The Pittsburgh Press (June 16, 1945)
The Ouija board
By David Dietz, Scripps-Howard science editor
Mysticism has always been noted for its ability to dress up in the latest discoveries of science and so one now finds Ouija boards painted with luminescent paint so that they glow in the dark.
This not only makes the board seem more scientific but by heightening the atmosphere of mysticism and hence the muscular tension of the operators of the boards makes it seem to yield more impressive results.
The popularity of the Ouija board is a typical manifestation of wartime anxiety, according to Dr. Robert S. Wentworth, professor emeritus of psychology at Columbia University.
He says:
Behind the impulse to seek information from an occult device, even as a pastime, lie the deep-rooted anxieties of thousands of men and women of all ages who are worried over the safety of husbands, wives, relatives and friends.
Turning to such devices for a feeling of security is not new to this war. World War I brought a sharp increase in table-tapping, seances and other methods of achieving supernatural communications.
Although most of today’s Ouija board fans take its “mystic” answers with a grain of salt, anyone feels more confident to have it say that a loved one will soon be home.
What seems to worry most people is why the Ouija board seems to work at all. I have had a number of letters from readers who insist that they were not consciously moving the pointer about what they forget is that it is entirely possible to do so subconsciously.
The pointer of the Ouija board begins to move as the result of muscular tension in the arms and hands of the two people who operate it, Prof. Wentworth explains.
He says:
Once set in motion, the indicator travels about the board until a shift of balance stops it at a letter. From then on, the subjective expectancy of one or both players to get a certain answer will have a determining effect on the words spelled out.
It can also happen that the first letter on which the indicator pauses will suggest an answer to one or both players, causing the pressure of their fingers to guide the indicator accordingly.
I know that some people will reject this explanation. But they have not had the experience of the psychologist in observing what people often can do subconsciously.
A stunt sometimes seen on the stage and often done by self-styled “mind readers” before small groups, is to find a hidden object. The performer has a person hide a pin under a chair, in a book, or in some similar way, while he – the performer – is out of the room.
On his return he grasps the person’s hand or coat lapel, and after a moment begins darting about the room, quickly finding the pin. The fact is – and you can’t make many people believe it – that most persons by their unconscious movements guide the performer directly to the pin.