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| Ouija Boards |
This Post By TCC Team Member Dorraine Fisher. Dorraine is a Professional Writer, a nature, wildlife and Bigfoot enthusiast who has written for many magazines. Dorraine conducts research, special interviews and more for The Crypto Crew. Get Dorraine's book The Book Of Blackthorne!
The Power Of Ouija Boards – Real Or Fake?
Real or Not, I Love This Stuff!
By Dorraine Fisher
Hmmm.
Check out this video. The man claims to have poltergeist activity when he summons it from his Ouija board.
I’ve always been really curious about Ouija boards, but I’ve never had any strange personal experiences with them. It does seem really easy for kids to pull pranks on each other with these things. They’ve been doing it since 1891.
But who knows?
After the Spiritualist Movement of that time that took place during and shortly after the American Civil War in 1865 and beyond, Americans had lost so many of their loved ones to the war, that séances and attempts to talk to the dead became a popular pastime in America. First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln, was known to have held regular séances at the White House. It was quite an accepted practice for many years. But the so-called mediums used more “complicated” equipment devoid of the Ouija board we know, or preferred to summon spirits while in a trance. And, incidentally, many of them were exposed as frauds.
And the country settled down a bit, but the movement wouldn’t die completely.
In 1886, The New York Daily Tribune announced a new “talking board” with the alphabet, numbers, yes, no, good evening, and good night, along with the raised pointer. It looked more like the Ouija board we know today, but it wasn’t quite there yet.
And in 1891, The Kennard Novelty Company was manufacturing and selling talking Ouija boards as toys to children and adults alike. Later, a man named William Fuld, who worked for Kennard, took over the board’s manufacturing, and created his own style of board finally called the Ouija, which he explained was the combining of the French and German words for yes. And the name has stuck ever since. Later the manufacture of the boards was taken over by Parker Brothers and eventually, Hasbro, that holds the patent to this day which is still Fuld’s design.
The Ouija’s so-called “power” was said to be based on a phenomena first described by a scientist named Benjamin Carpenter who wrote a scientific paper on the subject and theorized that muscular movement can often happen independent of conscious thought.
Maybe he was right, but we may never know. And since then, people have made all kinds of claims about the power these boards hold. And there have also been a lot of pranks going on with them too.
So check out this video and see what you think. Real or fake?
****DF
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