What is Automatic Writing?

Last Updated on February 26, 2022 by Avia

When you think of automatic writing, what comes to your mind? A lot of people might be curious about it but may not know the difference between automatic writing and everyday writing. Automatic writing is not about holding the pen and letting your hand move by itself. It is actually a spiritual practice that helps you channel your inner self and tap into the soul.

Of course, automatic writing is different from everyday writing. It’s not like writing in a diary, although you can keep a book of automatic writings you’ve done over time. Private journals are all about expressing your thoughts and ideas and can certainly be a form of communication with your deeper self. However, that’s not truly automatic writing.  So, in this article, we are going to explore a few characteristics that make automating so unique and how it can be incredibly beneficial for spiritual growth.

What is Automatic Writing?

Also known as psychography, automatic writing is used to channel spirit through writing by hand. It is often performed in conjunction with meditation and other spiritual practices. If you feel stressed or misled, automatic writing can help you get balanced, centered, and communicate spiritually.

On the other hand, everyday writing can be anything from composing an essay to business correspondence. Students practice this a lot, quite often feeling tired from such tasks. As a result, they may buy an essay or find alternative ways to complete their assignments.   

Conversely, automatic writing is all about you. No other person can contribute to this. Furthermore, you’re not writing to present your work to a professor, boss, or anyone else. This, in itself, is a freeing experience, and that’s the whole point. You’ve got to feel wholly liberated and “in the zone” in order to achieve a successful automatic writing session.

Why Would You Want to Practice Automatic Writing?

As a writer, practicing psychography was a natural step and actually helped me improve my writing game on a more energetic, spiritual level.  As an intuitive-empath, this type of spiritual practice also came naturally and helped tremendously with strengthening my intuitive skills. Finally, as a certified medium, I found automatic writing took me over the top when connecting to spirits and entities on the other side of physical life. 

Those are my reasons for practicing psychography. Here are a few reasons you might be interested in trying or pursuing automatic writing.

• It can liberate you from the analytical mind, thus freeing you to get in a more soulful, mindful place to create, connect and communicate.
• Automatic writing can help you connect with your spirit guides, angel guides, animal totems and even with people who have crossed into non-physical (passed on).
• It allows you to channel your deeper self where your soul is speaking through you.
• Automatic writing sets you free. You don’t have to think about rules, structure, or form. Instead, you just let it go and write about anything regardless of the direction it takes you.
• Psychography helps improve and develop your psychic perception and intuition.
• It can reveal insights that bubble up through your subconscious mind that your conscious mind might have never perceived or even considered.
• Because automatic writing accesses the subconscious mind, it can be a tool that helps you discover unorthodox solutions to problems.
• It can expose wisdom that can help you with direction and guidance on your spiritual journey and your life path.

How to Do Automatic Writing

I get so tickled when I hear spiritual practitioners suggest stuff like wearing sequined robes, playing twinkly music, buying a special pen or tablet before sitting down to an automatic writing session.  Sure, you can do that if it floats your boat.  In fact, making automatic writing a ritual is a powerful way to ensure you have a successful session.  However, it’s not about the pen, or what you wear, or what you’re writing on.  It’s about the objective, which is communicating with your soul and/or connecting to the other side of physical, mundane life.

That said, there are a few guidelines or tips that will help your automatic writing experiences be more effective and effortless.  Here are a few tricks I’ve learned over the years of practicing psychography.

Get Comfortable

You cannot set yourself to channeled writing if you don’t feel comfortable. It’s not only about being physically well-positioned. It’s about your peace of mind and spiritual comfort. To achieve the best result, try to set the right atmosphere by finding a quiet place. You can do it in nature if you prefer. The point is to surround yourself with peace and security.

Meditate (or at least get mindful)

For a successful automatic writing session think about getting in a meditative state. Meditation allows your brain to unwind and can get you into alpha and theta waves, which is conducive to getting results and spiritual information.  If you don’t meditate, at least take a moment to breathe deeply, delve into your inner self and connect with your spiritual guides.  Doing this helps broaden your mind and let go of control.

Set the Stage

Yes, I know I poo-pooed making a big fuss about setting up ambiance during a psychography session.  However, if lighting a candle helps set the mood for spirit communication, then do it.  The same goes with smudging, or burning incense.  Additionally, if relaxing music helps you step out of the analytical, conscious mind – the go for it.

Have The Right Equipment

You don’t need any special equipment.  However, you might have better results if you use a yellow pad of paper. At least, that’s what I was taught when I was trained to become a certified medium.  Apparently, yellow is a stimulating color.  It encourages clearer communication between your spirit and energies in the non-physical, non-local realms.

Interestingly, the color yellow is associated with the solar plexus chakra (Manipura). This is chakra is the seat of personal power and awareness.  Furthermore, yellow is associated with the energy of the sun.  Symbolically, that encourages a dawning of new perception, growth, and vitality. Neat, huh?

Oh, and writing utensils? You don’t need a Montblanc pen, but you do need a writing utensil that isn’t going to clog or impede your writing flow.  I had better luck in my automatic writing sessions when I used a pencil. That could be because I prefer pencils, but I like to think the wood was more natural and helped me stay grounded while writing with the spirits.

Putting it All Together

Now you’ve got all your ducks in a row – so how do you start? It’s pretty simple.  In a relaxed, meditative state, close your eyes with your writing tool and paper in front of you. 

Set an intention if you want – like a purpose to connect with an ancestor or your animal totem. Think of the things that you were hoping to find out. Set your expectations and goals for the automatic writing session. Then free your mind of these expectations and let them go. Accept whatever comes with gratitude and appreciation. This is the best way to benefit from this activity.

Then, in a loose, trance-like, free-associative state, begin to write.  Do not focus on actual words.  You should feel a distinct disconnection between your thinking mind between your spirit, who is being channeled with your writing.  It’s almost like feeling disembodied. 

You may wind up with a bunch of squiggles. That’s totally cool.  You might come up with the same word written repeatedly on the paper. That’s okay too.  The point here is that you simply cannot do automatic writing wrong.  There is no right way or any set rules.  That’s the beauty of it.

How to Interpret Your Writings

This is the tricky bit about automatic writing. It can be hard to objectively look at the outcome of a writing trance. I mean, how can you make sense of random words or doodlies? You’ll have to view the outcomes of your automatic writing the same way you might stand back and interpret a piece of art. 

That is to say, get perspective. Contemplate potential meanings in your writings. Try to make out patterns. Softly observe, and see if you can make out images in the random markings. Then, compare your observations with the intention you set. For instance, if you meant to connect to one of your spirit guides, explore your writings for answers.  With patience, and a relaxed, creative perception you will begin to see answers and communications.

Can I Automatically Write on a Computer?

You can, and I’ve known people who have had great success from this.  The key is to stay in that fuzzy, dissociative, suspended state of mind.  It’s that liminal space (the space in between thought) you need to attain that allows you to channel spirit communications. 

At any rate, my experience with auto writing on the computer has been so-so.  Maybe it’s because it feels like a machine to me, and I also associate the keyboard with my occupation.  For me, automatic writing with a pen on paper feels more organic so it renders better results for me.  Having said that, I’d say if you want to try psychography on the keyboard – knock yourself out! Give it a try, and see what happens!

Do You Have to Be Psychic?

In varying degrees, we are all psychic.  Ergo, everybody can practice automatic writing.  Folks with stronger psychic perception or who have been developing their intuition for a long time will likely have better outcomes with psychography than beginners.  But that’s true with anything.  If you’re new at something, inexperienced, or still developing – then you gotta take baby steps before you run a marathon. 

This brings me to my next point. Practice makes perfect.  Err, well, not perfect…more like perfectly imperfect.  Automatic writing is a free-associative practice in letting go of control.  It’s not going to be perfect and that’s the whole point. Your results might not even be neat and pretty. You might come out of your writing trance with a big fat mess of nonsense. The point is to keep at it. The more you practice, the more insights and better understanding will come.

What’s Are Some Benefits of Automatic Writing?

Writing benefits everyone in a myriad of ways. Automatic writing, however, stimulates right-brain activity. It fuels creativity and helps your soul speak. It frees your mind from rules and dogmas and can potentially offer you guidance in your everyday life.

Also, the activity helps you retrieve information that is hidden deep inside your subconscious. It frees you from the fear of not knowing and lets you see a bigger picture.  Lastly, automatic writing can connect you with your spirit guides, or with those who have crossed to the other side. These entities can then communicate with you offering your guidance or wisdom through your automatic writing communiqués.

What’s the Challenge?

A person who is used to everyday or academic writing may find the automatic approach challenging. That’s mostly because of the need for control developed throughout regular practices. After all, we all need to come back and reread the text to give it a proper shape – it’s all about structure and formatting with everyday writing or writing for conventional purposes.

Also, when writing, we often try to find approval. We mostly use well-established constructions and commonly accepted words trying to fit in what we know as standards. In turn, our conventional writing can be more accepted or readable by others.

Automatic writing doesn’t require any of that stuff. Accept your automatic writing as it is, whatever comes. Do not go back and try to fix anything, even if it sounds or looks bizarre.

There is no such thing as structure or approval from others when it comes to automatic writing. It relies on the principle that if you wrote it at that very moment, you needed to release it or convey it. So, try to suspend formalities and fears and set yourself free. That will help your writing evolve.

Takeaway About Automatic Writing

If you are new to meditation or spiritual practices you might find automatic writing a powerful way to connect with your inner self, soul self, divine self, or subconscious (whatever you call that wiser, deeper, soul within you).  Alternatively, if you’re already a richly spiritual practitioner, you might augment your journey with automatic writing as a perfect way to dive deeply into your soul knowing and find the answers you have been looking for.

If you feel skeptical about all these ideas, automatic writing might just help broaden your horizons. To be sure, automatic writing is different from everyday writing with all those rules and such.  On the contrary, psychography fosters your creativity and opens up new perspectives. So, don’t hesitate to try it! As always, thanks for reading!

Mighty brightly,

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