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How Ouija Boards Work · Stuff You Should Know

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