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The Scary Science Behind the Ouija Board
Does this eerie parlor game really give voices to ghostly spirits? While the answer is debatable, scientists envision even more intriguing clinical applications.
When I was a teenager, nothing was as terrifying as watching the movie The Exorcist. The story tells the tale of Regan, a 12-year-old girl who uses the family Ouija board to ask questions of “Captain Howdy” — a demon who takes possession of her soul. Generous head-spinning and pea-soup spitting ensue.
As an adolescent girl, I found the movie so thoroughly horrifying that (duh) my BFFs and I just had to play Ouija at our next sleepover.
For those unfamiliar with Ouija (pronounced WEE-gee), here’s how it goes: Two or more people sit around the board. It’s flat, with the letters of the alphabet laid out in semi-circles above the numbers 0 through 9, plus the words “Yes,” “No,” “Hello,” and “Goodbye.”
You place your fingers on the “planchette” — a type of sliding pointer — and ask a question. Then you watch, dumbfounded, as the pointer glides about the board, spelling out the answer.
Naturally, as hormonal teenage girls, we had to ask Ouija which boys liked us and who we would marry. (I know, our game preferences…
