The Ouija Board – the Demon's Portal, or Child's Toy?

If you ever want to instil fear into those who attend a public paranormal investigation, just mention the term ‘Ouija board' and watch the colour drain from the faces of your captive audience. Their minds are automatically cast back to various literary nightmares, such as William Peter Blatty's ‘The Exorcist', where the little girl, Regan, becomes demonically possessed after playing with one, and from the stereotypical idea that occultists used them to communicate with the devil. However, if you use the term ‘message board', or ‘talking board', this causes no great concern and the majority are willing to have a go.

The word ‘Ouija' is derived from the French and German words for ‘yes' and was patented in 1901 by an American businessman called William Fuld, who claimed he had invented the talking board. It comprised a board with numbers, letters of the alphabet and other symbols printed on, and a planchette that would be used to point to the letters during the séance. The patent was sold to the toy manufacturer, Parker Brothers, upon Fuld's death in 1927 and the craze for these boards as toys was carried on through until the 1960s.

Although the Ouija board does have a rather fearsome reputation, it is still a useful form of communication during a paranormal event, but it should still be treated with an element of respect.  It should be correctly opened up and closed down after each vigil and any good paranormal investigator and medium should do this, respectfully.

The one thing that does spring to mind when using Ouija Boards is that when connecting with spirit, there is the possibility that a connection may be made with a predecessor who was illiterate. This should not pose a problem, as fast thinking investigators once had a situation like this during an event  and the Ouija board was still used - the spirit was asked to move the pointer to the ‘X' or 'O' for yes and no responses, and a lot of good information was still received using this method.

About the Author

If You Want to experience the use of a Ouija Board at first hand, I would recommend you join a professional group or company. When used under the correct conditions either on a ghost hunt or in a séance Ouija Boards are an effective method of communication to the spirit world. Haunted Happenings are the UK's leading paranormal investigation company who have fully trained staff in all methods of communication you can visit their website for more details.