Ouija Board Research Project
Scientists at a University of British Columbia lab examining human unconsciousness using Ouija boards are taking to the Internet to look for research funds.
Docky Duncan, a research assistant with UBC’s Visual Cognition Lab, said in an interview Tuesday that the project is “off the beaten track” and there has been “incredible difficulty” getting even the modest $2,000 in funding it needs.
“The research methodology is so strange, using the Ouija board and all, that it might be a little too controversial for most grant organizations,” he said.
Without an obvious organization to back the project, Mr. Duncan said researchers had to look to crowd-sourcing as an alternative.
“Grant organizations do great things for a lot of projects, but they definitely have a certain view of what a psychology project should be, and you throw Ouija boards into the mix and a lot of people either think they’re possessed or they’re a total sham and that they have no place in science,” Mr. Duncan said.
Using crowd funding for an academic endeavour isn’t unique: There are websites dedicated specifically to crowd funding science research, such as Experiment (formerly known as Microryza). And UBC is currently working on a UBC-specific crowd-funding tool.
The Ouija project previously launched a six-week funding campaign on Microryza that fell short of its goal. This time, though, Mr. Duncan is hoping the campaign, to be launched at the end of this month, will achieve its desired $2,000 mark.
A Ouija board – a parlour game popular in the early 1900s – was said to magically answer the questions of a circle of participants who all placed their hands on a tear-drop-shaped planchette with their eyes closed. The answers were said to have been channelled from the spirit world. In Canada, its most famous practitioner was William Lyon Mackenzie King, prime minister during the Second World War. Read more at The Globe and Mail
Ouija: The Most Dangerous Game
Buckland's Book of Spirit Communications
Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board
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Missing Boy's Family Turns to Psychic
A Fife family have recruited a psychic to help in the search for their missing son.
The parents of Allan Bryant Jnr will meet a spiritualist later this week and have said that they will try anything to find the 24-year-old more than four months since he was last seen.
Allan Snr and his wife, Marie Degan, have also purchased their own mobile billboard to keep the hunt for the Glenrothes man in the public eye.
Speaking to The Courier, Allan said he was just desperate for closure on his son’s fate.
Commenting on the psychic, he said: “It’s not something that I’m into but we’re willing to give anything a try.
“The person we have is world-class and there is no bridge that we wouldn’t cross to try and find Allan.
“Lindsay Roy (MP) actually passed on the details. He didn’t say call them, but he said it was something we might want to look into.”
Allan was last seen during the early hours of Sunday November 3 leaving Styx nightclub on Caskieberran Road in Glenrothes.
Security camera footage has shown him leaving the venue at 2.02am.
A special fund was established to help in the search shortly after he disappeared.
Thousands of pounds has already been donated by the public and local businesses, with a reward also on offer to anyone who can help solve the mystery.
Allan Snr added: “We used the donations to buy the trailer and the billboard was built for free by a neighbour.
“The main reason behind it is to get people joining the Facebook page. Folk driving by might see it and it will help the page grow a bit more.
“It also helps to keep Allan in the public eye. Hopefully it can keep the police going as well.”
As well as being publicised locally, Allan Jnr’s face has also become well known to supporters of his beloved Celtic Football Club.
The club has recently advertised his disappearance at its home matches by placing an appeal on the giant screens at Parkhead.
However, despite their continued search for answers both locally and nationally, Allan Snr has once again stated his fear that his son may not be alive.
“We need that closure,” he said. “The past week Marie has found it really hard.
“I need to keep focusing on the emails that we get but it’s hard to cope with the situation.
“We know the worst has happened to our boy.” - The Courier
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Waverly Hills Sanatorium to Re-Open as Hotel
A hospital designed for tuberculosis patients in the first half of the 20th century, Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louiville, Kentucky has since developed a reputation as one of the world's most haunted places – leading to its appearance in episodes of Ghost Hunters, Scariest Places on Earth, Most Haunted, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Challenge and more.
From 1910 to 1962, Waverly Hills was home to hundreds of TB sufferers, many of whose lives ended within its rooms... and many believe the ghosts of those less fortunate patients are still roaming the corridors. Paranormal investigators have devoted particular attention to the tunnels running beneath the main floor, through which hospital workers once transported the bodies of the dead. As you can imagine, that's where the creepiest sightings have taken place.
Since they purchased the property in 2001, the building's current owners, Charlie and Tina Mattingly, have welcomed legions of ghost-seeking tourists via the Waverly's official site. But this year, revenues earned from tens of thousands of annual visitors will be financing the couple's next venture...converting the hospital into a four-star hotel. Yes, soon you'll be able to spend a cozy night in the company of the dead.
The owners' zoning plan was recently approved by the Louisville Metro Council, allowing the proposed renovations to begin. In addition to upgrading the building's 120 rooms, plans also include a convention center and a museum. Naturally the hotel will be targeted (in part) to paranormal tourism, capitalizing on Waverly Hills' macabre reputation. - FearNet
With Their Dying Breaths: A History of Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium
Haunted Asylums, Prisons, and Sanatoriums: Inside Abandoned Institutions for the Crazy, Criminal & Quarantined
Phantomology 101...Hunting The Haunted
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The Haunted Life: and Other Writings
Haunted Hollywood: Tinseltown Terrors, Filmdom Phantoms, and Movieland Mayhem
Haunted Highways: Spooky Stories, Strange Happenings, and Supernatural Sightings
