1 00:00:01,880 --> 00:00:07,880 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, Brainstuff. Lauren 2 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:12,560 Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here. If you've ever seen the horror classic The 3 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:16,960 Speaker 1: Exorcist from nineteen seventy three, you might remember that Reagan's 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,640 Speaker 1: troubles all began when she started to play with a 5 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:24,279 Speaker 1: Ouiji board. Granted, that was just a movie, but there 6 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: have been some weird happenings in real life attributed to 7 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: this game. In nineteen twenty, a Luigi boom in the 8 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,839 Speaker 1: tiny town of Elserrito, California, led to mass hysteria and 9 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:39,960 Speaker 1: landed several residents in an asylum. In nineteen thirty five, 10 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:42,960 Speaker 1: at Nelly Heard of Kansas City learned during a WIGI 11 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 1: session that her husband was having an affair, though he 12 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:49,199 Speaker 1: denied it. She tortured him until he killed her in 13 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:55,480 Speaker 1: self defense. The tales of sudden inspiration, insanity, and death 14 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 1: have circulated ever since eighteen ninety one, when attorney Elijah 15 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:03,880 Speaker 1: Bond patented what he called the Ouiji Egyptian luck Board. 16 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:07,400 Speaker 1: Egypt probably had nothing to do with it. There's no 17 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 1: real evidence of wigi's reputed ancient roots, and the word 18 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:15,120 Speaker 1: is not in fact Egyptian for good luck. It's more 19 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:18,080 Speaker 1: likely that Bond attached Egypt to his board due to 20 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:23,840 Speaker 1: the pervasive American fascination with Egyptology at the time. Over 21 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: the next seventy years, ownership of the patent moved around 22 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:31,040 Speaker 1: from Bond to businessman Charles Kennard, who manufactured and sold 23 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 1: the new toy, and then from Kennard to his former 24 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:37,920 Speaker 1: employee William Fold, an inventor who ran with it. A 25 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,440 Speaker 1: Fold filed numerous Ouigi related patents over the years, and 26 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:44,399 Speaker 1: discredited with mass marketing the Ouiji board into a real 27 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:47,880 Speaker 1: moneymaker if he also said the name is adjoining of 28 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: the French and German words for yes, a, wei and ja, 29 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:56,600 Speaker 1: but who knows. Fuld finally sold the rights to toy 30 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:59,800 Speaker 1: making company Parker Brothers in nineteen sixty six, which was 31 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: by Hasbro in nineteen ninety one, which holds the trademark today. 32 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,560 Speaker 1: Since then, the old stories and continuing popularity of the 33 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 1: board have created a sort of modern renaissance of horror 34 00:02:12,760 --> 00:02:15,800 Speaker 1: fiction featuring it, including two movies that were made in 35 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:20,079 Speaker 1: collaboration with Hasbro twenty fourteen's Upon Miss Ouigi and its 36 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:24,840 Speaker 1: prequel Ouigi Origin of Evil from twenty sixteen. That prequel 37 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:27,200 Speaker 1: by the way, was directed by Mike Flanagan, and is 38 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 1: better than it has any right to be if you're 39 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:34,600 Speaker 1: into that sort of thing anyway, One thing is for sure. 40 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:40,119 Speaker 1: The Ouiji board's creators had timing. In the mid eighteen hundreds, 41 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:44,520 Speaker 1: a movement called spiritualism swept through the United States. Mediums, 42 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 1: mainly women, who claimed they could contact the dead, gained 43 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 1: large followings, perhaps partially because deadly disease epidemics were rampant, 44 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:56,320 Speaker 1: and other spiritual outlets at the time seemed stodgy and 45 00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:03,519 Speaker 1: paternalistic for such a modern time. By the early nineteen hundreds, seances, readings, 46 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: and trances were all the rage as entertainment and or 47 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:09,920 Speaker 1: serious attempts to make contact with those who had passed on. 48 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: In this mystical context, the simple, straightforward Ouiji board was 49 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:21,280 Speaker 1: an exciting development. Its design has hardly changed to this day. 50 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:25,240 Speaker 1: A rectangular board a first wood now paperboard with a 51 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 1: small heart shaped pointer or planchet, and meant to glide 52 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: around the board on three smooth, nubby legs. Some versions 53 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:35,920 Speaker 1: of the plantchet have a glass or plastic window near 54 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:40,040 Speaker 1: the center. Printed on the board itself are letters and numbers. 55 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 1: The English alphabet in two arct rows and a row 56 00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: of numbers directly below it. In the upper left is 57 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:48,400 Speaker 1: the word yes, in the upper right the word no, 58 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: and across the bottom goodbye. Sometimes images of the sun, 59 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:58,240 Speaker 1: the moon, stars, and clouds mark the corners. Mediums had 60 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: been using similar talking boards or spirit boards for decades 61 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:04,760 Speaker 1: before the Wiji board got its patent. There was the 62 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 1: dial plate, a spinning wheel with letters and numbers along 63 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:11,120 Speaker 1: its circumference, which stopped it characters to spell out a 64 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: spirit's message, and the alphabet board, which was similar to 65 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 1: the Ouiji but had people pointing consciously to various letters 66 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:23,599 Speaker 1: until the spirits responded noisily, eventually spelling a message. The 67 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 1: planchette had been around for decades too, in the form 68 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:28,799 Speaker 1: of a writing device with the whole for a pencil 69 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:31,560 Speaker 1: instead of a window. The idea was that a medium 70 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: working with the spirit could let the spirit write out 71 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:38,719 Speaker 1: its own message, but the Wiji board put divination into 72 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:42,680 Speaker 1: a neat, mass marketed package. Anyone, it seemed, could talk 73 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:45,840 Speaker 1: to a long dead family member or household ghost, or 74 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:49,640 Speaker 1: any random spirit using this convenient wooden board and pointer, 75 00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: or as an ad from nineteen twenty put it at 76 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:58,880 Speaker 1: least inject some great mirthmaking into a party. The instructions 77 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,039 Speaker 1: to have changed very little in its century. On the shelves, 78 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:05,560 Speaker 1: two or more players lightly rest their fingertips on the 79 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:10,040 Speaker 1: plan chet. One asks a question while everyone concentrates A 80 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:13,039 Speaker 1: player's then watches a plan chet glides around the board 81 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: seemingly of its own accord to various letters or numbers 82 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:19,440 Speaker 1: or the words yes or no. The answers may be 83 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: immediately clear or may require some interpretation, but that's a 84 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,479 Speaker 1: pretty bare bones approach. The Internet has many tips for 85 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:32,400 Speaker 1: improving chances of contact, including setting the mood with candles 86 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:36,719 Speaker 1: or creating a personalized ritual to begin contact, perhaps including 87 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:42,640 Speaker 1: a message of peaceful or serious intentions. Mister fold himself advised, 88 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:45,800 Speaker 1: and I quote, if you use it in a frivolous spirit, 89 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:50,520 Speaker 1: asking ridiculous questions, laughing over it, you naturally get undeveloped 90 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:55,719 Speaker 1: influences around you. But okay, you've seen it. You get 91 00:05:55,720 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: the idea, what if anything is really going on, our 92 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 1: spirits really moving the pointer? What or who could be 93 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,480 Speaker 1: driving the motion of the plan chet has always been 94 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:11,279 Speaker 1: controversial in the spiritual crowd. It's a force from beyond. 95 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,640 Speaker 1: Some Catholics, for example, say Ouiji board's contact spirits and 96 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:19,159 Speaker 1: always the evil type. Thus they strongly discourage wigi board 97 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:22,279 Speaker 1: use of any kind. In an article originally published in 98 00:06:22,279 --> 00:06:24,920 Speaker 1: the National Catholic Register in the year two thousand, the 99 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:28,159 Speaker 1: official exorcist for the Archdiocese of New York noted a 100 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:31,720 Speaker 1: rise in exorcism requests that he attributed to the popularity 101 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:37,080 Speaker 1: of divination tools like wigi boards. In the science crowd, 102 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:42,080 Speaker 1: the forces are considered much more earthly. The short explanation 103 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:46,080 Speaker 1: is that things move when we push them. The long 104 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:50,359 Speaker 1: version is a lot more interesting. Scientists call it the 105 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: idea motor effect. Essentially, the idea motor theory claims the 106 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:58,640 Speaker 1: unconscious mind can cause the body to move without the 107 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 1: conscious mind knowing about it. A take, for example, the 108 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:06,120 Speaker 1: pendulum test that's sometimes been used to help a pregnant 109 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:09,320 Speaker 1: person determine the sex of their baby. In this test, 110 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: you hold a string weighted with a ring or other 111 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:14,640 Speaker 1: object over your belly and wait for it to move 112 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: on its own back and forth. Swinging means a boy, 113 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:22,760 Speaker 1: circular motion means a girl. But without consciously willing it, 114 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:26,239 Speaker 1: your finger muscles will make tiny movements which will build 115 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:29,080 Speaker 1: up until the pendulum starts to swing in one way 116 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:33,800 Speaker 1: or another. The self moving pendulum, in fact, was the 117 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,120 Speaker 1: subject of some earliest studies of the idea motor effect. 118 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 1: In the mid eighteen hundreds, a researcher by the name 119 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,920 Speaker 1: of Anton Chevrol found that the movements of everything from 120 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:48,000 Speaker 1: pendulums to divining rods could be chalked up to involuntary 121 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:54,200 Speaker 1: muscle movements driven by subconscious thoughts or suggestions. In a 122 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,239 Speaker 1: much later study that focused specifically on the Ouiji board, 123 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,040 Speaker 1: published by psychologists at the University of British Columbia in 124 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:04,240 Speaker 1: twenty twelve, the researchers positive that the effect is strongest 125 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:07,280 Speaker 1: when multiple people have their fingers on the plan chet. 126 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 1: Each subject was blindfolded and told they were one of 127 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:14,800 Speaker 1: two people touching the pointer, and as the plan chet moved, 128 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:17,680 Speaker 1: the subject often claimed the other player was pushing it, 129 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:22,280 Speaker 1: when in fact there was no other player involved. They 130 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:25,840 Speaker 1: concluded that a person's conscious belief that they're not moving 131 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: the pointer actually enhances their unconscious mind's ability to trigger 132 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 1: the movement without them knowing it. In this way, the 133 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:37,120 Speaker 1: games two or more players instruction makes a lot of 134 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:40,319 Speaker 1: sense the more people are touching the pointer, the easier 135 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:43,720 Speaker 1: it is to believe that you aren't moving it. Often, 136 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:46,200 Speaker 1: at least one player will have a preference for a 137 00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:49,880 Speaker 1: specific outcome and unconsciously move the plan chet in the 138 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 1: desired direction. Not that it always moves or spells anything 139 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 1: remotely intelligible. Here's one test to try. If you blind 140 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:02,640 Speaker 1: fall your players and turned the board ninety degrees to 141 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:07,679 Speaker 1: foil layout memorization, the nonsensical results will tend to discourage 142 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:13,480 Speaker 1: a mystical explanation. Note, however, that even the earliest Wigi 143 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:18,080 Speaker 1: patents made no direct claims of other worldliness. One of 144 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:22,040 Speaker 1: Fold's patents explained the pointer's motion as caused by quote, 145 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:25,600 Speaker 1: the involuntary muscular motion of the hands of the players, 146 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:31,160 Speaker 1: or through some other agency. In fact, when asked by 147 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:34,319 Speaker 1: a reporter if he believed in the Ouigi board, Fold replied, 148 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:40,320 Speaker 1: I should say not. I'm no spiritualist. I'm a Presbyterian. Yet, 149 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:43,439 Speaker 1: even if there is nothing spiritual going on while playing 150 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:47,079 Speaker 1: with a Wigi board, perhaps the release of unconscious thoughts 151 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:52,560 Speaker 1: is itself fascinating enough to give us pause. When Pulitzer 152 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:55,719 Speaker 1: Prize winning poet James Merrill was asked about his use 153 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:58,800 Speaker 1: of the Ouigi board in his writing, he said, you 154 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 1: could think of the board as a a laying mechanism. 155 00:10:01,559 --> 00:10:05,480 Speaker 1: It spaces out into time and language. What might have 156 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,400 Speaker 1: come to a saint or a lunatic in one binding zapp. 157 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:13,720 Speaker 1: It's made me think twice about the imagination. If the 158 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:23,960 Speaker 1: spirits aren't external, how astonishing the mediums become. Today's episode 159 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:26,080 Speaker 1: is based on the article how we gi boards work 160 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:28,960 Speaker 1: on how stuffworks dot com, written by Julia Layton. Brain 161 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,720 Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeartRadio and partnership with how stuffworks 162 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:34,040 Speaker 1: dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Klang. For 163 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:37,959 Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 164 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:39,920 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.