The terrifying mystery of the Ouija boards

 Ouija boards, which have existed in our world for over 100 years, still find their admirers, especially during Halloween. This specific tool requires all participants to place their hands on a wooden pointer (or tablet) and then ask questions to the "ghosts", who answer by moving the tablet around the board. For some it is innocent fun, for others it is a portal for communication with the “other side”. But how is the board moving? Science offers several answers.

The origins of the Ouija board can be traced back to the 19th century, when a popular psychic, the Fox sisters, started the spiritualist movement. They conducted their séances using a specific method - reciting the alphabet and listening to the knocking, which was supposed to be the answer of the spirits. These messages from the "other side" aroused the imagination of the audience, but over time they turned out to be too slow. People wanted faster communication, similar to that made possible by the newly invented telegraph. Therefore, when the Ouija board was invented in 1890, it gained immediate popularity.

Despite its early fame, the Ouija board gradually fell into disuse in the early 20th century. The main reason was that many high-profile media outlets using the device were publicly exposed. Instead of communicating with spirits, researchers have turned to other paranormal phenomena, such as extrasensory perception and haunted houses. Nevertheless, after World War II, interest in spiritism, and with it the Ouija board, revived and continues to this day.

But do Ouija boards really work? The answer depends on the questioner. Believers believe that yes, they are a tool of contact with spirits. Skeptics and scientists, having no evidence for the existence of ghosts, think otherwise.

The secret of the movement of the board on the Ouija board is explained by the ideomotor effect, i.e. unconscious movements made under the influence of our thoughts. Using a Ouija board, a person can subconsciously move the board by saying words only they know. External stimuli may also be responsible for this. The same effect also explains other paranormal phenomena such as automatic typing and dowsing.

Another factor is the sense of agency, i.e. the subjective feeling of control over our actions. Experiments with Ouija boards have shown that this feeling can be manipulated into thinking that an invisible third party is moving the Ouija board.

The third factor is emotional contagion. Shocking events can affect our emotions and lead to a state of fear and anxiety. This, in turn, may increase the likelihood of the board feeling like it is moving on its own.

So we can assume that it's a combination of factors - ideomotor effect, manipulation of agency, and emotional contagion - that leads people to believe that the board is moving and spirits are speaking to them. However, due to the difficulty of reproducing situations in which people use Ouija boards in the laboratory, we cannot say for sure whether these factors are the only responses to this phenomenon.

Interestingly, interest in communicating with the dead seems to increase during periods of social and political unrest. Given the current climate - the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis - it's possible we'll see increased interest in Victorian-era screenings again. Or at least on TikTok.