Ouija

Susy Smith in Confessions of a Psychic (1971) claims that using a Ouija board caused her to become mentally disturbed. In Thirty Years Among the Dead (1924), American psychiatrist Dr. Carl Wickland claims that using the Ouija board "resulted in such wild insanity that commitment to asylums was necessitated."

We owned a Ouija board back when I was in grade school. And I discovered today my family has been mispronouncing the word for decades as WEEE JEEE (supposed to be 'wE-ja'). Though my family is notorious for butchering the obvious.

My sister was usually present at these sessions, so I never fully trusted the board's answers to our spirit-world questions. But watching the planchette float around under our fingers was fun - the tiny needle (a gold nail) answering yes and no questions, and even spelling out names of ghosts in the room.

Us: "Are there any ghosts in the room with us now?"
Milton Bradley Board Game: ".....yes"
Us: "Are you a good ghost or a bad ghost?"
Milton Bradley Board Game: ".....yes"
Us: "IT'S THE DEVIL!"

Enter Satan. So somewhere around 8th grade, my brother and I and a good friend decided to test the evil rumors we always heard about the Ouija board. We had the board and our friend had a camera and a 100 year old bible from his great grandmother. Logic suggested that the two MUST be brought together and photographed, so the photos could be analyzed later (back in the day you had to take your rolls of film to a fotomat and WAIT a week to have them developed).

Our friend kneeled in front of the board and slowly lowered the bible onto the planchette. I snapped wildly capturing every second of the event. And nothing happened - but that's what the spent roll of film was for! And off it went.

Flipping through the envelope of photographs a couple of weeks later was a bust. Nothing. Just our friend lowering an old bible onto a stupid board game. No strange glares or blurs or shadows. Nothing.



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