That awkward moment when people think they're conversing with the dead.

I decided to test my method of separating fact from fiction today and took part in a little bit of participant observation with my Anthropology professor, Justin, and a few students from his Religion class. Two groups of about five or six students each where each given an Ouiji Board. For anyone who has never heard of these before, it's a small playing board with the ABC's, the numbers 0-9, and a "yes" or "no" spot printed on top of it. The users all place their fingers on a sliding tool, and ask "spirits" some questions. The "spirits" supposedly guide the user's fingers to the answers of their inquiries.

To put it simply, it's bullshit. With a little bit of crowd psychology, suspension of disbelief, and some pushy fingers, you too can communicate with the spiritual world!

My one rule for this experience was to do no harm. If a participant thought they came into contact with a spirit that they knew personally, I got the hell out of there. I had an easy enough time manipulating the other players as it was, and didn't need to give anyone a scare. The first round of play was almost too easy to manipulate. I pushed the dial back and forth through alternating "yes" or "no's" to each question, regardless as to whether or not the answers were consistent with previous answers, and after doing this about ten times, the other players fell into the habit on their own, and I didn't even have to be touching it.  I spelled out the name "Holly," which everyone fell for (I mean really, though, Holly?!) and even made a red-haired kid think that she hated gingers and got him kicked out of the round. When I took off my hand to take some notes, "Holly" stopped talking to them, and wouldn't start till I came back. Wonder why.

In another round, when a "spirit" was asked their name, I pushed the dial to random letters; complete gibberish. One young woman immediately decided this was a dead friend of hers, because this was apparently "his exact sense of humor." Things got really weird and personal and I stepped back.

Out of the entire room, nobody else was skeptical of the boards. It was an overall disappointing experience, considering how easy it was to convince a bunch of intelligent students that they were communicating with the dead. Here's another fun fact: rumor has it that the board has a magical power that prevents it from being burned. If you find a fireproof board, James Randi will give you $1,000,000! So far, this hasn't happened.

Who knows? Maybe next time I'll volunteer to do a Cold Reading with the class.