Talking boards are best known under the popularized name Ouija boards, but are a tradition going back at least to the mid-1800s, and possibly thousands of years before that. Spiritualists used them to contact the dearly departed, but since the 1960s their primary use has been by wise-ass high school boys trying to scare the knickers off high school girls, or by writers using a popular culture shortcut to getting their evil phantasms on stage.

A fabulous look at the history of the physical objects is the Museum of Talking Boards. The author delves deeply into the history of the talking board, their art and design, and the rise and fall of their popularity. There are even instructions on making your own, just the thing to liven up your Hallowe'en party! It's a terrific site of the old (1996) school — created by a person with esoteric knowledge about a subject, for the pure love of sharing.

Image via The Museum of Talking Boards

On a personal note, my all-time favorite talking board is this aberration, Ka-Bala. It's a late 60s mash-up of various "mystical" traditions, featuring astrology, talking boards, tarot, and kaballah, all with a glow-in-the-dark board and a giant revolving eyeball. I had one of these as a kid, and it was a favorite, although after a while I became bored with the predictions, lost the magic marble, and just started coming up with creative ways to use the giant eyeball. Still, I suspect such early exposure to commercially developed and wholly unintended syncretic religion had an effect on my malleable mind, and led directly to my a la carte approach to myth and spiritualism today. Was that an accident, or was it... by design?