There always is when money is at stake, and by the early s, some 2, Ouija boards were already being sold a week. William Fuld, who worked for and invested in the Kennard Novelty Company—and eventually gained control of the Ouija business after the founder cashed out too early—went on to make millions manufacturing the board in Baltimore and elsewhere, but only after his brother was cut out of the company.
Their ensuing lawsuits were no mere spat. The two sides of the family would not speak for 96 years. And, tragically, William Fuld would suffer a fatal accident at his Harford Avenue factory, one he claimed in a Baltimore Sun story that the Ouija had told him to build.
In , the first year it was headquartered in the town infamous for its witch trials, Ouija sold two million boards. Norman Rockwell, who was fond of depicting the revealing moments of everyday life, painted a well-dressed suitor and young woman, chairs pulled face-to-face, playing with a Ouija board for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in Yeats, friend Maya Deren, and the Archangel Michael.
But over time, the relative innocence of the Ouija board—or at least its nonpartisan relationship between good and evil—gave way to a more sinister reputation as Hollywood began utilizing it for darker purposes. Since then, it has shown up in more than 20 films, and made countless appearances in the ever-growing number of paranormal-themed TV shows.
Forums around Ouija-associated phenomena populate the Internet, of course. Most recently, the movie Ouija did so well at the box office that Ouija 2 is already in the works.
When it was released last fall, the movie so dramatically boosted board sales that petitions by evangelical Christian groups to ban the Ouija started popping up again. Still, the most interesting thing about the Ouija board might be the latest research around it from University of British Columbia that shows it actually does work—just not in the way we might assume.
A few years ago, Sidney Fels, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UBC, brought out a Ouija board at a Halloween party attended by graduate students, including many who were foreign-born and unfamiliar with how it works. So who did? A ghost?
Alright, so here comes the breaking news: No, it was not a spirit. It was you! Or rather, it was you and your friends that unconsciously collaborated to select the letters. In a new study , scientists from Aarhus University, in Denmark, the University of Southern Denmark, and Bielefeld University in Germany have identified precisely what happens when the glass moves.
In , he packed his bag with a notebook, video camera, and eye-tracking equipment, and set off for Baltimore in the US with a research assistant. They were headed to a conference for people that communicate with the dead via Ouija boards. Instead of a glass, they use a triangular piece of plastic, called a planchette, which moves around the board and points to letters, numbers, and individual words such as yes or no.
The results are published in the scientific journal Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. Read More: Why horror is so popular. As you might expect, when the participants spelled out Baltimore, they looked at the next letter ahead of time before moving the planchette to that letter.
In other words, they could easily predict where the planchette would end up. But when they moved on to the second task to conduct a Ouija board session as usual , it was much more difficult for the individual participants to predict where the planchette would move.
Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. Deuteronomy —12a. The Scripture is clear, and many exorcists in the Catholic Church speak very strongly against the Ouija board. Crystals are a little harder to nail down, as they are used in so many ways.
Again, its purpose seems quite clearly against the Scripture passage that I cited. The easiest way to look at these things is to remember the story of Babel and the story of Adam and Eve. In both cases, what the people wanted was right, but they wanted to do it in their own way and not in the way God calls us to. The desire to have contact with the divine is holy and good.
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