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The Ouija Board

Robbrent said:
I think it's time for some of our members to put the Ouija board to the test (not me I am too mard) but one the parameters have been set it could be an interesting experiment, I think the participants would have to be very skeptical
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Sceptical people wouldn't take part though.
There's the rub: only believers are likely to be interested. Non-believers won't waste any time on it.
 
escargot said:
Sceptical people wouldn't take part though.
There's the rub: only believers are likely to be interested. Non-believers won't waste any time on it.
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My thinking is, if the participants were non believers we could rule out wishful thinking etc, people like me who think there is a danger are no use for this as who knows if part of my mind might want to play some tricks in order to confirm

Also a good challenge for the avowed sceptic
 
Robbrent said:
My thinking is, if the participants were non believers we could rule out wishful thinking etc, people like me who think there is a danger are no use for this as who knows if part of my mind might want to play some tricks in order to confirm

Also a good challenge for the avowed sceptic
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I see your point, but again, only people who think it's not fraudulent/pranking/the ideomotor effect will take part.
Besides which, even people who do believe in it might be too afraid to try.

The sort of sceptic who'd go for it would probably make it spell out obscenities. :chuckle:



Possibly judging other by myself here. :thought:
 
There is also the suggested "sceptic effect" where the presence of a strong sceptic has a tendency to dampen phenomena, in which case you wouldn't expect much to happen. I think a strong sceptic will make up any manner of explanation to avoid anomalous interpretations.
 
escargot said:
I see your point, but again, only people who think it's not fraudulent/pranking/the ideomotor effect will take part.
Besides which, even people who do believe in it might be too afraid to try.

The sort of sceptic who'd go for it would probably make it spell out obscenities. :chuckle:



Possibly judging other by myself here. :thought:
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Or people who want to see just what the ideomotor effect will come up with. It was interesting watching Peter Laws programme that ALL of the games tended to end up with 'someone will die'. None of it was anything more elusive or non specific, it was as though the message had to be absolute and scary - to the extent of causing extreme mental anguish to participants. Maybe our brains are just secretly obsessed with the idea of death and ceasing to exist?
 
catseye said:
Or people who want to see just what the ideomotor effect will come up with. It was interesting watching Peter Laws programme that ALL of the games tended to end up with 'someone will die'. None of it was anything more elusive or non specific, it was as though the message had to be absolute and scary - to the extent of causing extreme mental anguish to participants. Maybe our brains are just secretly obsessed with the idea of death and ceasing to exist?
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Sceptics don't care what the ideomotor effect will do.They expect anything it produces to be rubbish. :chuckle:
 
escargot said:
Sceptics don't care what the ideomotor effect will do.They expect anything it produces to be rubbish. :chuckle:
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Oh, I believe that everything that comes from a ouija board is the product of one or more of the human minds behind it. After all, how many ouija boards produce messages if they are hanging on a wall on the other side of the room? But I'm still interested to see what messages come out of one, because it says a lot about the minds of the people there present.
 
catseye said:
Oh, I believe that everything that comes from a ouija board is the product of one or more of the human minds behind it. After all, how many ouija boards produce messages if they are hanging on a wall on the other side of the room? But I'm still interested to see what messages come out of one, because it says a lot about the minds of the people there present.
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Produce letters and a yes, and a no, on a flat surface, and you've got the same mind-medium with which to test it out!
 
Does anyone on here use one on a regular basis?
 
I know it's called a game. What are the rules? Does anyone win?
 
Robbrent said:
I think it's time for some of our members to put the Ouija board to the test (not me I am too mard) but one the parameters have been set it could be an interesting experiment, I think the participants would have to be very skeptical
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How?

What would be the research question, experiment and testing protocol? Most people know what the object is and have preconceived notions about if/how it works. So an unbiased test would be very difficult.

Edit: There have been many tests already using blindfolds, but that's still problematic. Here is a more involved experiment from 2018 about sense of agency.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11097-018-9585-8 (Study paper)
https://www.bps.org.uk/research-dig...teract-create-spooky-sense-ouija-board-moving
 
Sharon Hill said:
How?

What would be the research question, experiment and testing protocol? Most people know what the object is and have preconceived notions about if/how it works. So an unbiased test would be very difficult.

Edit: There have been many tests already using blindfolds, but that's still problematic. Here is a more involved experiment from 2018 about sense of agency.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11097-018-9585-8 (Study paper)
https://www.bps.org.uk/research-dig...teract-create-spooky-sense-ouija-board-moving
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Could you do a control test perhaps, where the perpetrators (not the right word, but still...) are blindfold, with all of them being told they are taking part in a ouija board test, but with one group putting their fingers on just an ordinary drinking glass on a baby's changing mat or a dog training pad or something, while the other group get the real ouija board? See whether the glass moves as it would on a ouija board when on an ordinary surface, if the perpetrators believe it to be a ouija board?
 
Robbrent said:
Does anyone on here use one on a regular basis?
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When I feel I need to. And yes, it can work (not always, but sometimes) and that's just a home made one with a small glass and old scrabble letters on my bureau.
But I don't use it when I know I've been drinking alcohol, or "just for fun", or when I'm really miserable.
Anyone who is psychic can use whatever suits them best, to communicate with good / bad/ neutral souls who have moved to the next plain of existance. It's not the board that matters, it's who is using it!

But I don't post much here anymore because everyone shouts me down!
.
 
Recycled1 said:
When I feel I need to. And yes, it can work (not always, but sometimes) and that's just a home made one with a small glass and old scrabble letters on my bureau.
But I don't use it when I know I've been drinking alcohol, or "just for fun", or when I'm really miserable.
Anyone who is psychic can use whatever suits them best, to communicate with good / bad/ neutral souls who have moved to the next plain of existance. It's not the board that matters, it's who is using it!

But I don't post much here anymore because everyone shouts me down!
.
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They shout at me sometimes I am pretty sure everyone shouts at each other, it's not personal
 
I intend to get a board and experiment with it at some point this year. I expect some ideomotor effect larks, but not much else. But I'm happy to be surprised.
 
catseye said:
Could you do a control test perhaps, where the perpetrators (not the right word, but still...) are blindfold, with all of them being told they are taking part in a ouija board test, but with one group putting their fingers on just an ordinary drinking glass on a baby's changing mat or a dog training pad or something, while the other group get the real ouija board? See whether the glass moves as it would on a ouija board when on an ordinary surface, if the perpetrators believe it to be a ouija board?
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There needs to be a very precise question to be answered for a research experiment or the results won't be useful.

For example, "Does the Ouija board work?" or "What happens when a group uses a fake Ouija board?" aren't going to get you anything. You must design a test that takes into account all the ways to avoid ambiguity.

I think we already know the answer to the example experiment. The glass will move but without any pattern because the letters on the board guide the pattern for whatever thing is controlling it - the participants or the spirits. I'm sure some additional experiments could be devised but I don't think we can test spirit involvement for several complex reasons, one being, we don't actually know for sure how spirits behave to be able to attribute their influence.
 
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