What happens when we die?
What happens after we die? Where are we going? Do we just cease to exist? Do we have to wander around the world to find peace? All these questions because people are naturally curious. People want the answers to these questions for comfort or perhaps just out of curiosity. I have fallen victim to this curiosity many times. There's no way I'm alone in this fight. Because of this curiosity, people will do extreme things to find out what happens after we die. Movies, TV shows and books have proven this to be true. For example, Ouija boards.
Hearing the name can be disturbing. For example, many people avoid them like the plague. This is because there are many perceptions that follow when using Ouija b
oard. Everyone I know does not want to use it, so let's learn about history and how these ideas came to be.
spiritualism
spiritualism is faith a communication with the spirits of the dead. The idea of talking to the dead became popular around the 19th century. This began to hold sessions. One session is what psychic media would do to be able to communicate with the dead. Since spiritualism has existed for centuries, it has been able to evolve over time. That said, spiritualism today is considered a religion, just do not ask the Catholic Church. The consequences of spiritualism are "The Seven Principles" which are listed as;
- Fatherhood of God
- Man's Brotherhood
- Communion of the Spirit and the Ministry of Angels
- Continuous existence of the human soul
- Personal responsibility
- Compensation and retribution hereafter for all the good and evil deeds done on earth
- Eternal progress is open to every human soul.
The idea of spiritualism was the reason for finding new ways to continue and improve communication with the dead. Since there was a need for a better conversation, this triggered the idea of the Ouija board.
The Fox Sisters
Maggie and Kate Fox are the sisters who founded Spiritualism. March 31, 1848 was the report on actual communication. The two sisters aged 14 (Maggie) and 11 (Kate) always heard taps and rapeseed in the household and considered it a spirit. So that evening in 1848, the Fox family decided to ask the "spirit" to knock a certain amount of times. Then they heard the banks with the right numbers. This is what will be determined as an "intelligent spirit" for believers and a coincidence for skeptics.
After this phenomenon, the sisters moved in with their oldest sister, Leah, in Rochester. After finding bone fragments in the basement of the household, they had lived with people to see if they could communicate with others who had gone.
Afterwards, the sisters communicated with another spirit in another place. This was able to strengthen their creditworthiness as psychic media. After these successful conversations with the dead became more fascinated by the afterlife and contact with those who have passed.
Sessions and Ouija
Since the rise of spiritualism in the 19th century, séances have been the form of communication. Sessions are still popular today, but there are other forms of contact with the spirit world. There is a specific way to perform these. For example, a medium must be present during a session. They act as the connection between the spiritual world and the real world. Bright light has the effect of speaking to the dead in a negative way, so little or no light is ideal. If you decide to make one, I'll give you bonus points if you keep it in a basement.
The strength is in numbers at a session. Having one with less than three people can empty the group. I have also heard things that number three is important with spirituality. Wood represents the Holy Trinity in Christianity. So this idea is not so far advanced, and it makes sense to need at least three people present for a session.
The first Ouija rule
For years before Ouija was Ouija, there were other boards with the same concept. The person who invented Ouija was William Fuld in 1892 along with Colonel Washington Bowie and Harry Welles Rusk. They worked together for several years to create the talking tables.
There are two parts to the game, the board itself of which William Fuld is a part, and then the planchette. Which is the piece in the middle where people rest their fingers while the spirits manipulate it to talk to the players. This was patented by Elijah Bond.
The meaning behind the word Ouija
It seems that the paintings start are as mysterious as what happens after death. Dates of sessions and the use of a tool to contact the dead go back several years. The story of how the board got its name is said to be due to a woman named Helen Peters. She was a medium who was with others while he played with the board. The board had named itself. As you may know how an Ouija table works, a couple or a group of people are asking a question to the board and waiting for the answer.
After the board called itself "Ouija", they asked why it wanted what got the answer "good luck". For those who are not believers and feel that it is a scam that people can contact the dead through the board, there is another explanation. The author Ouida is very similar to Ouija, so the unconscious planchette spelled "Ouija" unconsciously by one of the participants.
Ouija game today
The Ouija board makes sense at a Halloween party, it plays into the atmosphere. But it would still get mixed reviews from those present. This is due to the rules associated with gameplay. These rules are to never use the board alone, the spirit must say goodbye, do not use it at home, throw it away properly, and do not use it if you are sick.
Although I have never used an Ouija board, I know these rules by word of mouth. The reason for these rules is because it is the idea of possession. By following these rules, people believe that there is little or no chance of irritating the spirit world and becoming obsessed with the spirit being contacted through the board. This seems like a pretty jump from the board that just contacted the dead, how did this happen?
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was a catalyst for the popularity of Ouija boards. Due to death and illness, this was a great pastime and the worst that could happen was that they were able to talk to someone you loved. Like today, there will always be people who are skeptical of the afterlife or the paranormal. It is also difficult to say when people are real about their abilities as media.
This became a problem around the time period of the Great Depression. Maybe it was just desperation, but people found a way to take advantage of the losses of others. They wanted to hide others and make them make noises in response to the query 
ns. The lack of authenticity of the board began to reduce its use. While this discredits the "power" of the game, it was not the reason it has a reputation as an evil spirit board today.
Occultism and that's the downfall of the Talking Board
Occultism is theories and practices for believing in and having knowledge of supernatural beings and forces. This coincides with witchcraft and other forms, such as ghosts and the paranormal. In the 1920s, the Catholic Church had renounced the use of the Ouija board because it was contrary to belief in the religion. While the decline in the purchase and use of the Ouija board for seasons, it began to appear in the media.
World War I
Although in the early 20s, as I had said before, there was a decline in the use of the board. What saved this was unfortunately the First World War. The Ouija board had taken over colleges. And as time went on, it reached its peak in the 1960s. The conversation states that it "was strengthened by counterculture and popular interest in the occult, the Ouija government sold Monopoly."
Ouija board controversy
There are believers and non-believers on the Ouija board, and for good reason. It can be very easy to manipulate the answer a bit to give the feeling of communicating with a spirit. I would like that opportunity, but unfortunately everyone I know is afraid of the Ouija board.
This begs the question, how did this happen? How had something that was a board associated with just talking to the dead and a fun salon game become demonic? People approached the Ouija board for many reasons. Not just for fun. Sometimes officers in the 1920s asked the board for help in some of their tougher cases.
The Ouija regime that solves crimes?
This was not only the case in the 1920s, in 1994 jurors used an Ouija board to convict a murderer. Stephen Young was found guilty of murdering Harry and Nicola Futter. While the jury was wondering, they say (after the fact) that four of the jury members contacted the spirit world through the Ouija board.
Only they made a homemade one on a piece of paper and used a glass in the hotel room as the planchette. This caused a new track with a new jury due to jury members. So do not use the Ouija board as a way to solve crimes.
Possession?
It was also around the 1920s when they were reports of disturbing cases involving the Ouija regime. Smithsonian magazine provides many different violent stories involving Ouija. This is around New England and the New York City area. For example, a Chicago woman reported that the board asked her to leave her mother's dead body in the living room for 15 days before burying her in the backyard.
Blaming the Ouija board for things was the same as how Randle in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" asks for madness because he thought it would be easier than going to jail. Or the board actually asked them to do so. There were many other allegations that the board asked people to do terrible things, but was it really the board?
Ouija Board, fun or evil?
Ouija used to be a fun game to play with friends, and after it started to fall off, the media took control of it. It became a character in Halloween specials and scary scary movies. The depiction can play a role in why people are so hesitant to pick up a board and play.
For people who think it can really hurt, I can not help but think back to the jury members. They we
can make a homemade board and use a cup, how did it work? What distinguishes an Ouija board from a piece of paper? The Ouija board itself is a mystery we've seen. I did not know how the idea came about or how popular they were. I was just always entertained with spiritualism.
Maybe communication in general is a hoax and the mind subconsciously pushes the planchette to speak. For believers, the spirit may manipulate the people to force them to communicate. Either way, it's a mystery, and at least people can decide if they want to play or not. In the meantime, I'll still try to find someone to play with me, even though everyone I know shrinks when I pick it up.