Ouija, Dowsing And Ideomotor Effect

Ouija, Dowsing And Ideomotor Effect

I've always been interested in the paranormal, and ghosts, and UFO's and such, but there are things I have noticed as I've grown older and kept being exposed to old and new accounts, and learned to look at things in different ways - one of these things is that I've become much more jaded and skeptical on the paranormal, to the point where I can suspend my disbelief in order to hypothetically discuss things with "a believer", but I'm mostly unconvinced most paranormal phenomena exist as commonly accepted. Another thing is that I'm okay with this change for the most part, because what makes one skeptical about one explanation ("It's ghosts!") is good, solid, compelling information that suggests an alternate one, and one of the most memorable for me is the gradual transformation of my perception from ambivalent believer to disillusioned skeptic, with the Ouija board.

Among other things, when I was about 19 to start with, I was a member of a group which, at least twice a weekend, for four years solid, had Ouija board sessions, which lasted anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half or so.

We got all kinds of responses and results, and had different combinations of people use the board, with different results. Even as some of the results got stranger (relatively) and in some cases, more disturbing or unnerving or threatening, even to me, there was also a very slowly dawning realization for me that our sessions where we allegedly contacted spirits and such, suggested something else entirely, and that although I'd been oblivious to it along the way, I had been cataloging all these different features and earmarks that made up a fairly obvious framework that presented a different interpretation of the results of our sessions.

People with stronger, more outgoing and boisterous personalities were always the "stronger" users in the sessions, meaning whenever one was involved in a session, with their hands or fingers on the traveler, it was almost always a significantly strong "force" which moved the plastic platform around at a steady clip, usually with remarkable accuracy and somewhat unusually long responses from the board personality being contacted at the time. I was basically the one with little to no influence on the traveler, and it was vital that I had one of the two stronger other users use the board with me, as anyone else simply was not sufficient, or rather, I was not sufficient to supplement anyone else's use.

I had read bits and pieces here and there about the Ouija board, before and during this period, so had a very rudimentary concept of what is known as the ideomotor function, but it was never at the forefront of my mind as a likely possibility that was at work, as it seemed unlikely, and I also admittedly just didn't want it to be true, even though the alternative, that spirits were helping move the traveler, also ... Not quite frightened me, but represented a concrete admission or confirmation of a whole world of the unknown, from which who-knew-what could emerge and influence or affect us.

The ideomotor effect, essentially, asserts that our psychology and inclination determines the physical actions of our bodies, even unconsciously, unknowingly, to ourselves. The best direct example is that when a user places their hands on the traveler, they have ideas, thoughts, hopes, fears and desires in their head, rambling around, constantly changing and dynamic, and being influenced by the current results of what the pointer is spelling out, etc., and that person's thoughts or desires are manifested physically usually with their hands and fingers, which imperceptively to even ourselves or other active users, direct miniscule, fractional amounts of force that are nonetheless sufficient to guide the traveler piece toward certain letters or other icons on the Ouija board.

The ideomotor principle has long been established since at least the 1700's by credible and respected scientists, researchers and psychologists, and was actually the basis for the original Ouija style apparatus known as the Psychograph, which actually advertised that it was powered by "nervous electricity", which is a surprisingly accurate (at least in sensation) description of ideomotor theory. Originally, the Psychograph, patented in the 1840's, long before it was modified into what was later named an Ouija board, had nothing to do with contacting spirits, necromancy or any astral plane - it was merely a novelty marketed like a Magic 8 Ball.

For the sake of completeness though, the mish-mash pre-New Age-ish religion of Spiritualism, arguably started by the Fox sisters a few years earlier, was a growing and exciting and appealing phenomenon, eventually gaining as close to mainstream acceptance as a paranormal viewpoint can achieve in the eyes of the general public. They had adopted the use of the Psychograph, or an equivalent version that was being used around the same time, and used the "device" to contact the spirits of the departed, which is where the association with spirit contact comes from, for the soon-to-be Ouija board.

The biggest draw for Spiritualism was closure, because this was all going on after the Great War, where so many lives had been tragically lost, on all sides, so quickly and anonymously, leaving family, friends and lovers empty and numb inside, to have been unable to comfort or be comforted at the time of death of their loved one - there was so much left undone, unsaid, unknown, as the soldier or casualty was taken from them. Contacting the spirit world, and mediumship in general, exploded, as thousands around the world became interested in occultism and the paranormal, seeking solace and comfort in talking with their loved ones, in getting and sending messages, being able to say their final goodbyes, or feel that the dear departed were never truly gone.

This world-wide need was lucrative, not only for the mediums, most of whom charged money and almost never wanted for clients, but for people who were producing occult devices such as the Ouija board, which became so popular that there were Ouija parties, even held at restaurants and posh clubs, replacing bridge parties. Fascination with the spirit world brought even Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a staunch spiritualist and seance attendee, into conflict with stage magician Eric Weiss, better known as the Great Harry Houdini, a skeptic who, when not performing, spent a good deal of his time debunking paranormal claims and exposing frauds in seances and other demonstrations.

The Ouija passed from person or company to company, marketed as a toy always, with a sometimes more whimsical nature, but sometimes darker and more titillating, and eventually achieved the general form in which it is still available today, including a cheery, pink-boxed, ultra-feminine version marketed blatantly to young girls. Girls who no doubt have no inkling of the concepts and dynamics at work in the operation of the board.

The ideomotor effect is not unique to the Ouija, however, but is present and the driving mechanic behind the operation of other assumedly passive holding of objects, such as pendulums, dowsing rods and table-tipping or dancing, all of which continue to mostly be presumed to involve the actions of spirits or worse, the more sinister demon concept. Simple knowledge and understanding of the simple process by which the ideomotor effect functions, in the use of these devices, would eliminate countless "bad experiences" remembered or reported even to this day, usually by younger users, as well as the fairly religiously devout, usually Christians, and even more specifically, Catholics.

There are science experiments and hands-on museum exhibitions which include the Ouija board, designed to demonstrate this very ideomotor function, but it is reported that a large majority of adults will not touch or allow their children to touch the simple piece of plastic and lettered cardboard, which only speaks to the apparent tendency or even preference of the average person to maintain a sense of mystery and belief in an uknown, a "something more".