| People are fascinated with divination, or foretelling | | | | portal for communicating with the dead. |
| futures. Some visit fortune-tellers or psychics, hoping to | | | | Whereas horoscopes are a passive reading activity |
| gaze into a crystal ball. Some read horoscopes based | | | | for those searching for what their day or month might |
| on their zodiac signs. Others try to contact the spirit | | | | bring, Ouija boards are quite active, with participants |
| world through Ouija Boards, hoping to ask the dead | | | | placing their hands on a planchette, or a pointer that |
| questions about the past, present, and, of course, what | | | | slides around, as they ask questions of the spirit world. |
| the future holds in store. | | | | Once a question is posed, the planchette moves |
| When a person gazes into a crystal ball, it is said that | | | | around, guided by spirits of the deceased. Sometimes |
| they reach an altered state of mind which allows them | | | | it will answer by pointing to "Yes" or "No"; other times, it |
| to see pictures or images inside their head that then | | | | will spell out an answer using the letters of the |
| require interpretation - which is why a fortune-teller or | | | | alphabet. |
| psychic often asks questions about the images that | | | | Skeptics believe that Ouija board participants are |
| they see. | | | | actually moving the pointer, either consciously or |
| Creating horoscopes, too, require interpretation; people | | | | unconsciously, instead of believing that supernatural |
| watch and translate the movement of the stars and | | | | forces are acting as the guide. On the other hand, |
| the sun to find patterns, as well as study astrology | | | | believers think spirits sometimes provide information |
| charts, because they believe that the location of the | | | | that no one - let alone, the participants with their hands |
| various pieces of the solar system when a person is | | | | on the planchette - could have possibly known. In this |
| born can affect their career, relationships, and other | | | | way, the future can be ascertained through questions |
| aspects of a person's future. By interpreting the skies, | | | | posed to the dead. |
| people can create daily, monthly, and yearly | | | | Crystal balls, horoscopes, and Ouija boards offer just a |
| horoscopes for each of the 12 Zodiac signs. | | | | few ways of accessing and seeing the future. Tea |
| Horoscopes offer readers predictions of the future. | | | | reading and tarot cards also require interpretation in |
| Modern-day Ouija boards look somewhat like a game | | | | order to understand what the future has in store, but all |
| board; they are inscribed with the alphabet, the words, | | | | these methods allow humans to get a glimpse into |
| "Yes," "No," "Maybe," and "Goodbye," and the numbers | | | | what was once thought the unknowable. |
| zero through nine. Believers see Ouija boards as a | | | | |