Tapping into the subconscious

Before the Ouija board, would-be ghost communicators used talking boards, which first became popular in mid-19th-century America. That's because millions of people suddenly wanted to talk to their dead family members who died in the Civil War. Their popularity meant scientists started studying the ideomotor effect well before Ouija boards were patented in 1890.

Research has determined that the ideomotor effect is closely tied to subconscious awareness, and that its effect is maximized when the subject believes he has no control of his movements. Paradoxically, the less control you think you have, the more control your subconscious mind is actually exerting.

This is where the Ouija board’s triangular pointer comes in. The planchette makes it easier to subconsciously control your muscle movements, because it focuses and directs them even while you believe you aren't in control of them. It's also why the planchette seems to move even more effectively when multiple people are using it at once. It frees everyone's minds to subconsciously generate creepy Ouija board answers together.

The effect might also make the Ouija board an effective tool to help you tap into your own subconscious. In one study published in 2012, scientists found that using the Ouija board allowed subjects to recall factual information with more accuracy than if they weren't using the board. Participants were instructed to answer a series of yes/no questions and to rate whether they were confident in their answers or merely guessing. Later, they were subjected to another round of questions but used a Ouija board to indicate "yes" or "no", once again rating their confidence level in their answers. In cases where participants believed they didn't know an answer, they were able to give more correct answers, more often, when using the Ouija board than when they believed they were only guessing on their own.

The researchers speculate that using the Ouija board as a technique to unlock subconscious knowledge could lead to insights about the early onset of Alzheimer's and other neuro-degenerative diseases.

In other words, the Ouija board is potentially a very powerful communication tool — just not in the way most people think.