514 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



found that lie could do it voluntarily as well as automatically 



(Fig. 8). 



It was easy enough to prove that these communications had 



nothing to do with spirits. B satisfied himself upon that 



point in a very short time. But we kept on experimenting, to 



determine whether 

 they were of sub- 

 conscious origin or 



not. To B 



himself they felt 

 strangely external. 



Figs. 4 and 5. To qUOte his OWU 



words : 

 " When I wish to write automatically I take a pencil and place 

 my hand upon a sheet of paper. After the lapse of a few min- 

 utes I feel a tingling sensation in my arm and fingers ; this is fol- 

 lowed by a stiffening of the arm and by convulsive movements. 

 After scrawling for a while, it will make a mark which suggests 

 to me the beginning of a letter, and usually the letter will be 

 clearly written almost before the thought enters my mind. It is 

 then followed by some word beginning with that letter, and that 

 by other words, constituting a ' communication ' from some 

 'spirit.^ The writing then proceeds quite rapidly. It seems to 

 me that I read it as it is written ; sometimes I apparently antici- 

 pate the writing, but quite often it does not proceed in accordance 

 with my anticipation. Sometimes the writer seems to be at a loss 

 how to complete his sentence, and begins again. At other times 

 an illegible combination of signs will be repeatedly written, until 



Y "^^^ ^^-^ 



yvji^ 



'^•vvx/w^ U> 



Figs. 6, 7, and 8. 



finally a word is evolved, and this appears to be what the writer 

 had in mind at the outset. I am now satisfied, however, that there 

 is never any foresight ; my hand simply develops the illegible 

 scrawl into the word which I think it most resembles, thus f ul- 



