Hello riotgirl and/or other Ouija board believers,
If you believe there is something to the Ouija board other than people playing tricks on themselves, there is a simple experiment you can do to prove conclusively whether or not spirits are communicating with you. Check it out:
- Have a friend who will not be manipulating or viewing the Ouija board write a short series of numbers between 1 and 100 on a piece of paper and leave it face up on the other side of the room where it would presumably be visible to any spirits in the room, but not to the Ouija board operators. This friend should never be able to view the board, lest she unwittingly give the operators hints when they get close to the right numbers.
- The operators ask the Ouija board what the numbers are. The operators should write their answers down without saying anything aloud.
- After completing the list, compare the the two lists.
This should be easy information for spirits to give you if they exist. If they are really directing your hands, it should be trivially easy to get all the numbers right, and in the correct order. A series of five numbers between 1 and 100 would be sufficient to rule out any possibility of merely having guessed right, as those odds would be 1 in 10,000,000,000. Therefore, this would constitute powerful evidence that the spirits are real. On the other hand, if they can't even muster the clarity of thought to tackle this simple task, I think you should seriously look at alternative explanations for what you believe you saw before.
If you do this experiment, it is critically important that you follow the steps exactly as outlined. Humans are very clever at tricking themselves. These steps prevent that from happening. If you can reliably get some results (perhaps you make friends with a cooperative spirit?), by all means let me know. I'd be willing to travel anywhere in the world to see such phenomena actually working. However, I have the feeling that when subjected to rigorous method, the Ouija board will unfortunately fail to produce any effect.
Happy testing, and let me know what you find!
SNG