Automatic writing
For the article about Surrealist automatic writing, see Surrealist automatism.For the article about the album by Ataxia, see Automatic Writing (album).Automatic writing is the process, or product, of writing material that does not come from the
conscious thoughts of the writer. The writer's hand forms the message, and the person is unaware of what will be written. It is sometimes done in a
trance state. Other times the writer is aware (not in a trance) of their surroundings but not of the actions of their writing hand.
Sometime prior to
1900,
William Stainton Moses, a respected priest and teacher, experimented with automatic writing. His beliefs were orthodox
Christian, but the messages from his automatic writing took a more open, undogmatic view, to which he "converted" over time. He believed the message originated from higher spirits.
John B. Newbrough was a
New York dentist who wrote the book
Oahspe through the process of automatic writing on the newly invented
typewriter in
1882.
Rosemary Brown was an
English housewife who automatically composed music. She could play the piano, though not very well. She felt that great composers were writing through her.
Automatic writing is used in
Spiritualism,
Spiritism and the
New Age movement as a form of
channeling. One of the best-known automatic writers was
Hélène Smith, an early
20th-century psychic who felt that her automatic writing was the attempt of
Martians to communicate with Earth. She claimed she could translate their Martian language into
French. Another well-known author,
Neale Donald Walsch, wrote the book series
Conversations with God, claiming to have used automatic writing to speak with
God. The Brazilian
medium Chico Xavier was probably the most prolific medium in the XXth Century and possiblly of all times, with more than 400 books having been automatic written through by him.
Automatic writing is used as a tool in
Freudian psychology and in related "self-knowledge" studies, where it is seen as a means of gaining insight into the mind of the automatic writer through their
subconscious word choices.
It was primarily used by
Pierre Janet in
France, and later by
Morton Prince and
Anita Mühl in the
United States.
André Breton pioneered the use of automatic writing within the Surrealist movement and produced several important pieces while using the technique, most famously
Soluble Fish. The ideas of
Hélène Smith, the so-called "
Muse of Automatic Writing", also influenced the
Surrealist movement (in the Surrealist deck of cards, Smith is the "Genius of Knowledge").
Automatic writing became a part of the Surrealist's repertoire of games, and it soon developed into a number of other Surrealist games and tools that greatly influenced the movement, such as
automatic drawing, automatic
palimpsest, and a variety of marker-word games. (See
Surrealist automatism.)
Free writing later gained popularity with writers and poets, both as a means of stimulating creative thought and as a technique for overcoming
writer's block.
Skeptics such as
James Randi note that there is little evidence distinguishing automatic writing claimed to be of
supernatural origins from a
parlor game that is little more than sparks of
creativity in the minds of the participants. They assert that there is no evidence that there is anything more than the subconscious of those performing the writing influencing their actions and that there is no solid evidence that any messages are coming from anywhere other than the minds of the person holding the pencil. This is referred to as the
ideomotor effect.
As there is no
scientific evidence regarding the use of automatic writing in
psychotherapy, its usage to release
repressed memories is suspect as well. While
unconscious ideas are expressed in automatic writing, skeptics question the likelihood that they are any more profound than the writer's
conscious thoughts. Skeptics argue that there is no evidence that the "true self" lies in the unconscious any more than there is for it to lie in normal consciousness.
*
Carroll, Robert Todd.
"Automatic writing".
The Skeptic's Dictionary.
2003. ISBN 0471272426
*
Randi, James.
"Automatic writing".
An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural.
1995. ISBN 0312151195
Meditation Oneness. Subtitled "How to Link with Angels." A very comprehensive book about all aspects of Spiritualism and how it is done. Written by
DRT Keeghan. Only on sale at Arthur Findlay College Stansted Hall, Stansted, UK.
Beyond the Horizon by Grace Rosher. 1961. Published for the church's Fellowship for Psychical Study by James Clarke & Co. Ltd. 33, Store Street London, WC1
Swan on a Black Sea by Geraldine Cummins printed by Redwood Press, Trowbridge& London
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Asemic Writing
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Surrealist techniques
