Automatic Writing: Surrealist Techniques and Spirit Communication

BY NICOLE LAU

Automatic writing—writing without conscious control, letting the hand move freely across the page—has two distinct lineages that converge on the same practice: Surrealist artists using it to access the unconscious, and Spiritualist mediums using it to channel the dead. Both bypass the rational mind, both surrender conscious control, both treat the hand as instrument of forces beyond the ego. André Breton and the Surrealists practiced écriture automatique to liberate language from reason's constraints, to tap the wellspring of the unconscious, to create poetry that revealed hidden truths. Spiritualists used automatic writing to receive messages from spirits, to communicate with the deceased, to prove the soul's survival after death. Whether you believe the source is the unconscious or spirits, the technique is the same: silence the conscious mind, let the hand move, trust what emerges. Automatic writing is technology for accessing the Other—whatever lies beyond ordinary consciousness, whether you call it the unconscious, the collective unconscious, or the spirit world.

Surrealist Automatism: Liberating the Unconscious

André Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) defined Surrealism as:

"Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express—verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner—the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern."

The Surrealist method:

Write as fast as possible: Don't let the conscious mind catch up, don't pause to think

Don't correct or censor: Accept whatever comes, no matter how strange or inappropriate

Bypass reason: The rational mind is the enemy—silence it through speed

No aesthetic judgment: Don't evaluate as you write—that's the conscious mind interfering

Trust the unconscious: It has its own logic, its own truth, its own beauty

What automatic writing accesses:

• Repressed material: What consciousness has censored or forgotten
• The shadow: Dark, rejected aspects of the psyche
• Archetypal images: Universal symbols from the collective unconscious
• Authentic desire: What you really want, beneath social conditioning
• Poetic truth: Meaning that emerges from association, not logic

Breton and Soupault: The Magnetic Fields

The first Surrealist automatic text was Les Champs Magnétiques (The Magnetic Fields, 1919) by André Breton and Philippe Soupault.

They wrote:

• In a state of semi-trance
• As fast as possible
• Without planning or revision
• Allowing free association to guide them
• Accepting whatever emerged

The result: dreamlike, hallucinatory prose-poems that don't follow rational narrative but create their own surreal logic.

Example passage (translated):

"Prisoners of drops of water, we are only perpetual animals. We run about in the towns without noise and the enchanted posters no longer touch us. What's the use of these great fragile enthusiasms, these dried-up joys? We know nothing but the dead stars; we gaze at their faces and we breathe in vain."

This is the unconscious speaking—not nonsense but a different kind of sense, poetic rather than logical, associative rather than linear.

Spiritualist Automatic Writing: Channeling the Dead

While Surrealists were accessing the unconscious, Spiritualists were channeling spirits. The practice looked identical but the interpretation differed:

The medium enters trance: Relaxed, receptive, consciousness dimmed

The hand begins to move: Without conscious direction, seemingly on its own

Messages appear: Often in handwriting different from the medium's

Spirits identify themselves: Claiming to be deceased relatives, famous figures, or guides

Information is revealed: Sometimes verifiable facts the medium couldn't have known

Famous cases:

Pearl Curran and Patience Worth: Curran, a St. Louis housewife, channeled "Patience Worth," claiming to be a 17th-century Englishwoman, who dictated novels, poems, and plays through automatic writing

Hélène Smith: Swiss medium who channeled messages in "Martian language" and claimed past lives on Mars

W.B. Yeats and Georgie: Yeats' wife channeled spirits who provided the material for A Vision

The Spiritualist interpretation: the hand is moved by discarnate entities, the unconscious is actually the spirit world, what seems like imagination is actual communication with the dead.

The Ouija Board: Collective Automatic Writing

The Ouija board (or talking board) is automatic writing made social—multiple people place fingers on a planchette that moves across a board spelling out messages.

How it works (psychologically):

Ideomotor effect: Unconscious muscle movements guided by unconscious thoughts

Collective unconscious: The group's shared expectations and desires guide the planchette

Dissociation: No one feels responsible for the movement—it seems external

How it works (spiritually):

Spirit communication: Entities use the participants' energy to move the planchette

Egregore: The group creates a thought-form that takes on independent existence

Portal: The board opens a doorway for spirits to communicate

Whether psychological or spiritual, the Ouija board demonstrates: when conscious control is surrendered, something else speaks.

The Unconscious vs. Spirits: Same Phenomenon, Different Interpretation

Automatic writing reveals a fundamental ambiguity: Is the source internal (unconscious) or external (spirits)?

The psychological view:

• The unconscious contains repressed material, archetypal patterns, autonomous complexes
• These can seem like separate entities but are aspects of the psyche
• "Spirits" are projections, personifications of unconscious content
• Automatic writing accesses the unconscious, not the dead

The spiritualist view:

• Consciousness survives death and can communicate with the living
• Mediums are sensitive to these communications
• The unconscious is actually the spirit world—what psychology calls internal is actually external
• Automatic writing is literal spirit communication

The pragmatic view:

• It doesn't matter which interpretation is correct
• The technique works either way
• Whether unconscious or spirits, automatic writing accesses wisdom beyond the ego
• Use the interpretation that's most helpful

Julia Cameron's Morning Pages: Automatic Writing as Practice

Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way popularized "morning pages"—three pages of longhand writing, first thing in the morning, stream of consciousness, no editing.

Morning pages are:

Automatic writing domesticated: The Surrealist technique made safe and practical

Clearing the channel: Dumping the mental clutter to access creativity

Accessing the unconscious: Before the conscious mind fully wakes, the unconscious speaks more freely

Daily practice: Not occasional trance but regular discipline

What morning pages do:

• Bypass the inner critic
• Access authentic feelings and desires
• Solve problems the conscious mind can't solve
• Generate creative ideas
• Process emotions and experiences

Cameron's genius: taking the mystical practice of automatic writing and making it accessible, practical, daily.

Dangers and Precautions: When the Unconscious Overwhelms

Automatic writing is not without risks:

Psychological flooding: Repressed material can emerge too fast, overwhelming the ego

Dissociation: Losing the boundary between self and other, conscious and unconscious

Obsession: Becoming addicted to the trance state, preferring it to ordinary consciousness

Spiritual inflation: Believing you're channeling profound wisdom when it's just unconscious noise

Negative entities: If you believe in spirits, you must accept that not all are benevolent

Precautions:

Ground yourself: Return to ordinary consciousness after the practice

Maintain boundaries: You're accessing the unconscious, not dissolving into it

Discernment: Not everything that emerges is wise or true—evaluate it consciously

Integration: The point is to bring unconscious material into consciousness, not to stay in trance

Protection: If working spiritually, use protective rituals, set boundaries, invoke guidance

Practical Applications: Automatic Writing Practice

How to practice automatic writing:

Set a time limit: 10-20 minutes—enough to bypass the conscious mind, not so long you dissociate

Write by hand: The physical act of writing engages the body, creates a different connection to the unconscious than typing

Write fast: Don't pause, don't think, don't let the conscious mind catch up

Don't edit: Accept whatever comes—spelling, grammar, sense don't matter

Don't read immediately: Wait hours or days before reading what you wrote—create distance

Look for patterns: Recurring images, themes, phrases—these are messages from the unconscious

Integrate consciously: What emerged? What does it mean? How does it apply to your life?

The Eternal Flow

Automatic writing continues—in morning pages, in Surrealist experiments, in spiritualist séances, in therapeutic practices. The technique persists because it works: it accesses something beyond the ego, whether you call it the unconscious, the collective unconscious, or the spirit world.

The hand still moves without conscious direction. The words still flow from somewhere beyond thought. The unconscious still speaks when the conscious mind is silenced. And writers still discover that the fastest way to truth is to stop trying to control it.

Silence the mind. Let the hand move. Trust what emerges. Write automatically.