Recently I was at an antique mall I spied a vintage Ouija board with the price tag of “FREE!” which I simply couldn’t pass up, despite owning multiple already. As I walked out with it, I heard one of the employees say “Don’t use it now!” Over the years I have heard and read a constant stream of negative attitudes toward spirit boards; how they are evil, used by Satanists, and those who use them risk becoming possessed. But what so few really know is the history behind spirit boards. Communicating with the dead through séances became immensely popular in American during middle part of the 19th century and everyone from First Ladies to average middle class Americans was doing it, swept up in the wave of the American Spiritualism Movement. However today séances and the sometimes accompanying Ouija board are looked upon with fear and condemned by many. So just how did that happen?
