If you’ve ever been on my blog or even glanced at my Instagram (seriously even if you only opened it for a second and a half and looked with one eye open), you’ve probably gathered that I’m a pretty big fan of Ouija boards. I now own three Ouija boards (yes, since you asked, one of them is a Stranger Things Ouija board) and a myriad of Ouija themed items because I just cannot resist. But nowadays, Ouija boards are far from being a “niche” item. Just walk into any Spencer’s or Hot Topic and check out all the Ouija themed clothes, accessories, and décor items you can purchase. (I mean, I have to be getting this stuff from somewhere, right?) Barnes & Noble is a big purveyor of the spirit board and, in fact, two of the boards I own came from there. And in the spoopier months (you know, like August through early November), even stores like Target and Michael’s get in on the Ouija themed fun. So perhaps the big question when we’re standing in a chain store at the mall trying to decide if we should get money out of our Ouija board wallet to purchase a Ouija board blanket or a Ouija planchette necklace is…where did this all start?
It turns out, Ouija boards have been around for centuries—maybe even longer. Whereas “Ouija” was a name given to the board by a savvy businessman around 1890, the boards in question were called “spirit boards” or “talking boards” long before they were patented. Though they were referred to in a different way, the boards were still the same basic idea—a flat piece of wood with all the letters of the alphabet on it, and also probably the words “yes” and “no” with an accompanying planchette (the piece that you’ll sometimes hear people refer to as “that triangle thingie”, and no that doesn’t drive me insane at all *twitches only slightly*) used to indicate letters and spell things out. You’ll still sometimes hear people refer to them as talking boards or, more commonly, spirit boards today, but “Ouija board” is by far the most popular nomenclature for the object in question. Granted, not all talking boards are Ouija boards since Ouija is a trademark, but it’s similar to how we call all cotton swabs Q-tips or refer to facial tissue as Kleenex, no matter what the brand.
Although there are mentions in historical texts of methods similar to Ouija boards as far back as 1100 AD in China (something called “automatic writing” or “planchette writing” which was used to communicate with the dead) and there has really never been much of a shortage of different cultures exploring life after death or trying to communicate with those who have passed on—whether for religious purposes or otherwise—Ouija boards as we know them today really rose to popularity during the Victorian era, around the late 1890s, when spiritualism really had its big boom and rose immensely in popularity. (Which is perhaps why I always count the Victorian era as one of my favorite time periods to read and learn about—or maybe it was just that my Samantha doll from American Girl made it seem so awesome.)
The beginning of the rise of spiritualism is often credited to the Fox sisters, two young girls who began telling their family and neighbors that they were able to communicate with the dead. They began having neighbors and acquaintances over to their home where they would demonstrate this ability by communicating with spirits through a series of taps and knocks in place of answers to their questions. If you want to check out a pretty cool, pretty in-depth video about the Fox sisters, their rise to fame, and the controversy surrounding whether or not they actually had psychic medium abilities or were hoaxing everyone, I recommend this video by Stephanie Harlowe. She’s pretty precious and does a lot of true crime/spoopy type stuff (mostly true crime–which she clearly puts a lot of work and passion into), and I enjoyed listening to her account of the Fox sisters and their lives.
As the Fox sisters and other similar spiritualists rose to fame in cities like Rochester, New York, they began to employ other methods of communicating with spirits in order to conduct seances and understand more of what the dead people they were communicating with wanted to tell them. As you can imagine, it’s much easier to figure out what someone (alive or dead) is trying to say if they can spell it out in letters rather than having to decipher it through a series of cryptic knocks. Since the pattern of trends has always been the same, you can imagine what happened next—the idea of spiritualism and communicating with the dead got more and more popular and more and more people started doing it.
In the Victorian era, it was perhaps even more important to communicate with their loved ones who had passed on. People were passing away at a much younger age back then, we didn’t have the medical technology we do now (meaning even contracting a simple illness could be a recipe for death), and we had just been faced with the American Civil War, during which hundreds of thousands of people were killed. As you can imagine, many people were desperate to communicate with their lost spouses, children, or parents. It brought them peace during a time when death was pervasive. As a result, seances, mediums, and methods to communicate with the dead were starting to be everywhere.
Back then, people were often creating their own talking boards or spirit boards out of pieces of wood by writing or carving the letters onto them (or directly onto a table, depending on their level of commitment or whether or not they were conducting seances regularly as a business). However, as I already mentioned, trends have always worked the same way, so you know what happened next—somebody cashed in on it.
An American businessman, inventor, and attorney named Elijah Bond patented a planchette and talking board combination in the year 1890. His business partner William Fuld took over production of the boards with the manufacturing company Kennard Novelty Company (where Fuld worked as a varnisher of the wood products) and finally, Ouija boards were a mass produced item which Fuld and the Kennard Novelty Company began selling, starting us on the very path to the massive popularity Ouija boards have taken on today.
As for where the name “Ouija” comes from, that one might never quite be settled, but there are a few different versions of the story. Most versions agree on one thing—that the name came from the talking board itself. Charles Kennard, the owner of the manufacturing company, claims that the board spelled out the word and that it was an Egyptian word for good luck, whereas Kennard’s sister-in-law claimed it was the name of a woman whose locket she was wearing while they used the as-yet-unnamed Ouija board. Another version claims that the board was trying to spell out the name “Ouida”, which was the pen name used by English novelist Maria Louise Rame. Still others claim that Ouija is simply a combination of the French word for yes and the German word for yes, meaning you’re essentially contacting the spirits of the dead with a “yes-yes board”, which for some reason amuses me endlessly.
Now, as you probably know, Ouija boards have been pretty controversial throughout history, bringing about criticism from religious groups as well as individuals who feel that they’re dangerous, have the potential to summon demons or dark entities which shouldn’t be welcomed into our realm, or generally just believe that we’re messing around with something we don’t understand. So, how did these boards which were originally created for Victorian psychic mediums to speak to dead relatives and which are suspected to be capable of summoning the devil end up being marketed to kids as a fun slumber party game?
It’s all about who owns the rights. Remember our old buddy William Fuld and the Kennard Manufacturing Company? Well, after Fuld died, his estate sold the rights to the Ouija board which he’d been manufacturing to Parker Brothers. If you recognize the name Parker Brothers (which you probably do), it’s because they’re the makers of some of the most popular board games of modern times, such as Monopoly, Sorry! (in which no one was ever actually sorry for anything), and Trivial Pursuit. Later, Parker Brothers was bought by Hasbro.
That’s right, Hasbro. The people who make Transformers and My Little Pony.
So obviously, the rights to the now infamous Ouija board being held by toy and game companies changed the direction of the device a little bit. What was once a tool for arguably serious psychic mediums trying to contact the relatives of those in mourning suddenly became just as innocuous as a game of Mystery Date or Clue. Over the years, Ouija boards have become just as synonymous with teenage girls placing their hands with hot pink nails on the planchette and inquiring about whether Johnny really likes them or if Shelley is ever going to be able to pass math class as they are with ghost hunting or serious attempts to communicate with the other side. This quality makes Ouija boards, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating objects on the market as they straddle this line between fluffy and adorable and demonic and terrifying, spurning endless debate between those with opposing viewpoints.
But there’s still one thing you’re wondering, right? The big question. The one on everyone’s mind.
Do they really work?
Well, I guess it depends on your definition of “work”. There are definitely those who believe that yes, Ouija boards absolutely work, and you are absolutely communicating with the spirits of the dead or with demons or someone/something from a different world or dimension that we don’t have access to on a regular basis. I think there’s a lot to be said for the argument that Ouija boards are simply another tool for communication when it comes to paranormal investigation, and that they are no more or less effective than say, EVP recorders or Mel Meters/temperature gauges. And that if that’s the case, perhaps they are no more or less likely to welcome something dark and unwanted, since all of these things are giving a voice to spirits who otherwise would be unable to communicate with us.
But then there’s the other side of the coin, which argues that Ouija board movement can be attributed to none other than a totally natural, totally human phenomenon called the ideomotor effect. And you’re going to want to stick around for this, because no matter what you believe is making that planchette move, this is actually super interesting.
The Ideomotor Effect is a real, proven scientific concept in which the body experiences uncontrollable, unconscious movement. So, to put it simply: you’re moving without even realizing it. The best and most likely easiest comparison I’ve seen to make this more understandable is when you jerk awake from sleep. Your body is making a movement without you registering that you’re doing it or that you’re about to do it. However, this is a much more dramatic version of the ideomotor effect—what scientists believe happens when you’re touching a Ouija board is a much smaller, even less conscious version of that. The argument is that your hands and arms actually are making those movements and you actually are sliding the planchette where it needs to go to spell the answers you want. But, rather than your conscious mind telling you to do it, the way it does when it tells you to walk or pour coffee or get the heck out of bed already on a lazy Sunday, it’s your subconscious mind telling you to do it.
So that means you can’t call up Shelley from 8th grade now and flip out on her because you knew she was totally pushing it toward “no” when you asked if Johnny had a crush on you—she didn’t even know she was doing it.
This phenomenon could actually explain why Ouija participants often hear from precisely who they were hoping to hear from. If you’re consciously thinking about your grandma, your subconscious could cause your muscles to push the planchette to spell out your grandma’s name. It might not be a ghost, but it’s still a really wild phenomenon, and the fact that you can tap into your subconscious that way is fascinating. This could also explain why the Ouija board always works better with a group of people, and why the makers and sellers of Ouija boards generally recommend it for two or more players. I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll mention it again—the collective consciousness can be a really powerful thing, so the power of more than one person’s subconscious making small movements as they rest their hands on the planchette could account for the increased effectiveness when it’s you and five of your friends versus just you.
Or…maybe it is a ghost.
Maybe you really are communicating with the spirit of someone who passed away. The Ouija board could definitely just be another tool—another way to give someone access to talking to you when they can’t talk to you in the usual way anymore. Personally, I love thinking that there is something after death, or that this isn’t where it ends. That perhaps things are not exactly as they seem or exactly as we see them with our mere conscious minds. Who am I to say for sure?
But one thing is for sure—no matter what you believe about Ouija boards, they will always be a rather controversial conversation starter, a spoopy staple of Halloween each and every year, or, if you’re me, just a staple of my regular home décor.
So, what does everyone else think? Do you love Ouija boards? Do you own one? Do you think you’re really communicating with a spirit or is it a result of subconscious moments or the collective subconsciousness of a group? Let me know your Ouija thoughts in the comments! You know I’d love to talk. <3
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