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 would
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 and some take it quite
seriously…my experience with a Quija board came as a pre-teen…my sister
received one as a Christmas gift and 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 under mysterious circumstances…I wonder if the Ouija board was to blame?
