e hypnotic trance
could be subsequently reproduced through the handwriting, whilst the
attention of the subject was fully employed in conversing or reading aloud;
or an arithmetical problem which had been set during the trance could be
worked out under similar conditions without the apparent consciousness of
the subject.

Automatic writing for the most part, no doubt, brings to the surface only
the debris of lapsed memories and half-formed impressions which have never
reached the focus of consciousness--the stuff that dreams are made of. But
there are indications in some cases of something more than this. In some
spontaneous instances the writing produces anagrams, puns, nonsense verses
and occasional blasphemies or obscenities; and otherwise exhibits
characteristics markedly divergent from those of the normal consciousness.
In the well-known case recorded by Th. Flournoy (_Des Indes a la planete
Mars_) the automatist produced writing in an unknown character, which
purported to be the Martian language. The writing generally resembles the
ordinary handwriting of the agent, but there are sometimes marked
differences, and the same automatist may employ two or three distinct
handwritings. Occasionally imitations are produced of the handwriting of
other persons, living or dead. Not infrequently the writing is reversed, so
that it can be read only in a looking-glass (_Spiegelschrift_); the ability
to produce such writing is often associated with the liability to
spontaneous somnambulism. The hand and arm are often insensible in the act
of writing. There are some cases on record in which the automatist has
seemed to guide his hand not by sight, but by some special extension of the
muscular sense (Carpenter, _Mental Physiology_, s. 128; W. James,
_Proceedings American S.P.R_. p. 554).

Automatic writing frequently exhibits indications of telepathy. The most
remarkable series of automatic writings recorded in this connexion are
those executed by the American medium, Mrs Piper, in a state of trance
(_Proceedings S.P.R._). These writings appear to exhibit remarkable
telepathic powers, and are thought by some to indicate communication with
the spirits of the dead.

[v.03 p.0048] The opportunities afforded by automatic writing for
communicating with subconscious strata of the personality have been made
use of by Pierre Janet and others in cases of hystero-epilepsy, and other
forms of dissociation of consciousness. A patient in an