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How Ouija Boards Work

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Author's Note: How Ouija Boards Work

In explanatory writing, the audience always matters. In explaining the "why" of anything reported to have mystical properties, writers often have to make a choice between focusing on the spiritual and explaining the science. Here, I chose to go primarily with the scientific explanation of the phenomenon, partly because my audience tends to skew that way, and partly of necessity: Explanations for what many view as Ouija-assisted contact vary widely and, by the very nature of the topic, lack even the possibility of "objective" proof. Science is safer. And, if you ask me, a far more fascinating context in which to view what often does appear to be magic.

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