The Ouija Myth
A Ouija board is used for divination and spiritualism. The board has the letters of the alphabet inscribed on it, along with the words 'yes,' 'no,' 'good-bye'. A planchette (a slideable 3-legged device) or pointer is manipulated by those using the board. The users ask the board a question and together or one of them singly moves the pointer or the board until a letter is "selected" by the pointer. The selections "spell" out an answer to the question asked.
Diviners and spiritualists believe that paranormal or supernatural forces are at work in spelling out ouija board answers. Sceptics believe that those using the board either consciously or unconsciously select what is read. To prove this, simply try it blindfolded, having a bystander take notes on what is spelled out. Usually, the result will be unintelligible nonsense.

The sceptics say that the movement of the planchette is not due to paranormal forces but to unnoticeable movements by those controlling the pointer, known as the ideomotor effect. The same kind of unnoticeable movement is alleged to be at work in dowsing.

History of the Ouija myth
While automatic writing was being and still is embraced by mediums, those who were curious about the spirit world held "home circles" and were searching for a more efficient way to reach the spirit plain than by sitting in the dark and joining hands just waiting to hear the rapping on tables (one knock for ‘yes’ and ‘two’ for no, etc).

In 1853, a French Spiritualist named M. Planchette (legend has it) invented a device that could do a lot more than tap on the table. The ‘planchette’ was a small, heart-shaped table with pencils attached to its legs. Those who used it claimed that the spirit plain operated it and spirits were able to write out messages from beyond. The invention was used by the mediums as a more elaborate form of automatic writing, but it really didn’t take off with the general public.

However, a short time later, another invention would come along that could be used by everyone. No experience was required and no real psychic skills were needed. This new device would revolutionise the Spiritualist movement and have an impact that still resounds today. The ouija board was born.
Planchette went to America, and a short while later a cabinet and coffin maker from Maryland named E.C. Reiche decided to create a new method of communicating with the dead. He devised a wooden lap tray with the letters of the alphabet arranged in two lines across the centre of the board. Below these letters, he placed the numbers 1-10 and the words YES and NO in each lower corner of the board. He used the planchette with his board but removed the pencil tips and placed wooden pegs on the bottom of it. In this way, the planchette was free to move about the board.
It has been said that Reiche named his board the ‘ouija’ because the name represented the French and German words for “yes” (oui and ja) but this was not the case. He named it that because he believed that the word ‘ouija’ was actually Egyptian for luck. Unfortunately, it's not, but since he claimed to receive the word from a spirit on the board, the name stuck.

Reiche however was more interested in spirits than making money and he sold the invention to his friend, Charles Kennard, who founded the Kennard Novelty Co. and began producing the first commercial ouija boards around 1886. The first patent for a ‘talking board’ was filed on May 28, 1890 and listed Charles Kennard and William H. A. Maupin, as the assignees.

Shortly after the company started, the shop manager, William Fuld, decided to go into business for himself. He forced Kennard out and changed the name to the Ouija Novelty Co. He began producing the ‘Fuld's Talking Board’ in extremely large numbers and became a successful businessman. For the next 35 years he ran the company. Finally, in 1927, during a brief slump in sales, Fuld strangely took his own life. He climbed to the top of a Baltimore building and jumped to his death. Other versions of the story have it that Fuld died accidentally while supervising the replacement of a flagpole. This is likely the more accurate version of events, although Fuld committing suicide gave the Ouija an eerie taint over the years.
The Ouija Board was anything but a curse to Fuld's company though. It became the most successful talking board manufacturer of all time, selling millions of boards as well as other toys and games. Fuld had created a new industry with the ouija board, which he claimed to have invented himself. He started the apocryphal tales of the naming of the board (using oui and ja) and claimed many of his successful sales plans came from the board itself.

His heirs maintained the company until 1966, when they sold out to Parker Brothers. Who produced reproductions of the Fuld board and also made a deluxe wooden edition of the board for a time. They hold all of the patents and trademarks to the board today and they still produce it in large numbers. In spite of the fact that it is now sold in toy stores, it is remarkably similar to that of the Spiritualist board that was sold many years ago.