:Ouija

The popular belief that the word {{linktext|Ouija}} comes from the French (oui) and German (ja) words for yes is a misconception. In fact, the name was given from a word spelled out on the board when medium Helen Peters Nosworthy asked the board to name itself. When asked what the word meant, it responded "Good Luck".{{cite magazine | last=Rodriguez McRobbie | first=Linda | title=The Strange and Mysterious History of the Ouija Board | magazine=Smithsonian Magazine | date=27 October 2013 | url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-strange-and-mysterious-history-of-the-ouija-board-5860627/ | access-date=16 October 2023}}{{cite news | last=Woods | first=Baynard | title=The Ouija board's mysterious origins: War, spirits, and a strange death | work=The Guardian | date=30 October 2016 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/30/ouija-board-mystery-history | access-date=16 October 2023}}

File:Group of model figures showing a worshipper. Wellcome L0004641.jpg

File:Changchun-Temple-Master-and-disciples-painting-0316.jpg, founder of the Quanzhen School, depicted in Changchun Temple, Wuhan]]

One of the first mentions of the automatic writing method used in the Ouija board is found in China around 1100 AD, in historical documents of the Song dynasty. The method was known as fuji "planchette writing". The use of planchette writing as an ostensible means of necromancy and communion with the spirit-world continued, and, albeit under special rituals and supervisions, was a central practice of the Quanzhen School, until it was forbidden by the Qing dynasty.Silvers, Brock. The Taoist Manual (Honolulu: Sacred Mountain Press, 2005), pp. 129–132.

As a part of the spiritualist movement, mediums began to employ various means for communication with the dead. Following the American Civil War in the United States, mediums did significant business in allegedly allowing survivors to contact lost relatives. Use of talking boards was so common by 1886 that news reported the phenomenon taking over the spiritualists' camps in Ohio. The Ouija was named in 1890 in Baltimore, Maryland by medium and spiritualist Helen Peters Nosworthy.

Charles Kennard, the founder of Kennard Novelty Company, claims to have invented the board with his business partner, Elijah Bond, who patented it with help from his sister-in-law, spiritualist and medium Helen Peters Nosworthy.{{sfn|Cornelius|2005|pages=20–21}} The local patent office at first refused a patent. Bond and Nosworthy then traveled to Washington, D.C. where they were also denied a patent until the chief patent officer asked the board to spell out his name, which it did.{{cite web | date=22 September 2018 | title=Helen Peters Nosworthy | publication-place=Pinehurst, Massachusetts, USA | publisher=Talking Board Historical Society | url=https://tbhs.org/helen-peters-nosworthy/ | access-date=16 October 2023 | archive-date=7 October 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231007160331/https://tbhs.org/helen-peters-nosworthy/ | url-status=dead }}

In 1901, an employee of Bond, William Fuld, took over the talking board production under the name "Ouija".{{cite web |last=Orlando |first=Eugene |title=Ancient Ouija Boards: Fact or Fiction? |url=http://www.museumoftalkingboards.com/ancient.html |work=Museum of Talking Boards |access-date=24 April 2012}}{{failed verification|date=October 2023}}

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| caption2 = Video capture of experiment{{Cite journal|last1=Andersen|first1=Marc|last2=Nielbo|first2=Kristoffer L.|last3=Schjoedt|first3=Uffe|last4=Pfeiffer|first4=Thies|last5=Roepstorff|first5=Andreas|last6=Sørensen|first6=Jesper|date=2018-07-17|title=Predictive minds in Ouija board sessions|journal=Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences|volume=18|issue=3|pages=577–588|language=en|doi=10.1007/s11097-018-9585-8|s2cid=150336658|issn=1572-8676|doi-access=free}}

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The Ouija phenomenon is considered by the scientific community to be the result of the ideomotor response.{{cite journal |last=Burgess |first=Cheryl A |author2=Irving Kirsch |author3=Howard Shane |author4=Kristen L. Niederauer |author5=Steven M. Graham |author6=Alyson Bacon |title=Facilitated Communication as an Ideomotor Response |journal=Psychological Science |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=71 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |jstor=40063250 |doi=10.1111/1467-9280.00013|year=1998 |s2cid=145631775 }}{{cite journal | last1=Gauchou | first1=Hélène L. | last2=Rensink | first2=Ronald A. | last3=Fels | first3=Sidney | title=Expression of nonconscious knowledge via ideomotor actions | journal=Consciousness and Cognition | publisher=Elsevier | volume=21 | issue=2 | year=2012 | issn=1053-8100 | doi=10.1016/j.concog.2012.01.016 | pages=976–982 | pmid=22377138 | s2cid=5728755 |url=https://philarchive.org/archive/GAUEON}}{{cite journal | last=Shenefelt | first=Philip D. | title=Ideomotor Signaling: From Divining Spiritual Messages to Discerning Subconscious Answers during Hypnosis and Hypnoanalysis, a Historical Perspective | journal=American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis | publisher=Informa UK | volume=53 | issue=3 | year=2011 | issn=0002-9157 | doi=10.1080/00029157.2011.10401754 | pages=157–167| pmid=21404952 | s2cid=19324123 }} Michael Faraday first described this effect in 1853, while investigating table-turning.{{cite journal |last=Faraday |first=Michael |title=Experimental investigation of table-moving |journal=Journal of the Franklin Institute |year=1853 |volume=56 |issue=5 |pages=328–333 |doi=10.1016/S0016-0032(38)92173-8|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1428516 }}{{Cite EB1911|last=Podmore |first=Frank |wstitle=Table-turning |volume=26 |p=337}}

Various studies have been conducted, recreating the effects of the Ouija board in the lab and showing that, under laboratory conditions, the subjects were moving the planchette involuntarily.{{cite news |last=Garrow |first=Hattie Brown |title=Suffolk's Lakeland High teens find their own answers |newspaper=The Virginian-Pilot |date=1 December 2008 |url=http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/suffolks-lakeland-high-teens-find-their-own-answers |access-date=28 October 2014 |archive-date=29 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029002323/http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/suffolks-lakeland-high-teens-find-their-own-answers |url-status=dead }} A 2012 study found that when answering yes or no questions, Ouija use was significantly more accurate than guesswork, suggesting that it might draw on the unconscious mind. Skeptics have described Ouija board users as "operators".{{cite news |last=Dickerson |first=Brian |title=Crying rape through a Ouija board |work=Detroit Free Press |publisher=Gannett |date=6 February 2008 |page=B1 |url=http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080206/COL04/802060366/1081|url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029004650/http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080206/COL04/802060366/1081 |archive-date=2014-10-29 |url-status=dead}} Some critics have noted that the messages ostensibly spelled out by spirits were similar to whatever was going through the minds of the subjects such as where a knife was hidden in the room by one of the participants.{{cite journal |last=Tucker |first=Milo Asem |title=Comparative Observations on the Involuntary Movements of Adults and Children |journal=The American Journal of Psychology |volume=8 |issue=3 |page=402 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |date=Apr 1897 |doi=10.2307/1411486 |jstor=1411486 }}{{cite web|last1=Vyse |first1=Stuart |authorlink1=Stuart Vyse |title=How Does the Ouija Board Work? |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/how-does-the-ouija-board-work/ |website=SkepticalInquirer.org |publisher=Skeptical Inquirer |access-date=8 May 2025}} In one study, researchers used cameras to monitor the eye movements of board users, noting eye direction predicted where the board would go in what the researchers called "voluntary conditions." According to professor of neurology Terence Hines in his book Pseudoscience and the Paranormal (2003):Hines, Terence. (2003). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. Prometheus Books. p. 47. {{ISBN|1-57392-979-4}}

The planchette is guided by unconscious muscular exertions like those responsible for table movement. Nonetheless, in both cases, the illusion that the object (table or planchette) is moving under its own control is often extremely powerful and sufficient to convince many people that spirits are truly at work ... The unconscious muscle movements responsible for the moving tables and Ouija board phenomena seen at seances are examples of a class of phenomena due to what psychologists call a dissociative state. A dissociative state is one in which consciousness is somehow divided or cut off from some aspects of the individual's normal cognitive, motor, or sensory functions.

Some involuntary movements are known as "Automatism".{{Cite book |last=Wegner |first=Daniel |chapter=An Analysis of Automatism |title=The Illusion of Conscious Will |publisher=The MIT Press |year=2018 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=99–144}}

This correlates with the ideomotor phenomenon because both rely on unconscious movement. The difference is that the ideomotor phenomenon is based on the idea that just the idea that something can happen tricks the brain into doing it. For example, thinking about not moving the planchette leads to the possibility of the planchette moving, which then makes someone unconsciously move the planchette. Studies also show a strong correlation between action of the board and prior belief in its authenticity.

Ouija boards were already criticized by scholars early on, being described in a 1927 journal as {{"'}}vestigial remains' of primitive belief-systems" and a con to part fools from their money.{{cite magazine |last=Howerth |first=I. W. |title=Science and Religion |magazine=The Scientific Monthly |volume=25 |issue=2 |page=151 |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |date=Aug 1927 |jstor=7828}} Another 1921 journal described reports of Ouija board findings as 'half truths' and suggested that their inclusion in national newspapers at the time lowered the national discourse overall.{{cite journal |last=Lloyd |first=Alfred H. |title=Newspaper Conscience--A Study in Half-Truths |journal=The American Journal of Sociology |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=198–205 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |date=Sep 1921 |jstor=2764824 |doi=10.1086/213304|doi-access=free }}

{{Further|Christian views on magic}}

Since early in the Ouija board's history, it has been criticized by several Christian denominations. The Catholic Church in the Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly forbids any practice of divination, which includes the usage of Ouija boards.{{cite web|url=https://aleteia.org/2020/10/28/the-spiritual-dangers-of-playing-with-a-ouija-board |last=Kosloski |first=Philip |date=28 October 2020 |title=The spiritual dangers of playing with a Ouija board |work=Aleteia |access-date=9 February 2021}} Catholic Answers, a Roman Catholic Christian apologetics organization, claims that "The Ouija board is far from harmless, as it is a form of divination (seeking information from supernatural sources)."{{cite web |url=https://www.catholic.com/qa/are-ouija-boards-harmless|title=Are Ouija boards harmless? |year=2011 |work=Catholic Answers |access-date=25 August 2018}}

In 2005, Catholic bishops in the Chuuk State of the Federated States of Micronesia called for the boards to be banned and warned congregations that they were talking to demons when using Ouija boards.{{cite journal |last=Dernbach |first=Katherine Boris |title=Spirits of the Hereafter: Death, Funerary Possession, and the Afterlife in Chuuk, Micronesia |journal=Ethnology |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=99–123 |location=Pittsburgh |date=Spring 2005 |jstor=3773992 |doi=10.2307/3773992}} In a 1995 pastoral letter, The Dutch Reformed Churches encouraged its communicants to avoid Ouija boards, as it is a practice "related to the occult".{{citation |author=Synod of the Free Reformed Churches of North America |date=March 1995 |url=http://frcna.org/messenger/item/7420-/7420-|title=Pastoral Letter Issued by the Free Reformed Churches of North America Out of concern for all confessing and baptized members|publisher=Synod of the Free Reformed Churches Publications Committee|language=en|access-date=8 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308103247/http://frcna.org/messenger/item/7420-/7420- |archive-date=2018-03-08 |url-status=dead}} The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod forbids its faithful from using Ouija boards as a violation of the Ten Commandments.{{cite web|url=http://www.portagelutheranchurch.org/home/180011422/180011422/Images/January%20Newsletter-2016.pdf|title=What Does God Tell Us To Do In The Second Commandment?|last=Schultz|first=Scott|year=2016|publisher=Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod|page=3|language=en|access-date=8 March 2018|quote=A final way we misuse God's name is when we use any type of witchcraft such as crystal balls, Ouija boards, tarot cards, etc. Using these things are sinful because we are asking the devil to help us instead of God. In the Second Commandment God not only commands us not to do these things, but he also commands us to do certain things.|archive-date=8 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308165144/http://www.portagelutheranchurch.org/home/180011422/180011422/Images/January%20Newsletter-2016.pdf|url-status=dead}}

In 2001, Ouija boards were burned in Alamogordo, New Mexico, by fundamentalist groups as "symbols of witchcraft".{{cite magazine |last=Ishizuka |first=Kathy |title=Harry Potter book burning draws fire |magazine=School Library Journal |volume=48 |issue=2 |page=27 |location=New York |date=1 February 2002 |url=http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2002/02/ljarchives/harry-potter-book-burning-draws-fire/ |access-date=28 October 2014 |archive-date=29 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029020226/http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2002/02/ljarchives/harry-potter-book-burning-draws-fire/ |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |title=Book banning spans the globe |work=Houston Chronicle |date=3 October 2002 |url=http://www.chron.com/life/article/Fresh-news-Book-banning-spans-the-globe-2111820.php}}{{cite news |last=LaRocca |first=Lauren |title=The Potter phenomenon |work=The Frederick News-Post |date=13 July 2007 |url=http://www.fredericknewspost.com/archive/article_f5380cf1-5dc2-59ba-a3d3-713967b3d76b.html}} Religious criticism has expressed beliefs that the Ouija board reveals information which should only be in God's hands, and thus it is a tool of Satan.{{cite magazine |last=Zyromski |first=Page McKean |title=Facts for Teaching about Halloween |magazine=Catechist Magazine |date=October 2006}} A spokesperson for Human Life International described the boards as a portal to talk to spirits and called for Hasbro to be prohibited from marketing them.{{cite magazine |last=Smith |first=Hortense |title=Pink Ouija Board Declared 'A Dangerous Spiritual Game', Possibly Destroying Our Children |magazine=Jezebel |date=7 February 2010 |url=http://jezebel.com/5466214/pink-ouija-board-declared-a-dangerous-spiritual-game--possibly-destroying-our-children}}

These religious objections to use of the Ouija board have given rise to ostension type folklore in the communities where they circulate. Cautionary tales that the board opens a door to evil spirits turn the game into the subject of a supernatural dare, especially for young people.

{{cleanup list|section|date=October 2020}}

Ouija boards have been the source of inspiration for literary works, used as guidance in writing or as a form of channeling literary works. As a result of Ouija boards' becoming popular in the early 20th century, by the 1920s many "psychic" books were written of varying quality often initiated by Ouija board use.{{cite book |last=White |first=Stewart Edward |author-link=Stewart Edward White |title=The Betty Book |publisher=E. P. Dutton & CO., Inc. |date=March 1943 |location=US |pages=14–15 |isbn=0-89804-151-1}}

• Emily Grant Hutchings claimed that her novel Jap Herron: A Novel Written from the Ouija Board (1917) was dictated by Mark Twain's spirit through the use of a Ouija board after his death{{cite news | date=9 September 1917 | title=Jap Herron. A Novel Written from the Ouija Board | work=The New York Times | department=Book Review Section | type=Book review | page=336 | url=http://www.twainquotes.com/19170909.html | access-date=11 June 2012}}
• Pearl Lenore Curran (1883–1937), alleged that for over 20 years she was in contact with a spirit named Patience Worth. This symbiotic relationship produced several novels, and works of poetry and prose, which Pearl Curran claimed were delivered to her through channelling Worth's spirit during sessions with a Ouija board, and which works Curran then transcribed
• Much of William Butler Yeats's later poetry was inspired, among other facets of occultism, by the Ouija board{{Cite book |last=Gould |first=Warwick |url=https://www.google.co.il/books/edition/Yeats_Annual_No_7/7MO-DAAAQBAJ?hl=iw&gbpv=1&pg=PA226&printsec=frontcover |title=Yeats Annual No 7: including Essays in Memory of Richard Ellmann |date=2016-07-27 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-07951-3 |language=en}}
• In late 1963, Jane Roberts and her husband Robert Butts started experimenting with a Ouija board as part of Roberts' research for a book on extra-sensory perception.ESP Power, by Jane Roberts (2000) (introductory essay by Lynda Dahl). {{ISBN|0-88391-016-0}} According to Roberts and Butts, on 2 December 1963, they began to receive coherent messages from a male personality (an "energy personality essence no longer focused in the physical world") who eventually identified himself as "Seth", culminating in a series of books dictated by "Seth"
• In 1982, poet James Merrill released an apocalyptic 560-page epic poem titled The Changing Light at Sandover, which documented two decades of messages dictated from the Ouija board during séances hosted by Merrill and his partner David Noyes Jackson. Sandover, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1983,{{cite web |title=All Past National Book Critics Circle Awards Winners and Finalists |url=http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/ |publisher=National Book Critics Circle |access-date=24 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408214249/http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/ |archive-date=8 April 2014 |url-status=dead }} was published in three volumes beginning in 1976. The first contained a poem for each of the letters A through Z, and was called The Book of Ephraim. It appeared in the collection Divine Comedies, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1977.{{cite web |title=Past winners & finalists by category |url=http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Poetry |work=The Pulitzer Prizes |publisher=Pulitzer.org |access-date=6 April 2012}} According to Merrill, the spirits ordered him to write and publish the next two installments, Mirabell: Books of Number in 1978 (which won the National Book Award for Poetry){{cite web |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1979 |title=National Book Awards – 1979 |publisher=National Book Foundation |access-date=6 April 2012}} and Scripts for the Pageant in 1980.

Aleister Crowley had great admiration for the use of the ouija board and it played a passing role in his magical workings.{{sfn|Cornelius|2005}} Jane Wolfe, who lived with Crowley at Abbey of Thelema, also used the Ouija board. She credits some of her greatest spiritual communications to use of this implement. Crowley also discussed the Ouija board with another of his students, and the most ardent of them, Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones): it is frequently mentioned in their unpublished letters. In 1917 Achad experimented with the board as a means of summoning Angels, as opposed to Elementals. In one letter Crowley told Jones:

Your Ouija board experiment is rather fun. You see how very satisfactory it is, but I believe things improve greatly with practice. I think you should keep to one angel, and make the magical preparations more elaborate.

Over the years, both became so fascinated by the board that they discussed marketing their own design. Their discourse culminated in a letter, dated 21 February 1919, in which Crowley tells Jones,

Re: Ouija Board. I offer you the basis of ten percent of my net profit. You are, if you accept this, responsible for the legal protection of the ideas, and the marketing of the copyright designs. I trust that this may be satisfactory to you. I hope to let you have the material in the course of a week.

In March, Crowley wrote to Achad to inform him, "I'll think up another name for Ouija". But their business venture never came to fruition and Crowley's new design, along with his name for the board, has not survived. Crowley has stated, of the Ouija Board, that{{sfn|Cornelius|2005}}

There is, however, a good way of using this instrument to get what you want, and that is to perform the whole operation in a consecrated circle, so that undesirable aliens cannot interfere with it. You should then employ the proper magical invocation in order to get into your circle just the one spirit you want. It is comparatively easy to do this. A few simple instructions are all that is necessary, and I shall be pleased to give these, free of charge, to any one who cares to apply.

• Roland Doe used a Ouija board, which the Catholic Church stated led to his possession by a demon{{cite book|last=Heiney |first=James J. |chapter=Demonic possession | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KuTNEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA305 |page=305 |editor-last1=Fee|editor-first1=Christopher R.|editor-last2=Webb|editor-first2=Jeffrey B.|title=American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore|date=29 August 2016|publisher=ABC-CLIO |language=en | isbn=978-1-61069-568-8}}
• Dick Brooks, of the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, uses a Ouija board as part of a paranormal and seance presentation{{cite web |url=http://www.psychictheater.com/ |publisher=psychictheater.com |title=Psych Theater}}
• G. K. Chesterton used a Ouija board in his teenage years
• Around 1893, he had gone through a crisis of scepticism and depression, and during this period Chesterton experimented with the Ouija board and grew fascinated with the occult{{cite book |last=Chesterton |first=G.K. |title=Autobiography |pages=77ff |date=2006 |publisher=Ignatius Press |isbn=1586170716}}
• Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, used a Ouija board and conducted seances in attempts to contact the dead{{cite book |last=Raphael |first=Matthew J. |title=Bill W. and Mr. Wilson: The Legend and Life of A. A.'s Cofounder |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mj4sI04-uMkC&pg=PA159 |access-date=24 August 2011 |date=2002 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |isbn=978-1-55849-360-5 |page=159}}
• Early press releases stated that Vincent Furnier's stage and band name "Alice Cooper" was agreed upon after a session with a Ouija board, during which it was revealed that Furnier was the reincarnation of a 17th-century witch with that name. Alice Cooper later revealed that he just thought of the first name that came to his head while discussing a new band name with his band{{cite news |url=http://www.therockradio.com/alice-cooper/biography.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051223222146/http://www.therockradio.com/alice-cooper/biography.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=23 December 2005 |work=The Rock Radio |title=Alice Cooper Biography}}
• Former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi claimed under oath that, in a séance held in 1978 with other professors at the University of Bologna, the "ghost" of Giorgio La Pira used a Ouija to spell the name of the street where Aldo Moro was being held by the Red Brigades
• According to Peter Popham of The Independent: "Everybody here has long believed that Prodi's Ouija board tale was no more than an ill-advised and bizarre way to conceal the identity of his true source, probably a person from Bologna's seething far-left underground whom he was pledged to protect."{{cite news |last=Popham |first=Peter |date=2 December 2005 |title=The seance that came back to haunt Romano Prodi |work=The Independent |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article330676.ece |access-date=3 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080106095635/http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article330676.ece |archive-date=6 January 2008 |url-status=dead }}
• The Mars Volta wrote their album Bedlam in Goliath (2008) based on their alleged experiences with a Ouija board
• According to their story (written for them by a fiction author, Jeremy Robert Johnson), Omar Rodriguez Lopez purchased one while traveling in Jerusalem. At first the board provided a story which became the theme for the album. Strange events allegedly related to this activity occurred during the recording of the album: the studio flooded, one of the album's main engineers had a nervous breakdown, equipment began to malfunction, and Cedric Bixler-Zavala's foot was injured. Following these bad experiences the band buried the Ouija board{{cite news |url=http://alarm-magazine.com/2007/the-bedlam-in-goliath-offers-weird-ouija-tale-of-the-mars-volta/ |title=The Bedlam in Goliath Offers Weird Ouija Tale of The Mars Volta |work=Alarm Magazine |year=2007}}
• In the murder trial of Joshua Tucker, his mother insisted that he had carried out the murders while possessed by the Devil, who found him when he was using a Ouija board{{cite news |last=Horton |first=Paula |title=Teen gets 41 years in Benton City slayings |work=Tri-City Herald | publisher=McClatchy |date=15 March 2008 |url=http://mydeathspace.com/vb/showthread.php?6998-Elizabeth-Schalchlin-s-(13)-throat-was-slashed-by-Joshua-Tucker-(16)&p=2378811&viewfull=1#post2378811}}{{cite news |last=Horton |first=Paula |title=Mom says son influenced by Satan on day of Benton City slayings |publisher=McClatchy |date=26 January 2008 |url=https://boxden.com/showthread.php?p=11331972#post11331972}}
• In London in 1994, convicted murderer Stephen Young was granted a retrial after it was learned that four of the jurors had conducted a Ouija board séance and had "contacted" the murdered man, who had named Young as his killer.{{cite news |last=Mills |first=Heather |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/retrial-order-in-ouija-case-1444806.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/retrial-order-in-ouija-case-1444806.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Retrial order in 'Ouija case' |work=The Independent |date=25 October 1994 |access-date=11 June 2012}} Young was convicted for a second time at his retrial and jailed for life{{cite journal |last=Spencer |first=J.R. |title=Seances, and the Secrecy of the Jury–Room |journal=The Cambridge Law Journal |volume=54|number=3 |date=November 1995 |pages=519–522 |jstor=4508123 |doi=10.1017/S0008197300097282|s2cid=144881338 }}{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4197207.stm |title=Jury deliberations may be studied |work=BBC News |date=22 January 2005 |access-date=11 June 2012}}{{cite news |title='Ouija board' appeal dismissed |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/4076927.stm |work=BBC News |access-date=18 October 2012 |date=7 December 2004}}
• E. H. Jones and C. W. Hill, whilst prisoners of the Turks during the First World War, used a Ouija board to convince their captors that they were mediums as part of an escape plan{{cite DWB |last=Jones |first=Emyr Gwynne |date=2001 |id=s2-JONE-HEN-1883 |title=Jones, Elias Henry |language=en}}

File:Ouija Board ~ Austin, Texas.jpg]]

Ouija boards have figured prominently in horror tales in various media as devices enabling malevolent spirits to spook their users.

In the 1919 American comedy film When the Clouds Roll By, Douglas Fairbanks asks his board: "Ouija - can two live as cheaply as one?"

In the 1960 supernatural horror film 13 Ghosts the Zorba family plays the game "Ouija, the mystifying oracle".

Episodes of Lost in Space ("Ghost in Space" (1966)) and The Waltons ("The Ghost Story" (1974)) have spirit boards as part of their plots.

A Ouija board is an early part of the plot of the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. Using a Ouija board the young girl Regan makes what first appears to be harmless contact with an entity named "Captain Howdy". She later becomes possessed by a demon.

Based on Ouija Board, a song and album of the name, Ojah Awake, by Osibisa, was released in 1976.

The 1986 film Witchboard and its sequels center on the use of Ouija. The 1991 film And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird features use of a Ouija board in an important early scene. What Lies Beneath (2000) includes a séance scene with a board. Paranormal Activity (2007) involves a violent entity haunting a couple that becomes more powerful when the Ouija board is used.

Aparichithan (The Stranger) is a 2004 Indian Malayalam-language horror film. The plot centers around a Ouija board and spiritualism.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Another 2007 film, Ouija, depicted a group of adolescents whose use of the board causes a murderous spirit to follow them. In 2011, The Ouija Experiment portrayed a group of friends whose use of the board opens, and fails to close, a portal between the worlds of the living and the dead.{{cite web |url=http://www.phase4films.com/Details.aspx?projectId=f38a1070-3e46-e311-bba7-d4ae527c3b65 |title=The Ouija Experiment |date=n.d. |access-date=23 September 2015|website=Phase 4 Films |publisher=Phase 4 Films Inc.}} The 2012 film I Am Zozo follows a group of people that run afoul of a demon, based on Pazuzu, after using a Ouija board.{{cite magazine |last=Hallam|first=Scott A.|date=6 October 2011 |title=Teaser Trailer Arrives for Ouija Thriller I Am ZoZo|url=http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/47759/teaser-trailer-arrives-ouija-thriller-i-am-zozo|website=Dread Central |access-date=12 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007111508/http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/47759/teaser-trailer-arrives-ouija-thriller-i-am-zozo |archive-date=2011-10-07 |url-status=dead}} The 2014 film Ouija features a group of friends whose use of the board prompts a series of deaths.{{cite news |work=Rotten Tomatoes |title=The Ouija Experiment (2014) |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ouija_2014/}} A 2016 prequel, Ouija: Origin of Evil, also features the device.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Romancham (Goosebumps) is a 2023 Malayalam-language horror-comedy film. The plot involves several bachelors from Bangalore who improvise a Ouija board from a Carrom game.{{Cite news |last=Anand |first=Shilpa Nair |date=2023-02-18 |title='Romancham' is based on a real-life incident that I experienced: Malayalam director Jithu Madhavan |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/romancham-is-inspired-by-real-life-experiences-says-director-jithu-madhavan/article66515373.ece |access-date=2023-09-17 |issn=0971-751X}}{{Cite web |title=Film is inspired by events from my life: 'Romancham' director - The New Indian Express |url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2023/Feb/15/film-is-inspired-by-events-from-my-life-romancham-director-2547451.html |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=www.newindianexpress.com|date=7 February 2023 }}

The British singer Morrissey released a controversial single titled "Ouija Board, Ouija Board" in 1989. The lyrics and the video of the song mockingly play with the idea of supernaturally contacting dead persons.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony referenced Ouija on their Horrorcore albums Creepin on ah Come Up and E. 1999 Eternal, having been inspired by seeing the board at Toys "R" Us.{{cite web |author1-link=Layzie Bone |title=Layzie Bone opens up about the crack era, ouija boards, and the days before Bone Thugs. |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VKiVVTDbm4 |website=youtube.com |publisher=Tru Headz |language=en |format=video |date=30 October 2021}}

Jeremy Gans' nonfiction book, The Ouija Board Jurors: Mystery, Mischief and Misery in the Jury System, based on an article he wrote for the University of Melbourne,{{cite news |last=Gans |first=Jeremy |date=2017-10-03 |title=Trial by Ouija Board: When jurors misbehave |url=https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/trial-by-ouija-board-when-jurors-misbehave |access-date=2022-05-12 |work=Pursuit |publisher=University of Melbourne |language=en}} recounts an incident in which four jurors sought the help of a Ouija board during a double murder trial, both for guidance and to relieve the stress precipitated by the brutal images of evidence.

The National Geographic show Brain Games Season 5 episode "Paranormal" clearly showed the board did not work when all participants were blindfolded.{{Cite episode | author-last1=Davis |author-first1=Adam 'Tex' |author-last2=Kolber |author-first2=Jerry |author-last3=Young |author-first3=Julia |title=Paranormal |series=Brain Games |season=5 |number=5 |air-date=February 9, 2015 |network=National Geographic Channel |url=https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2wu5ot}} [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4437704/ IMDB].

The sitcom Steptoe and Son in Series 8 Episode 6, includes a scene with a Ouija board where Harold briefly fools Albert into believing that they are in contact with the ghost of Adolf Hitler.{{cite episode |author-last1=Galton |author-first1=Ray |author-last2=Simpson |author-first2=Alan |title=Seance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard |series=Steptoe and Son| season=8 |number=6 |air-date=10 October 1974 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p031d23j}} [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0710106/ IMDB]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEqWhaWUQak YouTube]. [https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6tqar7 DailyMotion].

Ouija boards appear in the video game Phasmophobia as an item investigators can use to communicate with the ghost, although using it can prove dangerous.

Ouija Board ( ওইজা বোর্ড ) is a Bangladeshi television drama directed by Humayun Ahmed and starring Bipasha Hayat, Shila Ahmed, Al Monsoor, Dilara Zaman, Abul Hayat and others.

• {{annotated link|Alien hand syndrome}}
• {{annotated link|Automatic writing}}
• {{annotated link|Bicameral mentality}}
• {{annotated link|Bunshinsaba (2004 film)|Bunshinsaba (2004 film)}}
• {{annotated link|Charlie Charlie challenge}}
• {{annotated link|Divided consciousness}}
• {{annotated link|Dowsing}}
• {{annotated link|Dual consciousness}}
• {{annotated link|Fuji (planchette writing)}}
• {{annotated link|Gope boards}}
• {{annotated link|Ideomotor phenomenon}}
• {{annotated link|Kokkuri|Kokkuri}}
• {{annotated link|Left brain interpreter}}
• List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
• {{annotated link|O-mikuji|O-mikuji}}
• {{annotated link|Planchette}}
• {{annotated link|Tengenjutsu (fortune telling)|Tengenjutsu (fortune telling)}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book | last=Cain | first=D. Lynn | title=Ouija: For the Record | publisher=Author | date=2010-12-10 | isbn=978-0-557-15871-3}}
• {{cite journal |last=Carpenter |first=William Benjamin |author-link=William Benjamin Carpenter |date=12 March 1852 | title=On the Influence of Suggestion in Modifying and directing Muscular Movement, independently of Volition | journal=Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain |publisher=Royal Institution | volume=1 |number=10 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wVFJAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA147 |pages=147–153}}
• {{cite book | last=Cornelius | first=J. Edward | title=Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board | publisher=Feral House | publication-place=Los Angeles, Calif | date=2005 | isbn=978-1-932595-10-9}}
• {{cite book | last=Gruss | first=Edmond C. | title=The Ouija Board: A Doorway to the Occult | publisher=P & R Publishing | publication-place=Phillipsburg, NJ | date=1994 | isbn=0-87552-247-5}}
• {{cite book | last=Hunt | first=Stoker | title=Ouija: The Most Dangerous Game | publisher=Harper Collins | date=1992-10-23 | isbn=0-06-092350-4}}
• {{cite book | last=Hill | first=Joe | title=Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel | publisher=HarperCollins | date=13 February 2007 | isbn=978-0-06-114793-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=siZwMaofemcC}}
• {{cite magazine |last=Murch |first=R. |title=A Brief History of the Ouija Board |magazine=Fortean Times |number=249 |date=June 2009 |pages=32–33}}
• {{cite magazine |last=Schneck |first=R. D. |title=Ouija Madness |magazine=Fortean Times |number=249 |date=June 2009 |pages=30–37}}

{{Commons category}}

;Information on talking boards

• [http://www.museumoftalkingboards.com/ Museum Of Talking Boards]
• [http://www.williamfuld.com/ The Official Website of William Fuld and home of the Ouija board]

;Skeptics

• [http://www.skepdic.com/ouija.html The Skeptics' Dictionary: Ouija]
• [http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090711013541/http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/Ouija%20board.html An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural]
• [https://www.straightdope.com/21342940/how-does-a-ouija-board-work How does a Ouija board work?] from The Straight Dope
• [http://www.vnutz.com/articles/do_ouija_boards_work_the_fact_and_fiction Do Ouija Boards Work – The Fact and Fiction]

;Other

• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/4076927.stm {{"'}}Ouija board' appeal (against second guilty verdict) dismissed" – R. v. Young (1995)]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/videonation/archive/a_f/clare_randall_ouija_board.shtml BBC video on Ouija Board]

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