CRAIG CONLEY (Prof. Oddfellow) is recognized by Encarta as “America’s most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation.” He has been called a “language fanatic” by Page Six gossip columnist Cindy Adams, a “cult hero” by Publisher’s Weekly, a “monk for the modern age” by George Parker, and “a true Renaissance man of the modern era, diving headfirst into comprehensive, open-minded study of realms obscured or merely obscure” by Clint Marsh. An eccentric scholar, Conley’s ideas are often decades ahead of their time. He invented the concept of the “virtual pet” in 1980, fifteen years before the debut of the popular “Tamagotchi” in Japan. His virtual pet, actually a rare flower, still thrives and has reached an incomprehensible size. Conley’s website is OneLetterWords.com.
Though the headline says that two were driven insane by a ouija board, the article names four whose commitment to occult revelations led to their commitment to state hospitals for the insane. From The Duluth Herald, 1920. See The Care & Feeding of a Spirit Board.
"Mathematical proof of a spirit world. Numbers are at the root of all things, proving that material things have a spiritual origin." From The Journal of Borderland Research, 1964.
"The astral lover. The most dangerous thing in the world dealing with the dead through the psychic phenomena of the Ouija board." From The Occult Digest, 1925.
If you happen to be out of a "hhg of aunty ock" (Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?), here's one, and may it be just in time. From Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna Handbook.