Toy or Oracle? You Decide Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ouija Novelty Company

Ouija Novelty Company, owned by William Fuld, was the first manufacturer of "Ouija Board." After Fuld's death, his family sold the rights to the game to Parker Brothers in 1966. By 1968, "Ouija Board" was outselling perennial board game favorite, "Monopoly." "Ouija Board" became a licensed trademark of Hasbro upon its acquisition of Parker Brothers in 1996.

Answer: mystifying oracle

The words, "Mystifying Oracle" appear in smaller print below the bold-lettered word "Ouija", directly above the twenty-seven letters of the alphabet and the numerals 1 through 0. (0 follows 9.) "Yes" and "No" appear, respectively, on the right and left top corners of the board. On the bottom, below the line of numbers, are the words "Good Bye."

Answer: three legs, triangular, flat, round window in center

The white, plastic, triangular-shaped pointer included with the game bears the name "Ouija" in raised letters and is aided in its ability to skim over letters printed on cardboard by black velcro padding on the bottom of its three legs.

Answer: True

Legend has it that a French spiritualist by the name of "Planchette" first came up with the idea for the device used by countless mediums during the heyday of the spiritualist movement (sometime around 1850). However, there are on record many other references to the use of "planchettes" long before that time, extending as far back as ancient Greece.

Answer: mistranslated Egyptian word for "luck"

Maryland coffin-maker E.C. Reiche was an avid believer in spirit communication, which, no doubt, fueled his interest in creating an easier-to-use version of the old-style planchette. He was also convinced that a spirit entity had directed him to name the board "Ouija" and that the word meant "luck" in the Egyptian language.

It doesn't. But the name stuck anyway, even after he had sold the rights to his invention to a man named Kennard who began making and selling a more commercial version of the "Ouija" board.

Answer: glows in the dark

According to several authorities on "Ouija Board", the glow-in-the-dark version is the standard version since 1998. There are a few 'retro' style versions to be found however that are more in keeping with the early 1900's style of the first commercial "Ouija" boards.

Answer: black cat

Beside the word "Yes" in the top left corner of the board is the image of a smiling sun. In the opposite top corner, the word "No" is accompanied by the image of a waxing crescent moon. In the left and right bottom corners are duplicate sillohuette images of the face and upper body of a woman, a man's face, and several hands surrounding a "Ouija Board" pointer.

But no black cats. Anywhere.

Answer: all of these

Such well-known experts in the field as psychic, George Anderson and radio talk show host, George Noory have said that the indiscriminate use of "Ouija" boards can serve as a gateway for negative energy (or even spirits) to enter the life of an inexperienced or unstable user. Extremely nervous or impressionable people can sometimes become convinced that supernatural things are taking place when they're really not. Teen-agers are especially vulnerable to uninvited energy, as evidenced by the preponderance of "poltergiest" activity in households where teen-agers reside. And you thought it was just a harmless game!

Answer: automatic writing

Patience Worth was a national phenomenon in the early 1900's, making headlines throughout America with her highly literate and articulate comments on events of the day through the formerly not-so-articulate hand of housewife, Pearl Curran. Some doubters posited the theory that Patience Worth was simply a second personality of Mrs. Curran's, but that doesn't explain the several critically-acclaimed novels dictated by Patience through a woman whose previous experience as a writer had been limited to the composition of letters to friends and grocery lists. Nor does it explain Patience's remarkable accuracy when it came to foretelling events in the lives of Mrs. Curran's friends.

Answer: True

The cover appeared on the May 1, 1920 edition of "The Saturday Evening Post", and featured a young couple dressed in "Great Gatsby" attire giggling over a "Ouija Board" game. The jocular attitude that Mr. Rockwell's paintbrush assigned to the couple may have helped make the idea of a "divination device" seem a bit more acceptable to the magazine's less open-minded readers.