How Did The Ouija Board Get Its Name?

Do you believe in ghosts? Whether you’re a skeptic or psychic, National Paranormal Day is the holiday for you. Grab your Ouija board on May 3 and let’s start communicating with the great beyond.

I’m breaking through
I’m bending spoons
I’m keeping flowers in full bloom
I’m looking for answers
From the great beyond
— Peter Buck/Mike Mills/Michael Stipe (R.E.M.)

If you’ve ever experienced something beyond the norm or had an inexplicable otherworldly happening, you’ve stumbled onto the right day. National Paranormal Day is for those fascinated by the unknowable “other side.” If you don’t know your normal from your paranormal, don’t worry — you can still celebrate! Just head online to learn about the movies, documentaries, and science fiction that deal with this subject.

• 18th Century – During this time, people begin to get more serious about paranormal activity.
• 1881 – This organization in the UK was created to ‘understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal’.
• 1890 – The world’s first Ouija board is created.
• 1906 – American writer Charles Fort is perhaps the best-known collector of paranormal anecdotes, and he is considered by many as the father of modern paranormalism, or the study of the paranormal. Fort compiled at least 40,000 notes on unexplained paranormal experiences.
•  1920 – The paranormal is used to group bizarre phenomena like crop circles, poltergeists, and UFOs, for instance. The term has been around since before 1920 and can be divided into two parts: “para” meaning above or beyond and “normal” meaning consistent with common behavior.
• 1947 – The Roswell UFO incident creates a sensation like no other with its speculation of alien activity following a U.S. Army Air Force balloon crash.
• 1950 – Authored by Paul Tabori, this book tells the story of Harry Price, a well-known British parapsychologist and psychic researcher
• 1961 – Betty and Barney Hill reveal their startling encounter with aliens through hypnosis.
• 1990 – This American organization is based in Rhode Island and begins after founder Jason Hawes begins having personal experience with spirits.
• 2004 – This “docu-soap” show features paranormal investigators from TAPS who look into places that are reported to be haunted
• 2007 – The first installment of “Paranormal Activity” is released in theatres worldwide.
• Paranormal is a term used to describe occurrences that can’t be explained by ordinary scientific measures.  They are outside the norm.
• Reported events that Fort collected include teleportation (a term Fort is credited with coining), poltergeist events, falls of frogs, fishes, and inorganic materials of an amazing range, crop circles, unaccountable noises and explosions, spontaneous combustions, levitation, unidentified flying objects, and mysterious appearances and disappearances, to name but a few.
• The poltergeist is perhaps one of the eeriest types of paranormal beings because although they might toss things around and make a lot of noise—they never appear as a physical presence. Poltergeists have been reported to bite people, levitate objects, and knock on doors. The word is German which translates to “noisy spirit.” Some people believe they’re associated with the elements: earth, fire, wind, and air.
• One organization trying to debunk ghost stories is the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry which used to call itself the “Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal,” or CSICOP. The committee publishes their findings in their journal called the Skeptical Inquirer.
• 1 in 5 – the number of Americans who believe that demons “definitely exist.”
• 24% – the percentage of Americans who believe that supernatural beings “probably exist.”
• 13% – the percentage of Americans who believe that vampires exist.
  ⅓ – the number of Americans who say they have personally experienced the presence of a ghost or spirit.
• 15 – the number of seasons of the hit television show “Supernatural.”
• 20% – the percentage of women who are more likely to believe in the supernatural than men.
• The countries with the highest percentage of believers that ghosts do exist are Malaysia (57%), U.S. (47%), and Canada & the Phillippines are tied (43%).
• The countries with the lowest percentage of believers that ghosts do exist are Germany (24%), Netherlands (23%), and Brazil (21%)
• Three in ten people claim to have awakened sensing a ghostly presence in their bedroom.
• Seventeen percent of the population claim to have communicated in some way with a ghost.
• A poltergeist is not the same as a ghost. A ghost (typically benign) haunts a place but a poltergeist (mean spirit) creates a bad disturbance!
• Orbs (white spots sometimes seen when ghost pictures are developed) are not considered by most paranormal experts to be an indicator of paranormal activity.
• The White House is haunted by a number of ghosts, including that of Abigail Adams, who has reportedly been seen hurrying toward the East Room, where she used to hang her laundry.
• Psychics believe that President Abraham Lincoln has never left the White House. For more than 70 years, presidents, first ladies, guests and members of the White House staff have claimed to have either seen Lincoln or felt his presence
• The modern Ouija Board got its name by asking the board what it should be called. When the board was asked what Ouija meant, it spelled out “Good Luck”
• It is a legal requirement in New York for a property seller to disclose if the property a client is inspecting is believed to be haunted by ghosts
• There is an island near Italy that was the site of wars, a dumping ground for plague victims and an insane asylum. Poveglia Island is considered so dangerously haunted that the Italian government does not allow public access.
• According to “Time” magazine, the top five most haunted places in the world are:
  • The Amityville House
  • Eastern State Penitentiary
  • Edinburgh Castle
  • Gettysburg Battlefield
  • The Myrtles Plantation
• Some of the most popular unsolved mysteries in the world include The Voynich Manuscript, the Bermuda Triangle, Jack the Ripper, Bigfoot, and Area 51. Google them to find out more!
• The first mention of National Paranormal Day on Twitter was in 2009 though, at the time, some people were celebrating the day in August.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Days of the Year

Factinate

Terrence Zepke

National Today