by John Welford

Created on: June 04, 2008   Last Updated: February 13, 2009

Automatic writing is a specific term that is quite distinct from "easy writing" or "stream of consciousness", which could both be described as "going with the flow". Automatic writing is normally understood to be one of the manifestations of spiritualism, and should therefore firstly be considered on that basis.

Automatic writing is supposedly the words of a deceased person being conveyed through the hands of a person who is in a trance-like state and is unaware of what they are doing. On coming out of their trance they will find that they have written words that are not their own, and may be in a completely different style to how they would usually write. The words may even be in a different language, possibly one that is unknown to the writer, and in a different handwriting.

At least, that is what we are expected to believe. How much credence one gives to such claims depends on one's views of mediums and their claims to communicate with the "other side". Most people would be happier to think of such writings as being the product of the unconscious mind of the writer, just as most observers prefer to think of the "voices" that some people claim to hear as coming from inside their brains rather than from God, Satan, or some other supernatural being.

One of the most celebrated automatic writers was Helene Smith, or Catherine Elise Muller, to use her real name. Helene was from Geneva, Switzerland, and was born in about 1863. She claimed to be a medium, and produced automatic writing in Arabic. She was also convinced that she was a reincarnation of Marie Antoinette, the executed Queen of Louis XVI. However, her most remarkable claim was that she had been transported to Mars in trances, and was able to write in the Martian language. Experts who investigated her found that about 98% of her "Martian" words were from known "Earth" languages, and, not surprisingly, many of them were French, which was Helene's native language.

Although Helene's claims were clearly bogus, she had a considerable influence on the Surrealist movement, some of whose exponents claimed to be automatic writers, as well as automatic drawers and painters.

Another supposed automatic writer was England's Rosemary Brown, who, in 1964, claimed to have been introduced by the spirit of Franz Liszt to a number of other great, and very dead, composers who wanted to dictate new music through her. These included Bach, Brahms, Mozart, Debussy and Rachmaninoff. She gave more than 400 piano recitals of supposedly

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