| Re .0 (Chuck):
Ouija is a form of communication using a planchette on a board with
letters, numbers, and a few words. It was developed as a game by
Parker Brothers more than 60 years ago (the exact date slips my
mind), and the name is the fusion for two words for "yes,: the French
"oui" and the German "ja."
The conceptual ancestor of the Ouija Board was the planchette used
in a form of automatic writing. Here, the planchette had a writing
instrument (commonly a pencil, though pens have been used), and
the subject (or channeler) would place a hand over the planchette,
and, eyes averted, would let the planchette spell out words. One
movie, _Oracle_, shows the use of a planchette in this manner (not
to be confused with _Witchboard_, which involves a Ouija Board).
The predecessor to the planchette was "automatic writing," which
is what it sounds like: the subject (or channeler) has a writing
implement and, eyes averted, lets his or her hand "write" by itself.
Ouija got a great boost because of the high interest in spiritism
and seances following World War I, but the original board was
manufactured to be a parlor game.
Steve Kallis, Jr.
P.S.: For more on Ouija, see notes 8, 242, 268, 421, 433, 476,
and 499.
|