Monday Musings #2–Automatic Writing, Part I

So, today I find myself intrigued by a psychic practice that’s really fallen by the wayside in recent decades—Automatic Writing.  Automatic Writing is a psychical practice that first became popular during the Spiritualist Movement of the latter half of the 19^th Century.  In fact, it was so popular, the much-lauded Encyclopedia Britannica even honored it with an entry.   From their 1911 Edition:

The writing generally resembles the ordinary handwriting of the agent, but there are sometimes marked 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 lookingglass (Spiegelschrift); the ability to produce such writing is often associated with the liability to spontaneous somnambulism. The hand and arm are often insensible in the act of writing. There are some cases on record in which the automatist has seemd to guide his hand not by sight, but by some special extension of the muscular sense (Carpenter, Mental Physiology, § 128; W. James, Proceedings American S.P.R. p. 554).

Automatic writing frequently exhibits indications of telepathy. The most remarkable series of automatic writings recorded in this connexion are those executed by the American medium, Mrs Piper, in a state of trance (Proceedings S. P. R.). These writings appear to exhibit remarkable telepathic powers, and are thought by some to indicate communication with the spirits of the dead.

The opportunities afforded by automatic writing for communicating with subconscious strata of the personality have been made use of by Pierre Janet and others in cases of hysteroepilepsy, and other forms of dissociation of consciousness.

As you can see, it was thought of as an important phenomenon, even when examined by the critical eyes at EB.  What strikes me most is that they concede that Automatic Writing doesn’t stem from the conscious mind.  At a time when William James and Sigmund Freud had put their mark on the world, the EB simply says that it comes from the subconscious in some way.  It’s interesting for the very fact that it’s not dismissive.  At the time, it seemed as if Automatic Writing was being viewed, at the very least, as a potential tool in the psychologist’s toolbox.

Most Forteans and paranormal enthusiasts have long since discounted Automatic Writing as something of little value.  However, the practice still has a healthy following among those looking to practice or hone their psychic abilities.  For those interested, there are several websites devoted to the practice, as well as a handful of YouTube videos. 

So why am I so interested?  A couple of reasons.

First, for the past several decades, people have been attempting to contact the other side using Ouija boards and the like.  In an era where entire film franchises have been devoted to the Ouija board, why are we leaving out Automatic Writing?  My guess would be that it’s just not glamourous enough.  With the Ouija board, we see the planchette moving, seemingly guiding the user’s fingers…it looks and feels otherworldly, regardless of where the message is coming from.  Automatic Writing is just a person sitting at a table alone, staring off in space, and scribbling something down.  At the very least, it’s much more difficult when turning up the creepiness factor.

The other is that I know someone who used to practice Automatic Writing—my mother.  I remember at one point, as a child, being shown a notebook of her writing.  (This was during my mom’s reincarnation/astrology phase in the 70s).  I don’t remember a single thing she wrote, but I do recall that there were at least five or six different styles of handwriting in the book—some hurried with deep indentations in the paper, others with a light hand…but none of it looked like my mother’s handwriting.  I do recall her telling my sister and I that she’d stopped doing it years before.

So, if it was coming from her subconscious, why the different styles?  One’s subconscious might account for Brittanica’s assertion of two or three, but five or more? While I’m not a true believer in handwriting analysis, I do think it says something about the personality of the scribe.  I highly doubt that my mother harbored several distinct personalities within her (no more than anyone else, anyway), so where did those writings come from?  If it were just her subconscious, we could expect the styles to at least be similar to her everyday handwriting.  But they weren’t.

So, what was influencing my mother as she filled pages of her notebook?  Disincarnate souls?  John Dee’s angels? Darker forces?  Cthulu? (That last one is a joke.)  All I know is that the writing wasn’t hers.  And if she experienced the phenomenon this way, others would have, too.  So, isn’t it time to look at it again?  To test experiencers?  To figure out just what’s going on?  Obviously, my answer is a resounding ‘YES.’

We’ll visit this a bit more next week…until then!