hi again Sara, all,
I wrote:
> ...I'm going to go through my occult bibliographies
> i've been collecting for a few years to see if i
> can find anything mentioned in them on Ouija....
nothing i have on hand that i have examined had any
section on Ouija or spirit boards or talking boards
that i could find beyond Gruss and Govina as
individual entries immediately below in Clarie.
I may continue my examination more minutely to
see if anything pops out (especially in some of
these which are listed *only* by author).
entry from Clarie '71-'75:
"637 Gruss, Edmond C. _Ouija Board: Doorway to
Occult._ Chicago: Moody 1975.
191p. $1.50 pa. ISBN 0-8024-1783-3
"This work gives a view of Christian thought
on use of the Ouija board and other such techniques,
and attempts to present the Bible's answers to the
occult. It contains discussions of the history,
operation, explanation, and verification of the
Ouija board; the board as a dangerous approach to
psychic development; the Bible on demons, possessions,
and exorcism; and "The Exorcist" [W.P.Blatty -- ny]
(both movie and book). Appendices contain the
following: Ouija bvoard and automatic writing, an
article by Bill Brinkley titled "Priest Frees
Mt. Ranier Boy from Devil's Grip," and a list of
selected readings. The author is against use of the
Ouija board, and laments the use of such devices by
unskilled amateurs. Since this is the only work out
on the board, it is very useful. Hopefully, a more
complete, deeper study will someday be done without
the Bible/Christianity slant that appears here."
------------------------------------------------------
-- Occult Bibliography: An Annotated List of
Books Published in English, 1971 through 1975
by Thomas C. Clarie, 1978 Scarecrow Press,
page 130, entry 637.
======================================================
Clarie's subsequent bibliography (76-81) contains two
entries on Ouija boards, the first is an account from
1967 of an experience using such a board ("Psychic
Summer: a True Account of a Menacing Experience on
Fire Island" by "Copper, Arnold and Coralee Leon".
it may prove valuable anecdotal material. the second
is mentioned by Ellis as helpful so i provide its
complete annotation here (entry from Clarie '76-'81):
"2386 Covina, Gina. _The Ouija Book._ London: Hale, 1981
(orig. pub., New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979).
158p. Illus. [6.50 POUNDS] ISBN 0-7091-8983-4
"After years of practice on the board with a friend,
the author feels that she understands the uses, limitations,
and pitfalls of the board that lie in wait for the gullible
and the "disrespectful." Covina discusses Patience Worth, a
17th-century spirit who supposedly dictated books to a 20th-
century Ouija board user, and covers other such cases. She
recommends 'an open-minded skepticism, a critical optimism'
in studying such cases, saying she believes there are
elements of truthin both the view that the Ouija board
puts one in contact with spirits from the afterlife and
that it merely reaches our own subconscious. Covina relates
the board to other psychic methods such as dowsing, and
feels that new scientific notions of electromagnetic
fields and human consciousness may help explain how the
board works. _Library Journal_ says, "at last, a sensible
book on Ouija."
------------------------------------------------------
-- Occult/Paranormal Bibliography: An Annotated
List of Books Published in English, 1976 through
1981 by Thomas C. Clarie, 1984 Scarecrow Press,
page 91, entry 2386.
======================================================
this looks like one of the better sources on Ouija,
and it is in the last of the bibliographies that i was
looking through. Ellis cites it as a valuable reference.
> "Ouija Boards" [entry]
> Man Myth & Magic Volume 15 pg 2089
> Heywood, Rosalind (1970) BPC Publishing
>
> I happen to have the Man Myth and Magic volume in
> question (edited by Richard Cavendish) and will
> examine it within the coming days for relevant
> source data in it (not likely).
I would recommend it as a source as it refers to tables
and letter-pointing (circle of letters with fingers on
an downturned glass), automatic writing (a pencil on the
bottom of a pegged planchette), therapeutic 'uplifting'
(revealed materials from the subconscious of participants),
and mentions experiments by the Society for Psychical
Research -- a group of 6 Spiritualists meeting
"regularly at Flushing in Holland with
the idea of getting into communication
with the dead. On the evening of 23 July
1922, they began by table tilting but
had no success. Then they turned to a
device similar in principle to a
ouija board in which a moveable pointer
was held over the alphabet. This time
things went better: they spelt out that
an Englishman was communicating and that
he was prepared to write them a song."
------------------------------------------
-- Ibid., 'OUIJA BOARDS' entry,
Heywood, p. 2092.
==========================================
though i don't know anything about Heywood at all.
this entry also contains a quote of value using a
prototype spelling set-up as described above
reproduced from the following text:
The Founders of Psychical Research,
by Alan Gauld, Schocken Books, 1968;
(no page number cited)
and that fairly covers the Heywood article.
> > Do any of you have any recommendations?
> the only thing i can think of off-hand is to focus on
> history of Spiritualism (beyond Conan Doyle, covering
> people like Hester Dowden, or Mrs. John H. Curran) ....
that's Pearl Curran. Ellis covers these remarkably well.
> parallelling this should be the history of the game
> manufacturer Parker Brothers (whose property is now
> owned by Hasbro), and whatever individuals (e.g.
> Charles W. Kennard, William Fuld, not to be confused
> with Robert Fludd!), were involved in the manufacture
> and patenting of Ouija (compare Monopoly/Magie in
> that there appears to have been a common backdrop
> prior to the patenting of a novelty version).
Flud apparently did the patenting and marketing prior
to ever becoming involved with Parker Brothers, who
magnified this product's presence nationally and
possibly globally.
wow!
nagasiva yronwode ([log in to unmask]), Director
YIPPIE*! -- http://www.yronwode.org/
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*Yronwode Institution for the Preservation
and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
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