Since the19th century , the Ouija display panel has been viewed as both a dangerous legal instrument of the occult and a kitschy biz to break out at party . To use it , a radical of people must place their finger on the pointer , or planchette , and watch as the " spirits ” glide it over the letter and numbers on the control board , in effect spelling out their message . Some attribute this phenomenon to supernatural forces , while others charge to deceptive practical joker . The material reply , however , is as nervous as it is scientific .
Theideomotor effectoccurs when someone moves themself or an physical object without being conscious of their actions . This combined with a secure subconscious need for an answer , like what one might feel when using a Ouija board , leads to players moving the planchette without any knowledge of doing so .
A2012 studyfrom the University of British Columbia investigate this effect by get exam subjects serve actual yes or no questions both verbally and with a Ouija plug-in . For the Ouija gameboard constituent of the experiment , participants were blindfold and told they ’d be answering with another individual , but when the experimentation began their partner quickly removed their hands from the planchette . For questions they were unsure about , participants using the Ouija answer correctly 65 percent of the time compared to just 50 percent of the time when responding verbally .
The results of the work indicate people have a"second intelligence"buried in theirsubconsciousmind that can only be access under the right conditions . “Ask someone … ' What ’s the capital of Cambodia ? ' and they might say , ' I have no idea,'“said Docky Duncan , one of the investigator from UBC ’s Visual Cognition science lab who foster theirresearch on the subjectin 2014 . " But they might have hear it somewhere , and it may actually be inside your brain . "
The fact that Ouija plank games are more of a psychological experimentation than a communion with the dead makes them no less creepy-crawly . Feel innocent to share this scientific tidbit at your next impromptu seance , or keep it to yourself and habituate the knowledge to extract arcanum from the mind of your friends .
[ h / t : Nerdist ]
