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SYSK Selects: How Ouija Boards Work · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hello friends. I hope you're having a creepy Saturday afternoon
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: or morning or night. I would recommend saving this stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: he should Know select episode until tonight, when you can
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: break out your Wegia board and learn about Weiga as
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: you play Wegia and realize that we Jia is just
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: bunk and completely made up. From October two, how Wegia
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: boards work? Right here, right now, Welcome to Stuff you
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Should Know, a production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, Jerry's kind of here. Uh, and this is
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Stuff you should Know. Yeah, this is the last podcast, Uh,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: these two today that we're recording in the infamous murder room.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's right, yeah, murder room. Yeah, we're moving offices,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and what better thing to do than to have a seance,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: which we're going to conduct after this episode records. Didn't
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: you didn't don't know me about this first? Yeah, we're
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: having a seance, buddy, I don't know about that. We're
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: gonna get down, We're gonna get down the brass tacks
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and answer all the unknown questions. Well, you know, I'll
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: tell you what. I will have a seance with you
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: using a Weiji board, because now I know how they work,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and I'm not quite as scared of them as I
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: used to be saying after I saw The Exorcist. Yeah,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Sai or we I say Wegi. Yeah, I kind of
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: do too, although I think it's probably Wegia right, not
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: to be confused with the crimes photographer Weig. We're talking
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: about the board. Although yeah, I think some people say
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: we Ja. Yeah. I just think it's interesting. I said
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Wegi since I was a kid. Yeah, I mean too,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: But I also say reci cup instead of reesis because
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Umi does too. You mean sister do Yeah, And I'm like, no,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: it's Reese's. They're like, no, it's Rec's. Yeah. Well I
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: don't even say Rec's. I'd just say a reci cup.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: I think they. I think I do too. People in
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: their quirks, Yeah, foibles, I say foibles. Uh. Yeah. You
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: should hear him sing that potato Potato song everybody, Yeah,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: which apparently I got snookered on that. By the way.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: That's an old, an old bit. So I was snookered
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: by an urban legend. What the whole potato Potato song
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: where I say, like, yeah, a friend of mine's friend
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: auditioned with this piece and sang it wrong. You thought
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: it was for real? Yeah, of course I did. I've
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: never heard that before. It's very funny. Yeah. Had you
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: heard that, um now, because you would have stopped me.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I know I have heard it before, but it wasn't
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: too long ago. Was it from my mouth? Maybe? But
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I didn't think like that it was. It actually happened.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I think anyway, we gi su every day, we gi board. Yes, um,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and I mentioned exorcists already. You saw that, right, of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: course A bunch of times enough. Here is a trivia
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: question for you. What is the name of the spirit
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Reagan communicates with? I didn't even have to look this up?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Uh through her wigi board. Geez, I don't remember Captain Howdy?
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Shut up? No, do you remember? Now? Captain Howdy was
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: who she's talking with? Who is the devil? I guess
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: that was one of his aliases. I wonder if he
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: has like a devil passport that says Captain Howdy on
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Devil Satan Lucifer Captain. I didn't know that. Yeah, it's true.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: That makes it a little less frightening. So um what
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: was that the early seventies that Exorcist came out, right,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I think so okay um and the Wigi board, the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: one she was playing with, I believe was a Parker
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Brothers BIGI board was it now has bro um And
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: that was this mass manufactured, mass marketed toy game. But
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: it was actually based on like a real phenomenon that
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: we've talked about here on this show, before the um
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: spiritualism movement of the nineteenth century. The Luigi board first
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: made its appearance around then. Supposedly they claim providence for
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: this way further back than that, but there's no real
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: evidence that the Ouiji board itself is any older than
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the mid nineteenth century, and that it's American in origin. Yeah,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the actual Wijia brand board is what you're talking about,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: right right, or talking boards in general, which is another
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: name for like a Wigi board as a talking board.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: But not all talking boards are Wigi boards, that's right.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So you're saying there's no evidence that they existed before,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: like in the eight hundreds before that, before that, no,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: there there people did use divination. There is a pretty
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: good source. A fourth century BC Greek scholar who wrote
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: a history um, who talks about a pair of men
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: who were killed for dividor for using divination. But they
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: used a pendulum and a disc with the alphabet round
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: it to spell out a message. So there were divinations
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: people did use um like style. Yeah, I don't know
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: if they use the plan chet. But the Luiji board itself,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: despite being marketed for many years, is something from Egyptian antiquity,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: is probably something no or that was created no earlier
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: in the mid nineteenth century in the States. Well one
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: is uh. An attorney name Alijaban patented what was called
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the Wigia Egyptian luck board. Um. And it's important to
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: point out when when these things are marketed, they when
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: you read the fine print, they never claim to be
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: able to, you know, talk with the spirits. It's like
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: just sort of it's a game, right, it's a game now,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: And it was once it became mass marketed, they started
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the Yeah. But in eight one it was part of
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: this larger offshoot of spiritualism. Yeah, and we talked a
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: bit about egypt pology and it sort of all ties
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: in seances were big. You remember, they cracked the hieroglyphic
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: code from the Rosetta stone just a couple of decades before,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: so Egypt was like this weird place with all sorts
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: of strange cults and rituals. Yeah, and it's just it's
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: strange to me that something like the occult, even on
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a minor level, sort of took hold in the United
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: States at one point. Uh. And I don't know how
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: if it was accepted by the masses, but like you know,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: regular people and noteworthy people would hold seances and try
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: to communicate with their dead relatives, usually through a medium
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: who was usually female. Right, you know there weren't a
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: lot of dudes doing it. Uh. No, there are a
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: lot of dudes who were involved in it, but the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: mediums were typically female, and a lot of them used
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: things that were like the Luigi board talking boards. Yeah,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: like they you mentioned the dial plate, which was a
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: spinning wheel with letters and numbers, and the alphabet board,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: which was sort of like a wigia board, but um,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: you just pointed to different letters and waited for a
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: response from the great beyond. Some had a little pencil
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: that would like actually write things out right, that used
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the plan chet, which is French for a little plank,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: which is a little uh, a little board or something
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: maybe like a circular disc on three legs, and then
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: one of the legs for a writing plan chet. Um
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: was basically a hole with a pencil going through it,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: so that when the plan chet moved using the medium's hands,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: but the spirit was really in control, the pencil would
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: write something hopefully. Uh So, back to the Wiji Board,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the official game version. Over about seventy years, it changed
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: ownership a few times, eventually landing at Parker Brothers, which
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: is now has Bro. Like you pointed out right, Ali
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Jaban the guy who um, he didn't come up with
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the first Weigi board, but he was the first one
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: to make an improvement on an existing patent and um,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the Wiji board, as we understand it, that was his
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: how we see it now, and he actually went off
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: after he sold the rights to it to a guy
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: named um Charles Knard. Uh Elijah Bond went off and
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: created a rival version that had a huge swastika on
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: It didn't perform so well. Uh no, it did at first,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: because we're talking seven did you have that association was
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: still like a mystical symbol, but it was made by
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the Swastika Novelty Company in West Virginia that he founded
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: to produce this rival board, and it's considered his other
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Luigi board. That's pretty funny, isn't that weird? Yeah? My friend,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: my friend Jesse Char the other day tweeted something funny
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: about design. I think it was something likeent of design
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: is trying to make something not look like a swastika
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: or a penis. I thought that was pretty good. Did
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: she make that up or have you heard that? I
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: have not heard of that, alright, so I'm giving credit
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to Jesse Char, so um, chuck. The point is the
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Wuiji board took this, this thing that was being used
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: by mediums as part of a very serious spiritualism movement,
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  Speaker 1: and said, hey, you don't need um, this crazy old
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: lady to contact your dead uncle. Now you can buy
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: one and do it in your own home over cocktails exactly. Um.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: And a lot of people took it like that from
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the get go. I think some people probably purchased Wiji
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: boards seriously, but I think from from the outset it
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: was a part of a party. It was a conversation starter,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: something that that you just did socially too for fun,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: for sure. I think that there was always a large
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: segment of the Ouiji board buying population that just took
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: it as as entertainment. Yeah, exactly, which it's probably how
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: you should take it. Uh. From Kennard, he had an
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: employee named William Fold nephew L D who Uh, who
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: basically took it over to the point where he even
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: stamped his name inventor on the back of it, even
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: though he wasn't. And he's credited as being sort of
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the father of the Luigia board because he's the one
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: that really ran with it in a marketing sense and
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: brought it to the masses and uh would do all
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the press for it. Um. He claimed that the French
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and German words for yes, we and yah is where
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: the name comes from, even though that's not true. Well,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: even before that, Charles Kennard said that, Um, he came
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: up with the name by asking the board itself what
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: it was called. And it's spelled out oh U I
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: j A, And he asked it what it meant, and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the board told him it was Egyptian for good luck.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: So that was the story. And then yeah, I guess
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Fold was like it means yes and yes, yes and
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: yes pretty much in French and German. It's pretty good,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: So like we said, um fold sold it to Parker Brothers,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: who turned into Hasbro. And now when you buy a
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Wigi brand wid you board, it's from Hasbro. Yeah. And
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the article here makes a point to U two call
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: out the Catholics for um basically saying that it could
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: be an evil thing and not to use it. But
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: as a little Baptist boy, we were very much told
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: not to use a Wigi board. I remember specifically, um
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: my uncle like burning his Wija board. Yeah, did he
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: go out and buy it just so he could burn it? Friday?
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: We got a party going in my house. Yeah, it's
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: pretty funny to look back. When I was a kid,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I was like, yes, get rid of that evil thing.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Were you there when he burned it? No? I wasn't there,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: but I heard about it, and that was just good
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: for him. That's cool. Throw throwing candy Land while you're
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: at it, because that game stinks. What was the Shoots
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and Ladders? I never played that? I was into? Sorry,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: remember that one? Yeah? That one made you like hate
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the other people you played with though, right, didn't couldn't
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: you like get ahead by screwing over your fellow players?
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: That's I think that's why it was called sorry. Yeah.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I think like if you landed on someone, you sent
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: him back in the beginning and yeah, yeah, maybe I
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: just played with Jerk soon knows. Maybe so um so chuck.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: The Uigi board UM. From the original Bond creation to
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the one you get today from Parker Brothers, the design
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: of it has changed very little. Yeah, I guess we
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: should describe it. I mean, I assume most people have
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: seen one, although you know I've never used one, have you? Oh? Yeah,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: when I was younger, i'd totally be into trying it out.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: It's neat for fun, you know, it's very neat, because
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, the thing is just moving around the board
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: by itself. All right, So we will describe the board
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: if you have not seen it. Um. It has the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: alphabet and two different arcs, has numbers below the alphabets.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: It has a yes in one corner with I think
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: a moon, and a no in one corner with the sun.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: And therein lie the answers. My friend. Oh, don't forget
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: the most important part, basically what amounts to the off button.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: It's goodbye written at the bottom the number. So yeah,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: it's sort of like a satanic magic eight ball kind of,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: except this really works and it's not satanic, right. Um.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: So the the way that you use um this talking
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: board um, which again, if you're interested in this and
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: you want to see some pretty cool old Buiji boards
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: and the Swastika board as well, UM and another one
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: called the Sphinx board, which I think is the coolest one.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: It's from like the forties. Um. There's this awesome online
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: museum called the Museum of Talking Boards, and they have
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: histories of all this, the history of the Buiji board,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: history of talking boards, UM, just some really great articles
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and images on there. So go check that out because
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: it's a pretty cool website. UM. But when you're when
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: you're using this, um, well the instructions have stayed the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: same too, not only the design but the gameplay itself.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: It's just about the same as it was way back
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century. Right. And when you use this,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: they say you want to have two or more people, yeah, um,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: with their fingers lightly resting, just your fingertips lightly resting
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: on the plant chet and we should say the plant chet, um,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: like the other plant chet that used a pencil to write.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: It's just a little um plastic heart shape board. I
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: guess with three small legs, and then a circular um
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: plastic covered disc in the middle, clear plastic disc that
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: you look through, and the disc shows you the letter
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: number or word that the spirit is communicating. That's right.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: When you look down through the plane chet, that's the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: letter word in question. That's right. So you sit there,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: you ask a question aloud. Everyone concentrates. No, no joking
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: around going on. No, even Fold himself said, you want
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: to make sure that the people whore at the table
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: are taking this seriously or else second to work right? Well,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: even though it was advertised for mirthmaking, you gotta cut
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: the mirth down when you're actually operating the board. Take
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: the guy who has the lampshade on his head, he's
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: got to get out of that room. Uh. So, then
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: you ask a question, and then everyone watches, and the
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: plan Chet, as if by magic or Satan's dark powers,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: moves along in either answers yes or no questions, or
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: spells things out. Um, you want somebody to jot down yeah, sure,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the letters or numbers as they are read out, And
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: and in the article it says ideally they spell out
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: words or sin it says they can the players can understand. Um,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: like it would. If it's spelled out a nonsense word
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: like wegia, you would probably just say it's it's malfunctioning,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: or you would say what does that mean, and then
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: it would spell out it's Egyptian for good luck, or
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: German and French free. Yes, I wonder if wegia boards
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: always answer the same when you ask them what wegia means.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know, we should I started saying it differently
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, down Sidewigi. I've just said wegia
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: a couple of times. Interesting, how do you pronounce the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: thing that you clean your windshield with that is squiga
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: or a squeegee? Yeah, but that's s q u e
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: g e e eat. There's three No, I'm just kidding. Evidently,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: it can take up to five minutes for the plan
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: chet to start moving, which I don't know if I
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: would have the patience for that, I know I might
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: start moving it on my own. Oh yeah, you know,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: well then you would be the life of the party,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: especially if you said, like, I'm being contacted by the spirits. Right,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: if after five minutes you don't get any movement from
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the plane chet, you want to either ask the question
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: again or ask another question. Um. And there's some there's
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: some tips for using your Wiji board to mat maximum capacity. Um.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: One of them is concentration. Again they do with the
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Lambshade needs to go sit in the living room, watch
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: TV or something while everybody else is doing this. Um,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: you want to turn down the lights, maybe, burn some candles,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: burn some in incense, turn off that smartphone and the TV. Maybe. Yeah,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and uh, you really want to concentrate. And when you
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: ask questions, you want to ask them slowly, clearly, simple questions. Um.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: And you want to ask them one at a time
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: and wait for the answer the response before you ask
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: the next question. Yeah. And they also recommend that you
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: avoid um scary questions because that could lead you down
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: a dark path, my friend, and always above all else
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: in the game by saying goodbye, because if you leave
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: that portal open to the great beyond, the bad people
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: might come in through that portal and find you and
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: kill you. Ask Reagan from the Exorcists, right, things can
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: go pretty badly. So you want to end each session
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: with the plan chet over goodbye and then breathe a
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: sigh of relief exactly. Um. And apparently if this doesn't
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: work the first time you do it, you shouldn't be frustrated.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: In fact, the Museum of Talking Boards has a regiment
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: that they prescribe um thirty minutes of practice every day
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: for two weeks, and apparently you'll open your chakras or
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: something and all of a sudden you will be speaking
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: through the Wiji board, or the spirits will be speaking
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: through you go through the Weigi board. Is that before
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: after the opium regimen that they advise. I think the
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Museum of Talking Boards is um. They're more historical. They're
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: more interested in the history background of the whole thing.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about this for a minute. People sit down.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: They put their fingertips on this thing. The plan chet moves,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I mean moves like we're not making this up. Like
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: if you've never messed with a Wigi board before, like
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: give it a shot with another friend, and like the
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: chances are the things going to just start moving by itself.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: It's eerie, especially when you're younger. Now see, I've never
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: done it. I explained this to me. What do you mean?
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: I will show you so, um, I get it. But
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the thing, this, this plan chett is very light plastic.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: The feet might even have felt on him or something
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: like that. It's designed to move very easily forward. No,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I think original Planchet's headcast um. But you're just basically
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: you're you're being pulled around the table, so you actually
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: want to be in a comfortable position because your fingertips
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: are just sitting on this thing. And then when you
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: ask a question after a while, it'll move. I've never
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: seen one move fast, but it just moves kind of slow.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: But I mean, there's no question about you're not thinking.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Isn't moving Like it's moving over to a letter and
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: then it's moving over to another letter and then it's
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: selling something out. But you are moving it. No, you're
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: not in your head. Here here's the thing, like, let's
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: get to the science of this. You are in fact
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: moving it and there, but you are not conscious of
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: moving it, which is the awesome part of it. It's
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: this thing called idio motion. Yeah, which is someone pronounce
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: ideo and I didn't know if they were just being
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: fancy or not. It can go either way ideo idio motion,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: but the the it is an actual involuntary motion. It's
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: one of the types of involuntary motion of which human
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: beings are capable thanks to our muscles and neurons. Yeah.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: It was coined by due named William Carpenter in two
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: to explain dawsing rods, which is the same kind of
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: you know thing basically, Yeah, dawsing rods pendulums um idiomotion
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: is where thought proceeds precedes movement, and the other part
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: of it is that we're unaware of that movement. Yeah,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: it's movement without owning that basically. So when you apply
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: that to we Ji boards, you have what's called the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: ideo motor effect, where you your thought is placed in
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the form of a question to Theuiji board, and then
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the movement, the unconscious movement. You're not aware that you're moving,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: UM moves to answer that question. So if you're thinking yes, like,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: am I speaking with uh, you know, great uncle Charlie. Yes,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: and you really want to and you're you're thinking, yeah, man,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I hope he's there. So you're unconscious or subconscious? Which
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: is it? I would guess unconscious. I think it's unfashionable
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: to use subconsciousness. UM. It would move it to the yes,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: but you wouldn't realize. You would think it was just
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: moving and and that that's where the weji board fund
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: comes from chuck like you don't realize you're moving it,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: like you you have no sensation of movement. And like
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: you said, this is this idea. Motion is a um,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: it's it's we've understood it for a while since early
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: eight hundreds. And even Fold himself in one of his
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: patents said, and I think explained that it was moved
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: by unconscious muscular movement of the prayers. And back in
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds, this guy named Anton Chevrel Chevroule chavrell
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: he Um basically proved this using a pendulum on a string. Yeah,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: and it's um. You've probably long heard about the the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: old wives tale. If you want to find out what
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: your baby's gender, you hold um like a ring on
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: a string over the ballet and wait for it to move.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: And if it moves back and forth, it's a boy.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: That's circular, it's a girl. Um. And it's the same.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Basic thing is is the chevrol pendulum. Basically, it's just
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: ideo motion. In effect, you are unconsciously swinging the string. Yeah,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: and whichever way you probably desire exactly. That's what makes
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: it so fascinating, is what you're really seeing is the
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: unconscious telegraphing supposed to of the mother's wishes of what
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: gender she would like, because she's in fact controlling it,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: but she's her muscles are moving so minutely that she's
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: not aware of the movement. But since the pendulum is
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: on the string, it really kind of really telegrash these
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: very very tiny movements and then inertia takes over and
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: it really starts going. So it just seems amazing because
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the hands not moving, but the ring is going crazy.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: It's going crazy. Uh, this is the same. If you
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: ever heard of facilitated communication, it's pretty controversial. Um, you've
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: probably seen it on the news. It's when basically a
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: caregiver will guide the fingers of someone who's severely disabled
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: over a typewriter, typewriter, a typing machine, over a keyboard
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: to a computer. Uh, to supposedly get answers or communicate. Um.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: And it's very controversial. It's art it out in nineteen
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: seventy seven in Australia, this lady named Rosemary Crossley. Um.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: But the American Psychology Association basically says it's not scientifically valid.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: These are people that are just what facilitating communication. Yeah,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: that they're the caregiver is really guiding this conversation and
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: it's really not coming from the person that's disabled. Right.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: The thing is is what makes this so tragic and
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: sad is that the caregiver isn't aware that they're actually
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: making these movements. Again, all of this is unconscious. You
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: can't tell you're making this movement. And so since the
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: profoundly handicapped person is moving their hand, the caregiver thinks
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: that it's them. It's the it's the handicapped person. It's
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: not like they're trying to snow somebody exactly. They and
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: they may even really really want this person to communicate
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and say these things. Yeah, they're still studying at Syracuse
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: University actually has UM since nineteen ninety two is the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: FC Institute now it's the Institute on Communication and Inclusion
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: and are still studying it. And you know the controversy
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: as usuals between the skeptics and the believers. Yeah, well
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: that's that's the thing. If you want to see who
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: who believes in the idea motor effect to type that
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: into Google, it's all like skeptics Dictionary, skeptics, skeptic, Like
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: every entry is skeptic. But if you type in IDEO
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: emotion you get um, you know, peer reviewed scientific literature
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: on that. It's just the IDEO motor effect is basically
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: taking the proven idea emotion and applying it to debunk
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: things like Wuiji boards. Uh. They did a study in
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: the University of British Columbia just last year and UM,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: basically they said it's strongest when they are multiple people
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: on the plan chet And they tested this by blindfolding
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: people saying you've got someone else on the board with you,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: and when in fact there was no one else on
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: the board, the person would still say it was the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: other person moving it, right. They would say there was
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: no other person, right, And then they say, well, then
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: it was the spirits moving it. I guess that's funny
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: that no one says it's the spirits moving into That's
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: always the other person who's moving in. That's a pretty um,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: pretty common trade of any wigiboard game. That you're sitting
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: there going like you're moving it. No, you're moving it. No,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: I'm really not moving it's that And then uh, with
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: two people working in tandem, you have two sets of
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: muscles moving unconsciously, but you know, making a movement. Um,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: you have one person relinquishing responsibility because they think it's
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: the other person, which they think freeze the muscles to
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: move even more strongly because you're saying, it's not me,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: it's the other person. Um. And if they both have
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: a common goal, then the planchet will move even more
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: um brisk glee. I guess like if both girls are like,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: it's gonna move to be R A D, then you
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: know that plan chet's gonna move to those letters in
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: that order. But they're both going to be like, I'm
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: not moving. Uh well, hold on, before we get into
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: any real life stories, you want to do a message break? Yes, okay,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: and we're back. So should we talk about a couple
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: of these stories? Um uigia are they real? Are they
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: not stories? Sure? The Herds of Kansas City, Yeah, this
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: is pretty crazy. Herbert Heard killed his wife Nellie, shot
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: her in the back four times. Um, and you would
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: think what a jerk. But what happened was there they
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: were elderly, they were in their seventies. Um. They played
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: with the Wigia board one night and um Nellie claimed
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: that she received a message saying her husband was stepping
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: out on her, so gave like fred dollars to the
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: other lady emon that's probably like their life savings. Um,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: And so what happened was Nellie tortured him, tied him
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: to a bed post, whipped him with a knotted rope,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: burned him with a red hot poker, stabbed a knife
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: into his shins, and forced a confession by holding a
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: gun to his head. And eventually she left the gun
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: on the bedside table there. Herbert got ahold of it
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: and killed her. And UM, can't really blame Herbert. And
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: apparently the courts did not h what else you got
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: any other ones? Uh? Yeah, there's a m It was
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: called an Italian enclave in El Cerrito, California. The Italian
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: community there apparently experienced a wave of mass hysteria that
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: landed several people in uh an asylum because of Wiji
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: board use. When the town went Wijia crazy. Yeah, one
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: policeman like tore off his clothes and ran into a bank.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: And um, there's a lot of craziness that happened. It
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: was just massissia, I guess, and the town was like,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: you know what, no more Weiji boards. And finally, in
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: British authors sax Rohmer supposedly came up with his villain
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Dr Fu Manchu when his Wigia board spelled out Chinaman.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: So um his Wigia board was racist? Yeah, and uh
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: you know he says, that's where it came from. So
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: here's the thing. If you ever want to test whether
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Wiji boards are the result of idea motion and the
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: players actually moving it or not, go to the good
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Will and buy one for three dollars and then and
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: then do this very very simple test. You blindfold the players.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: You turn the board ninety degrees so that anybody who's
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: memorized the layout of a Weiji board can't cheat it right,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: and then ask them some questions and you're not going
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to get any kind of sensible answer. And if you do,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: then you need to trade carefully because you just unlike
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the gate to the spirit world, don't forget to tell
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: it goodbye, to steal off that gate. I always remember
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: put it on goodbye, folks. So do you hear anything else?
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: I got nothing else. I feel like here in my forties,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: after knowing now that they're not evil tools of Satan,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: then I would like to try it out sometime on
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: a on a Friday night with good friends. Yeah, we'll
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: play a little cards against Humanity. We'll play some weigia
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: and then risk and risk to wind it all out
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: with a big bang. Um, invite me over. Okay, so uh,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: if you want to learn more about weigia, weigi that
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: kind of thing, you can again go check out the
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Museum of Talking Boards. It's pretty sweet. And also you
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: should read this article on how stuff works dot com.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Type O U I j A into the handy search
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: bar and we'll bring up this article. And since I said, UM,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: search bar in there somewhere, I think it's time for
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: listener mail, I'm gonna call this crack baby. Jeez. We
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: we got some good response on the old crack episode,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: which is a good one. I thought, yeah, I thought
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: so too, killing it lately. Hey, guys, just finished listening
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: to the story on crack cocaine. It reminded me of
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: a story of a crack baby. For many years ago,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: it's around two thousand one. I was doing volunteer work
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: at the local children's hospital in the neonatal I see
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: you holding babies. Um. I came in one day and
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: one of the nurses told me to go hold this
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: one particular baby. She told me it was a crack baby.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: That had been crying NonStop for three days and head
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: and left, so I washed up. I went to go
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: hold this baby, held the baby in my arms and
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: just looked at the baby, and the baby was crying,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: eyes closed, NonStop, just crying, crying, crying, crying. After several minutes,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the baby's eyes opened a little bit and then closed again,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: would keep crying, tears are flowing the whole time. After
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: several minutes of that, her eyes would remain open longer
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: and longer, but the baby was still crying and the
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: tears were still flowing. After several more minutes, the baby's
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: eyes stayed open, looking at me, crying a little bit less.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: The baby started crying less and less and less, then
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: after several minutes was smiling, giggling and cooing and making
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: all those nice happy baby noises. After several more minutes
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: of that, the baby's eyes started to close, and soon
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: she was asleep, sleeping for the first time in three days.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: It was a wonderful experience that I will remember forever.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Jim from Austin, Texas. That's pretty pretty cool. He code
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: the crack baby to sleep soothed. He's a sooth sayer.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: He's a soothe coore mere to go. Jim. Yeah uh,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: and now he brings it Christmas presents every year. That
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: would be a great story. Do it, Jim. Uh. If
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: you have something to tell us that you've done based
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: on something we've talked about, I would say that's that
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Jim story falls under that umbrella, wouldn't you. Yeah, we
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: want to hear about it. Basically, just let us have
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: it on Twitter at s y s K. Podcast on
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know, or you
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: can send us an email to stuff podcast at how
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: production of iHeart Radios. How Stuff Works. For more podcasts
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: for my Heart Radio becausit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.