WEBVTT - How Do Ouija Boards Work? 0:00:01.880 --> 0:00:07.880 Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, Brainstuff. Lauren 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:12.560 Vogelbaum here. If you've ever seen the horror classic The 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.960 Exorcist from nineteen seventy three, you might remember that Reagan's 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.640 troubles all began when she started to play with a 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:24.279 Ouiji board. Granted, that was just a movie, but there 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:27.840 have been some weird happenings in real life attributed to 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.960 this game. In nineteen twenty, a Luigi boom in the 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.839 tiny town of Elserrito, California, led to mass hysteria and 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.960 landed several residents in an asylum. In nineteen thirty five, 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.960 at Nelly Heard of Kansas City learned during a WIGI 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.080 session that her husband was having an affair, though he 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.199 denied it. She tortured him until he killed her in 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:55.480 self defense. The tales of sudden inspiration, insanity, and death 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.960 have circulated ever since eighteen ninety one, when attorney Elijah 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:03.880 Bond patented what he called the Ouiji Egyptian luck Board. 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:07.400 Egypt probably had nothing to do with it. There's no 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.360 real evidence of wigi's reputed ancient roots, and the word 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:15.120 is not in fact Egyptian for good luck. It's more 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.080 likely that Bond attached Egypt to his board due to 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:23.840 the pervasive American fascination with Egyptology at the time. Over 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:26.880 the next seventy years, ownership of the patent moved around 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:31.040 from Bond to businessman Charles Kennard, who manufactured and sold 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.560 the new toy, and then from Kennard to his former 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.920 employee William Fold, an inventor who ran with it. A 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.440 Fold filed numerous Ouigi related patents over the years, and 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.399 discredited with mass marketing the Ouiji board into a real 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.880 moneymaker if he also said the name is adjoining of 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:51.520 the French and German words for yes, a, wei and ja, 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:56.600 but who knows. Fuld finally sold the rights to toy 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.800 making company Parker Brothers in nineteen sixty six, which was 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:04.000 by Hasbro in nineteen ninety one, which holds the trademark today. 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.560 Since then, the old stories and continuing popularity of the 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.760 board have created a sort of modern renaissance of horror 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:15.800 fiction featuring it, including two movies that were made in 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:20.079 collaboration with Hasbro twenty fourteen's Upon Miss Ouigi and its 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:24.840 prequel Ouigi Origin of Evil from twenty sixteen. That prequel 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.200 by the way, was directed by Mike Flanagan, and is 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:29.720 better than it has any right to be if you're 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:34.600 into that sort of thing anyway, One thing is for sure. 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:40.119 The Ouiji board's creators had timing. In the mid eighteen hundreds, 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:44.520 a movement called spiritualism swept through the United States. Mediums, 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.880 mainly women, who claimed they could contact the dead, gained 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:52.600 large followings, perhaps partially because deadly disease epidemics were rampant, 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.320 and other spiritual outlets at the time seemed stodgy and 0:02:56.400 --> 0:03:03.519 paternalistic for such a modern time. By the early nineteen hundreds, seances, readings, 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:07.040 and trances were all the rage as entertainment and or 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:09.920 serious attempts to make contact with those who had passed on. 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:15.840 In this mystical context, the simple, straightforward Ouiji board was 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:21.280 an exciting development. Its design has hardly changed to this day. 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.240 A rectangular board a first wood now paperboard with a 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.720 small heart shaped pointer or planchet, and meant to glide 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:33.160 around the board on three smooth, nubby legs. Some versions 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.920 of the plantchet have a glass or plastic window near 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:40.040 the center. Printed on the board itself are letters and numbers. 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.240 The English alphabet in two arct rows and a row 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.200 of numbers directly below it. In the upper left is 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:48.400 the word yes, in the upper right the word no, 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.880 and across the bottom goodbye. Sometimes images of the sun, 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:58.240 the moon, stars, and clouds mark the corners. Mediums had 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.880 been using similar talking boards or spirit boards for decades 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.760 before the Wiji board got its patent. There was the 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.040 dial plate, a spinning wheel with letters and numbers along 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.120 its circumference, which stopped it characters to spell out a 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.680 spirit's message, and the alphabet board, which was similar to 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.320 the Ouiji but had people pointing consciously to various letters 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:23.599 until the spirits responded noisily, eventually spelling a message. The 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.440 planchette had been around for decades too, in the form 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.799 of a writing device with the whole for a pencil 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.560 instead of a window. The idea was that a medium 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:33.960 working with the spirit could let the spirit write out 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:38.719 its own message, but the Wiji board put divination into 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.680 a neat, mass marketed package. Anyone, it seemed, could talk 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.840 to a long dead family member or household ghost, or 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.640 any random spirit using this convenient wooden board and pointer, 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.080 or as an ad from nineteen twenty put it at 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:58.880 least inject some great mirthmaking into a party. The instructions 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.039 to have changed very little in its century. On the shelves, 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.560 two or more players lightly rest their fingertips on the 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:10.040 plan chet. One asks a question while everyone concentrates A 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.039 player's then watches a plan chet glides around the board 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.200 seemingly of its own accord to various letters or numbers 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.440 or the words yes or no. The answers may be 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:25.200 immediately clear or may require some interpretation, but that's a 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.479 pretty bare bones approach. The Internet has many tips for 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.400 improving chances of contact, including setting the mood with candles 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:36.719 or creating a personalized ritual to begin contact, perhaps including 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:42.640 a message of peaceful or serious intentions. Mister fold himself advised, 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:45.800 and I quote, if you use it in a frivolous spirit, 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:50.520 asking ridiculous questions, laughing over it, you naturally get undeveloped 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:55.719 influences around you. But okay, you've seen it. You get 0:05:55.720 --> 0:06:00.200 the idea, what if anything is really going on, our 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:04.880 spirits really moving the pointer? What or who could be 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.480 driving the motion of the plan chet has always been 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:11.279 controversial in the spiritual crowd. It's a force from beyond. 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.640 Some Catholics, for example, say Ouiji board's contact spirits and 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:19.159 always the evil type. Thus they strongly discourage wigi board 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.279 use of any kind. In an article originally published in 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.920 the National Catholic Register in the year two thousand, the 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:28.159 official exorcist for the Archdiocese of New York noted a 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.720 rise in exorcism requests that he attributed to the popularity 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:37.080 of divination tools like wigi boards. In the science crowd, 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:42.080 the forces are considered much more earthly. The short explanation 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:46.080 is that things move when we push them. The long 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:50.359 version is a lot more interesting. Scientists call it the 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:55.120 idea motor effect. Essentially, the idea motor theory claims the 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.640 unconscious mind can cause the body to move without the 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:02.719 conscious mind knowing about it. A take, for example, the 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.120 pendulum test that's sometimes been used to help a pregnant 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.320 person determine the sex of their baby. In this test, 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.000 you hold a string weighted with a ring or other 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.640 object over your belly and wait for it to move 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.600 on its own back and forth. Swinging means a boy, 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:22.760 circular motion means a girl. But without consciously willing it, 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.239 your finger muscles will make tiny movements which will build 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.080 up until the pendulum starts to swing in one way 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.800 or another. The self moving pendulum, in fact, was the 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.120 subject of some earliest studies of the idea motor effect. 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:40.400 In the mid eighteen hundreds, a researcher by the name 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.920 of Anton Chevrol found that the movements of everything from 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:48.000 pendulums to divining rods could be chalked up to involuntary 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:54.200 muscle movements driven by subconscious thoughts or suggestions. In a 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.239 much later study that focused specifically on the Ouiji board, 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.040 published by psychologists at the University of British Columbia in 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:04.240 twenty twelve, the researchers positive that the effect is strongest 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.280 when multiple people have their fingers on the plan chet. 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.120 Each subject was blindfolded and told they were one of 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.800 two people touching the pointer, and as the plan chet moved, 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.680 the subject often claimed the other player was pushing it, 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:22.280 when in fact there was no other player involved. They 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.840 concluded that a person's conscious belief that they're not moving 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:30.400 the pointer actually enhances their unconscious mind's ability to trigger 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:34.400 the movement without them knowing it. In this way, the 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.120 games two or more players instruction makes a lot of 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.319 sense the more people are touching the pointer, the easier 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.720 it is to believe that you aren't moving it. Often, 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.200 at least one player will have a preference for a 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.880 specific outcome and unconsciously move the plan chet in the 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:55.120 desired direction. Not that it always moves or spells anything 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:59.800 remotely intelligible. Here's one test to try. If you blind 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.640 fall your players and turned the board ninety degrees to 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:07.679 foil layout memorization, the nonsensical results will tend to discourage 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:13.480 a mystical explanation. Note, however, that even the earliest Wigi 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:18.080 patents made no direct claims of other worldliness. One of 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.040 Fold's patents explained the pointer's motion as caused by quote, 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.600 the involuntary muscular motion of the hands of the players, 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:31.160 or through some other agency. In fact, when asked by 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.319 a reporter if he believed in the Ouigi board, Fold replied, 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:40.320 I should say not. I'm no spiritualist. I'm a Presbyterian. Yet, 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.439 even if there is nothing spiritual going on while playing 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:47.079 with a Wigi board, perhaps the release of unconscious thoughts 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:52.560 is itself fascinating enough to give us pause. When Pulitzer 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.719 Prize winning poet James Merrill was asked about his use 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.800 of the Ouigi board in his writing, he said, you 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.040 could think of the board as a a laying mechanism. 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:05.480 It spaces out into time and language. What might have 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.400 come to a saint or a lunatic in one binding zapp. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.720 It's made me think twice about the imagination. If the 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:23.960 spirits aren't external, how astonishing the mediums become. Today's episode 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.080 is based on the article how we gi boards work 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.960 on how stuffworks dot com, written by Julia Layton. Brain 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:31.720 Stuff is production of iHeartRadio and partnership with how stuffworks 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.040 dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Klang. For 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.959 more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:39.920 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.