If not for Pythagoras -- that old, gray-bearded Greek philosopher and mathematician from 2,500 years ago -- students today would still be hunched over their geometry homework, wondering how to draft a proof for the area of a right triangle. \nGood ole Pythagoras. Now he was a man of rational-thinking and logic, one might say. \nHe also, around 540 B.C.E., led a cult of other mathematicians known as the Pythagoreans in séance rituals which involved our earliest documented accounts of Ouija-like boards:\nA mystic table, moving on wheels, moved towards signs, which the philosopher and his pupil, Philolaus, interpreted to the audience as being revelations supposedly from an unseen world.\nLogic obviously did not govern all of his actions. \nBut it isn't fair to be too hard on Pythagoras. After all, even now, thousands of years later, some of the brightest and most intellectual individuals of modern society fall victim to the enthralling rapture of pseudoscience. Some police departments in desperation turn to psychics for help on difficult criminal cases. Homeopathic remedies abound in "alternative" drug stores in shopping malls across the country. And Parker Brothers makes a killing on the revenue it rakes in on its mass-produced Ouija board and stylus game set. \nFor some it is just that: a game. For others, it's a channel into another realm -- either one of an omniscient source or of the proverbial Devil's playground. But for the true logician, it's nothing more than a few unconscious twitches at the wrist.
The Ideomotor Reflex
Ray Hyman, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, knows quite a bit about how the triangular Ouija stylus seemingly glides across the board without being intentionally pushed by those playing. It's called the ideomotor effect, and it is the widely accepted principle on which the scientific community explains dowsing, facilitated communication and, of course, the Ouija. Ideomotor effect refers to the psychological phenomenon in which people unconsciously move, especially when claiming that the motions were induced by a supernatural source they believe in. \n"Our muscles will behave unconsciously in accordance with an implanted expectation," Hyman writes in an issue of The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine. "What makes this simple fact so important is that we are not aware that we ourselves are the source of the resulting action. This lack of any sense of volition is common in many everyday actions." \nTo prove his point, Hyman created an experiment with his college students using dowsing rods. Dowsing is a term to describe practices in which some people use metal Y-shaped rods to find water, metals or gem stones hidden under land. \nHe explained to them that they should hold the rods parallel in each of their hands while walking around a room. Hyman demonstrated how they worked, and when he reached a certain spot in the room, he crossed his rods. "Perhaps there is a water pipe under the floor here," he tells them. \nWhen it was each of the students' turns, all of their rods crossed in the same spot they had seen Hyman's cross. \nThen he did the same demonstration with a second, different group of students, only this time, he crossed his rods at a different spot in the room. In turn, each student crossed their rods just as they arrived at the spot Hyman had shown the second time. \n"The experience for most students is eerie," he says. "They insist that they are doing nothing on purpose to make the (movement) occur."
The Eerie Experience
Junior Florencia Lyford-Pike remembers the first time she played Ouija six years ago. \n"Me and some friends were just being bored in Columbus, Ind., so we decided to try to find a game at Wal-mart," she recalls. "It's kind of funny because I'm Catholic, and we're not supposed to believe in that stuff." \nBut a friend who was with the group was a believer in the mystical powers of the Ouija. She led their séance by turning out all of the lights and setting a small candle aflame beside their board. The neon letters of the Ouija glowed in the blackness. \n"She told us, 'You can't laugh, and you have to actually believe.' Any spirit that comes out is whatever mood you're in. And then your hands just sort of direct it to what you're thinking," she says. \nLyford-Pike's Ouija aficionado friend spooked her with tales of family members who had an old handmade talking board. The friend claimed that some people would meet in the woods and beckon spirits to guide them in answers with the heirloom board. One night, when the people gathered for a séance, she told, the spirits urged them to get in a car. The driver crashed the car into a tombstone -- the very same grave of the spirit in which they were channeling. \nLyford-Pike still gets a little creeped out by her friend's story. \n"I play it because I just love scary things," she says. "I think that's the kind of person who plays. They just like the thrill of it."
The Séance vs. Science
Despite the fact that Ouija is a trademark of Parker Brothers -- the manufacturers of many board games like Life, Monopoly and Candyland -- there are also those who believe it is much more than a child's toy. \nJohn Zaffis, a man who calls himself a "paranormal researcher" and began the Paranormal and Demonology Research Society of New England, claims that through his observations, the worst cases of demon possession are brought about by the use of Ouijas. \nBut for people like James Randi, the greatest harm in Ouija boards is the people who deal in paranormal quackery. \nJames Randi, better known as The Amazing Randi, may have been one of the most renowned magicians in pop culture before his retirement, but he has also spent the latter half of his career working to debunk faulty reasoning. His Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge is a testament to how dangerous he feels it is for people to believe in "pleasant delusions." \n"Suppose you had an employee you were interviewing to take on a job, and the guy told you that seven plus seven is 18: 'No matter what my calculations are, it is always 18,'" Randi suggests. "Can you take the risk of hiring someone like that? Would you think that that would be damaging, or would you go ahead and hire this person? It's not rational. People who believe in superstition can be extremely dangerous, and it's not much of a jump for them to graduate from that to another set of delusions." \nRandi says the Ouija can easily be debunked by simply blindfolding the players to show that the messages will be complete gibberish, but Ouija proponents will often claim that the spirit medium is inhibited by the blindfold because the spirit needs to use the players' eyes to see. \n"People won't sit through tests," Randi says, noting that no one has yet taken the $1 million by proving his or her supernatural ability. "They need it to exist. They need a woo-woo world. They are fed by it, they are nursed by it and, therefore, they don't really want a test."\nThough Randi is not a scientist himself, he says he doesn't need to be when emotion, need and desperation are involved. He believes his experience as a magician has given him the skills to know how people are fooled by others and themselves. \n"I know how to tie my shoes, and I know how to spot a fake." \nFor more information on the Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, visit www.randi.org.
