AUTOMATIC WRITING

 

The term "automatic writing," introduced by Mr. Stead, is misleading. He uses it to avoid saying "spirit writing," the very idea he believes and wishes to convey. Automatic, means self-moved, or in animals, movements of reflex action beyond control of the will. Mr. Stead does not claim that his hand writes characteristic messages, or those containing subtle knowledge of itself. He can not be so illogical as to believe in the "sub-conscious self," which is so much wiser than the conscious self, that it can become its teacher, for be believes his hand is controlled by spiritual beings.

 

A hand controlled to write by spiritual intelligence is no more automatic than the pen which it holds. The pen would not write if not guided by the hand; and the hand would not write if not guided by a spirit. The term has been introduced into the vocabulary of Spiritualism, and has an euphonious sound to those who do not desire to say spirit, or would leave their opinions in the fog of conjecture.

 

It is the common experience of "automatic writers," that the mind is cognizant of the ideas the hand is writing. The hand is not grasped by the spirit and used mechanically. The muscles must be controlled through the brain, which thereby becomes cognizant of the thoughts written. That such thoughts come in opposition to the medium is evidence in favor of their independent origin.

 

This cognizance of the thoughts as they are written, is common to all mediums in a greater or less degree, and reflection on the method of communication will show anyone that such must be the fact. The spirit does not take directly hold of the arm and use it as a writer would a pen. The influence must be excited through the brain of the medium, and hence his mind, however passive, will be cognizant in greater or less degree of the thoughts of the controlling intelligence.

 

Mr. Stead unequivocally believes that he receives communications automatically through his own hand from friends in mortal life, and more remarkable, they give these communications to him without any knowledge of so doing! He gives in his "Borderland" many instances, and appears to think it does not require comment or explanation.

 

Mr. Stead came to Spiritualism without special training therefore. He accepted it intuitively, and with the sanguine ardor he has manifested for every cause he has espoused, and perhaps came to a hasty conclusion. It is in harmony with the well-known laws of telepathy, or mind-reading, that a person may impress his thoughts on another in sympathy, and as a spirit, differing only in having a physical garb, there is no obstacle to carrying this process farther and communicate exactly as would a disembodied spirit. This, however, would require a knowledge of the fact on the part of the person giving the communication, and an exceeding activity and intensity of thought. No passive, unconscious mental process strikes the spirit ether with sufficient intensity to be received by another distant mind, however sensitive. To simply receive thought impressions is quite another thing from receiving them by movements of the hand, which still further complicates the explanation.

 

Such messages given to Mr. Stead were without doubt written by a controlling spirit, who for some reason did not choose to allow him to know the facts.

 

It has been asserted of this phase of mediumship, as of others, that the hand writes by "recurring memory," but there can be no "recurring memory" of a thought never received by the mind. Inspiration, depending on sensitiveness or impressibility, cannot be separated and made distinct from spiritual influence, even granting that the mind may be intensified, and enabled to reproduce past experiences.

 

That mediums mention dates, incidents and facts that they have never heard is beyond dispute and how can this be if the cause is "recurrent memory?" If by inspiration is meant only the intensification of mind which is the first stage of spirit control, the assumption may partially apply, but the term in its accepted significance covers the whole field of spirit influence, and having this meaning, the attempt to account for its varied manifestations, by asserting it is only a revival of memory, is like explaining the light of the sun, by the burning of tallow in the candle.

 

AUTOMATICALLY WRITING THE SPEECH OF ANOTHER.

 

There have been many instances of this recorded. A spirit may come to a medium and write automatically or impress sentences, or a poem familiar to the spirit, and at the same time the medium not knowing its source, may refer the authorship to the spirit, or if unscrupulous the spirit may claim the authorship. Again, a medium may receive by impression the thoughts of another person or spirit, and such is the interwoven delicacy between the action of the medium's mind and such impressions, that all he would be able to discover would be the abnormal intensity, and felicity of expression, and he might claim the result as his own unaided effort. With this explanation we have our charity enlarged by many instances of plagiarism. The history of great discoveries is in illustration. Wallace in the Indian Archipelago, and Darwin in England, arrived almost simultaneously at the same conclusions as to Evolution, and scores of others were feeling the impulse of similar thought-waves.

 

Great inventions seem in the air when the time comes for their introduction, and to hedge against infringing claims and show absolute priority is often impossible. Scores of receptive minds catch the pulsations in the thought atmosphere, with more or less clearness, and the ones most sensitive give it clearest expression in words, or in the complications of the machine.

 

PRACTICAL LESSON.

 

Mr. Stead's method of writing automatically is to stand by a table with the pencil held by the fingers, the arm extending downwards and hence unsupported and thus allowed free motion. Mrs. Underwood, whose book written automatically, is a wonderful evidence of independent control, in the individuality of the handwriting, and the subject matter, simply held the pen as in ordinary writing, allowing freedom of movement. Placing the arm on a planchette, from which the pencil has been removed, that held by the fingers taking its place, has been successful. The mobility of the instrument giving freedom to the movements of the hand. Still better is the automagraph, a special form of the planchette designed for the purpose. Sitting in a circle, or with at least a companion, is preferable, although, perhaps in no phase of mediumship can better results be obtained by seances held alone.