If you wish to be assured a vigorous dialog, convey up the Ouija board. This polarizing speaking board has been round because the late nineteenth century and nonetheless manages to divide individuals on quite a few fronts. Do they really work? Are they harmful? Are they a rip-off? Nevertheless, the query provoked by its context at The Sturdy is: Is it a toy?
The earliest Ouija boards had been produced from a wood board marked with the letters of the alphabet, numbers, and sure/no selections. A planchette permits the spirits, or the practitioner relying on what you imagine, to reply questions. Later the boards had been produced on cardboard.
From one perspective, the time period Ouija is trademarked by Hasbro, an organization recognized for widespread video games and toys. Earlier than Hasbro acquired Parker Brothers in 1991, Ouija was produced alongside different well-known Parker Brothers board video games like Monopoly, Threat, and Clue. Earlier than these firms managed the title, the Ouija trademark will be traced to William Fuld and the Kennard Novelty Firm, which was the primary firm to provide it commercially.
If Ouija is being produced and bought by recreation firms, wouldn’t that make it a recreation? There are definitely arguments for it. Many a sleepover is graced by the presence of the Ouija board. It elicits the thrill of dabbling within the unknown or enjoying tips in your mates. Along with being bought alongside board video games, it’s a social exercise, sparks dialog, and encourages technique (even when that technique could also be subtly transferring the planchette your self). Teams of laughing pre-teens crowded over the board and holding the planchette collectively definitely displays what you’ll anticipate from a toy.
Nevertheless, Ouija’s place as a toy is challenged by its origin in non secular work. Speaking boards have roots in a wide range of practices world wide and deep into the previous. The Ouija board itself is closely related to the trendy Spiritualism motion in the USA that started with the Fox Sisters and their communications with spirits via rappings. Although many level to Maggie Fox’s confession of a hoax to disprove the sisters’ claims, Spiritualists level out that Maggie was underneath the strain of economic circumstances on the time of her confession (a confession for which she was paid) and later recanted it. With the Fox Sisters having lived in Hydesville, now part of Newark, NY, there’s an lively neighborhood of recent Spiritualists dwelling the legacy of the Fox Sisters within the area round The Sturdy.
One Spiritualist perception is that dwelling individuals and spirits can talk. Mediums act as a conduit for that communication. To many Spiritualists, speaking boards, pendulums, tarot playing cards, and different units are instruments for connecting to spirits, not merely toys, and with this additionally comes a specific amount of duty the practitioner ought to have. Tracy Murphy, a practising Spiritualist and the caretaker of the Fox Sisters Property/Hydesville Memorial Park, explains:
Some Spiritualists will say that utilizing any objects for communication is just not mandatory, nonetheless they’ve forgotten that though spirit communication got here via as rappings to start with to Maggie and Kate Fox, it was their brother David that recommended writing letters on paper and calling them out and writing the solutions. Personally, on the finish of the day, it’s a private selection. If in case you have pure intentions and are usually not harming anybody, who’s to say that communication from a spirit is just not what it’s purported to be.
Others take an reverse stance relating to Ouija boards and different divination mechanisms. The 1973 movie The Exorcist featured a Ouija board that led to a demonic possession, inspiring most of the occult associations with the board that final to this present day. The satanic panic of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties didn’t assist alleviate any of these issues. To many, the board is related to witchcraft, demonic rituals, and evil spirits. The Ouija board has been condemned by many spiritual teams on account of its affiliation with divination, which many imagine includes communication with the occult. Different parts of popular culture have additionally raised such issues via the years, together with Harry Potter, the Magic 8 Ball, and Dungeons & Dragons.
Many skeptics would disagree with all these views and argue that the Ouija board is nothing greater than a board. Some would assert that there’s all the time a participant that’s inflicting the motion. Others would cite scientific theories just like the ideomotor impact, that attributes sure virtually unconscious actions to the ideas and pictures held within the thoughts. This idea would clarify how motion can occur via the affect of the thoughts’s personal suggestion, in need of any deliberate determination on the person’s half. Skeptics who subscribe to both of those theories might most likely argue both aspect of whether or not Ouija is a recreation, even when they don’t imagine there are additional non secular implications.
The identical query, Is that this a recreation?, might be raised about different childhood video games meant to discover “the other side.” Well-liked at sleepovers is the sport Bloody Mary, normally consisting of rhymes spoken in a darkish lavatory with the door closed in an try to evoke the spirit of the lifeless girl. One other widespread recreation is Gentle as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, which thrills the gamers with the concept of their psychic energy serving to levitate a good friend. Every individual makes use of two fingers to collectively carry an individual whereas chanting the sport’s title. Different mysterious, darkish, or chilling video games abound that stroll the road between occasion recreation and one thing extra.
Maybe the reply to the query is subjective. What could also be most essential is a sensitivity to differing views and acknowledgement that what’s a recreation for one individual could also be a non secular observe for an additional. What could also be a foolish parlor trick to at least one might be a harmful exercise to a different. No matter your perspective on the Ouija board and different sleepover staples, a full understanding is never as simple as one viewpoint.
Article written by Kristy Allen Hisert, Collections Supervisor at The Sturdy Nationwide Museum of Play
