Game Spotlight: Ouija Board

I remember being scared as the plastic planchette moved about the board, spelling out certain doom to my 12 year old soul. What would it know about me, my future, my secrets? Of course, we never asked it anything that would affect our mortal souls and or be added to our otherworldly permanent record.

Where did it get it’s awesome omniscient powers, a ghost or a demon? Was it forged in the fires of Hades, or carved by witches in some ancient forest?

The Ouija board was created at Danziger’s & Co. a Pittsburgh, PA toy shop around 1891. The original sale price was $1.49. It’ll set you back about $17.00 these days, free shipping if you have Prime. Danziger’s advertised the board as “the wonderful talking board”.

Surely the name “Ouija” has some mystical or profound meaning, based in some ancient language or from some dusty tome on the black arts? No, not really. The inventor of the board, Elijah Bond sat down with a relative and the planchette spelled out o-u-i-j-a, and the naming ceremony was complete.

The Ouija board gained in popularity for a number of years from about 1922 on, even out selling Monopoly, but when Linda Blair’s character becomes possessed by a demon in the 1973 film, The Excorcist, sales dropped significantly.

There is science behind the game. It’s known as the “ideomotor effect”, which is, basically, subconscious automatic writing. This means that players will shift the planchette toward answers without even realizing they are doing it. Significantly less cool than a ghost or a demon directing your hands, but then, who wants grandma’s ghost trying influence your answers?

As always, play more games.