Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spirits to manipulate the practitioner's hand. The instrument may be a standard writing instrument, or it may be one specially designed for automatic writing, such as a planchette or a ouija board.
Automatic writing of Hélène Smith
The Ouija, also known as a Oujia board, spirit board, talking board, or witch board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the Latin alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", and occasionally "hello" and "goodbye", along with various symbols and graphics. It uses a planchette as a movable indicator to spell out messages during a séance. Participants place their fingers on the planchette, and it is moved about the board to spell out words. The name "Ouija" is a trademark of Hasbro, but is often used generically to refer to any talking board.
Norman Rockwell cover of the May 1, 1920 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, showing a Ouija board in use.
A model of a scene depicting divination
Wang Chongyang, founder of the Quanzhen School, depicted in Changchun Temple, Wuhan
Ouija board painted on a two-story building in downtown Austin, Texas