ouija
Following a vintage automatic writing planchette ad down a rabbit hole
Digging into the backstory of an ad in Mystic magazine.
Modern automatic writing planchettes
Are automatic writing planchettes still a thing?
The History of Automatic Writing Planchettes
The story of the planchette, a predecessor of the Ouija board.
Kill Daddy: The Turley Ouija Board Murder (Ouija Boards Part 9)
The Turley Ouija Board Murder: In 1933, a girl shot her father on the orders of a Ouija board. Or was it her former-beauty-queen mother who encouraged the violence? When playing with a Ouija board with her mother, 14-year-old Mattie Turley receives the message that she must kill her father
More 1920s Ouija Board Stories (Ouija Boards Part 8)
We take a look at more 1920s Ouija board stories, including more tales of Ouijamania. Highlights include: • The ghost of Marie Antoinette • A supposedly Ouija-crazed cop who hijacked a car at gunpoint and proceeded to disrobe • A doomed treasure hunter • Queerness in 1920s San Francisco • The ghosts who haunted European
1920s Ouijamania (Ouija Boards Part 7)
We take a look at “Ouijamania” in the 1920s, relating the panic over Ouija boards to big movements in the year 1920, including womens suffrage, prohibition, and, unfortunately, eugenics. Ouijamania is the phenomenon where people, usually women, supposedly went crazy because of their Ouija board use, usually resulting in their
Ouija after World War I (Ouija Boards Part 6)
Ouija after World War I: We tried talking about 1920s Ouijamania but there was too much good stuff in the late 19teens. Highlights include: • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini playing with a Ouija board in an Atlantic City hotel room • The pope hiring a former psychical researcher to
Victorian Egyptomania (Ouija Boards Part 5)
We take a detour in our look at the Ouija board and dive into Victorian Egyptomania. In the Victorian Era, people were really into death and the supernatural. Americans and Europeans also started traveling to Egypt and bringing back mummies and other pieces of Egyptian culture. We talk about some
19th Century Ouija Board Stories / Early Ouijamania (Ouija Boards Part 4)
19th century Ouija board stories: Chris digs up some early stories of people getting waaay too obsessed with their Ouija boards. Highlights include: • a rare story of a 19th century black woman’s experience with Ouija • a couple destroying their home to (supposedly) convert the world to Masonic principles • Presidential
William Fuld (Ouija Boards Part 3)
In the 20th century, William Fuld’s name became synonymous with Ouija boards. We look at how William Fuld got into the Ouija game, the feud with his brother that split the family for nearly a century, his mysterious death that resulted from some advice that the board gave him,
