A Ouija board also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with letters, numbers, and other symbols, supposedly used to communicate with any spirits. It uses a planchette (small heart-shaped piece of wood) or movable indicator to indicate the spirit's message by spelling it out on the board during a séance. The fingers of the séance participants are placed on the planchette, which then moves about the board to spell out words or become physically manifest.
While Ouija believers feel the paranormal or supernatural is responsible for Ouija's action, it may be more parsimoniously explained by unconscious movements of those controlling the pointer, a psycho-physiological phenomenon known as the ideomotor effect Despite being debunked by the efforts of the scientific community, Ouija remains popular among many people.
My experience with a Quija board came as a pre-teen. My sister received one as a Christmas gift. It seemed very exotic at the time. We used it a few times but even at that age, it seemed to me nothing more than entertainment in which the planchette was controlled by the desire to come up with a desired answer. I did not remember what happened to the Ouija board however my sister told me a few years later that she threw it in the trash. One of the superstitions about Ouija boards is that Ouija boards that are disposed of improperly, come back to haunt the owner. All I can say is my sister died young.
