This type of board actually dates back as far 540 B.C.E. when it was used by the greek philosopher Pythagoras in spiritual seances. The scientific explanation of the seemingly uncontrolled movement is the "ideomotor" effect by which players subconsciously (or consciously) control the planchette to create the answers they expect. It's amazing to me that a century and a half old divining tool could be converted by parker brothers into a "game", but to be fair, both dice and cards were also used in a similar fashion, and were converted to games as well.

What follows is my own personal experience of using the game, and how it effected me.

When I was about 17, I got very interested in the paranormal. I read book after book on the occult, religion, magic and ritual. I've always been a hopeful skeptic when it comes to these things, I can't take it on faith, I need to experience them firsthand in order to accept it. Finally, even after reading all the horrible things that had happened to other people who had used the Ouija Board, I purchased one at a game shop. I promised myself I would just make contact if such a thing was possible, and then throw the board away, satisfied with the knowledge that there is more to the world than what we see everyday.

I began to use the board by myself, asking simple questions, such as "hello" "is anyone out there" and so forth, with absolutely no response, the planchette would just sit there, or move, but I was sure it was my hand that was moving it, and nothing else.

After a couple of weeks,I talked to a friend at school who was a self- proclaimed expert on the paranormal, I told her I was going to toss the thing, and it was a waste of time.

"Tonight, when you put your hands on it, close your eyes and think the question in your mind, and clear any other thoughts from your mind" She said.

That night, I felt a strong sense of foreboding as I approached the Ouija Board. My hands trembled slightly as I lay them down, and I began to clear my mind. "hello?" I thought over and over. About five minutes passed as I sat there with my eyes closed, and the planchette never seemed to move under my hands. Feeling foolish, I opened my eyes.

Across the table sat a ghostly figure. She was a frail, pinched looking woman in her early twenties, her mouth all puckered up. I immediately freaked out, leaping out of my chair and fleeing my house. My parents were not there, and my brother was at a friend's house, so the house was empty. I spent the next 3 hours in crowded shops, trying to dilute the fear that had crept into my bones. Suddenly my house had become a scary place, would I be able to sleep in my room after what had happened? I could still see her in my head, her eyes following me as sprang from the room, her ghastly puckered mouth...

After a while, I cooled off. Isn't this what I had wanted? I had needed to prove to myself that something unexplainable was out there, and I had done that quite well. By the time I got home, my parents were there, and everything seemed like normal again, I peeked into my room, and nothing was there, just the chair laying on the floor, and the Ouija Board on the table. I quickly folded the board up, put it back in its box, then dumped it into a trash bag and buried it in the outside trash can.

That night, laying in my bed, I felt a sense of doom fall over me, and my bed began to shake. Something felt like it was sitting or putting pressure on my chest. I popped out of bed and turned on the light, afraid she would be there, but there was nothing. This continued to happen throughout my life. It doesn't happen every night, sometimes I go for weeks without it happening, but it never fails to fill me with this sense of nameless dread, and the bed always shakes (Which freaks my wife out to no end). Using the Ouija board seems to tap into something beyond our ability to control, and when using it, I would make sure you have many positive protections around you as possible. Or perhaps the single best protection is disbelief.

Recommended:
No

Amount Paid (US$): 15.99
Type of Toy: Board Game
Age Range of Child: Kids to Teens