On a gloomy Tuesday night, a group of teenagers from George Mason University circled around an Ouija board to find out what their final grade from a psychology class, Mystery, Madness, and Murder would be. Soon after, the planchette moved, allowing them to communicate with evil spirits from another dimension. Unfortunately, this communication led them into learning not only their final grade, but also into being haunted by an evil spirit until the end of their lives. This, surprisingly, is a very common practice in the United States. Even the International Exorcists’ Association (AIE) states that the usage of Ouija boards increased the exorcism practices within the U.S. (cite). According to a recent poll on LiveScience, 65% of Americans believe …show more content…
According to Patricia Martinelli, in the late 19th century, an interest in spiritualism was strong both in the United States and Europe as people wondered what happened to those who had died (Martinelli, 2009). Considering that the average human life span in that era, its’ not a surprise that people tried to communicate with dead through several ways. Therefore, instead of being perceived as outside the social norms, talking to dead was pretty common in the 19th century, which encouraged people to search for new ways of contacting the dead. Furthermore, Ouija boards have their roots under this branch of Spiritualism, which is a movement that began in the United States in the late 1840s, and was led by mediums, who claimed to be intermediaries between the living and the dead (McCarthy, 2014). In the 1880s, some curiosity seekers used homemade “talking boards” to divine answers from spirits whom they assumed to be friendly (Martinelli, 2009). These types of talking boards became very popular, and in 1890, Elijah Bond, Charles Kennard and William H.A. Maupin filed the first patent for a game they called the Ouija board, which looked and operated much like the talking boards used among; the patent was granted in 1891 (McCarthy,
For those of you who don't know what a ouija board is, it is a “game” that has been produced since the 1890’s that is used to contact the souls of the dead, many people also call them a “tool” or “vessel” of the devil. Using a Ouija board is an act that has become very controversial in today's age, because of all the supernatural stories that are associated with them. The stories tend to cause hysteria, and you can usually find hundreds forums or blogs of people telling their stories and how after their experiences they wouldn't touch one with a flag pole, Some people wouldn't advise being in the same room as one, or even in the same building. These warnings are usually accompanied by outrageous stories of a friend of a friend of a friend who once tried a ouija board and had their life completely ruined by supernatural spirits. Most of the hysteria surrounding ouija boards is a mixture of urban legend, hollywood interpretations, and religious paranoia. And all those put together have influenced us to believe these crazy stories of possessions and brutal assaults by ghostly encounters are in fact true.
This shows that people thought it was super entertaining to hear some of these stories of people communicating with the dead. In the article "The Haunted House" by Valerie Worth it talks about some people go in and explore a old, earey haunted house, but they are not scared. I the article it says “Its echoes, Its aching stairs, Its doors gone stiff at the hinges, Remind us of its Owners, who Grew old, who Died, but Who are still Here: learning In the closet like That curtain rod, Sleeping on the cellar Shelf like this empty jelly jar.” (Worth 9). This shows that people there going out of there way to in some way get to interact with ghost, because it entantering to people to be scared. In conclusion, people are addicted to being scared, and hearing these stories of people talking to the dead which simply can not be understudied, or even scientifically
Rape… Death… Spooky ghosts? It’s all found in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird (TKAM) by Harper Lee, is about respect in many ways. In the beginning of the story Scout (A.K.A the narrator) shows little respect to those who aren’t close to her or who she doesn’t even know at all. But towards the end of the novel she shows respect for a lot more people and even made friends throughout the novel. Scout learns a lot about respect from those around her. She learned that respect isn’t know at first it needs to be taught to them. She also learned that some people have different respect level for those of other races, like Tom Robinson. But most importantly she learned that she should respect people who she doesn’t even know.
Explain why there were no major witchcraft scares in the Chesapeake colonies and no uprising like Bacon's Rebellion in New England. Consider the possible social, economic, and religious causes of both phenomena.
The presence of vampires and, Victor Frankenstein in Penny Dreadful is testament to the impact these horror titans had in the nineteenth century. Much of the show is knowingly accurate about these characters including the central conflict between Frankenstein and Caliban is parental abandonment, like the book itself. In terms of tarot and spiritual mediums, Prior to the nineteenth century Tarot cards were thought to have originated in Egyptian mythology, and spread thorough Europe by ‘Gypsies’, whose name also reveals a misattribution to that North African country. Even after ancient Egypt was made available for empirical study, enabling the learned debunking of some of these claims, Tarot enjoyed a surge in popularity. once the work of fossil
Hi Mary. I’m glad you brought up the topic of voodoo dolls because I didn’t even think about it when I was writing my post. It creeps me out to think they use such dolls to cause harm to the people around them, but it’s interesting how that works. A question popped up when I read your definition of voodoo, it being “evil magic”. That question is if voodoo is always necessarily evil? I know that in movies, especially nowadays, voodoo as well as divination has been used to create suspense in horror films, and mostly all the time it’s an evil spirit after someone or something, but like I said that is in movies and movies are not always true. What do you think?
Americans and American Catholics have an automatic tendency to want to treat physical or mental problems with medicine and science while leaving no room for any other possible form of treatment. In his article They're baaack! What's behind the return of the exorcist, Daniel Burke follows the case of a man named Frank who, after unsuccessfully attempting to cure his depression with medicine and therapy, turned to exorcism, as he came to believe his problem was demonic possession. Burke describes how exorcist and priest “Thomas encourages Frank to seek psychiatric help in addition to the exorcisms. But aside from two annual visits to a psychiatrist who prescribes his antidepressant, Frank refuses medical and psychological attention.
Unearthed skulls dating back to 6500 BCE have been discovered by archeologists to have large holes drilled into the sides of them. (1) The purpose of the drilling was to release the demon spirits that ruled inside these unfortunate beings. (2) The thought at the time was that strange, disruptive, or unexplainable behaviors demonstrated
On July 19th 1982, William filed his own patent for a talking board, which showed numerous improvements to the design. This was a year after Elijah Bond filed his patent for the talking board. William and his brother, Isaac Fuld founded their company Isaac Fuld & Brother in November of 1987 only to sign an agreement with The Ouija Novelty Company on July 18th 1898. The contract terms stated they would manufacture and sell the boards for three years. They were given access to the company address on South Charles Street to run the
It is easy to look back at history and see a clear pattern and relation between different cultures, objects, rituals, etc. When you take a deeper look into origins, you’ll often be surprised by what you find. Minkondi (plural for nkondi), are sculptures made and used in the 19th century by African cultures. They served a very specific purpose and had a very sacred importance. The Nkisi Nkondi functioned as a hunter-healer of conflicts. The people would take their worries, requests and fears to the figure to call on the spirits. Voodoo dolls on the other hand, are often misunderstood and misrepresented. The Voodoo doll is a ritualized way of calling on spirits to target a specific person. The doll can be used a number of things including luck, power, love and most commonly recognized, for evil and harm. The Nkisi Nkondi sculptures and Voodoo dolls, even though they are from different cultures and time periods, have a number of similarities and one may have influenced the creation of the other.
The Exorcist was the first horror classis movie to be nominated and win an award for being the best horror for its time. The movie starts off with a family moving in to a new house in Washington D.C. When they are starting to settle, the girls found a board game call Ouija board. They start to play with it by placing their hands on it and asking any spirit question. It started moving, and they thought it was a dumb trick that the little sister (Regan) was pulling. So, they ended the game and they went on with their business. Little did they know that something evil possessed Regan.
In a dim, candlelit room, a group of curious teenage girls gather around a small wooden board, with their eyes wide open as a small, upside-down heart-shaped object slowly travels along the dark black printed letters. Their fingers lightly make contact with the object, yet it still moves as if another force is pushing it. With pounding hearts, the group watches messages sent across the board and a sense of mystery and amazement unfolds. They are bubbling with many questions. What’s making this mysterious board spell out words and phrases- the spirit world, or your subconscious mind? The ideomotor phenomenon holds well-developed history and studies, uses similar to the Ouija board, and many professional sources behind it. Overall, the
I was about eight years old when my brother and I ran out of our house screaming when we saw Regan from The Exorcist doing a spider walk down the stairs with blood coming out of her mouth. When interviewing my mom, she said “I didn’t have concerns with what you were watching or doing on the computer. I trusted you.” My mother was very lenient when managing my media use because I could watch any television show, any movie, and play any video game I wanted. I was also allowed to search anything I wanted on our computer and I received my first phone in elementary school, demonstrating that I lacked media regulation.
In his essay “Shakespeare and the Exorcists,” Stephen Greenblatt argues that the exorcisms that happened during the fifteen hundreds and early sixteen hundreds were nothing more than a performance used by different religions to exercise power over the population. Greenblatt says that: Exorcism has been a process of reintegration as well as a manifestation of authority; as the ethnographer Shirokogorov observed of the shamans of Siberia, exorcists could “master” harmful spirits and restore “psychic equilibrium” to whole communities as well as to individuals. (Greenblatt, 595) In this sense, the power used by religion is the power of rhetoric. Pastors, priests, and so on, would convince the population into not sinning by performing an exorcism.
Ghosts, as with any other misunderstood group or people, have been preyed upon by others without understanding. The lack of knowledge about ghosts and haunting activity has led people astray as to what they really are. What Hollywood and television portrays is very inaccurate and cannot be relied upon as truthful. They show these spirits of the dead as being evil in nature, filled with malice and harmful intent. But that this is not the case. The field of paranormal activity is amazing. It has caught the imagination of people from every walk of life. It has always interested me and has influenced me to pick this as the topic for my research. Through this research I wish to uncover the truth about the existence of ghosts.