How to Use an Ouija Board

The Ouija Board is neither a children's toy nor a gateway to infernal powers. Put simply, it is a means of channeling: the practice of contacting nonphysical beings. There are many ways of channeling, ranging from doing trance work to using the pendulum to automatic writing. Trance work and the purest form of automatic writing require that the practitioner, or medium, fall into a trance state so that an nonphysical being can "borrow" his or her body and speak or write through the medium.

The Ouija Board, also called scriptoscope, is a form of automatic writing that does not require the practitioner to induce trance. Moreover, more that one person can work together, making the task of channeling a being easier - and safer. Horror movies and books, such as the Amityville Horror series, sensationalize the dangers of the Ouija Board, and so do many Internet rumor mills. What must be kept in mind is that, as with all other communications media, there are safe and unsafe ways of operating the Ouija Board.

Most people never succeed in making a Ouija Board "work." Some use it as a fun way of pranking their friends, and others use it lightheartedly as a garden variety oracle. As with many things in life, the effort and seriousness invested in the Ouija Board will deliver the corresponding results.

A Oujia Board has two components: the board per se, and the planchette. The commercial version of the Ouija Board, distributed by Parker Bros., has a light weight heart shaped planchette with an aperture located closely at the tip. The board is the size of a dinner tray. It contains the letters of the alphabet, the words yes, no, hello, and goodbye, and the digits 0-9. That is the standard version, but it can easily be modified by adding astrological symbols, Tarot trumps, geographical references, etc.

Ideally, the Ouija Board is used by two people, a male and a female, who rest the board on their knees and gently rest their finger tips on a movable triangular pointer. The pointer is called a planchette. After a moment of meditation or inner quiet, one of the practitioners then asks if a spirit is present. The planchette will then move, seemingly on its own, to the word "yes" or "hello," or it may begin spelling a name or other message straight away. The practitioners should take great care not to move the planchette with their hands, but to let the planchette move freely. Some people have said that they do not even need to touch the planchette, at all. However, I have never seen that happen.

If more than two people attend the session, they may place their hands on the practitioners' backs or shoulders and send them energy. No more than two persons should touch the planchette, however; it is too small to be handled by many people.

Once contact has been established, the session can begin. Those present can ask questions of the spirit thus contacted. Or otherwise converse with it. The planchette will spell out the spirit's responses. This can happen excruciatingly slow or dizzyingly quick. Sometimes the spirit will spell its replies phonetically. Sometimes the reply is simply a jumble of words and numbers. For this reason, it is helpful to designate a note taker. Keeping a written record of questions and responses can also help to clarify key points of that conversation at a later point.