What's the difference between the concept of a ouija board and EVPs?

Question

They're both "summoning" spirits . (I don't mean when people fake ouija board readings.)

Answer 1

Ouija boards "work" due to the ideomotor effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideomotor

EVPs are "heard" due to auditory pareidolia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

Answer 2

EVPs are not "summonings", they are only the recordings. Electronic Voice Phenomena

The use of Ouija Boards is a different story.

Ok, the EVPs are used to capture the ambient spirit or ghost noises in a area deemed haunted. They can be any entity within recording distance of the equipment. Not someone summoned or channeled -necessarily. There are occasions when a particularly high energy person or event might pull them through, save that for another time.

Ouija Boards are an opening of doors between (what?) good question, might depend on the intent of the participants. In a controlled environment you might get someone known to the person or even the person requested. In a hap hazard way as children often play, it could be anyone or any thing..

Sometimes people use a Ouija Board to open a channel during a haunting. I don't recommend it. Do some googling you will find paranormal investigators that will refuse to investigate a haunting where a Ouija Board has ever been used.

In other words, there may simply be no difference in the quality of the EVP or the entity speaking, either way. Using the Ouija Board invites trouble and potentially a spirit that did not inhabit that space before.

Answer 3

Just different ways that people try to communicate with spirits. For the Ouija the spirits are supposed to communicate by pushing the planchette around (actually it's the participants doing that), while for EVPs they supposedly communicate by leaving voice recordings on magnetic media or digital recorders (really just incoherent noise being interpreted through pareidolia).