Want to play? 13 Facts about the Ouija Board

The history of the Ouija board is interesting. It started as an innocent toy. Now, people use it seriously, trying to contact spirits. There are tons of tales of hauntings from people using the board. Are they true? I have no clue, but I love to read about them and get a nice shiver down my spine.

Here are 13 facts that may make you rethink playing with an Ouija Board.

1. The first ever Ouija board was invented by a toy shop in 1891: According to various sources, it was a Pittsburgh toy and novelty shop called Danziger's & Company.
2. During World War I, Ouija boards could be found in almost every household in the U.S. (Kind of makes you wonder. Were people trying to contact soldiers who died in battle?)
3. In 1922, Ouija board sales outsold Monopoly: Three million Ouija boards were sold in the year 1920. Over the next two years, they jumped over the sales of Monopoly.
4. Ouija board got its patent without proper paperwork: Elijah Bond carried an Ouija board to the patent office and asked it to spell out the name of the officer. Which it did and the officer was so spooked he approved the patent without finishing the paperwork.
5. The Ouija board named itself when asked for it: They had no idea what to call it and decided to ask the board and that's what it spelled.
6. The word Ouija means "good luck": Apparently the word is Egyptian.
7. Emily Grant Hutchings said that the book "Jap Herron" was dictated by Mark Twain's ghost through an Ouija board.
8. People who take fatal decisions based on the boards are often related in one way or another: A mother-daughter duo played with an Ouija board after taking a lot of hallucinogenic pills and later burned their own house. Investigators found out they were related to a person who attempted to kill his dog after playing the same game.
9. The most demonic spirit in an Ouija world is called Zozo. Crazy fact here: I followed a Youtuber for a while who got an Ouija board. She got rid of it after the name Zozo was spelled out.
10. Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholic Anonymous wrote the famous 12-step recovery program using an Ouija board: Bill had a spook room in his house and he used to contact spirits in order to seek their guidance for his own research. He was also found to be on LSD sooo.....
11. Six intelligence officers with top-secret security clearances were arrested for messing with supernatural forces through Ouija board: The officials claimed the souls predicted the Gulf War and an earthquake in 1990. Later, they went AWOL on orders from the board. They were found and arrested for their misbehavior.
12. The 1973 film The exorcist abruptly stopped the Ouija obsession with a mass fear of spirit infestation.
13. The scientific concept on which Ouija boards are based is called Ideomotor Effect: The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. (source)

So, anyone want to play? Have you played with an Ouija board? Had an unexplained experience with one? Or is it all in our heads and done with unconscious movements that tell us what we want to hear? (If you liked this post, you can get early access to it and exclusive flash fiction over on my Patreon.)

---