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Automatic writing

Automatic writing is a phenomenon and technique in which text is produced without the conscious intention or volitional control of the writer, often described as an automatism where the hand moves seemingly of its own accord.^[1] It has been associated with various interpretations, including communication from spirits, access to the subconscious mind, or dissociated states of consciousness.^[2] Historically, automatic writing gained prominence in the mid-19th century amid the rise of Spiritualism, beginning with events like the 1848 Rochester Rappings involving the Fox sisters, which popularized trance mediums and spirit communication through involuntary writing.^[3] In this context, it was viewed as a form of psychography, enabling purported messages from the deceased and often linked to mechanical aids such as the planchette or Ouija board.^[3] In psychology, automatic writing became a subject of experimental investigation starting in the late 19th century, with early researchers like Frederic Myers and Edmund Gurney exploring it as evidence of dissociated consciousness and secondary personalities.^[4] Pioneering studies by figures such as Pierre Janet, William James, and Morton Prince examined its role in hysteria, split consciousness, and the unconscious, using techniques like the "stem device" to probe subconscious associations.^[3] Notable experiments, including those by Leon Solomons and Gertrude Stein in 1896, demonstrated automatic writing under divided attention, contributing to understandings of implicit memory, awareness dissociations, and pathological versus normal mental states.^[4] Beyond Spiritualism, the practice influenced literary movements, particularly Surrealism in the 1920s, where André Breton and collaborators like Robert Desnos employed "psychic automatism" to bypass rational thought and unleash creative expression, though it often led to intense psychological strain.^[3] Contemporary perspectives continue to view automatic writing through psychological and neuroscientific lenses, as seen in studies using fMRI to analyze spontaneous instances, revealing brain activity patterns akin to channeled or unintentional production.^[1] It also intersects with disability studies, highlighting how mediums with chronic conditions were idealized for their perceived extrasensory sensitivity, challenging traditional notions of authorship and agency.^[2] Overall, automatic writing remains a multifaceted topic bridging parapsychology, clinical dissociation, and artistic innovation.

Definition and Principles

Definition

Automatic writing, also known as psychography, is a claimed psychic or altered consciousness phenomenon in which an individual produces written words or symbols without conscious intention or volitional control, with the resulting content purportedly originating from external spirits, the subconscious mind, or dissociated psychological states.^[5] This process is described as an automatism, where the writing hand moves independently, often guided by an unseen influence, distinguishing it from deliberate composition.^[6] Key characteristics of automatic writing include its occurrence in a trance-like or deeply relaxed state, during which the script may emerge rapidly—sometimes illegible or in unfamiliar handwriting—and the writer frequently reports no subsequent memory of the produced content.^[5] The output can range from fragmented phrases to coherent narratives, though it is consistently experienced as involuntary, with reduced awareness of the motor actions involved.^[7] These features underscore the phenomenon's emphasis on bypassing rational oversight to access purportedly hidden sources of information. Unlike related concepts such as free association—where individuals intentionally articulate uncensored thoughts to explore the psyche—or stream-of-consciousness writing, which deliberately captures the flow of waking mental processes in literature, automatic writing is defined by its complete lack of conscious direction or editing during production.^[6] This involuntary quality sets it apart, positioning it as a passive conduit rather than an active expressive technique. The term "automatic writing" emerged in the 19th century amid the rise of Spiritualism, building on earlier mediumistic practices that involved spirit communication through writing, though the roots of psychography trace back nearly a millennium in various cultural contexts.^[8]

Underlying Principles

In spiritualism, automatic writing is fundamentally understood as a channel for spirit communication, wherein disembodied entities purportedly guide the medium's hand to produce written messages, circumventing the conscious rational mind to ensure unfiltered transmission. This principle posits that the spirits exert influence on the physical body while the medium remains in a passive or semi-aware state, allowing the content to emerge as direct evidence of otherworldly presence. Early spiritualists, such as Andrew Jackson Davis and Stainton Moses, emphasized this mechanism as a verifiable form of psychography, distinct from deliberate authorship.^[9] Psychologically, automatic writing is interpreted as a gateway to the unconscious mind, enabling the surfacing of repressed thoughts, forgotten memories, or latent inspirations without the interference of conscious censorship. This aligns with later Freudian concepts of the unconscious as a repository of instinctual drives and symbolic content, though the practice originated in occult and spiritualist contexts predating Freud's formal theories by decades, as seen in mediumistic spirit writing from the mid-19th century. Proponents viewed it as a tool for therapeutic self-exploration, akin to hypnotic suggestion, where subconscious processes manifest through motor automatism.^[10]^[9] Philosophically, automatic writing rests on a dualistic framework separating mind from body, positing that non-physical consciousness—whether spiritual or subconscious—can independently direct corporeal actions, echoing Cartesian mind-body distinctions. This view draws from mesmerism and animal magnetism theories, which proposed invisible fluid forces influencing human vitality and inducing trance states conducive to automatism, thereby laying groundwork for interpreting automatic writing as an extension of magnetic or hypnotic control over the body.^[11]^[12] Beliefs about automatic writing vary between direct spirit possession, where an external entity fully commandeers the hand during trance induction, and subconscious inspiration, wherein internal psychological forces alone generate the output without supernatural intervention. Trance states, whether spontaneous, hypnotically induced, or achieved through concentration, play a pivotal role in both paradigms, facilitating dissociation from voluntary control; however, some accounts describe it occurring in normal wakefulness, highlighting its adaptability across interpretive lenses.^[9]

Techniques and Methods

Traditional Methods

Traditional methods of automatic writing in 19th-century spiritualism primarily involved inducing a trance state to facilitate spirit communication through unconscious hand movements. Practitioners entered trance via meditation or hypnosis, often aided by devices resembling early ouija boards, while holding a pen loosely to allow free motion.^[13] Key tools included the planchette, a heart-shaped board on casters with a protruding pencil, commercialized in 1868 for use in séances; sealed slates for spirit-inscribed messages; and direct handwriting with pencil and paper. These implements, such as the planchette produced by firms like Kirby & Co. for prices ranging from 50 cents to $8, enabled mediums to produce script without conscious control.^[13]^[14] The process began with relaxation in a quiet setting, typically during a séance, where participants invoked spirits by name or general call to "charge" the tool. The medium then permitted the hand or device to move autonomously, resisting any conscious interference, resulting in outputs like words, sentences, or symbols that could appear jumbled initially. Sessions often lasted from minutes to hours, yielding legible messages after practice.^[13] Preparation emphasized safety through protective rituals, such as invoking guardian spirits or conducting sessions in controlled environments with dim light to deter malevolent influences. Common sensations included hand autonomy, tingling, cold breezes, or vibrations, signaling spirit presence and the onset of trance.^[13]

Modern Variations

In contemporary therapeutic practices, automatic writing has evolved into a tool for accessing the subconscious and repressed memories, particularly within psychology and art therapy frameworks since the 1970s. Pioneered in dynamically oriented art therapy by Margaret Naumburg during the mid-20th century and further integrated into clinical settings thereafter, it involves spontaneous scribbling or writing to bypass conscious censorship and reveal hidden emotional content.^[15] In trauma therapy, techniques like automatic writing have been employed alongside hypnosis to surface traumatic memories, emphasizing personal insight over external influence.^[16] These applications prioritize shorter, self-guided sessions to support mental health without inducing deep trance states, distinguishing them from earlier ritualistic methods.^[17] For example, digital tools such as voice-to-text applications (e.g., Otter.ai, as of 2024) allow hands-free dictation to capture spontaneous thoughts during relaxed states.^[18] Artistic adaptations of automatic writing have shifted toward stream-of-consciousness journaling, a non-trance method where individuals write freely without self-editing to explore inner thoughts and creativity. This parallel tradition to traditional automatic writing encourages effortless flow to reduce conscious interference, fostering personal expression in everyday practice.^[19] Integration with mindfulness practices further modernizes the technique, often beginning with meditation or twilight imagery to induce a relaxed state before writing, promoting individuation and emotional release through unfiltered output.^[20] Recent technological variations include digital forms of automatic writing, such as voice-to-text tools enabling hands-free dictation during relaxed or trance-like states, allowing practitioners to capture spontaneous thoughts without physical writing. Unlike traditional approaches focused on spirit communication, these modern iterations emphasize self-directed subconscious delving for therapeutic or artistic growth, often in brief, accessible sessions tailored to individual well-being.

Historical Development

Origins and Early Practices

The practice of automatic writing has ancient precursors in forms of spirit-guided inscription, notably in Chinese tradition. During the Liu Song Dynasty (420–479 CE), a method known as fuji or spirit writing emerged, where a planchette—a suspended sieve attached to a stick—was used to trace characters in sand or ashes, purportedly under the influence of deities or spirits to convey messages.^[21] This technique, documented in early texts, represented an early instance of involuntary or guided writing attributed to supernatural forces, predating Western developments by centuries.^[21] In medieval and Renaissance Europe, analogous phenomena appeared in accounts of demonic possession during witch trials, where possessed individuals exhibited involuntary utterances and actions interpreted as communications from spirits or demons. For example, in the 1593 Warboys witch trial in England, the afflicted Throckmorton children exhibited possession symptoms that included involuntary utterances and actions interpreted as demonic communications, with trial records documenting the role of written testimonies and signs in attributing the events to witchcraft.^[22] Such cases linked possession to involuntary expression, laying groundwork for later interpretations of spirit-influenced writing, though often viewed through a lens of demonic malevolence rather than benign inspiration.^[22] By the 18th century, Franz Mesmer's theory of animal magnetism introduced concepts of involuntary physical responses that served as a direct precursor to automatic writing. In the 1770s, Mesmer conducted experiments in Vienna and Paris, positing an invisible magnetic fluid that could induce trance-like states and convulsive movements in subjects, often without conscious control.^[23] These sessions, involving manipulated "crises" of involuntary gestures, inspired early explorations of automatic behaviors, including writing, as extensions of mesmerized states where the subject's hand might produce text under subconscious or external influence.^[23] A foundational example of claimed spirit dictation appeared in the works of Emanuel Swedenborg in the 1750s. The Swedish mystic and theologian described experiences where spirits directly guided his hand in writing, producing words and sentences without his conscious awareness, as detailed in his theological manuscripts.^[24] Swedenborg's accounts, such as those in his Arcana Coelestia (1749–1756), portrayed these dictations as communications from the spiritual world, influencing later understandings of psychography as a medium for divine or otherworldly revelation.^[24]

19th and 20th Century Spiritualism

The emergence of automatic writing within organized Spiritualism in the 19th century was closely tied to the movement's origins in the United States, sparked by the Fox sisters' reported communications with spirits in 1848. In Hydesville, New York, sisters Margaret and Kate Fox claimed to receive raps from a spirit, which evolved into a system of spirit communication that rapidly gained public attention and laid the groundwork for mediumistic practices, including writing as a means of spirit dictation.^[25] This event marked the beginning of modern Spiritualism, with mediums soon adopting automatic writing—known as psychography—to transcribe messages from the deceased, viewing it as a direct channel for spirit voices. By the 1880s, American medium Leonora Piper elevated the practice during her seances in Boston, where she produced detailed scripts in trance states, purportedly from spirits, which attracted investigations from psychical researchers.^[26] During the Victorian era, automatic writing gained popularity in both Europe and the United States, integrating with broader esoteric movements such as Theosophy. Allan Kardec's 1857 publication, The Spirits' Book, endorsed psychography as a legitimate form of mediumship, drawing from seances where spirits communicated through writing to outline Spiritist principles, influencing the codification of spirit communication across continents.^[27] Theosophy, founded by Helena Blavatsky in 1875, incorporated Spiritualist elements like automatic writing into its synthesis of Eastern and Western occultism, appealing to Victorian intellectuals seeking alternatives to materialism and promoting mediums who channeled "Mahatmas" via scripted messages.^[28] This period saw psychography flourish in seance rooms and publications, with Victorian society embracing it as a tool for moral and philosophical guidance from the spirit world. The early 20th century represented a peak for automatic writing in Spiritualism, particularly during and after World War I, when grief over massive casualties fueled demand for spirit communications. Bereaved families turned to mediums for messages from soldiers, with psychography providing scripted consolations that surged in popularity across the Atlantic; in Britain and the U.S., seances featuring automatic writing became widespread, as seen in the 1916 publication of Oliver Lodge's Raymond, which detailed spirit scripts from his son killed in the war.^[29] This cross-Atlantic exchange was facilitated by traveling mediums and organizations like the Society for Psychical Research, which documented thousands of psychographic cases, reinforcing Spiritualism's role in collective mourning. By the 1920s, exposures of fraud among mediums contributed to Spiritualism's decline, with automatic writing often revealed as deliberate trickery using concealed props or accomplices. High-profile debunkings by figures like Harry Houdini highlighted staged psychography, eroding public trust and leading to legal actions against fraudulent practitioners.^[30] Post-1930s, the movement further waned as radio broadcasting and emerging psychological theories offered alternative explanations for trance states and subconscious scripting, shifting cultural focus from spirit mediums to scientific and mass media interpretations of the mind.^[31]

Surrealism and Beyond

In the early 20th century, automatic writing evolved from its spiritualist roots into a core technique of the Surrealist movement, emphasizing artistic liberation of the subconscious. André Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) defined Surrealism as "psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express—verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner—the actual functioning of thought," positioning automatic writing as a means to bypass rational control and access unconscious desires. This approach drew partial influence from the Dada movement of the 1910s, which had already experimented with chance operations and irrational expression to challenge conventional logic, though Surrealists refined automatism into a deliberate tool for psychological exploration.^[32] By the mid-20th century, automatic writing reemerged in the occult revival associated with New Age movements of the 1960s and 1970s, often blended with psychedelic experiences to facilitate altered states of consciousness. These movements, which saw rapid growth during this period, incorporated automatic writing as a form of channeling to receive spiritual insights, reflecting a broader cultural interest in expanded awareness beyond traditional religion.^[33] A prominent example is A Course in Miracles (1976), scribed by Helen Schucman through inner dictation described as an involuntary process akin to automatic writing, where she reported receiving the text from a non-physical source over seven years starting in 1965.^[34] In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, automatic writing integrated into Wicca and modern paganism as a personal divination practice, shifting from communal mediumship to individual empowerment within nature-based spiritualities. Practitioners use it to connect with deities or inner guidance, aligning with the eclectic revival of pagan traditions since the 1970s.^[35] This practice has experienced minor renewed interest in the 2020s through online spiritual communities, where it serves as an accessible tool for self-exploration amid digital discussions of mysticism.^[36] Key shifts in automatic writing's application transitioned it from spirit mediumship—focused on external entities—to personal creativity and psychological integration, influenced by evolving understandings of the mind. In art, it became a vehicle for subconscious expression, as seen in Surrealism's departure from Spiritualist passivity.^[3] Similarly, Carl Jung's concept of active imagination in the early 20th century framed automatic writing as a therapeutic method to dialogue with the unconscious, promoting self-awareness over external channeling.^[37]

Notable Practitioners

Historical Figures

Leonora Piper (1857–1950), a prominent American medium based in Boston, gained fame for her automatic writing sessions that produced detailed scripts purportedly from spirits, often including personal information unknown to her.^[38] Her work attracted scrutiny from psychologist William James, who attended sittings in the 1880s and 1890s, describing her as a "white crow" amid fraudulent mediums due to the evidential quality of her communications.^[39] Piper's trance-induced writings, which evolved from speaking to pen-based scripts, influenced early psychical research by providing verifiable details about deceased individuals.^[40] Hélène Smith (1861–1929), a Swiss medium born Élise Müller, became renowned for her automatic writing that allegedly conveyed messages from extraterrestrial sources, particularly inhabitants of Mars.^[41] Studied by psychologist Théodore Flournoy in the 1890s, she produced scripts in a invented "Martian" language, complete with illustrations of alien landscapes and customs, which she translated into French.^[42] Smith's sessions, often conducted in trance states, popularized automatic writing as a tool for interplanetary communication within spiritualist circles, though Flournoy later interpreted them as products of her subconscious imagination.^[41] Pearl Lenore Curran (1883–1937), a St. Louis housewife, channeled the spirit entity "Patience Worth" through automatic writing starting in 1913, after initial contact via Ouija board.^[43] This collaboration yielded over 2 million words of literature, including novels like The Sorry Tale (1917), set in biblical times and praised for its archaic English style mimicking 17th-century prose.^[44] Curran's rapid production—up to 8,000 words per session—challenged skeptics and inspired debates on subconscious creativity, with Patience Worth claiming to be a 17th-century Englishwoman executed during the Puritan era.^[43] William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), the Irish poet and Nobel laureate, incorporated automatic writing into his esoteric practices as a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn from the 1890s onward.^[45] Beginning in 1917, shortly after his marriage to Georgie Hyde-Lees, the couple conducted over 400 sessions of automatic script, during which she channeled philosophical and symbolic content that shaped Yeats's mystical treatise A Vision (1925).^[46] These writings, blending Celtic mythology with occult cosmology, influenced his poetry and plays, emphasizing themes of fate, reincarnation, and the soul's journey.^[45]

20th Century and Later

In the mid-20th century, Jane Roberts (1929–1984) emerged as a prominent figure in automatic writing through her channeling of the non-physical entity known as Seth, beginning in 1963. Roberts, an American author and poet, first made contact with Seth via Ouija board sessions with her husband, Robert Butts, after which she transitioned to trance-induced automatic dictation, producing thousands of pages of philosophical and metaphysical material over two decades until her death in 1984.^[47] This work, transcribed by Butts, resulted in seminal books such as Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul (1972) and The Nature of Personal Reality (1974), which explored themes of consciousness, reality creation, and multidimensional existence, influencing the New Age movement.^[47] Geraldine Cummins (1890–1969), an Irish playwright and medium, practiced automatic writing from the 1920s through the 1950s, producing scripts purportedly from deceased historical figures. Influenced by spiritualist mentors like Hester Dowden, Cummins conducted sessions that yielded communications from F. W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, as detailed in her book The Road to Immortality (1932), which chronicled Myers' supposed post-mortem progression.^[48] She also recorded scripts from Oscar Wilde in 1923, assisted by sitters S. G. Soal and Dowden, capturing the playwright's witty observations on the afterlife, alongside other works like Swan on a Black Sea (1965) featuring scripts from Winifred Coombe Tennant.^[48] Cummins' output, often verified through cross-references with living acquaintances of the communicators, emphasized evidential mediumship and contributed to parapsychological investigations.^[48] From the 1980s onward, Esther Hicks (born 1948) has channeled teachings from a collective non-physical consciousness called Abraham, initially through Ouija board and early writing sessions that evolved into verbal transmissions during workshops.^[49] Beginning in the late 1970s with her husband Jerry Hicks, Esther's channeling produced foundational texts like Ask and It Is Given (2004), focusing on the Law of Attraction and emotional guidance, which have been disseminated through books, recordings, and live events continuing into the present.^[49] This work has reached a global audience via Abraham-Hicks Publications, blending automatic-inspired techniques with contemporary self-help.^[49] In the 21st century, automatic writing has seen a shift toward self-published channeled works, facilitated by digital platforms that enable rapid dissemination without traditional gatekeepers.^[50] Post-2000 trends reflect greater inclusion of diverse genders and cultural perspectives, with practitioners from non-Western backgrounds incorporating indigenous spiritual elements into their scripts, often shared via online communities and e-books.^[51] By the 2020s, online mediums have popularized virtual workshops and guided sessions, allowing global participants to explore automatic writing for personal guidance, as seen in structured programs emphasizing intuitive journaling.^[52]

Scientific and Psychological Perspectives

Empirical Studies

Early investigations into automatic writing emerged in the late 19th century, with psychologist William James conducting observations of the trance medium Leonora Piper starting in 1885. James attended multiple sittings where Piper produced automatic writing purportedly from deceased individuals, documenting instances of accurate personal details that he deemed difficult to explain by normal means, though he remained cautious about broader implications for survival after death.^[53]^[54] The Society for Psychical Research (SPR), founded in 1882, systematically examined automatic writing through case studies and controlled inquiries from the 1880s to the 1920s, including the cross-correspondences—a series of over 3,000 scripts from multiple automatic writers that allegedly formed interconnected messages only comprehensible when combined. While some SPR researchers interpreted these as evidence of discarnate intelligence, others highlighted inconsistencies, potential cryptomnesia, or subconscious cueing, leading to mixed conclusions without definitive proof of paranormal agency.^[55] Contemporary neuroscience has begun exploring the brain mechanisms underlying automatic writing through neuroimaging. A 2023 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examined a single spontaneous automatic writer and four highly hypnotizable individuals during trance-induced writing tasks, revealing decreased activation in areas such as the premotor cortex, insula, and supplemental motor area, alongside increased activity in the temporoparietal junctions and occipital lobes during production compared to a copying task. Effective connectivity analyses further indicated disrupted frontoparietal control, suggesting a shift toward automated motor output with reduced conscious oversight.^[56]^[1] Despite these findings, empirical studies on automatic writing face persistent methodological challenges, including small sample sizes that limit generalizability—as seen in the 2023 fMRI research with only five participants—and difficulties in standardizing or replicating trance states across subjects, which complicates controlled comparisons. Broader parapsychological research has struggled with replication, with meta-analyses showing inconsistent effect sizes and no conclusive evidence for psi phenomena in automatic writing despite occasional positive outcomes.^[1]^[57]^[58]

Skeptical Views and Explanations

Skeptics attribute automatic writing primarily to natural psychological and neurological processes rather than supernatural influences. One key explanation is the ideomotor effect, where subtle, unconscious muscle movements guide the hand to produce text without deliberate control, akin to the operation of Ouija boards or facilitated communication. This phenomenon occurs when expectations or subconscious suggestions prompt involuntary actions, creating the illusion of external guidance.^[59] Another psychological factor is cryptomnesia, the unconscious recollection of previously encountered information mistaken for novel or channeled content. In cases of purported spirit communications or past-life revelations through automatic writing, skeptics argue that the material derives from forgotten books, conversations, or media exposures rather than discarnate entities. For instance, analyses of the SPR cross-correspondences have suggested cryptomnesia as a possible explanation for interconnected scripts.^[60] Historical hoaxes further illustrate deliberate fraud in spiritualist practices involving automatic writing. In 1888, Margaret Fox confessed that she and her sister Kate had fabricated the spirit rappings that launched the modern spiritualism movement in 1848, using joint-cracking and other physical tricks to simulate ghostly communications during séances. This admission implicated broader deceptions, including automatic writing sessions where mediums feigned trance states to produce scripted messages. In contemporary settings, fraudsters employ cold reading techniques—vague statements, body language cues, and probabilistic guesses—to mimic spirit-guided writing, often in paid séances or online consultations.^[61] From a neurological perspective, automatic writing aligns with dissociative states and motor automatisms, where the brain's motor cortex activates independently of conscious intent, similar to tics in Tourette's syndrome or movements during hypnosis. Neurologist Terence Hines describes it as a "milder form of dissociative state," involving temporary detachment from voluntary control without invoking paranormal agents.^[62] No empirical neuroimaging or physiological data supports external spirit involvement; instead, patterns resemble internal cognitive dissociation. Critics highlight the absence of rigorous, controlled evidence validating automatic writing as a paranormal phenomenon, with parapsychological experiments often failing replication under double-blind conditions.^[30] Parapsychology faces broader accusations of cultural bias, prioritizing Western spiritualist traditions while ignoring psychological alternatives prevalent in diverse populations.^[63] Ethically, promoting automatic writing for therapy—such as accessing "repressed" memories—poses risks of inducing false beliefs or psychological harm without proven benefits.

Cultural and Artistic Influence

In Literature and Art

Automatic writing profoundly shaped surrealist literature, serving as a core technique for accessing the unconscious mind. André Breton's 1928 novel Nadja exemplifies this approach, blending diary-like narratives of chance encounters with symbolic drawings and references to psychic automatism to evoke a dreamlike "surreality." Breton defined surrealism itself as "pure psychic automatism by which one proposes to express... the actual functioning of thought" free from rational control, a method directly applied in Nadja through spontaneous textual fragments and illustrations that bypass aesthetic constraints.^[64] This technique, first demonstrated in the 1924 journal Littérature, influenced broader surrealist texts by prioritizing the dictation of thought over deliberate composition.^[65] Beyond surrealism, automatic writing extended to channeled literature, where mediums produced novels attributed to spiritual entities. In the early 20th century, Pearl Lenore Curran, a St. Louis housewife, generated multiple novels, poems, and plays under the name Patience Worth, initially via Ouija board but later through rapid automatic writing sessions that produced thousands of words in hours. Works like The Sorry Tale (1917), a historical novel set in biblical times, emerged from these trance-like states, gaining commercial success and sparking debates on authorship.^[66] Similarly, The Urantia Book (1955), a expansive philosophical and religious text spanning over 2,000 pages, originated from transmissions through a sleeping subject in Chicago between 1924 and 1955, though not via traditional automatic writing or trance mediumship; it was materialized in written form by celestial beings, as per accounts from the Urantia Foundation.^[67] In visual art, automatic writing inspired extensions into drawing and collage, emphasizing chance and subconscious form. Jean Arp's 1920s collages, such as Untitled (Collage with Squares Arranged According to the Law of Chance) (1916–1917), prefigured surrealist automatism by arranging torn paper elements without conscious intervention, creating biomorphic abstractions that influenced later Dada and surrealist practices.^[68] These techniques paralleled automatic drawing, where lines flowed freely to reveal unconscious shapes, as seen in Arp's ink works from the period. The impact rippled into the Beat Generation's free writing in the 1950s, with Jack Kerouac's "spontaneous prose"—a Benzedrine-fueled, stream-of-consciousness method—directly echoing surrealist automatic writing to capture raw experience in works like On the Road (1957).^[69] Central themes in automatic writing's literary and artistic outputs include the exploration of the uncanny, where the familiar turns strangely alien, and its role in fostering postmodern experimental prose. Surrealist applications often invoked Freud's concept of the uncanny through irrational juxtapositions and dream logic, unsettling perceptions of reality in automatic texts.^[70] This legacy persists in postmodern works, where automatism-inspired techniques like fragmented narratives and metafiction challenge linear storytelling, prioritizing subconscious flux over coherent plots to probe identity and meaning.^[71]

In Media and Popular Culture

Automatic writing has been portrayed in horror films as a symptom of demonic possession or psychological unraveling, often serving as a visual cue for the intrusion of the supernatural into the conscious mind. The 1973 film The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin, draws inspiration from the 1949 exorcism case of a boy pseudonymously known as Roland Doe, during which automatic writing was documented as part of the disturbing phenomena, including words appearing on the boy's body without his conscious effort. Although the film emphasizes Regan's verbal outbursts and physical contortions, the underlying real-life elements, including uncontrolled script production, contribute to the trope of writing as a conduit for malevolent forces. This depiction cemented automatic writing's place in popular horror, influencing subsequent portrayals of possession. The 2018 film Hereditary, written and directed by Ari Aster, incorporates horror tropes of loss of volition through mysterious inscriptions and compelled actions by the character Annie Graham, who uncovers cult-related symbols amid her family's descent into madness. In television, the series Medium (2005–2011), created by Glenn Gordon Caron, features psychic Allison DuBois receiving spirit communications through dreams and visions, blending procedural drama with supernatural mediumship to depict the practice as a tool for solving crimes. References to automatic writing appear in Stephen King's occult novels, where it symbolizes the blurring of self and otherworldly inspiration. In The Dark Half (1989), protagonist Thad Beaumont experiences automatic writing from his murderous alter ego, George Stark, who communicates through Thad's unconscious scribbles on paper, heightening the psychological terror of dissociated identity. This narrative device underscores King's recurring theme of creativity as a potentially dangerous trance state. In modern media, automatic writing has shifted toward self-empowerment narratives, particularly in podcasts exploring channeled texts. Shows like Michael Sandler's Inspire Nation in the 2020s discuss automatic writing as a meditative practice for accessing subconscious guidance, often tying it to spiritual awakening without supernatural dread. Emerging sci-fi, such as the 2014 film Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland, invites analogies between automatic writing's unconscious output and AI's generative text creation, probing ethical questions about authorship in machine-driven expression. Culturally, post-2010 pop psychology books have mainstreamed the practice for subconscious journaling; Michael Sandler's The Automatic Writing Experience (2021) presents it as a channeling technique to overcome blocks and find life direction, influencing wellness trends.^[72]

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For Frederic Myers, automatic writing became the most important tool in the study of paranormal phenomena. It was a "key that actually turned in the lock" in ...
[23]
[PDF] Emanuel Swedenborg: Scientist and Mystic
writings Swedenborg reports cases of automatic writing, where a spirit actually moved his hand and pen, so that he wrote words and sentences without knowing ...
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Very Mysterious: The Fox Sisters and the Spiritualist Movement
Sep 29, 2017 · The spiritualist movement began on March 31, 1848, in Hydesville, NY, when Maggie and Kate Fox reported making contact with a spirit.
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Mediumship | Scholarly Resources - Esalen Institute
... characteristic of automatic writing in general. Some examples of automatic ... This kind of trance mediumship (trance in the sense of unconsciousness ...
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How did the Spirits communicate with Kardec?
Apr 26, 2023 · Allan Kardec used many psychographic mediums to prepare the books ... The Spirits' Book, which was published in 1857. Currently ...
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What Theosophy did for us – I: Introduction - Enfolding.org
Oct 24, 2018 · Spiritualism was, in these terms, a phenomenon that was being ultimately directed by the secret brotherhoods and masters that were so central to ...
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But what really catapulted Spiritualism into a mainstream popular movement in the last years of the war was the publication of Oliver Lodge's Raymond, in which ...
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A Case of Automatic Writing From Robert G. Ingersoll's Spirit?
Dec 1, 2007 · Automatic Writing. As this case indicates, many attribute automatic writing to spirits or other entities. In one famous instance, Pearl ...Missing: variations | Show results with:variations
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Spiritualism and the Birth of Radio - Efram Sera-Shriar
Nov 1, 2022 · There is a long history of spiritualists using new kinds of technologies to enhance their abilities to communicate with entities beyond the veil.
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Surrealism - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Oct 1, 2004 · Surrealism originated in the late 1910s and early '20s as a literary movement that experimented with a new mode of expression called automatic ...
[32]
[PDF] A THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF NEW AGE ...
argues that “the 1960's and '70s witnessed the most rapid growth of New Age spirituality” due ... experiences involve automatic writing, trances, and hearing ...
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A Course in Miracles
This Preface was written in 1977, in response to many requests for a brief introduction to A Course in Miracles. The first two parts, How It Came and What It Is ...
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Automatic Writing as a Divination Tool - Learn Religions
May 15, 2019 · A method in which the writer holds a pen or pencil, and allows messages to flow through them without any conscious thought or effort.Missing: modern 20th
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Spiritualism and the Occult: Automatic Writing and When Ghosts ...
Sep 10, 2025 · For believers, automatic writing is a spiritual tool—a direct line to the afterlife or higher planes of existence. Many think that the power ...
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Active imagination is a method (devised by myself) of introspection for observing the stream of interior images.
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Mrs. Piper & the Society for Psychical Research - Project Gutenberg
Sep 25, 2006 · Professor William James of Harvard has made experiments to elucidate this point. His two first attempts to hypnotise Mrs Piper were entirely ...
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William James and the Psychics | Skeptical Inquirer
Jan 30, 2018 · The most famous and convincing of these psychics was Leonora Piper, whom William and Alice James visited shortly after the death of their son.
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Mrs. Leonora Piper, the world's greatest psychic medium, was outwardly the world's most ordinary woman. She was a shy, self-effacing lady, as wary of publicity ...
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Hélène Smith | Psi Encyclopedia
May 29, 2017 · The Martian language could appear to Hélène in the forms of auditory hallucinations (for example, voices, conversations), incomprehensible ...<|control11|><|separator|>
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Speaking Martian | Daniel Rosenberg - Cabinet Magazine
In addition to speaking in the voices of the fated queen and her lover, Smith produced letters (via automatic writing) in distinctive handwriting attributed to ...
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Patience Worth: Author From the Great Beyond
Speaking through a Ouija board operated by Pearl Lenore Curran, a St. ... Patience's writing was merely “the automatic activities of [Pearl's] Unconscious.
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The Strange Case of Pearl Curran & Patience Worth
Sep 17, 2014 · In early 20th-century St. Louis, Pearl Curran claimed to have conjured a long-dead New England puritan named Patience Worth through a Ouija board.Missing: Lenore | Show results with:Lenore
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William Butler Yeats | The Poetry Foundation
Yeats remained an active member of the Golden Dawn for 32 years, becoming ... Yeats and his wife held more than 400 sessions of automatic writing ...
[45]
The Vision of W.B. Yeats - Theosophical Society
... W.B. Yeats, decided to try her hand at automatic writing, the practice of allowing spirits to communicate through the written word. The newlyweds were not ...
[46]
How Elmira's Seth, a supernatural New Age teacher, defined reality
Oct 23, 2019 · Author Jane Roberts spoke for a non-physical being named Seth in the 1960s and 1970s, who delivered instructions on how to create your own ...
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Geraldine Cummins | Psi Encyclopedia
Aug 25, 2020 · Geraldine Cummins (1890–1969) was an Irish medium who practised automatic writing. She published scripts said to originate with the deceased FWH Myers.
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Abraham-Hicks Publications - Law of Attraction Official Site
These workshops are the ideal way to learn from Abraham and are the basis of all the recordings offered by Abraham-Hicks Publications. CLICK HERE FOR OUR IN- ...Workshops and cruises · Esther Hicks Official Biography · Daily quote subscriptionMissing: automatic | Show results with:automatic
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Self-Publishing's Output and Influence Continue to Grow
Nov 8, 2024 · In its most recent report, Bowker found that the number of self-published titles with ISBNs rose 7.2% in 2023 over 2022, topping 2.6 ...
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(PDF) Self-Publishing: Opportunities and Threats in a New Age of ...
Aug 7, 2025 · Developments in vanity presses, electronic publishing and social media have led to outstanding growth in the publishing industry.
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Automatic Writing Courses - The College of Psychic Studies
Automatic writing is an inspired and exciting form of mediumship. Discover how it works by enrolling online with the College of Psychic Studies today.<|control11|><|separator|>
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William James | Psi Encyclopedia - Society for Psychical Research
Sep 24, 2015 · ... trance-personalities with the normal one, during the waking state. ... automatic writing34 and about a defense of the thought-transference ...Missing: characteristics | Show results with:characteristics
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Psychical research and the origins of American psychology - NIH
While the automatic speaking and writing of the American trance medium Leonora Piper – discovered and introduced to the psychical research community by William ...
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Society for Psychical Research | Psi Encyclopedia
Mar 21, 2015 · When Matthew engaged in automatic writing the result was a flow of messages from historical characters in various different hands. He also ...
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JB Rhine - Psi Encyclopedia - Society for Psychical Research
Feb 23, 2018 · Joseph Banks Rhine (1895-1980) is considered to be the founder of modern parapsychology. An American botanist-turned-psychologist.Missing: writing | Show results with:writing
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About the Exhibit · Early Studies in Parapsychology at Duke
The early work of The Parapsychology Laboratory began at Duke in 1930 after Dr. William McDougall invited Drs. J.B. and Louisa Rhine to Durham.
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A neurophenomenological fMRI study of a spontaneous automatic ...
Purpose: To evaluate the neurophenomenology of automatic writing (AW) in a spontaneous automatic writer (NN) and four high hypnotizables (HH). Methods: During ...
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[PDF] Replication and Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology
Parapsychology, the study of psychic phenomena, uses meta-analysis to synthesize work, and has a history of statistical controversies.
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[PDF] REPLICATION AND META-ANALYSIS IN PARAPSYCHOLOGY - CIA
Parapsychology studies psychic phenomena like telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition, and has been controversial due to statistical issues and poor ...
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Ask the pendulum: personality predictors of ideomotor performance
Similar mechanisms likely underlie Ouija boards, automatic writing, dowsing rods, and other ideomotor tools intended to bypass conscious analysis and reduce ...
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[PDF] Cryptomnesia-and-Parapsychology.pdf
Sep 19, 2017 · A revival of interest in cryptomnesia dates from the publication of the case of. Bridey Murphy (Bernstein, 1956/1978), which was followed at ...
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cryptomnesia - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com
Oct 26, 2015 · For example, Virginia Tighe's hypnotic recollections of Bridey Murphy ... See also automatic writing and memory. further reading. books and ...
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Mediums
Some mediums produced "automatic" or "trance" or "spirit" writing ... In addition to shrewd cold reading and out-and-out cheating, "psychics" and ...
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How Does the Ouija Board Work? | Skeptical Inquirer
Jul 29, 2024 · Automatism has been implicated in hypnosis, dowsing, automatic writing, and many other phenomena. How does this separation of feeling and action ...<|separator|>
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[PDF] COMMENTARY - Journal of Scientific Exploration
Mar 15, 2021 · Many of the apparently heterogeneous phenomena in psychology as well as in parapsychology such as automatic writing, lucid dream characters ...
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Analysis of André Breton's Nadja - Literary Theory and Criticism
Aug 2, 2023 · Breton defined surrealism as “pure psychic automatism, by which an attempt is made to express, either verbally, in writing or in any other ...
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André Breton | The Poetry Foundation
Apr 25, 2017 · That year, he issued the first of three Surrealist Manifestos, defining Surrealism as “psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one ...
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The Patience of Pearl - Project MUSE
Louis homemaker Pearl Curran began writing fiction and poetry at a Ouija board in 1913, she attributed the work to the “discarnate entity” Patience Worth, a ...
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Who wrote The Urantia Book? - TruthBook
Aug 22, 2021 · Here is a list of techniques that were NOT used in transmitting: Automatic writing; Automatic talking; Speaking with “tongues”; Trance mediums ...
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Jean (Hans) Arp. Untitled (Collage with Squares Arranged ... - MoMA
Jean (Hans) Arp. Untitled (Collage with Squares Arranged according to the Law of Chance). 1916–17. Torn-and-pasted paper and colored paper on colored paper.
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Beat generation | Research Starters - EBSCO
This new method of composition—Kerouac called it “bop prosody” or “spontaneous prose”—was related to the automatic-writing practices of the Surrealists and was ...Missing: connection | Show results with:connection
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Surrealism Movement Overview | TheArtStory
Artists such as Hans Arp also created collages as stand-alone works. Hyperrealism and automatism were not mutually exclusive. Miro, for example, often used both ...
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Postmodern Literature Guide: 10 Notable Postmodern Authors - 2025
Jun 7, 2021 · Postmodern literature emphasized meaninglessness and play. Postmodern writers began to experiment with more meta elements in their novels and ...<|control11|><|separator|>
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The Automatic Writing Experience (AWE): How to Turn Your ...
The Automatic Writing Experience (AWE): How to Turn Your Journaling into Channeling to Get Unstuck, Find Direction, and Live Your Greatest Life!