Ouija

Ouija (pronounced wee-juh or wee-jee) refers to the belief that one can receive messages during a séance by the use of a Ouija board (also called a talking board or spirit board) and planchette. The fingers of the participants are placed on the planchette which then moves about a board covered with numbers, letters and symbols so as to spell out messages.

Literature

Talking boards appear in countless books and movies. Their role in such varies from being a benign object to an evil entity. This demonstrates what an iconic part of culture the game has become. A more peculiar role of talking boards in literature stems from authors using the board to channel complete written works from the deceased.

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In the early 1900s, St. Louis housewife Pearl Curran used her Ouija board communications with the ubiquitous spirit Patience Worth to publish a number of poems and prose. Pearl claimed that all of the writings came to her through séances, which she allowed public to attend. In 1917 writer Emily G. Hutchings claimed to have communicated with and written a book dictated by Mark Twain from her Ouija board. Twain's survivors went to court to halt publication of the book that was later determined a hoax.

Related Topics:
1900s - St. Louis - Pearl Curran - Patience Worth - 1917 - Mark Twain

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Since the 1970s, author Jane Roberts has transcribed text channeled from what she described as an "energy personality essence" named Seth. Topics attributed to Seth discuss the nature of physical reality, the origins of the universe, the theory of evolution, the many-worlds interpretation, the Christ story, and the purpose of life among other subjects and form a collection of more than 10 books and a number of videos and audio recordings.

Related Topics:
1970s - Jane Roberts - Channeled - Universe - Evolution - Many-worlds interpretation - Christ

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More recently, Pulitzer Prize winning poet James Merrill used a Ouija board and recorded what he claimed were messages from a number of deceased persons. He combined these messages with his own poetry in The Changing Light at Sandover (1982).

Related Topics:
Pulitzer Prize - James Merrill - The Changing Light at Sandover - 1982

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