The Ouija Board

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The Ouija Board

• By Stefanie Jones Taylor Pelchar

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(No Transcript)
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Before the Ouija Board

• Spiritualism- Belief that after death, a person
  can still communicate to the living through a
  medium.
• In 1848 the Spiritualist Movement started with
  two sisters, Kate and Maggie Fox, from New York.
• They claimed to be communicating with spirits by
  rapping on tables. It turned out that the raps
  were their toes cracking.

Table Tilting
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Continued

• By the time the sisters admitted their fraud
  some thirty years later, there were tens of
  thousands of mediums holding séances where
  spirits entertained with numerous magical tricks
  such as making sounds, materializing objects,
  making lights glow, levitating tables and moving
  objects across the room.

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The Origin

• Spiritualism was becoming very popular and home
  circles were being formed.
• In 1853 M. Planchette, a French Spiritualist,
  invented the Planchette
• Planchette- heart shaped device that had pencils
  as legs and it was believed ghosts wrote out
  messages.

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The Ouija Board

• The Planchette came to America and E.C. Reiche
  made a new creation.
• E.C. Reiche was a cabinet and coffin maker from
  Maryland.
• He created a wooden lap tray that had the letters
  of the alphabet, the numbers 1-10, the words yes
  and no.
• The pencils were removed from the Planchette and
  it was used to move across the board.

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Why is it called Ouija?

• Many people believe that Reiche used the French
  and German words for yes to create Ouija
  (Oui-French) (Ja-German).
• Others say that Reiche believed the word Ouija
  was the Egyptian word for luck. This is actually
  not true.
• Reiche claimed that the name was spelled out to
  him by a spirit. Thus, we get the name Ouija.

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The Patent

• Reiche sold his invention to Charles Kennard, who
  produced the first commercial Ouija Boards in
  1886.
• The first talking board patent was made on May
  28, 1890.
• William Fuld, the shop manager of Kennard Novelty
  Company, took over the business. Due to a
  decline in sales in 1927, he committed suicide.
• Thus, the Ouija Board was given an eerie taint.

William Fuld
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How to Use

• The Ouija should be used by at least two people.
  The board should be placed on the sitters laps
  or a small table.
• The sitters place all their fingers lightly on
  the Planchette. (If you can hear the Planchette
  moving, someones probably moving it)
• The sitters are supposed to call out for a
  willing spirit in order to assure they dont
  receive any negative spirits.
• One person should ask one question slowly to
  avoid confusion.

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Theories Behind Ouija

• The Ideomotor Effect
• Confirmation Bias
• Misconception of Randomness

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How to Test?

• Simply try it blindfolded for some time, having
  an innocent bystander take notes on what letters
  are selected. Usually, the result will be
  unintelligible nonsense."

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The End