazon, and was curious to see how disparate some of the more than three hundred and fifty product reviews might be. Here are just a few of those:

This actually works, and can ruin your life!

“I just recently got this product, and so I sat down to use it and asked it "who am I speaking with". Slowly the key moved to spell out "Billy Mays Here". Immediately after that there was a burst of cold air, and now he won't leave my house. He throws away all of the products I own that he didn't endorse, for example, all of my paper towels. I have to clean all my messes with Zorbeez, as he will not allow me to keep anything else. Its not all bad, I came home on my birthday and he had gotten me a Big City Slider Station, which actually works pretty good.”

It’s Me … I Move It.

“Because of the anonymity of the internet, I’ll confess, I move it. I moved it as a kid, and I would make it say things like that I'm going to die or that spirits are angry or that sort of thing. We'd close our eyes between letters and I would peek and move it. It's easy to see through your lashes.

I'm going to buy this and play with some friends at a "haunted" location, and I'm still going to move it.

Only now I'll Google something good beforehand for it to say…”     

I never thought I'd write a review for a Ouija board but…

“First off, a Ouija board is not a toy! I have not really used one seriously since around 1989. I can tell you that several absolutely unexplainable things happened of which I will not go into too much detail.

The unknown is fun and exciting, but it can also be scary and dangerous! Play at your own risk!”

Why are there always fanatics?

“This is a toy. It's a fun toy. It's a rectangular piece of card board with the alphabet drawn on it and then painted with glow in the dark paint. The planchet (the triangle thing) is plastic. It wasn't 'carved by Satan. What self respecting demon is going to show up using a glow in the dark piece of plastic? If that's your idea of evil clearly you don't know about the cruelty and violence in the world today that you have to rant about a TOY! Get a grip!”

RIP OFF!!! Didn't include ghosts!!

“Everyone else claims that their board comes with spirits or - better still - demons! So I eagerly bought one, hoping to finally find definitive proof of the supernatural. Boy was I disappointed to find all this toy did was perfectly demonstrate the ideomotor effect ... I feel cheated.”

This board ate my dog!

“Wiggles is gone forever I fear...it has been four months. In addition to this, for some reason, every morning at 7, a Jehovah's Witness appears on my porch with booklets. After she leaves, two lifeless Chinese girls materialize on the porch holding a remote control. Hey … maybe you should get one of these after all!”   

Ouija Gets a Decent Face Lift.

“Parker Brothers/Hasbro gives their classic talking board a mild makeover in this new edition. 

I've played the Ouija for years and never encountered anything remotely disturbing or evil. Ouija is an intriguing, fascinating and entertaining diversion for adults as well as kids and nothing more. Those who make claims of evil supernatural occurrences are either imagining things, entirely misinformed by clergy, or utterly stupid.” 

Ouija Boards Are For Real!         

“Once, about 8 years ago, my mom and my cousin were playing with the Ouija board. My other cousin was there in the room and he told my mom to ask it when he was going to jail. It said "tonight". He said to ask it where he will be, It said " at Chris' house". He had planned on going there that night, but changed his mind. Later they posed the same question to the board-when was he going to jail, it again said "tonight". I was on 3rd shift and went to work. I came home at lunch, and there were police officers surrounding my mom's house. Guess what. He went to jail THAT NIGHT! My mom burned the ouija board.”  

Your wrong.

“Sometimes we are not expecting these answers. I know this because i have tried it and i don’t recall ever wanting the board to say certain things. There is no scientific explanation. Our minds are not moving it and our hands are not moving it. I'm not sure if there is a actual spirit communicating with me on the board but i know that something out there is. Some things cannot be explained, and that is the way things are, no matter how hard people try to explain.”

Fun for the whole family!

“Bought this for my 11 year old daughter at Christmas. We have fun asking dumb questions and understand that it has nothing to do with god or spirits... it's a BOARD GAME!”

Regretting.

“This thing really works and i regret buying it because ever since i started playing, bad happenings has been happening all around me.”

Spooky.

“OK, some people say that it doesn’t work, but it does. I have talked to a ghost (I cant give away her name because she trusts me with her secrets).”

Ideomotor Effect: The Game.

“I'm very saddened that so many people are scared of this silly toy, look up the Ideomotor Effect. Yes, I was creeped out too as a little, uninformed kid. Then I learned science. Now, if someone has this, then have a Ouija session with the participants BLINDFOLDED (with an observer or videocamera recording the results). Now, what does it spell?”

A real cross section there of how an object with a few letters on it can be viewed, some intriguing, some next to hilarious. I should remind the reader that our board was not the original style Ouija board as the “Glass Chronicles” title indicates. 

The traditional ouija consists of a board and a planchette (French for “little plank”), which has castors on its underside to give it the freedom to move smoothly in any given direction. 

The planchette, when operating as intended, and supposedly indicating words and sentiment from “the other side” will point to individual letters in turn - with, of course, the physical help of the hands that rest upon it. 

This is the exact same principle we used with the glass, only it could be argued–justifiably I’d say–that the pointed shape of the planchette would make it significantly easier to see exactly which letters are intended.

TBC ...