June 1, 2023 • 10 mins
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psychic abilities, paranormal phenomena, metaphysics, spirituality, intuition, extrasensory perception, divination, spiritualism, self-help, personal growth, meditation, clairvoyance, telepathy, astral projection, dream interpretation, chakras, energy healing, esotericism, cultural influence, human nature, self-awareness, spiritual practices, consciousness, psychic development, holistic living
psychic abilities, paranormal phenomena, metaphysics, spirituality, intuition, extrasensory perception, divination, spiritualism, self-help, personal growth, meditation, clairvoyance, telepathy, astral projection, dream interpretation, chakras, energy healing, esotericism, cultural influence, human nature, self-awareness, spiritual practices, consciousness, psychic development, holistic living
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Chapter sixteen. Automatic writing. Automaticwriting means writing which is performed without the
use of the conscious mind, thatis, writing which is performed by the
unconscious muscular energies of the hand andarm, hence automatic or non conscious writing.
A pencil is taken in the ordinaryway and held over a piece of
(00:21):
paper, and in a short timeit will be noticed that slight movements of
the pencil occur, making scrawling markson the paper. As time goes on,
these marks become more and more consistentand consecutive. They begin to form
circles, hooks, et cetera,until letters, then words, and finally
whole sentences are written out. Howto obtain automatic writing. The best way
(00:46):
to obtain automatic writing is to holdthe arm clear of the table, that
is, so that neither the wrist, nor the elbows, nor any part
of the arm touches it. Inthis way, a certain amount of fatigue
is soon induced in the arm,and as soon as this occurs, automatic
writing tends to begin. In obtainingwriting of this character, you must be
(01:06):
careful to abstract your conscious guidance fromthe hand as much as possible, leaving
it to itself. Do not tryand write anything of your own volition.
Let it guide itself, even ifit writes nonsense at first. Some persons
obtain writing more easily if the pencilbe placed between the first and second fingers,
But whatever way is most convenient toyou should be adopted in cultivating automatic
(01:27):
writing. Make the mind as blankas possible. After a time, you
may be able to think of otherthings at the same time, carry on
a train of conversation, read abook, etc. At the same time
that your hand is writing the messages. But it is improbable that you will
be able to do this at first. The chief thing is to make the
mind blank and await results. Twoimportant rules to follow when developing automatic writing.
(01:53):
You should sit for not longer thanfifteen or twenty minutes daily, and
if possible, always at the sametime. It is very important that these
two rules be observed for two reasons. In the first place, your spirit
friends, who are we are toldtrying to help you in your writing,
would come to assist you at certainstated times more easily than irregularly, especially
(02:16):
if you told them exactly at whattime to come. It is a good
plan to say aloud just when youhave finished the writing, goodbye tomorrow.
At the same time, we willsit again for the messages. In the
second place, the time should belimited. When you obtain writing of this
character. You are apt to getso interested in the results when once messages
(02:36):
begin to come, and so curiousin seeing what your hand says, that
you will lose all account of time, and if you have nothing urgent to
do, are liable to run onhour after hour, writing automatically and replying
to the messages you receive. Ifyou do this for any length of time,
you will break down the wall ofdefense which normally exists against outside influences.
(02:57):
And of the importance of which Ihave spoken so often in the preceding
chapters, mister W. T.Stead, the well known journalist and spiritualist,
once stated that he considered these twowarnings of the utmost importance, and
attributed his own success and the factthat he had never encountered any difficulties or
any trouble in his automatic writing tothe fact that he had heeded strictly this
(03:19):
advice. How automatic writing is accomplished. Automatic writing is doubtless performed by the
subconscious muscular action on the part ofthe hand and arm of the writer.
That is, in the majority ofcases, but this does not serve to
explain it, as many people believe. Granting that the actual writing is obtained
in this way, the question remains, how about the information which is often
(03:43):
obtained by means of the writing,information which the writer could not possibly have
known by any normal means. Forinstance, suppose you are sitting at your
table, pencil in hand, waitingto see what is written. Your hand
writes, I am James Valentine.I was killed in a railroad act in
this afternoon at four o'clock. Grantingthat your own hand actually move the pencil
(04:03):
to write this message. Where didthis piece of information come from? How
did your mind know what to write? And the fact that James Valentine had
been killed? That is the questionwhich remains to be solved, and is
the one which the majority of scientistswho have undertaken to investigate and explain these
phenomena slur over and leave altogether unexplained. In many other cases, also,
(04:26):
the power seems to be greater thanthe medium alone could have produced, and
in such cases an outside power wasdoubtless employed. As in many physical phenomena,
the character of the messages received.Many of the messages you receive especially
at first, will doubtless prove incoherentand disconnected like dreams. In fact,
they are dreams only instead of seeingthese thoughts and visions, they are written
(04:50):
out by your own hand. Inboth cases, however, it is your
dream consciousness subconsciousness which originates the messageor the visions. In many cases,
however, clear and consistent messages arewritten, and these may be supernormal and
show evidence of telepathy, clairvoyance,premonition, or spirit communication, just as
(05:11):
dreams do. Many mediums obtain theirmessages direct by automatic writing. Missus Piper
of Boston in many ways, themost famous medium in the history of psychics,
obtain nearly all her communications in thismanner. In her case, she
passes into very deep trance while writingand has to be supported by cushions.
In your own case, it isimprobable that you will go into trance at
(05:33):
first, though you may have atendency to do so, and if you
begin to feel sleepy or drowsy duringthe writing, you should give way to
this and allow yourself to pass intothe trance condition. In this state,
many of the best messages are obtained. It is advisable, however, to
do this for the first few times, only in the presence of an experienced
(05:53):
medium or psychic who can attend toyou during the period of trance and who
will ask questions for your hand toreply to, etc. Phenomena which may
occur during the writing. This feelingof drowsiness appears very often in automatic writing,
but it is not universal. Manymediums who obtain remarkable messages in this
manner have never passed into trance andhave no desire to do so. They
(06:15):
remain perfectly normal throughout. It maybe that when you begin to write,
your hand and arm will show signsof insensibility, that is, it will
lose its sensation and any feeling ofpain, et cetera. It becomes,
as we say, anesthetic. Youmay be quite unconscious of this fact and
only discover it by accident. Agood plan is to have a friend test
(06:36):
it for you. When you areobtaining automatic writing, close your eyes and
tearn your head away. Then askyour friend to prick you very lightly with
a needle in various parts of yourhands and arms and see whether you experience
any pain. It is quite possiblethat you will not do so, even
if the pricks are severe. Itis curious to note, however, that
(06:57):
these pricks are noticed by the subconsciousmind, or it often happens that the
hand will write automatically you are hurtingme, or you pricked me in the
third finger joint, or something ofthe kind, while you yourself might remain
totally ignorant of the fact, sofar as any consciousness of it was concerned.
It is important for you to rememberthat automatic messages, like all messages
of a like character, must bejudged and accepted for what they are worth.
(07:23):
More phenomena, Some of these messagesare very remarkable and contain sound advice
which can be followed with profit.Some apparently originate from those spirit friends who
claim to give them. On theother hand, many of them are foolish,
lying, or merely silly. Sothat here, as in all other
cases, discrimination must be used,and you must exert your own common sense
(07:45):
and judgment in the matter of acceptingthese messages. And you must see to
what extent you may be willing toabide and profit by the advice given.
It sometimes happens that automatic writing formsletters, but these appear curiously shaped and
the words cannot be Sometimes it beginsat the right hand side of the page,
and writes toward the left, likeHebrew. When this is the case,
(08:07):
it is always a good plan tohold the sheet of paper up to
a mirror to see whether the writingcan be read in this way. If
so, the writing has been merelyreversed, and is what we term mirror
writing. Some persons can write withthe left hand as well as with the
right, but usually this is notthe case except with left handed persons.
The reason seems to be that theleft hand is poorly developed as a writing
(08:28):
machine. For this reason, wecan hardly expect any intelligence who may desire
to give messages to find this aneasy way of expressing them. Still,
it may be tried after writing hasbeen obtained by the right hand. Occasionally
messages are given in foreign languages orin queer tongues unknown to the sitter.
These may be genuine messages, andif they come in a language unknown to
(08:50):
you, you may be more orless assured that they emanate from some spirit
friend who speaks the language in question. Occasionally, however, your hand will
write gibberish in There are many casesis on record where this has been done,
and no true language has been written. How to develop the power,
it is a good plan to sitin a semi darkened room while obtaining automatic
(09:11):
writing in a comfortable position and withthe mind as free from care and preoccupation
as possible. Automatic writing may,however, be obtained in a light room
if desired. Telepathic experiments may betried in this manner. A friend of
yours may try to impress upon youcertain words, cards, figures, et
cetera, which your hand writes automatically. The writing, you must remember,
(09:33):
is only another method for the subconsciousto express itself to the conscious mind,
and happens to be a motor channelrather than a sensory channel. If it
were the latter, you would seeor hear the message instead of writing it.
In both cases, however, thephenomena represent mere emergence. It is
not necessary to write automatically with apencil. For a planchet board, weejiboard,
(09:54):
or some other apparatus may be usedfor this purpose. Indeed, this
is a much simpler to begin with, and writing is obtained more easily than
by the pencil alone. Most peoplefind it more satisfactory, however, to
discarve these instruments later on and employthe pencil direct The above rules should enable
the student to obtain automatic writing ina comparatively short time. Patience is required
(10:18):
here as elsewhere. Hold the mindin a receptive attitude, send out a
mental call for guidance and wisdom,and do not come to the conclusion too
quickly that the messages you receive arenonsense. Often a jumble of letters that
at first sight mean nothing may forma very significant message when rightly interpreted.
(10:39):
End of Chapter sixteen.
Chapter sixteen. Automatic writing. Automaticwriting means writing which is performed without the
use of the conscious mind, thatis, writing which is performed by the
unconscious muscular energies of the hand andarm, hence automatic or non conscious writing.
A pencil is taken in the ordinaryway and held over a piece of
(00:21):
paper, and in a short timeit will be noticed that slight movements of
the pencil occur, making scrawling markson the paper. As time goes on,
these marks become more and more consistentand consecutive. They begin to form
circles, hooks, et cetera,until letters, then words, and finally
whole sentences are written out. Howto obtain automatic writing. The best way
(00:46):
to obtain automatic writing is to holdthe arm clear of the table, that
is, so that neither the wrist, nor the elbows, nor any part
of the arm touches it. Inthis way, a certain amount of fatigue
is soon induced in the arm,and as soon as this occurs, automatic
writing tends to begin. In obtainingwriting of this character, you must be
(01:06):
careful to abstract your conscious guidance fromthe hand as much as possible, leaving
it to itself. Do not tryand write anything of your own volition.
Let it guide itself, even ifit writes nonsense at first. Some persons
obtain writing more easily if the pencilbe placed between the first and second fingers,
But whatever way is most convenient toyou should be adopted in cultivating automatic
(01:27):
writing. Make the mind as blankas possible. After a time, you
may be able to think of otherthings at the same time, carry on
a train of conversation, read abook, etc. At the same time
that your hand is writing the messages. But it is improbable that you will
be able to do this at first. The chief thing is to make the
mind blank and await results. Twoimportant rules to follow when developing automatic writing.
(01:53):
You should sit for not longer thanfifteen or twenty minutes daily, and
if possible, always at the sametime. It is very important that these
two rules be observed for two reasons. In the first place, your spirit
friends, who are we are toldtrying to help you in your writing,
would come to assist you at certainstated times more easily than irregularly, especially
(02:16):
if you told them exactly at whattime to come. It is a good
plan to say aloud just when youhave finished the writing, goodbye tomorrow.
At the same time, we willsit again for the messages. In the
second place, the time should belimited. When you obtain writing of this
character. You are apt to getso interested in the results when once messages
(02:36):
begin to come, and so curiousin seeing what your hand says, that
you will lose all account of time, and if you have nothing urgent to
do, are liable to run onhour after hour, writing automatically and replying
to the messages you receive. Ifyou do this for any length of time,
you will break down the wall ofdefense which normally exists against outside influences.
(02:57):
And of the importance of which Ihave spoken so often in the preceding
chapters, mister W. T.Stead, the well known journalist and spiritualist,
once stated that he considered these twowarnings of the utmost importance, and
attributed his own success and the factthat he had never encountered any difficulties or
any trouble in his automatic writing tothe fact that he had heeded strictly this
(03:19):
advice. How automatic writing is accomplished. Automatic writing is doubtless performed by the
subconscious muscular action on the part ofthe hand and arm of the writer.
That is, in the majority ofcases, but this does not serve to
explain it, as many people believe. Granting that the actual writing is obtained
in this way, the question remains, how about the information which is often
(03:43):
obtained by means of the writing,information which the writer could not possibly have
known by any normal means. Forinstance, suppose you are sitting at your
table, pencil in hand, waitingto see what is written. Your hand
writes, I am James Valentine.I was killed in a railroad act in
this afternoon at four o'clock. Grantingthat your own hand actually move the pencil
(04:03):
to write this message. Where didthis piece of information come from? How
did your mind know what to write? And the fact that James Valentine had
been killed? That is the questionwhich remains to be solved, and is
the one which the majority of scientistswho have undertaken to investigate and explain these
phenomena slur over and leave altogether unexplained. In many other cases, also,
(04:26):
the power seems to be greater thanthe medium alone could have produced, and
in such cases an outside power wasdoubtless employed. As in many physical phenomena,
the character of the messages received.Many of the messages you receive especially
at first, will doubtless prove incoherentand disconnected like dreams. In fact,
they are dreams only instead of seeingthese thoughts and visions, they are written
(04:50):
out by your own hand. Inboth cases, however, it is your
dream consciousness subconsciousness which originates the messageor the visions. In many cases,
however, clear and consistent messages arewritten, and these may be supernormal and
show evidence of telepathy, clairvoyance,premonition, or spirit communication, just as
(05:11):
dreams do. Many mediums obtain theirmessages direct by automatic writing. Missus Piper
of Boston in many ways, themost famous medium in the history of psychics,
obtain nearly all her communications in thismanner. In her case, she
passes into very deep trance while writingand has to be supported by cushions.
In your own case, it isimprobable that you will go into trance at
(05:33):
first, though you may have atendency to do so, and if you
begin to feel sleepy or drowsy duringthe writing, you should give way to
this and allow yourself to pass intothe trance condition. In this state,
many of the best messages are obtained. It is advisable, however, to
do this for the first few times, only in the presence of an experienced
(05:53):
medium or psychic who can attend toyou during the period of trance and who
will ask questions for your hand toreply to, etc. Phenomena which may
occur during the writing. This feelingof drowsiness appears very often in automatic writing,
but it is not universal. Manymediums who obtain remarkable messages in this
manner have never passed into trance andhave no desire to do so. They
(06:15):
remain perfectly normal throughout. It maybe that when you begin to write,
your hand and arm will show signsof insensibility, that is, it will
lose its sensation and any feeling ofpain, et cetera. It becomes,
as we say, anesthetic. Youmay be quite unconscious of this fact and
only discover it by accident. Agood plan is to have a friend test
(06:36):
it for you. When you areobtaining automatic writing, close your eyes and
tearn your head away. Then askyour friend to prick you very lightly with
a needle in various parts of yourhands and arms and see whether you experience
any pain. It is quite possiblethat you will not do so, even
if the pricks are severe. Itis curious to note, however, that
(06:57):
these pricks are noticed by the subconsciousmind, or it often happens that the
hand will write automatically you are hurtingme, or you pricked me in the
third finger joint, or something ofthe kind, while you yourself might remain
totally ignorant of the fact, sofar as any consciousness of it was concerned.
It is important for you to rememberthat automatic messages, like all messages
of a like character, must bejudged and accepted for what they are worth.
(07:23):
More phenomena, Some of these messagesare very remarkable and contain sound advice
which can be followed with profit.Some apparently originate from those spirit friends who
claim to give them. On theother hand, many of them are foolish,
lying, or merely silly. Sothat here, as in all other
cases, discrimination must be used,and you must exert your own common sense
(07:45):
and judgment in the matter of acceptingthese messages. And you must see to
what extent you may be willing toabide and profit by the advice given.
It sometimes happens that automatic writing formsletters, but these appear curiously shaped and
the words cannot be Sometimes it beginsat the right hand side of the page,
and writes toward the left, likeHebrew. When this is the case,
(08:07):
it is always a good plan tohold the sheet of paper up to
a mirror to see whether the writingcan be read in this way. If
so, the writing has been merelyreversed, and is what we term mirror
writing. Some persons can write withthe left hand as well as with the
right, but usually this is notthe case except with left handed persons.
The reason seems to be that theleft hand is poorly developed as a writing
(08:28):
machine. For this reason, wecan hardly expect any intelligence who may desire
to give messages to find this aneasy way of expressing them. Still,
it may be tried after writing hasbeen obtained by the right hand. Occasionally
messages are given in foreign languages orin queer tongues unknown to the sitter.
These may be genuine messages, andif they come in a language unknown to
(08:50):
you, you may be more orless assured that they emanate from some spirit
friend who speaks the language in question. Occasionally, however, your hand will
write gibberish in There are many casesis on record where this has been done,
and no true language has been written. How to develop the power,
it is a good plan to sitin a semi darkened room while obtaining automatic
(09:11):
writing in a comfortable position and withthe mind as free from care and preoccupation
as possible. Automatic writing may,however, be obtained in a light room
if desired. Telepathic experiments may betried in this manner. A friend of
yours may try to impress upon youcertain words, cards, figures, et
cetera, which your hand writes automatically. The writing, you must remember,
(09:33):
is only another method for the subconsciousto express itself to the conscious mind,
and happens to be a motor channelrather than a sensory channel. If it
were the latter, you would seeor hear the message instead of writing it.
In both cases, however, thephenomena represent mere emergence. It is
not necessary to write automatically with apencil. For a planchet board, weejiboard,
(09:54):
or some other apparatus may be usedfor this purpose. Indeed, this
is a much simpler to begin with, and writing is obtained more easily than
by the pencil alone. Most peoplefind it more satisfactory, however, to
discarve these instruments later on and employthe pencil direct The above rules should enable
the student to obtain automatic writing ina comparatively short time. Patience is required
(10:18):
here as elsewhere. Hold the mindin a receptive attitude, send out a
mental call for guidance and wisdom,and do not come to the conclusion too
quickly that the messages you receive arenonsense. Often a jumble of letters that
at first sight mean nothing may forma very significant message when rightly interpreted.
(10:39):
End of Chapter sixteen.
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