Ouija

by Stoker Hunt

Overview

The First Book To Take A Hard Look At The Phenomenon Called "The Ouija Board"

Is it just a game? When you ask the Ouija board a question, who is it that answers? What about those stories of Ouija-inspired prophecy and clairvoyance?

What are the dangers of the Ouija board? Do you know the stories of Ouija-inspired murders, madness, obsession and possession?

Exalted by some, condemned by others, there's no doubt the Ouija is controversial. In this fascinating book Stoker Hunt investigates the history and legacy of this "Mystic Talking Oracle."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060923501
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/23/1992
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.19(w) x 8.12(h) x 0.40(d)

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

The History Of Ouija

No one knows for certain where the name "Ouija"* originated. The Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology gives the following definition and history.

From the French oui and the German ja-yes. A wooden tripod on rollers which under the hand of the medium, moves over a polished board and spells out messages by pointing out letters with its apex. As an invention it is very old. It was used in the days of Pythagoras, about 540 B.C. According to a French historian's account of the philosopher's life, his sect held frequent seances or circles at which "a mystic table moving on wheels, moved towards signes which the philosopher and his pupil, Philolaus, interpreted to the audience as being revelations supposedly from the unseen world."

An improvement of the original Ouija board is the finger-like pointer at the narrow end and a simplification in the replacement of the wooden board by a piece of alphabetical cardboard. If the pointer and the roll at the apex is replaced by a pencil thrust through a bored hole so as to form the third leg, the Ouija board is transformed into a planchette.

The nature of the Ouija phenomenon is controversial; so too are its roots. No one person or culture can take credit for its development. Ouija origins are multiple and ancient, having been independently reinvented and rediscovered in a wide variety of locations.

The Ouija is genuinely ancient in its origins. It is the invention or discovery of many. In short, Ouija is nothing less than a folk knowledge, auniversal folk instrument.

In China, centuries before the birth of Confucius (551? -- 479 B.C.), the use of Ouija-like instruments was commonplace, considered a nonthreatening way to communicate with the spirits of the dead.

In Greece, the philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras (ca 550 B.C.) encouraged his disciples to make use of Ouija-like instruments to unearth revelations "from the unseen world."

In Rome, such instruments were popular as early as the third century. A.D. In one famous case, three experimenters predicted the name of the person who would succeed the reigning emperor. The three were tried for treason, and Theodosius, the soldier named as successor by the board, was executed.

In thirteenth-century Tartary, the Mongols used Ouija-like instruments for purposes of divination and instruction.

In North America, long before Columbus' arrival, native Indians used instruments they called squdilatc boards to locate lost articles and missing persons. The board -- which had symbols instead of alphabet letters on it -- also transmitted information as to when and how certain religious ceremonies should be performed.

In France, a spiritualist named M. Planchette invented an instrument in 1853 similar to the one Parker Brothers now manufactures. This instrument had a small heart-shaped platform that rested on three legs, one of which was a pencil. When the planchette moved, the pencil wrote coherent messages. The use of this instrument became a fad throughout France and her empire.

Ouija in America --
the Recent Developments

It's generally thought that the American inventor of the Ouija board was William Fuld in 1892; however, a year earlier a U.S. patent was issued to Elijah J. Bond as inventor of the Ouija board. According to a story that appeared in American Heritage magazine (April 1983), Fuld bought the rights from Bond in 1892 and filed for another patent. Fuld then founded The Southern Novelty Company in Baltimore, Maryland -- later to be known as the Baltimore Talking, Board Company -- and began producing "Oriole Talking Boards."

William Fuld made a fortune from the board, but he was not an addicted Ouija user. "I'm no spiritualist!" he said. "I'm a Presbyterian. I built this factory on [the] Ouija's advice, but I haven't consulted the board since. Things have been moving along so well I didn't want to start anything."

The popularity of the talking board soared during World War I, when thousands of stay-at-home citizens turned to the Ouija in an attempt to keep in touch with sons, husbands and lovers who were fighting in Europe.

What appears to be a characteristic curve has developed in the board's sales history. Ouija sales peak during times of national catastrophe. So, bad times are good times for the makers of Ouija boards, and the thirties, forties and sixties witnessed national Ouija crazes.

At the University of Michigan, as reported by the New York Tribune, Dec. 24, 1919, the "Mysterious Talking Oracle" had "succeeded the Bible and the prayerbook in fraternity houses and students' rooms." The New York Times Magazine assaulted the Ouija by describing it as "the Bolshevik of the psychic realm." At one point the Baltimore Sun hired a full-time editor whose sole duty was to answer Ouija-related questions.

In 1966, Parker Brothers, one of the world's most successful producers of children's games, purchased the rights to the Ouija board and moved the operation from Baltimore to Salem, Massachusetts. The first full year after their takeover, Parker Brothers sold more than two million Ouija boards...topping the sales of their perennially bestselling board game, Monopoly.

Ouija Goes to Court

One of the questions this book must raise is whether the Ouija board is simply a game that is properly sold in toy shops and department stores alongside such children's favorites as Candyland, Sorry and Old Maid -- or whether it is a more serious instrument, with the potential for hurting people. As far as the courts are concerned, the issue was settled more than sixty years ago.

In 1920, the Internal Revenue Service contended that the Ouija board was a game, and as such, taxable.

Arguing for the Baltimore Talking Board Company, Allen Fisher said, "We contend...that it [the Ouija board] is a form of amateur mediumship and not a game or sport. By means of this board one is enabled to get in touch with the other side." An attorney, Washington Bowie, supported this view when he described the board as "a medium of communication between this world and the next."

Ouija. Copyright © by Stoker Hunt. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.