31 Days of Halloween | Day 24: The Ouija Board — The Dark History of Talking to the Dead

In February 1927, William Fuld fell to his death from the roof of his factory in Baltimore.

Years earlier, Fuld claimed that a Ouija board had told him to build that very factory, promising him a future of enormous success.

It was a strange ending for the man who helped turn a simple talking board into one of America's most recognizable supernatural objects.

But the Ouija board wasn't originally designed to summon demons.

It was a business.

Tonight, we're tracing the history of the Ouija board from the rise of American Spiritualism and its mysterious naming in a Baltimore boarding house to the bitter family feuds, lawsuits, and tragedies surrounding the people who manufactured it.

We'll explore the mediums who claimed to channel entire books through the board, the real-life exorcism that helped inspire *The Exorcist*, the Hollywood movies that transformed a parlor game into an object of terror, and the strange modern legends surrounding demons like Zozo.

And we'll examine the science behind the moving pointer, including experiments suggesting that a Ouija board may reveal information buried in our own minds.

Because the most unsettling thing about the Ouija board might not be the possibility that something on the other side is answering.

It might be that the answers are coming from us.

Welcome to Day 24 of 31 Days of Halloween