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AUTOMATIC WRITING

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 48 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AUTOMATIC See also:

WRITING , the name given by students of psychical See also:research to writing performed without the volition of the See also:agent. The writing may also take See also:place without any consciousness of the words written ; but some automatists areaware of the word which they are actually writing, and perhaps of two or three words on either See also:side, though there is rarely any clear See also:perception of the meaning of the whole. Automatic writing may take place when the agent is in a See also:state of See also:trance, spontaneous or induced, in hystero-See also:epilepsy or other morbid states; or in a See also:condition not distinguishable from normal wakefulness. Automatic writing has played an important See also:part in the See also:history of See also:modern See also:spiritualism. The phenomenon first appeared on a large See also:scale in the See also:early days (c. 1850-186o) of the See also:movement in See also:America. Numerous writings are reported at that See also:period, many of considerable length, which purported for the most part to have been produced under spirit guidance. Some of these were written in " unknown See also:tongues." Of those which were published the most notable are See also:Andrew J. See also:Davis's See also:Great See also:Harmonia, See also:Charles See also:Linton's The Healing of the Nations, and J. See also:Murray See also:Spear's Messages from the Spirit See also:Life. In See also:England also the early spiritualist See also:newspapers were filled with " inspirational " writing,—Pages of the Paraclete, &c. The most notable See also:series of See also:English automatic writings are the Spirit Teachings of the Rev.

W. Stainton See also:

Moses. The phenomenon, of course, lends itself to deception, but there seems no See also:reason to doubt that in the great See also:majority of the cases recorded the writing was in reality produced without deliberate volition. In the earlier years of the spiritualist movement, a " planchette," a little See also:heart-shaped See also:board See also:running on wheels, was employed to facilitate the See also:process of writing. Of See also:late years, whilst the theory of See also:external See also:inspiration as the cause of the phenomenon has been generally discredited, automatic writing has been largely employed as a method of experimentallytinvestigating subconscious See also:mental processes. Knowledge which had lapsed from the See also:primary consciousness is frequently revealed by this means; e.g. forgotten fragments of See also:poetry or. See also:foreign See also:languages are occasionally given. An experimental parallel to this See also:reproduction of forgotten knowledge was devised by See also:Edmund See also:Gurney. He showed that See also:information communicated to a subject in the hypnotic trance could be subsequently reproduced through the See also:handwriting, whilst the See also:attention of the subject was fully employed in conversing or See also:reading aloud; or an arithmetical problem which had been set during the trance could be worked out under similar conditions without the apparent consciousness of the subject. Automatic writing for the most part, no doubt, brings to the See also:surface only the debris of lapsed memories and See also:half-formed impressions which have never reached the See also:focus of consciousness —the stuff that dreams are made of. But there are indications in some cases of something more than this. In some spontaneous instances the writing produces anagrams, puns, nonsense verses and occasional blasphemies or obscenities; and otherwise exhibits characteristics markedly divergent from those of the normal consciousness. In the well-known See also:case recorded by Th.

Flournoy (See also:

Des Indes d la planete See also:Mars) the automatist produced writing in an unknown See also:character, which purported to be the Martian See also:language. The writing generally resembles the See also:ordinary handwriting of the agent, but there are sometimes marked See also:differences, and the same automatist may employ two or three distinct handwritings. Occasionally imitations are produced of the handwriting of other persons, living or dead. Not infrequently the writing is reversed, so that it can be read only in a looking-See also:glass (Spiegelschrift) ; the ability to produce such writing is often associated with the liability to spontaneous See also:somnambulism. The See also:hand and See also:arm are often insensible in the See also:act of writing. There are some cases on See also:record in which the automatist has seemed to See also:guide his hand not by sight, but by some See also:special See also:extension of the See also:muscular sense (See also:Carpenter, Mental See also:Physiology, § 128; W. See also:James, Proceedings See also:American S.P.R. p. 554). Automatic writing frequently exhibits indications of See also:telepathy. The most remarkable series of automatic writings recorded in this connexion are those executed by the American See also:medium, Mrs See also:Piper, in a state of trance (Proceedings S. P. R.).

These writings appear to exhibit remarkable telepathic See also:

powers, and are thought by some to indicate communication with the, See also:spirits of the, dead. The opportunities afforded by automatic writing for communicating with subconscious strata of the See also:personality have been made use of by See also:Pierre See also:Janet and others in cases of hysteroepilepsy, and other forms of See also:dissociation of consciousness. A patient in an attack of hysterical See also:convulsions, to whom oral appeals are made in vain, can sometimes be induced to See also:answer in writing questions addressed to the hand, and thus to reveal the See also:secret of the malady or to accept therapeutic suggestions. See Edmonds and See also:Dexter, Spiritualism (New See also:York, 1853); Epes See also:Sargent, Planchelte, the Despair of See also:Science (See also:Boston, U.S.A., 1869) ; Mrs de See also:Morgan, From See also:Matter to Spirit (See also:London, 1863) ; W. Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings (London, 1883) ; Proceedings S.P R. passim; Th. Flournoy, Des Indes d la planete Mars (See also:Geneva, 1900) ; F. Pod-more, Modern Spiritualism (London, 1902) ; F. W. H. See also:Myers, Human Personality (London, 1903) ; Pierre Janet, L'Automatisme psychologique (2nd ed., See also:Paris, 1894) ; See also:Morton See also:Prince, The Dissociation of a Personality (London, 1906). (F.

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