For those of you who do not know what a Ouija board is, it is believed to let you to talk to ghost/spirits/demons etc. From warri0r45, there is also something called the ideomotor effect, where somebody could unconsciously move there fingers without even knowing they are/realising it. Some people do not beleive i this, others do. For the some of you that have tryed it or have it, you will know what I am talking about. You mostly either get a good "spirit" or a bad one. You communicate to them with a sort of glass/dial, where you place two fingers on it and the spirit "moves" the piece around, answering most questions you ask it. Although it can be very tricky sometimes.

 

 

 

Here is a video of some people doing it. (Some of these have language)

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erD64ZACE18 (embed disabled)

 

 

 

(prob most realistic one. Short but it shows how it moves.)

 

 

 

(<--- homemade ouiji board. probably fake)

 

 

 

So my question is, what do you think?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideomotor_effect

 

 

 

There are other explanations apart from "spirits". No one should jump to conclusions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideomotor_effect

 

 

 

There are other explanations apart from "spirits". No one should jump to conclusions.

 

I said it is believed :) but that is a good explanation of it though.

You communicate to them with a sort of glass/dial, where you place two fingers on it and you move the piece around

 

Fixed.

 

 

 

I think it could be a fun toy for small children. My policy for supernatural entities is that they need to tell me the correct lottery line before I believe in them.

I watch wrestling, I see unconscious body twitch all the time.

 

 

 

Ouijia Boards are totally fake. One of the guys will move yet claim it to be spirits and the others will foolishly believe em'. Not to mention, trying to understand a sentence letter by letter is annoying.

My instincts would tell me that spirits communicating with people via Ouija boards is a load of crap. That said, I've never used one.

Oujia can scare the living soul out of someone, it's not really something you mess with, since others can get bad reaction from it, starting to believe it, and things like that. There is always one who is going to believe it, and they won't react good from it..

My attitude to it is that the Ideomotor effect is the method by which it works. Assume for the moment that a completely scientific explanation for the Universe exists and that spirits also exist. It would take a lot more energy to move the marker physically than it would to influence your subconscious. So yes, the movement is caused by your subconscious, but perhaps the spirits are affecting your subconscious.

 

 

 

This would also match up with a lot of other spiritual experiences many of which use the subconscious to allow their manifestations, think spirit quests, or drumming and dancing rituals.

 

 

 

It also would link in to Tarot reading and cold reading.

Ghosts are fake.

 

Ouija Boards are fake.

 

 

 

/endthread.

Not spirits, other explanations.

 

These other explanations, though, are what interests me.

 

I prefer to leave my mind open in this sort of thing.

Not spirits, other explanations.

 

These other explanations, though, are what interests me.

 

I prefer to leave my mind open in this sort of thing.

 

 

 

:thumbup:

 

Science cannot always solve everything. Sure, ideomotor motion is one way to solve this but this cannot be the case all the time.

 

It is one thing to believe in something and another to prove sometbing.

I CAN FEEL YOU MOVING THE THING [wagon]

I CAN FEEL YOU MOVING THE THING [wagon]

 

Yeah, really. +1.

 

 

 

Its just your friend movin it. Not ghosts.

If there really is an afterlife, I'll bet the best way to contact it is through a plastic, mass-produced board game from Milton Bradley!

 

 

 

:lol:

 

 

 

I don't believe in this kind of thing, namely because if it were true then it would suck all the fun out of life.

I dont know anyone who owns one of these. They seem plain stupid.

Played one once. Was boring as hell and quite pointless. I'm not usually such a skeptic, but you can't possibly think that Ouija boards that are mass produced by Milton Bradley actually work.

Played one once. Was boring as hell and quite pointless. I'm not usually such a skeptic, but you can't possibly think that Ouija boards that are mass produced by Milton Bradley actually work.

 

If anyone actually thinks it works then they're [developmentally delayed]ed.

While I do believe in supernatural things, I know that Ouija boards are nothing but bs. Hell i think if spirits could communicate through them, they would just [bleep] with you, at least that's what I would do.

Oujia can scare the living soul out of someone, it's not really something you mess with, since others can get bad reaction from it, starting to believe it, and things like that. There is always one who is going to believe it, and they won't react good from it..

 

 

 

These sound fun now :-k

While I do believe in supernatural things, I know that Ouija boards are nothing but bs. Hell i think if spirits could communicate through them, they would just [bleep] with you, at least that's what I would do.

 

 

 

We all know that they actually want to say "Get the [bleep] off my property."

Oujia can scare the living soul out of someone, it's not really something you mess with, since others can get bad reaction from it, starting to believe it, and things like that. There is always one who is going to believe it, and they won't react good from it..

 

 

 

These sound fun now :-k

 

 

 

And mean.

Oujia can scare the living soul out of someone, it's not really something you mess with, since others can get bad reaction from it, starting to believe it, and things like that. There is always one who is going to believe it, and they won't react good from it..

 

 

 

These sound fun now :-k

 

 

 

And mean.

 

 

 

But funny

I've been doing them since I was too little to understand (yay for irresponsible, drunken parents?). My dad and mum sometimes set them up when they've had a few drinks with some friends in the house and I have to write out letters on paper and put them around ect... I've been a part of lots and I've seen pretty spooky things. One spelt out 'Rach' and then went to 'bad'. And a friend of my mum's got 'contacted' by someone or something...

 

 

 

The scientific part of me thinks they're a load of crap, but I'd be silly to ignore what I've experienced and what could be true.

Oujia can scare the living soul out of someone, it's not really something you mess with, since others can get bad reaction from it, starting to believe it, and things like that. There is always one who is going to believe it, and they won't react good from it..

 

 

 

These sound fun now :-k

 

 

 

And mean.

 

 

 

That's the point of a prank. To take advantage of someone's ignorance and scare them.

Played one once. Was boring as hell and quite pointless. I'm not usually such a skeptic, but you can't possibly think that Ouija boards that are mass produced by Milton Bradley actually work.

 

It tells a lot about our values that even demons and spirits are thought to be this superficial. I can just imagine a ghost going "Sure, I'd tell them what afterlife is like and what happened to me if they just used something else than that cheap piece of crap". :lol:

 

 

 

My hypothesis of why people believe in the ouija board is that it stimulates some of our normal cognitive mechanisms and people just fill in the blanks with intuitive reasoning. Human beings have the ability to conduct conversations in their imagination and we are all hyperactive when it comes to detecting agencies. The ability to conduct conversations is important for planning whereas being hyperactive enough to mistake a shadow for a burglar more often than a burglar for a shadow helps to survive. The ouija board makes use of these abilities and (sadly) spirits make intuitively more sense to most people than unconscious movement.