Debunking Ouija Boards.

[Techciple]

All this talk about 'Hell' and 'Evil' is a little too much. I admire peoples passion,and like most of us on this site have had a personal experience, which is probably a good thing because the paranormal community is notoriously disjointed and confused on getting it's mantra out to the masses, so it's easy to see why the scientific community shuns us as a pseudoscience. Something to understand about the Ouija board, it's at foremost a tool. And as such it can be abused and misinterpreted. Even with the most amicable intentions it can lead us up the garden path. The ideomotor effect is something I've studied over the years, but I'm limited as I'm just a dumb Mech. Engineer but it is quite eye opening. The ideomotor effect refers to the influence of suggestion or expectation on involuntary and unconscious motor behavior. The movement of pointers on Ouija boards, of a facilitator's hands in facilitated communication, of hands and arms in applied kinesiology, and of some behaviors attributed to hypnotic suggestion, are due to ideomotor action. Ray Hyman (1999) has demonstrated the seductive influence of ideomotor action on medical quackery, where it has produced such appliances as the "Toftness Radiation Detector" (used by chiropractors) and "black boxes" used in medical radiesthesia and radionics (popular with naturopaths to harness "energy" used in diagnosis and healing.) Hyman also argues that such things as Qi Gong and "pulse diagnosis," popular in both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic medicine as practiced by Deepak Chopra, are best explained in terms of ideomotor action and require no supposition of mysterious energies such as chi. Now the above is science, which readily accepts criticism and correction within its peers. Maybe we in the paranormal community would do well to avail ourselves of the same open mindedness. Is the Oujia board a nefarious device? I think not. It's like any tool, it's application is where people get into trouble.

All the above is my personal opinion, and if you're going to dispute it, that's fine, but please use empirical evidence and not anecdotal clap trap.

 

[solodroid]

That's fair enough. But how do you explain people's experiences after playing with the board? Like noises, stuff moving, scratches etc?

 

[PoisonApple]

I've thought of all those things; "it's our subconscious pushing the planchette around", or any excuse to debunk the horrifying reality that the thing moves on it's own, with such speed that it's difficult to even keep your fingers gripped on it... But my own personal experiences with the Ouija board have proven me wrong, we were not the ones in control of it...I can't speak for anyone else, though...

 

[PaulaJedi]

All the above is my personal opinion, and if you're going to dispute it, that's fine, but please use empirical evidence and not anecdotal clap trap.

My mother experienced a Ouija board shaking under a bed. I cannot SHOW you the empirical evidence without a time machine.

Incidentally, the definition of empirical is:

"based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic."

People have been discussing their observations and experiences. How are they supposed to prove that to you? This a discussion. You made some good points, some of which I do agree with, but everyone has the right to discuss their experiences without the use of insults like "anecdotal clap trap".
Seriously, does every discussion have to provide scientific data? What happened to creative expression? The expression of thoughts and ideas?

I, personally, enjoy hearing peoples' experiences, with our without scientific data. They aren't trying to impress anyone. They are sharing.

 

[solodroid]

My mother experienced a Ouija board shaking under a bed. I cannot SHOW you the empirical evidence without a time machine.

Incidentally, the definition of empirical is:

"based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic."

People have been discussing their observations and experiences. How are they supposed to prove that to you? This a discussion. You made some good points, some of which I do agree with, but everyone has the right to discuss their experiences without the use of insults like "anecdotal clap trap".
Seriously, does every discussion have to provide scientific data? What happened to creative expression? The expression of thoughts and ideas?

I, personally, enjoy hearing peoples' experiences, with our without scientific data. They aren't trying to impress anyone. They are sharing.

Well said jedi. [emoji6]

 

[label]

In the end if it is science you want then not even your science is 100% After all do we as humans know everything? Also is it not true that what we believed in Science as fact changed overnight with a new discovery? I am just saying 100% proof doesn't always exist "in real life" and more so when we step into the world or the paranormal.

I can tell you about many things that I saw as a child more than 90% will be unbelievable to you but difference between you and me is... "I was there" at that point in time and based on what I can only conclude as a dream it left a very real scar.

But back to reality.

A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. (Albert Einstein)

The very face "avatar" you use was a man that saw the world in a way we can never truly understand but that is true for us all because each of us see things in our own way.

How many alien abductions are real? What proof can be connected to it? See the same rule goes for all paranormal activity. VERY LITTLE CAN BE PROVEN and if you cannot accept this then it is what it is.

I myself ask "what will scare a man so badly that he sleeps in a "bunker" or a child that she is too afraid to turn on a TV or a electrical light refuse to use a mobile phone? Where are the many souls still missing to this day?

"fact" in itself rarely stands the test of time and based on that how can you expect any person to respond factually when science itself is simply based on repetition and observation. Yes the experiment can be repeated but only if "all variables are accounted for"

"fact" In law testimony is considered "fact" when the "evidence" is accepted as fact and yet how many people was wrongfully executed?

the real truth is we are only beginning to figure all of this out, dismissing anything will be premature.

 

[solodroid]

That's so true. I couldn't have said it better myself. Like you said, what could scare a person so badly that could make them sleep with a light on? And paranormal investigators? They go In to haunted houses with all sorts of scientific equipment, and capture EVP's and stuff on video that they cannot explain? Capturing emf fields in houses with no power? Like my friend above here says, don't be too quick to dismiss things just because they cannot be proven.

 

[PoisonApple]

*applauds*

 

[Sanyam Deshi]

I know many of you are not going to like this, but in my opinion, the Ouija board is just a brilliant game involving one trickster and a room-full of gullible people.

 

[PoisonApple]

I know many of you are not going to like this, but in my opinion, the Ouija board is just a brilliant game involving one trickster and a room-full of gullible people.

Well, opinions are like assholes...