The answers to the two sets of questions had to be labelled as guessing or accurate, i.e. the participant was not sure of the answer vs. he was confident he was right. In cases where the answer was marked as a guess, the dowsing rod sessions resulted in more questions being answered correctly than when the person was simply writing the answer down. Scientists found that the dowsing rod helped bring out subconscious thoughts or knowledge that may not have been expressed otherwise. Because the participant was not fully aware that he already knew certain kinds of information, he was open to believing that a supernatural force had come up with the answer instead. Â
Through this and other experiments, scientists concluded that people can genuinely be unaware of their own slight actions or subconscious thoughts when it comes to influencing dowsing rods, pendulums, Ouija boards, and other such devices.
I do think the ideomotor effect makes sense to some degree. But I don’t see how it applies as much when it comes to the Ouija board, because spelling out words requires bigger movements as compared to a simple tilt of a dowsing rod or pendulum. Even the Yes and No parts of the board are quite a distance apart, it would take some effort to move the planchette to one end or the other. I think people either know that they are making fools of themselves and others as they move the planchette, or it’s possible that they believe the spirits are indirectly guiding them as to how to answer their own questions. Just like some people are more able to be hypnotized than others, I could see where a person sincerely thinks they are being told what to do by a divine force, even if they are aware that they are moving the planchette themselves.  How many of us feel that we are being guided by fate or karma or the universe in our day to day to lives? For some, that feeling may extend to their movements on a Ouija board.
Whichever explanation it is, the whole thing may seem harmless at first, but there have been murders and other horrific crimes where the perpetrator attributed the instructions to kill to their Ouija boards. Whether they were using it as an excuse, or truly believed their own stories, is hard to say. Luckily, the crimes associated with Ouija boards have been few overall, roughly one to every few million that have been sold.Â
Finally, it seems many people buy the game out of simple curiosity and fun. They know it most likely won’t work, but they are open to trying anyway. There is plenty of healthy skepticism and humor around its effectiveness in a number of other Amazon reviews:
