The Ouija Board

The Talking Board The term "talking board" is the generic name for a message board with numbers, letters, and a movable message indicator. The message indicator, touched lightly by one or more persons, slides or pivots along the surface of the board to spell out words. This spelling out of words gave the board it's unique name the "talking board."   Spiritual believers insist the messages come from supernatural entities that can be "good" or "bad" spirits. Talking boards are also referred to as Ouija boards, witch boards, spirit boards, oracle boards, and most recently, channeling boards. The name "Ouija" is a registered trademark for Parker Brothers' William Fuld Talking Board Set.   The Ouija History The first talking board was invented in 1890. Earlier talking boards (alphanumeric tables with rotating pointers), date to the 1850's. These boards became very popular in the late 1800s during the age of mysticism when prominent families of America and Europe began dabbling in the occult. Seances, mediumship and communicating with the dead became popular parlor entertainment and of course lucrative for a few mediums.   Many people make the claim the Ouija board is ancient, know as a Witch Board, Talking Board, Writing Board, Alphabet Board and a variety of other names and labels. The problem with these claims are they're false. Sad to say the Ouija isn't as old as people want to make it out to be or they're confusing it with the Pendulum which is much older and also could be used with a "bored" and without.     Some have tried to relate the Ouija to ancient tools used by Pythagoras. The problem with this is no such tool is mentioned or described in any writings relating to Pythagoras or the Pythagorean Brotherhood. The tool has been linked to the Greek oracle at Delphi, but again no archeological or anthropological evidence exists to support this supposition. And sadly that seems to be what a lot of these stories are; supposition. But there's a problem with that too.   In order for an object to be related to an older object it must have some type of evolutionary connection that can be traced through validated records. The modern Ouija simply doesn't have this type of evolutionary connection to ancient divination tools.   One of the best sources for the evolution of talking boards and their history the Ouija is The Museum of Talking Boards. They explain: The talking boards of today most likely grew out the use of the alphabet and alphabetic pasteboards during 19th century spiritualistic séances and not from pendulum oracles or other devices used many centuries earlier.   In 1848, the Fox sisters realized immediately that calling out the individual letters of the alphabet, and having the spirits knock accordingly, was easier than asking lengthy "yes/no" questions. The use of alphabet pasteboards became common among table-tippers who came to the same conclusion. And there were mediums who didn't wait for the spirits to knock but instead relied on a kind of divine intuition: "During a communication between the medium and the supposed spirit, the former passed his hand over the alphabet, until he found his finger sensibly and irresistibly arrested at a certain letter, and so on, until the word, the sentence, was completed." -The Rappers (1854).   Starting in the 1850's, alphabet boards made the transition to the dial-plate instruments, also known as psychographs, first in the United States and then in Europe. The first talking board with a detachable sliding message indicator appeared around 1886. That's a short thirty-eight year time frame. If the Ouija board has relatives they are the devices of this period: the talking tables, the alphabet pasteboards, and the early dial-plate instruments.   The Ouija & Divination The Ouija is a physical tool that requires more interaction and more importantly, more connection between you, the tool and spirit. Because of this, the Ouija is considered to be an earth based tool, meaning it's used to connected with earth bound entities or ghosts rather than spirits of higher spiritual realms.   Earth bound entities, or ghosts still have a strong connection to the physical world. They can use this connection to manipulate an Ouija pointer across a board, but to do that, they also have to manipulate you, your hands and arms. Additionally ghosts are not connected to the higher spiritual knowledge of the Divine realm. This can make their information unreliable and often connects it to desires, ego and all those earthly physical emotions that get in the way of positive divination messages. Because of this the Ouija is not a good tool for divination. This is different from a pendulum which requires no physical interaction other than holding the tool in the air. Refer to the Pendulum page for more information.   How Does The Ouija Work On an Ouija Board the pointer moves across the board, while your hands are on top of it. What's moving is not just the pointer, but also your hands and arms. So imagine your hands are on the pointer. The pointer is spelling out the word "Speak". Even if you are not consciously moving the pointer, your hands and arms have to move with the pointer, because you're resting your fingers upon the pointer. This means there is a physical manipulation of your body going on here. You, your physical being moves to the right and over the "S", then to the left slightly over the "P" and then farther to the left over the "E"....and so on back to the right. That's a lot of moving just for one answer.   Now let's assume you are very adept at clearing, cleansing and setting protective shields so that you can block an earth bound entity that might try to interfere with the use of an Ouija board. Even in this type of protective shield there is still an element of movement on a physical level for the Ouija pointer to deliver a message. Which means "YOU" can still, even unknowingly, influence the results of the divination. In other words, you might be adept at blocking an earth bound entity, but your subconscious still has physical influence over the pointer. Even if you don't realize it.   The problem here is that not many people can maintain this level of shielding and focus while using a Ouija. It's of course possible. And if someone really feels drawn to the board, then I'm the last person to say get over it and use your energy for something else. Just like any other tool, a person may have an inner talent for the board over other tools. Or there maybe a karmic reason (good or bad), for the pull that needs to be worked out. But these types of situations are very few and far between.   The main concern in using the Ouija for divination is it's connection to the physical. Primarily the connection to physical ego and desires, but also because of the lack of connection to higher spiritual knowledge and enlightened understanding. These are the primary reasons the Ouija, no matter what it's form or previous historical tool, is not good for divination.

Sources: 1, b1, b6, b10, b13, s10, o1, o14, o20, w09 Created: 03.24.2010      Updated: 03.24.2010