What is the Ouija Board?

Let’s start with some History about the Ouija Board:

The Ouija board dates back to the days of Pythagoras, in 540 B.C. it is said that the Philosopher’s sect would conduct séances with an item closely resembling what we call the Ouija Board today.

With a rise in Spiritualism in the 19th century of the United States, the more modern idea of the Ouija Board, or Talking Board was born. The Ouija board is a method of Divination (think Tarot Cards and Rune Stones) that is used to spell out messages from other worlds, the dead and other mystical forces. There are many ways to get messages form a Ouija, such as swinging a pendulum over letters, or using a planchette (a type of pointer that slides on casters to point out different letters written out on a table or board).

In 1890 the first Ouija was invented by businessmen Elijah Bond and Charles Kennard. They patented a planchette and sold it with a board on which the alphabet was printed. William Fuld (the name best known with today’s Ouija Boards) took over the talking board production only around the beginning of the 1900’s and officially dubbed the name Ouija.

Fuld's estate sold the entire business to Parker Brothers in 1966, though you can still find many other brands of the Talking Board to this day.

A brief How To:

One or more users can operate the Ouija board by placing the planchette on the board and resting your fingers lightly on the planchette. Some say the users should start out by moving the planchette around the board and speaking to the entities that they wish to summon and asking questions of them. Then eventually the planchette will come to rest on the letters, spelling out a message. Some just start out with the planchette in a centered position and speak to the entity, asking the questions and wait for the planchette to begin moving on it’s own. For better recording you can have an extra person with you to write down the messages you receive.

Myths and the Ouija in popular culture: