Participants who said that they thought the board can facilitate communication with spirits were more likely to report that the planchette had moved on its own. Out-of-body experiences have historically been the domain of pseudoscience. However, neuroscience researchers are slowly unraveling their mystery. Have you ever wondered what happens in the brain when you believe in God?
We take a look at neuroscientific studies that may explain spiritual…. Near-death experiences span age groups and cultures. Often tied to the paranormal and visions of an afterlife, what is the science behind these…. In sleep paralysis, your mind wakes up, but your body does not. They were young girls from upstate New York who claimed to communicate with a spirit in their house via a series of unexplained rappings.
Spiritualism blossomed from there, with as many mediums popping up as there were spirits willing to spill the secrets of the afterlife. Originally known as a spirit board or talking board, the first Ouija boards were made with household objects in the mid s. Users pushed a glass toward alphabet cards on a table, or even moved the table itself.
Moving a planchette was easier than chasing a flying table around the room. Some planchettes had a hole for a pencil to facilitate automatic writing. But the mystery and possibility at the heart of the board remained alluring, and people outside Spiritualist circles wanted to cash in.
In , Charles Kennard and several other investors started the Kennard Novelty Company to manufacture the board as a toy. According to Ouija historian Robert Murch , to prove the board worked in order to secure a patent, the chief patent officer demanded it spell out his name, which was supposedly unknown to the patent-seekers.
The board did so, to the amazement of the officer, and the patent was granted. The only way to see if the Ouija board worked was to try it yourself. William Fuld , a Kennard employee, took over the Ouija patent in The story of the Ouija board, however, is more than a tale of snake oil salesmen duping the Victorian masses or, subsequently, a game of harmless fun at a million junior-high sleepovers. Now, we do everything we can in hopes of avoiding aging, let alone engage in any real thoughts of death.
But in the s, people only lived to be 50 years old. Mothers would have 12 children and six of them would die. Their parlor rooms were also their funeral rooms. There always is when money is at stake, and by the early s, some 2, Ouija boards were already being sold a week. William Fuld, who worked for and invested in the Kennard Novelty Company—and eventually gained control of the Ouija business after the founder cashed out too early—went on to make millions manufacturing the board in Baltimore and elsewhere, but only after his brother was cut out of the company.
Their ensuing lawsuits were no mere spat. The two sides of the family would not speak for 96 years. And, tragically, William Fuld would suffer a fatal accident at his Harford Avenue factory, one he claimed in a Baltimore Sun story that the Ouija had told him to build. In , the first year it was headquartered in the town infamous for its witch trials, Ouija sold two million boards. Around the glass are numbers and letters. A spirit is summoned, you ask questions, and the glass begins to move from one letter to the next to spell out the response:.
Perhaps you were absolutely certain that it was not you who moved the glass, and everyone else had the same feeling.
So who did? A ghost? Alright, so here comes the breaking news: No, it was not a spirit. It was you! Or rather, it was you and your friends that unconsciously collaborated to select the letters. In a new study , scientists from Aarhus University, in Denmark, the University of Southern Denmark, and Bielefeld University in Germany have identified precisely what happens when the glass moves. In , he packed his bag with a notebook, video camera, and eye-tracking equipment, and set off for Baltimore in the US with a research assistant.
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