Automatic Writing

Scripts produced without the control of the conscious self, usually writings executed by a medium while in a trance or altered state of consciousness.

Automatic writing is the most common form of mediumship, the source of innumerable cases of self-delusion, and at the same time the source of some of the most interesting and intriguing cases of mediumship.

Automatic writing is done using a pen, pencil or typing in a keyboard. Some call it "trance" writing because it can be done quickly and without thought. Whether these messages come from the "spirit world" or the subconscious is unknown.

Occultists believe automatic writing is the product of communication with a spiritual being; psychical researchers believe it emanates from the writer's own subconscious, or perhaps through ESP.

Cases are on record where lost articles have been recovered by means of automatic writing. Foreign languages that have been forgotten, or with which the subject has small acquaintance, are spoken or written fluently. Automatic writing was supposedly invaluable in the psychic excavations carried out at Glastonbury in the early twentieth century (see Glastonbury Scripts and Psychic Archaeology).

The writer is usually unaware of what is being written. Typically, the process is much faster than ordinary handwriting and the script is larger and more expansive. Automatic writers have also produced mirror script and backwards writing, starting from the bottom right of the page and finishing at the top left. At the height of spiritualism automatic writing was common in séances, where it was adopted as a superior method of communicating with the dead than rapping’s or using a planchette.

Automatic writing has also been used by psychologists and psychiatrists in the investigation and treatment of mental illness.