Making contact From the start, Christian critics claimed Spiritualism was just thinly disguised witchcraft. But Spiritualists were rarely dark or morbid. Spiritualist writer Andrew Jackson Davis even challenged the very idea of hell, asserting that all spirits can enter a blissful “Summerland” in the afterlife. Spiritualists also supported progressive causes, including abolition, temperance and women’s suffrage. In their heyday, the Spiritualists developed numerous techniques and devices for talking to the dead. Early Spiritualists engaged in a practice called “alphabet calling,” in which someone rattled off the alphabet until the spirit rapped to indicate a specific letter. This laboured method created a demand for more efficient ways of communicating with the dead. Some mediums engaged in “automatic writing.” The medium would enter a trance state and allow the spirits to guide their hand as they wrote messages (a phenomenon that’s also featured in the film). French Spiritualist Allan Kardec reported that during an 1853 séance (literally “a sitting” or session talking to spirits), the spirits suggested that the participants stick a pencil through an upside-down basket. This allowed everyone to place their hands on the basket to help the spirits guide the pencil across the paper. The basket evolved into a device called a planchette (from the French planche, meaning board). By 1886, Spiritualists had developed the planchette further. The pencils were discarded and the planchette was paired with a board with the alphabet written on it. There were numerous models of these “talking boards.” Brandon Hodge is the foremost historian of these automatic writing devices, with a private collection of over 200 planchettes, as well as talking boards and other séance apparatus. The design that most Americans know today was patented by the Kennard Novelty Company in 1891. Helen Peters, a sister-inlaw of one of the company’s founders, asked
From the start, Christians tried to equate Spiritualism with witchcraft. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
the board what it should be named and received the cryptic answer “Ouija.” In 1882, William Fuld became supervisor of the company. Fuld made a fortune on the Ouija board and opened several new factories. Eerily, he www.coldtype.net | November 2016 | ColdType 45