If you ever had a sleepover when you were a kid, you have probably had some fun with a Ouija board. Everyone remembers that creepy feeling that comes when you and all your friends carefully placed your fingers on the planchette.

This little pointer was a gateway to the spirit world, and it gave us the ability to get answers to any question that we wanted to ask. When the planchette starts moving, and everyone says that they aren’t moving it, it MUST be ghosts doing it, right?!

If you actually believe in Ouija boards, you might not want to read any further, because scientists have just revealed the real reason why the planchette moves.

Experts say that even if you are not moving it and have no interest in doing so, your subconscious will do it anyway. Known as the ideomotor effect, this involves your body talking to itself without notifying your conscious mind. Your body knows how to breathe, blink, and pump blood without notifying your brain, and believe it or not, it can do the same thing with moving your limbs!

When you use a Ouija board, your brain is actively thinking about the questions you want to ask the ghosts. Meanwhile, while you’re busy focusing on that, your brain is signaling your body to move behind the scenes.

As your brain tries to answer the questions you want to ask the spirits, it is unconsciously telling your muscles to move to the points of the board that correspond to the answer it wants to give. Your conscious mind has no idea all of this is happening, and the same thing is happening in the minds of your friends as well!

Researchers went about proving this by blindfolding participants, which led to almost incoherent answers. This means that your brain needs to see the Ouija board for it to “work” so that you can spell out the words yourself.

When you use a Ouija board, you may not be communicating with spirits, but you are discovering something about your subconscious mind!