Maybe you’ve played with a Ouija board at a sleepover or watched one summon something sinister in The Exorcist. But where did the roots of this spooky object begin?
Patented in 1891, and marketed as a communication device, the Ouija board's origins lie in 19th-century Spiritualism, a movement led largely by women who claimed they could speak with the dead. By the early 1900s, doctors were diagnosing young women with “Ouija mania,” a supposed obsession that led them to neglect their lives and believe they had something to say. In 1973, William Peter Blatty's Oscar-winning film The Exorcist transformed that unease into a demonic tale.
In this video, Dorian Cole, a PhD candidate in American studies whose research explores popular culture with a focus on horror and the macabre, traces the board’s journey from spiritual tool to horror icon. Cole’s research shows how closely the board’s reputation has been tied to anxieties about women. They argue that the board’s history is ultimately a story about what, and whom, a culture fears.
