Editing Planchette (section)

{{Short description|Wood paddle used in spiritualist activities}}
{{about|the automatic writing devices used in spiritualist activities|the coin blank|Planchet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
[[File:Early British Planchette 1860s.jpg|thumb|Early British Planchette, 1850s–60s.]]

A '''planchette''' ( {{IPAc-en|p|l|ɑː|n|ˈ|ʃ|ɛ|t}}  or {{IPAc-en|p|l|æ|n|ˈ|ʃ|ɛ|t}}), from the French for "little [[Plank (wood)|plank]]", is a small, usually heart-shaped flat piece of wood equipped with two wheeled casters and a pencil-holding aperture pointing downwards, used to facilitate [[automatic writing]]. The use of planchettes to produce mysterious written messages gave rise to the belief that the devices foster communication with spirits as a form of [[mediumship]]. The devices were popular in [[séance]]s during the [[Victorian era]], before their eventual evolution into the simpler, non-writing pointing devices for ouija boards that eclipsed the popularity of their original form. Scientists explain the motion is due to the [[ideomotor effect]],<ref name="lab">{{Cite journal | last = Burgess | first = Cheryl A |author2=Irving Kirsch |author3=Howard Shane |author4=Kristen L. Niederauer |author5=Steven M. Graham |author6=Alyson Bacon | title = Facilitated Communication as an Ideomotor Response | journal = [[Psychological Science]] | year = 1998 | volume = 9 | issue = 1 | page = 71 | publisher = Blackwell Publishing | jstor = 40063250 | doi =10.1111/1467-9280.00013| s2cid = 145631775 }}</ref><ref name="BlakesleeMacknik2011">{{cite book|author1=Sandra Blakeslee|author2=Stephen L. Macknik|author3=Susana Martinez-Conde|title=Sleights of Mind: What the neuroscience of magic reveals about our brains|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3p8mb-BzUKwC&pg=PT203|year=2011|publisher=Profile Books|isbn=978-1-84765-295-9|pages=203–}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=1868|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26028508|journal=Scientific American|volume=19|issue=2|pages=17–18|jstor=26028508|issn=0036-8733|title=What is Planchette?|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican07081868-17a|url-access=subscription}}</ref> but [[paranormal]] advocates believe the planchette is moved by the presence of spirits or some form of [[subtle energy]].<ref name="Atwood">{{Cite web|author=Robert Todd Carroll|title=Skeptic's Dictionary: Energy|url=http://skepdic.com/energy.html|publisher=Skepdic}}</ref>  

Planchettes took on a variety of forms during the height of their popularity. American planchettes were traditionally heart- or shield-shaped, but manufacturers produced a wide range of shapes and sizes hoping to distinguish themselves in the highly competitive and profitable market of the devices' late-1860s heyday. Manufacturers espoused the wonders and benefits of different materials (including various hardwoods, India rubber, and even glass), insulated casters, and various attachments meant to "charge" the devices or insulate the user from malevolent spirits.<ref name="planchette">{{cite web |title=American Planchette Gallery|url=http://mysteriousplanchette.com/Gallery/gallery.html|access-date=2012-01-16}}</ref> In Great Britain, planchettes took on the classical shapes popularized in early illustrations and newspaper depictions, with round, blunt noses and flat backs. Regardless of their shape or country of origin, almost all planchettes were equipped with brass casters and small wheels of bone or plastic, and their sometimes lavishly illustrated boxes were often packed with blank parchment, pencils, ouija-like folding letter sheets, and esoteric instructions espousing the mysterious communicative powers of the items.<ref name="planchette2">{{cite web |title=British Planchette Gallery|url=http://mysteriousplanchette.com/Gallery/gallery2.html|access-date=2012-01-16}}</ref>

Though planchettes experienced great surges of popularity in Victorian times, in modern usage the term is most commonly associated with the heart-shaped pointers for [[Ouija]] or "talking boards". Rather than writing, these devices "dictate" messages by pointing to the board's printed letters and numbers. As writing planchettes were popularized during the beginning of the [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualist]] movement of the mid-19th century, planchettes predate the popularization of talking boards by nearly four decades.