# Automatic writing

Source: https://spiritfold.com/Automatic_writing  
Published by the Australian Spiritual Alliance on Spiritfold, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

**Automatic writing** is writing produced, often in a semi-trance state, that seems to come from the writer's unconscious mind or, as some believe, from an outside source.[1] In Spiritualism and related traditions it is believed that a spirit writes through the medium's hand.[2][3] Spiritualist churches count it among the phenomena of mediumship.[4] It has also been called spirit writing, passive writing and psychography.[5]

## Description

### The practice

The writer's state of mind can vary a great deal. According to the *Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology*, it ranges from something like daydreaming, in which the writer can watch the words appear with a critical eye, to full trance, in which the writer may be unaware of what the hand is doing. The writer is meant to stay passive: if they become too interested or anxious, the writing tends to break up or lose its sense. The entry adds that nearly every automatic writer has their own working conditions.[6]

The Irish medium Geraldine Cummins, one of the best-known automatic writers of the twentieth century, described her method in detail. She aimed to create a stillness in which her mind listened for the words being dictated to it, and asked that there be no talking when a sitter was present. She described her state as dreamy and half-asleep, as if she were only listening to the words coming through; she said she was rarely in deep trance, kept some conscious awareness, and would stop writing if she disliked the communicator or the message. A companion would supply fresh paper as her hand reached the end of each page. Cummins reported writing about two thousand words in a little over an hour, compared with eight hundred words in a day of ordinary writing.[7] She first worked with a Ouija board, but made automatic writing her main method because it was less cumbersome.[7]

### Automatic writing and spirit writing

Spiritualists distinguish automatic writing, in which the medium's own hand does the writing, from "spirit writing" in the strict sense, in which a spirit is said to write a message on a slate or paper with no human hand involved. In Spiritualist terms, automatic writing is one of the ways a spirit may "control" a medium.[2] In Spiritism (Kardecism), trained mediums often work through automatic writing in closed sessions.[8]

## Scope

### What it includes

- Writing produced in a dreamy, semi-trance or trance state that the writer attributes to a spirit or other source outside their conscious mind[7][1]
- Writing presented as dictated or "impressed" by a spirit, as in nineteenth-century Spiritualist books[5][9]

### What it is not

- Its source is unproven. Researchers have long debated whether scripts come from spirits, from telepathy or clairvoyance, or from information the writer absorbed and reshaped without being aware of it; writing in the *Psi Encyclopedia*, Trevor Hamilton notes that because some of Cummins's scripts were produced for people who knew her well, there will always be some doubt about whether information reached her by ordinary means and about how it was checked.[7][1]
- Brain studies have looked at automatic writing as a dissociative state rather than testing its source. A 2012 study of ten mediums found lower activity in several brain areas when experienced mediums wrote in trance than in their normal writing, and a 2023 study found that automatic writing was linked with a reduced sense of control and agency, both in a spontaneous automatic writer and in highly hypnotisable people asked to write automatically.[3][10]

## Traditions and lineage

Automatic writing developed with [Spiritualism](https://spiritfold.com/Spiritualism) in the nineteenth century. A study of the period from the 1850s to the 1890s traces how it was presented in occultism, psychical research and literature, including as a source of healing and medical advice; one example is the English cleric W. Stainton Moses's *Spirit Teachings* (1883), which Moses said was written through him by a spirit called "Imperator".[5]

In the early twentieth century, automatic writing became central to research by the Society for Psychical Research. After the death of one of its founders, Frederic Myers, in 1901, several women, writing separately and sometimes on different continents, produced scripts with messages signed "Myers". Researchers came to believe that fragments in different scripts fitted together like a jigsaw, as if planned by a single mind. By 1936 more than three thousand of these "cross-correspondences" scripts had been collected. They were long seen by many psychical researchers as strong evidence for survival after death, but are less so today because their complexity and obscure literary references make them hard to assess.[1]

## Context

### Within Spiritualism

Automatic writing is a recognised Spiritualist form of mediumship. The National Spiritualist Association of Churches in the United States lists "Automatic and Independent Writings" among the phenomena of Spiritualism.[4] According to the *Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology*, Spiritualists hold that such writing is done "under control" of the spirits of the dead, and so is not truly automatic, whereas most researchers have put it down to the writer's subconscious; it names the works of Andrew Jackson Davis and Stainton Moses's *Spirit Teachings* as the best known among Spiritualists.[6] Spiritist mediums also often work through automatic writing (see above; compare [Spiritism](https://spiritfold.com/Spiritism)).

### In Australian Spiritualism

Besides Deakin's book (see below), the Spiritualists National Union of WA today says that in trance, or "control", a medium may speak or do automatic writing,[11] and the Victorian Spiritualists' Union's beginners' course includes inspirational writing and speaking.[12] J. Gordon Melton describes the development class as one of the forms Spiritualism created for training mediumistic abilities; [meditation](https://spiritfold.com/Meditation) is basic to it, while other methods vary from one medium to another.[13]

### A Spiritualist perspective

Spiritualists regard automatic writing as one of the ways a spirit may work through a medium, and it has given the movement some of its best-known books, as described above. A Spiritualist teacher would treat it with respect and sober judgement. The question of where the writing comes from has never been settled, and an honest writer accepts that the mind can play a part. What comes through should be weighed on its merits, for its quality and any evidence it offers, and not accepted simply because it arrived by an unusual route.

Good practice follows from that. It is best developed under an experienced teacher in a settled circle, not practised alone at length by beginners. The writer keeps their own judgement, as experienced practitioners have described, and stops if the communication feels unpleasant. Writings should never be used to frighten, predict or direct other people. Anyone who finds the practice unsettling, or feels they are losing control of it, should stop and talk it over with their teacher, and see their doctor if they are distressed.

## Automatic writing in Australia

In Melbourne in 1877, the young Alfred Deakin, later Prime Minister, published *A New Pilgrim's Progress*, which was presented as "given by John Bunyan" through "an impressional writing medium", identified in library catalogues as Deakin himself.[9][14] Deakin was prominent in the Spiritualist movement in his youth, attending séances and testing phenomena,[15] and in 1877 he was made president of the Victorian Association of Spiritualists.[16]

Raynor Johnson, Master of Queen's College in Melbourne, who wrote on spiritual and religious subjects, met Geraldine Cummins in England in 1953. He later received about twenty of her scripts said to come from his late mentor, the Australian writer Ambrose Pratt, and they were the main personal experience that convinced him of survival after death. The *Psi Encyclopedia* notes that Pratt was well known, so Cummins may have picked up details about him from her reading.[7]

## Safety and good practice

- The *Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology* calls automatic writing both a common form of mediumship and a frequent source of self-deception, and argues that because most scripts appear to come from the writer's own subconscious, the standard of evidence for judging them should be very strict.[6]
- Some early accounts describe the arm being seized by violent movements the writer could not stop. Stainton Moses wrote that his hand was bruised and unusable for some days after his first experience.[6]
- Spiritualist codes of conduct apply to writing mediums as to others. The NSAC Code of Ethics asks its mediums to represent facts truthfully, to make only realistic statements about what mediumship can do, not to exploit the trust or dependency of others, and to avoid statements likely to play on people's fears or emotions.[17]

## Related modalities

- [Mediumship](https://spiritfold.com/Mediumship)
- [Trance mediumship](https://spiritfold.com/Trance_mediumship)
- [Channelling](https://spiritfold.com/Channelling)
- [Spirit art](https://spiritfold.com/Spirit_art)
- [Spiritism](https://spiritfold.com/Spiritism)

## References

1. "The Cross-Correspondences". *[Psi Encyclopedia](https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/cross-correspondences)*. London: Society for Psychical Research (accessed 11 October 2026).
2. Gillen, Paul. *[The Spiritualists: Gnosis and Ideology](https://figshare.mq.edu.au/articles/thesis/The_spiritualists_gnosis_and_ideology/19431146/1)*. PhD thesis, School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University, November 1981 (accessed 11 October 2026).
3. Peres, J. F., A. Moreira-Almeida, L. Caixeta, F. Leão and A. Newberg. "Neuroimaging during trance state: a contribution to the study of dissociation". *PLoS One* 7, no. 11 (2012): e49360. [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049360](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049360). Abstract read via [Europe PMC](https://europepmc.org/article/MED/23166648) (accessed 11 October 2026).
4. National Spiritualist Association of Churches. ["Spiritualism Explained"](https://nsac.org/spiritualism-explained/). NSAC, © 2026 (accessed 12 October 2026).
5. Rooney, J. "'Words of Healing': The Literature of Automatic Writing as Treatment and Prescription in the Victorian Age". *Literature and Medicine* 39, no. 1 (2021): 108–132. [doi:10.1353/lm.2021.0009](https://doi.org/10.1353/lm.2021.0009). Abstract read via [Europe PMC](https://europepmc.org/article/MED/34176814) (accessed 11 October 2026).
6. ["Automatic Writing"](https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/automatic-writing). *Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology*, 5th ed. (Gale, 2001), via Encyclopedia.com (accessed 12 October 2026).
7. "Geraldine Cummins". *[Psi Encyclopedia](https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/geraldine-cummins)*. London: Society for Psychical Research (accessed 11 October 2026).
8. Engler, Steven. ["Kardecism"](https://wrldrels.org/?p=20209). World Religions and Spirituality Project, 6 April 2022 (accessed 11 October 2026).
9. Deakin University Library. [*A New Pilgrim's Progress* (1877)](https://dro.deakin.edu.au/articles/book/A_new_Pilgrim_s_progress/21111256), catalogue record, Alfred Deakin Collection (accessed 11 October 2026).
10. Cardeña, E., L. Lindström, P. Goldin, D. van Westen and J. Mårtensson. "A neurophenomenological fMRI study of a spontaneous automatic writer and a hypnotic cohort". *Brain and Cognition* 170 (2023): 106060. [doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2023.106060](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2023.106060). Abstract read via [Europe PMC](https://europepmc.org/article/MED/37421816) (accessed 11 October 2026).
11. Spiritualists National Union of WA. ["About Us"](https://www.snuwa.org.au/about/) (no date shown; accessed 12 October 2026).
12. Victorian Spiritualists' Union. ["Courses"](https://www.vsu.org.au/courses) (no date shown; accessed 12 October 2026).
13. Melton, J. Gordon. ["Western Esoteric Family II: Spiritualism & New Age"](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/western-esoteric-family-ii-spiritualism-new-age). *Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions* (Gale), via Encyclopedia.com (accessed 12 October 2026).
14. Reason in Revolt. [Deakin, Alfred, *A New Pilgrim's Progress* (Melbourne: Terry, 1877)](https://reasoninrevolt.net.au/biogs/E000556b.htm), digitised from a State Library Victoria copy (accessed 11 October 2026).
15. Norris, R. ["Deakin, Alfred (1856–1919)"](https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/deakin-alfred-5927). *Australian Dictionary of Biography*, volume 8. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1981 (accessed 11 October 2026).
16. Museum of Australian Democracy. ["Alfred Deakin and the divine"](https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/alfred-deakin-and-the-divine/), 12 March 2014 (accessed 11 October 2026).
17. National Spiritualist Association of Churches. [*NSAC Code of Ethics*](https://nsac.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/NSAC_Code_of_Ethics_18.pdf). Approved April 2018, adopted October 2018 (accessed 12 October 2026).

## Further reading

- "The Cross-Correspondences". *[Psi Encyclopedia](https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/cross-correspondences)*. Society for Psychical Research.
- "Geraldine Cummins". *[Psi Encyclopedia](https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/geraldine-cummins)*. Society for Psychical Research.
- Deakin, Alfred. *[A New Pilgrim's Progress](https://dro.deakin.edu.au/articles/book/A_new_Pilgrim_s_progress/21111256)*. Melbourne: Terry, 1877.