the strange and mysterious history of the ouija board

"The Ouija board, in fact, came straight out of the American 19th century obsession with spiritualism, the belief that the dead are able to communicate with the living. Spiritualism, which had been around for years in Europe, hit America hard in 1848 with the sudden prominence of the Fox sisters of upstate New York; the Foxes claimed o receive messages from spirits who rapped on the walls in answer to questions, recreating this feat of channeling in parlors across the state ..." (read more)