Is the ideomotor response obtained with dowsing the same as the one that moves the planchatte in a ouija board? And if so, wouldn't that be easier than using a pendulum? The ouija board has numbers and letters. I have never used one so I would not know. I was just wondering if it easier than dowsing. At the endo of the day one can put a pendulum over an alphabet chart ...
Any ideas?

Yes, as a matter of fact. 19th century psychologist William Benjamin Carpenter was the one that essentially discovered the phenomenon and coined the term while researching ouija boards. Indeed, the ideomotor response is an important part of the process that makes dowsing work. I go into this all in some detail in the Learn Dowsing DVDs.

But to answer your question, in my view, the ouija board is not a replacement for dowsing. First, the ouija board produces alpha-numeric information, which is mediated by the left brain, which is the source of most mental noise. In trying to elicit the name or coordinates for a location, you're likely to generate a lot of what is called "analytical overlay," which will make it almost impossible for you to get the answer you need.

Second, because of the left-brain element in the ouija process, you may not get as strong a sub-conscious connection as you need to the signal, which may degrade your data from that perspective, too.

I don't believe in absolute answers in this field, though, so if you find you can make the ouija board work for you and have some success in solving search or other problems, then I'm happy for that and would be glad to hear from you about it.

Best wishes,
Paul

Thank you Paul for your response, I hadn't thought of the AOLs but that is a good point when it comes to map dowsing.

I would only use the ouija board for the lottery. It would be interesting to see the results obtained with the board and compare them with dowsing.
There isn't any research as far as I know for a "technical" use of the board, just a lot of metaphysical nonsense associated with it.
I became interested in it because when I put the pendulum over a number chart, it moves slowly, while the planchette seems to move quite fast. Maybe that gives the mind less time for AOLs when predicting the lottery.

I would tell you to beware of the ouija!

In dowsing you are staying within yourself. Your conscious mind is querring of your superconscious (bypassing the subconscious) for an answer it needs.

The ouija, was made and dedicated to act on information comming from outside yourself! It is a big universe and there are entities that are not too pleasent that one can attract. You may just open yourself a telephone line to hell and wind up with more problems than a constipated mathamatician.

The rule was written long ago, "Trust in the Lord (superconscious) with all thine heart and lean not to thy own understanding (subsconsious and rational mind). In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Then shall you walk in your way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble, for the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken."

The "Fundys" don't think too much of my interpretation but then, I ain't too keen on theirs

Mitch