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I have a Ouija Board/table made from an old oak tree stump, carbon dated to the late 1700s (from 1770 to 1800) which I purchased at a "witches fair" in Lancashire, it is carved and varnished with letters A-Z and numbers 1-0, the "table" was slightly damaged with a split and in restoring the "table" it had to be split and repositioned, inside was a small A5 sized book "backed" with "animal" skin which turned out to be human, the contents of which are undecypherable with text and graphical representations of local plants, so in respect to Parker Bros and Wadingtons they were not the first to produce Ouija boards but maybe they were the first to commercialise the sale of them at least.
 
thealien2000uk said:
I have a Ouija Board/table made from an old oak tree stump, carbon dated to the late 1700s (from 1770 to 1800) which I purchased at a "witches fair" in Lancashire, it is carved and varnished with letters A-Z and numbers 1-0, the "table" was slightly damaged with a split and in restoring the "table" it had to be split and repositioned, inside was a small A5 sized book "backed" with "animal" skin which turned out to be human, the contents of which are undecypherable with text and graphical representations of local plants, so in respect to Parker Bros and Wadingtons they were not the first to produce Ouija boards but maybe they were the first to commercialise the sale of them at least.
Very tantalising. Any chance of some photos? :)
 
The table is being exhibited at a Witch Museum in the shadow of Pendle hill a few miles away from where I live, but I do have some reference pictures and authentisity papers store somewhere (lol)
 
Talking of Xmas spirits, one of the kids at the party I was at got a Ouija board as a Christmas present. I was very pleased that the general reaction was, "Woooh. Awesome!".

I'll be sure to report back if he becomes possessed by demons. Although, he is a typical 7 year old, so it may be difficult to tell.
 
It sounds like an odd present for a 7 year old.
Must be a very high-spirited young man. :)
 
Well, y'no, if ya can't get your kid into a good school to help with literacy, where else are you gonna turn?
 
rev_dino said:
Talking of Xmas spirits, one of the kids at the party I was at got a Ouija board as a Christmas present. I was very pleased that the general reaction was, "Woooh. Awesome!".

I'll be sure to report back if he becomes possessed by demons. Although, he is a typical 7 year old, so it may be difficult to tell.

I thought all 7 year olds were posessed by minor demons. At about 12 they all go on holiday and get replaced by the major ones we have to put up with for the rest of our lives :)
 
Most practictioners of the talking board perform some form of ritual before and after to protect and clear the location and the participants. Which either discourages those non-human entities with decidely human ascribable tendancies (i.e. malign) or acts as a placebo version of the same for the sub-conscious, if you prefer the ideomotor explanation.
 
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I've already read enough about ouija experiences to know it's like playing Russian Roulette, very dangerous!
 
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Alright, my point of view is that ouijas are a "stargate" for malign spiritual entities to enter our plane of existence, are you able to see my point of view?
 
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Guys, guys, let's remember that the starter of this thread is asking for advice about ouija boards, in other words "trying to contact spirits", which means it inevitably overlaps into religion, as spirits/demons/djinn etc are mentioned in many religions.
So trying to airbrush religion out of the equation would create an unbalanced thread which would be of no use to the original poster or anybody else!

The fact remains that there are recorded cases of some people having distressing experiences with ouija boards, so if the original poster wants to risk that, it's up to him..
 
Since the purpose of Oujia boards is to contact spirits, we are not talking scientific rationality in the first place.
 
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Cochise said:
Since the purpose of Oujia boards is to contact spirits, we are not talking scientific rationality in the first place.

Exactamundo. The Ouija 'works'* despite the explanation being a relatively well known effect, because the method behind it is so well concealed. People will substitute the 'you pushed it' or even 'the spirits did it' explanation because the idea that it is muscle impulses driven by the subconscious isn't as easy to connect to the movement of a planchette as it is to the movement of say a pendulum or dowsing rods. Obviously the occult reputation of the thing only adds to this misdirection as the most obvious explanations are one of the two mentioned (depending on which side of the spiritual/not-spiritual fence you are on).

Of course one could argue that momentary possession by demonic entities causes the muscle spasms....... :p

*By 'works' I mean the planchette moves and spells out words without any form of apparent intervention.
 
Nor, incidentally, do Ouija boards have anything to do with Christianity ... They are an occult tool, like the Tarot and numerous others.
 
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... Let's face it Ouija was a parlour game and was never intended as a means of contacting spirits. The original intent - amusement - was subverted by the leaders and credulous followers of spiritualism round the time of WWI about 20 years after the invention of the game and during that 20 years there was never any suspicion of demonic or spiritual influence.

If spiritualism was, as I suspect, a reaction to the inadequacies conventional religions then the rumours of demonic influence would have been a normal theocratic response.
 
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... Some people do assume because the Ouija board implies an afterlife that it ties in with Christianity or other religions that 'offer' an afterlife. They make the same assumptions about mediums / psychics. These people come from both sides of the atheist/believer divide.

Of course even if any of those 'work' there is no evidence that you are actually contacting your loved ones and not demons or mischevious aliens, and also I seem to recall that Christianity is against any form of 'contacting the dead' although I can't remember the exact context.

I'm to some degree a fence sitter, though logic dictates that the afterlife must be somehow on a different plane of existence or at least have strict rules about contacts or we'd be pestered by generations of antecedents disapproving of our behaviour :)
 
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Got it wrong

Corrections

William Fuld, first user of the "Ouija" name was not the inventor of the planchette system of automatic writing, nor was he the earliest patentee. The system goes back much earlier. There are reliable Chinese reports of a similar system in the 12th Century. Proponents and opponents of the game will even claim an earlier origin, usually Egyptian.

Not having access to the back issues of FT, I cannot confirm a memory of an early report of possession (Thanks, Monstrosa) in the 1900s. My suspicion is that it may be a report of a report, or an editing error such as "The Yellow Newspaper Times reported that in 190X ..." changing to "The Yellow Newspaper Times reported in 190X that ..." An unsubstantiated report of my own is that Microsoft "Word" grammar auto correct used to play tricks like that.

The earliest time for possession/hysteria for which I found a reference is supposedly from 1920 in El Cerrito, California found in Paranormal Suite 101 but there is no reference to where this report appeared at the time. Other unsourced reports can be found at the same site.

Some links I found displayed the same cavalier attitude to sources. Others, like the site Ouija: Not a Game referenced fonts (pun intended) of journalistic accuracy such as the "National Examiner" and "The Sun".

People interested in the history of the Ouija board should visit the site constructed by Robert Murch, William Fuld. com
 
I will not mess with Ouija boards ever again, but recently a friend of mine has asked me if I could laser cut one into a slab of white oak.

He wants it to be circular, but apart from that, he doesn't really know what sort of style and/or design he'd like.

Any thoughts? Has anyone made a board before? Is there anything I should/should not do? Anything I should keep in mind while designing and cutting it?

Advice is appreciated.
 
MercuryCrest said:
I will not mess with Ouija boards ever again, but recently a friend of mine has asked me if I could laser cut one into a slab of white oak.

He wants it to be circular, but apart from that, he doesn't really know what sort of style and/or design he'd like.

Any thoughts? Has anyone made a board before? Is there anything I should/should not do? Anything I should keep in mind while designing and cutting it?

Advice is appreciated.

Obviously the size of the board is important, does he/she intend the board to be used by one, two or a multitude?
 
And this is why I post things like this...I hadn't asked/he didn't tell me. :D

I did mention that our laser cutters are limited to about 2'x1', but now I can ask him more specifically about the size.

Thanks!

Other thoughts?
 
MercuryCrest said:
Other thoughts?

Please add some sort of strange symbol or nonsense sequence of numbers with the intention thatfuture Forteans will have something to ponder and discuss. :D
 
I'm half-surprised you can't get internet ouija boards, I don't mean ones you can order over the internet, but ones which actually use the technology for freaking people out - er, I mean, communing with spirits. A ouija app!
 
http://www.brainjar.com/dhtml/ouija/


There are lots of others! A great favourite with schoolkids but the underlying scripts are not so subtle. If you ask, say, Pickle or Chutney? It will answer by spelling out one or the other. Other formulations may get a Yes, No or Maybe. :(
 
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