planchettes.com - History of the Psychic Appliance...
Introduction | The Ancient Devices | Spiritualism's Golden Age | The Industrial Revolution
Innovations of the 20th Century | The Electronic Age | The Future of Psychic Appliances
The Electronic Age and the Psychic Appliance
The electronic age has brought with it many new psychic tools. EVP, or (e)lectronic (v)oice (p)henomenon recently has seen a lot of interest. Todays explorers, like Thomas Edison over a hundred years ago, believe that entities can be captured with recorders as well as cameras. Many purport to prove that this does indeed happen. Some use common, unmodified devices like tape recorders and cameras. Others have developed specialized equipment which allows them to easily amplify, filter or otherwise manipulate select sounds or imagery. Some theorize that we autonomically communicate with each other, via reverse speech, and this phenomenon may also analyzed electronically.
Parapsychologists have developed a number of scientific instruments of particular usefulness for their studies. These are mostly all custom built machines, adapting new technologies for their purposes. They have come to heavily rely on devices which can sense various energy fields, "look" at invisible light waves, "hear" sounds inaudible to the naked ear and analyze data in ways never before practical. Most of their equipment just helps to validate authentic examples of paranormal phenomena, rather than to facilitate it.
Of course, the computer age has effected some traditional psychic appliances. Several variations of the "ouija board" have been created which link a computer the ouija board. As of yet, none have seen much success commercially, but their time may soon come. Currently, there are several "virtual ouija boards" available on internet. These programs allow users to use their mouse as a planchette. Some of the more sophisticated ones are capable of transcribing messages received through the virtual ouija board.


