^'SPIRIT'' WRITING. 509 



into the discussion of these relatively familiar cases, and I shall 

 turn at once to the more complex types. 



Automatic writing is an exceedingly common phenomenon. 

 It took its rise from table-turning. Ordinary tables being found 

 in many cases too heavy for the " spirits " to lift, tiny three-legged 

 tables were made for the purpose and termed " planchettes." Later 

 the device was hit upon of attaching a pencil to one leg and plac- 

 ing a sheet of paper beneath to record the movements of the leg. 

 This is our modern planchette. Two or three persons then put 

 their hands on the instrument and wait to see " what planchette 

 will say." Many automatists need no planchette. It is enough 

 for them to take a pencil in hand and sit quietly with the hand 

 on a sheet of paper. After the lapse of a variable period of time 

 the hand will stiffen, twist, and fall to writing quite of its own 

 accord. Of these methods planchette is the more likely to be suc- 

 cessful. In the first place, the chances of finding an automatist 

 among two or three people is obviously greater than in the case 

 of one ; furthermore, since all expect planchette to move, the 

 slightest tendency to automatism on the part of any one is likely 

 to be magnified by the unconscious co-operation of the others, 

 and is less likely to be checked by the writer himself, since each 

 ascribes the movement to any one but himself. 



The writing produced by either of these methods may be re- 

 garded as belonging to one of two main types : 1. That which, 

 although involuntary, is dependent upon the co-operation of the 

 subject's consciousness. 2. That which is produced without the 

 co-operation of the subject's consciousness. The latter, again, may 

 be either intelligible or in " unknown tongues." 



Intelligible automatic writing may be produced without the 

 co-operation of the subject's consciousness, either when that con- 

 sciousness is apparently unimpaired, or when the patient is in a 

 trance state. The latter I need not now discuss, as it belongs to 

 the same category as dreams, but the former calls for some com- 

 ment. 



There are two methods of proving that the automatic messages 

 did not emanate from the subject's upper consciousness. In the 

 first place, it is sometimes found that they become the more clear 

 and copious the more effectually the upper consciousness of the 



subject is distracted from the writing. Miss G , for example, 



whom I studied with some care, always did her best automatic 

 writing when busily engaged in conversation or in reading aloud. 

 I concealed her hand from her eyes, and it was but now and then 

 that she would decipher a word by the sense of touch and move- 

 ment as it was written. But the messages she wrote were always 

 trivial, silly, and often self-contradictory. 



In the second place, the content of the writing may be of such 



