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42 How Ouija Boards Work

How Ouija boards work. is something that implies but does not contain
adequate meaning or truth."
(Hint: It's not ghosts.) Pennycook used a website that would

randomly generate these pseudo-profound
sentences from a string of words.
Continued from Page 41 The website is still active, and serves up

wise-sounding aphorisms like "This life is
nothing short of an unveiling quantum leap of
This real physical effect causes some people to mythic rejuvenation" and "We are at a
believe that seemingly miraculous or crossroads of transformation and desire" at the
paranormal phenomena are behind certain click of a button.
behaviors and occurrences. It’s a common Almost 300 test subjects were asked to
element of demon possession hoaxes, since rate the profundity of these sentences on a scale
witnesses come to believe the “possessed” of one to five.
person is moving without her own control. It can The mean profoundness rating was 2.6,
also convince people they have the gift of indicating the quotes were generally seen as
automatic writing, meaning they insist that between 'somewhat profound' and 'fairly
spirits can communicate with the living through profound'. Around 27 per cent of participants
their “uncontrolled” handwriting. Often, the gave an average score of three or more,
ideomotor effect is used to defraud people who gowever, suggesting they thought the sentences
visit exorcists, psychics, mediums, and other were profound or very profound.
self-proclaimed spirit-channeling types — In the second test, the team confronted
sometimes leading to severe financial, physical, who encounters the ideomotor effect in action the participants with real-life examples of
and psychological harm. that they’ve experienced something real: a real bulls***, asking them to read tweets posted by
Dowsing is another example of the visitation from another dimension, some sort of Deepak Chopra, a writer known for his New Age
ideomotor effect being exploited for financial mystical sign, or an indication that a patient views on spirituality and medicine, as well as
gain. The practice, whose stated purpose is to trapped in his own mind is suddenly able to using the computer-generated statements from
divine water or other things located underground break free and communicate. the first test.
or concealed within something else, involves But the marvelous thing about a Ouija The results in this test were very similar,
holding a special device (like a dowsing rod or a board isn’t what a planchette might read or a indicating many participants were unable to spot
divining rod) and letting the ideomoter effect psychic might claim the spirits are saying the bulls***.
cause your hand to “mysteriously” point to the through it from the other side. In reality, the true In the final two tests, participants read
location of the desired object or substance. wonder of the Ouija board is what lies within mundane statements, like "newborn babies
These devices have been scientifically tested our own subconscious. require constant attention" and well-known,
and debunked again and again, but that hasn’t 'truly' profound quotes like "a wet person does
stopped their purveyors from falsely claiming Scientists find a link not fear the rain" as controls, just to check that
they can detect everything from gold to liver participants weren't labelling everything as
disease and hepatitis to “harmful earth between low intelligence profound.
radiations.” In 2013, one charlatan was As expected, most participants labelled
convicted of selling nearly $70 million in fake and acceptance of 'pseudo- the mundane statements as 'not profound', and
bomb detectors to Iraqi police. profound bulls***' tended to rate the well-known profound
Finally, the ideomotor effect lies behind statements highly.
a controversial, repeatedly debunked form of Alongside these tests, the researchers
pseudoscience therapy called “facilitated Those who are impressed by wise- looked into a number of other personality traits,
communication,” which emerged as a popular sounding quotes are also more likely examining how the participants think about
therapy technique in the 1990s. Facilitated to believe in conspiracy theories and themselves and the world around them.
communication claims to work by allowing In a fairly damning passage from the
disabled or autistic patients to “communicate” the paranormal paper, it says that those who were more
through slight finger movements. In reality, receptive to the bulls*** statements and who
A new scientific study has found that those who
science has proven many times over that the tended to rate them higher were "less reflective,
are receptive to pseudo-profound, intellectual-
patients’ movements are caused by the lower in cognitive ability(i.e verbal and fluid
sounding 'bulls***' are less intelligent, less
ideomoter effect, and that their caregivers are intelligence, numeracy,) and are more prone to
reflective, and more likely to be believe in
reading meaning into nothing. One scientist ontological confusions and conspiratorial
conspiracy theories, the paranormal and
even referred to facilitated communication as ideation."
alternative medicine.
“Ouija board stuff.” It also said they were more likely to
The disastrous effects of this fake PhD candidate Gordon Pennycook and a "hold religious and paranormal beliefs, and are
team of researchers from the University of
therapy include a sex abuse case in which the more likely to endorse complementary and
Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, tested hundreds of
caregiver claimed she used facilitated alternative medicine."
participants to make the link, detailing their
communication to obtain consent from her As they say, "our findings are consistent
findings in a paper entitled 'On the reception and
patient, and a devastating parental custody case with the idea that the tendency to rate vague,
detection of pseudo-profound bulls***', which
where manipulative caregivers used it to suggest meaningless statements as profound is a
mentions the word 'bulls***' exactly 200 times
that the children involved had “accused” their legitimate psychological phenomenon that is
(surely some sort of record).
parents of abuse. Sadly, it still exists today as a consistently related to at least some variables of
Defining bulls*** is a tricky task, but
fraudulent speech therapy technique used with theoretical interest."
Pennycook and his team tried their best in the
autism patients, disguised under various names Through the rise of instant
paper.
like “rapid prompting method,” “supported communication and the internet, people are
As an example, they gave the following
typing,” or “progressive kinesthetic feedback.” exposed to this kind of 'pseudo-profound
'pseudo-profound' statement: "Hidden meaning
Ironically, the same factor lies at the bulls***' now more than ever.
transforms unparalleled abstract beauty."
heart of both the cause and the effects of the It's fun to read a real scientific paper than
The paper says: "Although this statement
ideomotor phenomenon: We want to believe. says 'bulls***' 200 times, but it's also important
may seem to convey some sort of potentially
Our desire to confirm the existence of ghosts, to be more aware and able to detect wise-
profound meaning, it is merely a collection of
spirits, and other improbable possibilities is sounding nonsense when we hear it - it could
buzzwords put together randomly in a sentence
what convinces Ouija board users, facilitated stop us from falling into the trap of irrational
that retains syntactic structure."
communication proponents, and anyone else thinking. []
"Bulls***, in contrast to mere nonsense,