How do Ouija Boards work?

Monkey09

I've been really curious about Ouija Boards for a few months now so my friend decided to buy one when she was on holidays in Canada (for some reason you can't seem to buy them here.) Anyway, i have to admit that i'm a sceptic myself so i'm not so quick to believe that the pointer moves all by itself.
We tried it a couple of days ago..and i was preety freaked out by what happened. The pointer actually moved by itself..I asked a number of questions that my friend could not have known the answers to and it moved to spell out the answers..
So, i'm curious now..Does anyone have any theories on how the board works..

Chewbacca.

You are possessed by demons.

Ruth KPS

I would strongly advise against the use of ouiji boards.

I have used one once in the past as curiosity got the better of me.

I had a good experiance with it, however I know several who have had bad experiances with them.

I myself would not use one again, I got the answers I needed and thats enough for me.

But using one can be bad especially if you do not know what your doing.

Luke Kelly

I remember years ago when i was around 8 years old there were 5 freind's who topped themself's from my area and they were dabbling with one .
It can not be said for sure if it was the ouiji boards fault but it make's you think , 3 of them hung themself's from the same tree , each carving their name on the tree before going threw with it . The father of one of the 3 then cut the tree down but that didn't stop the other two from killing themself's , one did it in his bedroom and the other did it in his father's garage and then the father hung himself in the same garage a few year's later .

pookie82

Monkey09 wrote: »

I've been really curious about Ouija Boards for a few months now so my friend decided to buy one when she was on holidays in Canada (for some reason you can't seem to buy them here.) Anyway, i have to admit that i'm a sceptic myself so i'm not so quick to believe that the pointer moves all by itself.
We tried it a couple of days ago..and i was preety freaked out by what happened. The pointer actually moved by itself..I asked a number of questions that my friend could not have known the answers to and it moved to spell out the answers..
So, i'm curious now..Does anyone have any theories on how the board works..

I sense you're looking for a non-spiritual explanation?

I reckon that it's possible you move the pointer yourself subconsciously to get answers you know to be true/want to hear and then get freaked out by it. I have never done one and don't particularly intend to but I do know that when I was in school a group of girls in my year decided to do one while away on school trip overnight (such a cliche ) and some of them were so freaked out by the experience that they requested blessings and all sorts from the resident nuns when they returned. I think that the idea of the ouija board rather than any spiritual presence, benevolent or otherwise, was what freaked them out and that they drove themselves mad thinking they were possessed by someone or something rather than it actually being the case.

Could be wrong but I think a lot of it is psychological.

pookie82

Luke Kelly wrote: »

I remeber years ago when i was around 8 years old there were 5 freind's who topped themself's from my area and they were dabbling with one .
It can not be said for sure if it was the ouiji boards fault but it make's you think , 3 of them hung themself's from the same tree , each carving their name on the tree before going threw with it . The father of one of the 3 then cut the tree down but that didn't stop the other two from killing themself's , one did it in his bedroom and the other did it in his father's garage and then the father hung himself in the same garage a few year's later .

Jesus, that's harsh!!:eek:

Could have been a range of factors involved though, I know of a few unfortunate cases of group or "pact" suicides with very young guys of late and sometimes one or two can start a chain reaction that has nothing to do with anything spiritual or malevolent in that regard.

That's really sad though.

Irish_wolf

Did you try any control tests like say, if there were two people there you would each write down a random number on a piece of paper and ask the spirit or w/e to give you the answer to the sum of the two numbers.

I dont know if spirts can do maths but it would be pretty hard to prove it was your friend or yourself moving it subconsciously if neither of you knew the answer and it came out right.

:cool:

Diabhal Beag

Never heard a good story about Ouija Boards. That should tell you all you need to know in fairness.

CatHerder

Monkey09 wrote: »

We tried it a couple of days ago..and i was preety freaked out by what happened. The pointer actually moved by itself...

Monkey09 wrote: »

Does anyone have any theories on how the board works..

It's a phenomenon called "ideo-motor reflex" It can be quite impressive when you dont understand it. Google is your friend

alex73

Monkey09 wrote: »

How do Ouija Boards work?

Honest Answer:- They don't.

Chewbacca.

Why didnt you ask it to integrate x^2 sinx dx
now the demons are in your soul, so they say

Bobeagleburger

It's all BS

Baggly

If you put two coins on top of the pointer you will see that as the pointer moves, it is in fact being dragged by one party, as opposed to pushed by a spirit.

Well thats what i believe before. I have seen a demonstration that convinced me more than taking part did.

Ruth KPS

I do not agree with it being you subconscous (spelt wrong)..

Baggly

May i ask why not?

Ruth KPS

Because when I did it, one of the questions was answered wrong, if it was then I would have known the answer...in my opinion

Baggly

Were you the only person using the board at the time?

What do you believe happens?

Ruth KPS

There were 4 of us... none of whom would have known the answers to the questions that were right, and that one was wrong.. therefore me thinking it wasnt me moving the pointer.

My opinion varies, they are dangerous things that shouldn't be used. Curiosity managed to get the better of me one night.

When you use one, you open that door, and you have no idea whats going to come through that door, good or bad.

I do believe a spirit can manipulate your thoughts and in a word "pretend" to be the person you believe you are speaking to.

Baggly

Im just trying to understand so bear with me if you dont mind...

If you didnt know the answers, how did you know they were the correct answers after you got a response?

Did you ever consider that statistically getting one answer wrong was probably likely because there is only one correct answer but like a billion wrong ones.

Im sorry if i sound overly skeptical...i mean i wont lie, i am skeptical, but then i live in a much more literal world than some and have a hard time accessing my spirtual side through religion or superstition or seance etc etc.

I am curious though.

Baggly

Sorry to interject...have been looking for this since i read the thread.

Now i know Derren brown is a big eejit, and i know the name of the show is a bit sensationalist...

But this does logically explain things for me. It might not for everyone and its by no means infallable, but maybe take a look

Ruth KPS

.

Ruth KPS

Interesting video...

Fighting Irish

Luke Kelly wrote: »

I remember years ago when i was around 8 years old there were 5 freind's who topped themself's from my area and they were dabbling with one .
It can not be said for sure if it was the ouiji boards fault but it make's you think , 3 of them hung themself's from the same tree , each carving their name on the tree before going threw with it . The father of one of the 3 then cut the tree down but that didn't stop the other two from killing themself's , one did it in his bedroom and the other did it in his father's garage and then the father hung himself in the same garage a few year's later .

:rolleyes:

kryogen

i have used them a few times, not too bothered by it tbh, the best expeirences i have had with them are when i made the planchet move to freak my mates out, it worked! sorry but i just dont see the logic in it.

unfortunately people will often come up with a theory first and then change or only see facts that suit that theory rather then make the theory suit the facts

if you go into using something like a ouija board with a pre conceived notion of it, you may very well induce a placebo effect on yourself with it

Luke Kelly

pookie82 wrote: »

Jesus, that's harsh!!:eek:

Could have been a range of factors involved though, I know of a few unfortunate cases of group or "pact" suicides with very young guys of late and sometimes one or two can start a chain reaction that has nothing to do with anything spiritual or malevolent in that regard.

That's really sad though.

Harsh indeed , year's later i dated the sister of one of these bloke's and i was invited over for tea one night and the mother was talking to me about it , she said the five were making animal sacrifices in the alley way of the house , she said she walked in and caught them in the act , they had killed a dog and they had candles set up around the dog while they were useing the ouija board . she then went and told all the mothers and fathers of the boys what had happened but they only got a slap on the wrist . sad really , maybe if they would have done something about it then they all would have been alive today .

kylith

It works by something called the Ideomotor response, where the people touching the pointer are subconciously moving it.

Penn and Teller did a great experiment on their show where they blindfolded the participants and turned the board around; the pointer still went to the "yes" and "no" where the human participants remembered them to be rather than to their actual locations where any 'spirits' in the room would know them to be.

enda1

Interesting thing on QI about them.

They were once the world's most popular board game until the film The Exorcist made them out to be paranormal yokes. Then they became feared.

There's nothing wrong with them, just the people who read too much into inanimate objects.

Play away and enjoy!

lizardfudge

Anyone tried asking the board itself how it works?

It may not give an objective answer though.

DoctorGonzo08

enda1 wrote: »

They were once the world's most popular board game until the film The Exorcist made them out to be paranormal yokes. Then they became feared.

I think this is the best description. Albeit, it may very well be the participants sub concious moving the piece itself, it is the participants mental state that can cause alot of the 'happenings' during and after. Like alot in the Paranormal, some people prove to be better medium than others. I don't believe this to be a special extra sense granted to them, just how much they fear/believe in something happening. This can have terrible consequences that you can't control. The mental state of a person is a very thin line, you just have to look at medical conditions such as depression and psychophrenia. People don't want to have these conditions but it happens. If the participants want to believe something is happening, it probably will. I personally would never go anywhere near it, even to the extent of refusing to enter a premises that it has been used in. I have seen and heard of terrible after affects that have occured with the use of the board as the only common connection. I have disscussed it with some priests before that have been called out to bless premises after people worked themselves into fits of terror. One believed it nothing to do with spirits or the like but psychological torture put on themselves, where a blessing would put things right. This goes back to the quote above that has been instilled in people because of TV. He said the same can be seen in cases of fire for example, because of the influences of TV people believe putting a hanky to your mouth and a wet towel over you, you can enter and leave a burning house with no more than a chesty cough.

I think if you are a complete skeptic, and carry it out in a controlled experiment, maybe it is an option. For anyone to carry it out just because of curiosity is just asking for trouble.

lizardfudge

Here's the original patent for the Ouija board.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=0aU_AAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=446054&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Describes it's function in detail.

Perfectly innocent game. Negative connotations are all a relatively recent thing.