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Automatic Writing

The book that I'm taking these photos from is a 240-page exercise book. I have two others, filled with even more "creative" page arrangements. The first book (which I called The Book) has the most... shall we say "normal", more or less structured writing. In the next book (which I called The Next Book) I've cut holes in the paper, folded pieces of the page over, or just doodled. I'm not sure what happened to my third book (Another Book) but I don't seem to still have it. I do still have the fourth (Toccata And Book). This covers a period from late 1989 to the end of 1993. In places it gets more straightforward and traditionally journal-like, in others it gets rather weird.

But also remember that we're talking about automatic writing, not drawing. There are letters and words and sentences. I've also done automatic drawing, where I let the pen just do whatever, but that's not the same thing.
 
And now, a personal question, Arthwollipot, but do you think you were you mentally unwell when writing this stuff?
 
Orphia Nay said:
And now, a personal question, Arthwollipot, but do you think you were you mentally unwell when writing this stuff?
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It's pretty clear that I've been neurodivergent all my life, at least. But at this time not more than background mental unwellness. I was smoking some pot, but it was before that became chronic.
 
arthwollipot said:
It's pretty clear that I've been neurodivergent all my life, at least. But at this time not more than background mental unwellness. I was smoking some pot, but it was before that became chronic.
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Thanks for replying. Was the automatic writing done during your religious fundamentalist phase?
 
arthwollipot said:
The trick is that you actually have to start writing. It won't happen without your conscious volition. You can't just sit there and wait for something other than you to move your hand. Just don't think about what you're writing. Don't go into it intending to write anything in particular, just write words. If no words come, write scribbles.

https://imgur.com/AdeuegC
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Oh. That's ...kind of different, than how I'd imagined it. Much less extravagant, much more, ...meh? (Which is cool, I'd only had a hazy idea of this. I'd kind of imagined the "automatic" part was a bit more literal. As things stand, this is just giving vent to what's in your mind, trying not to overtly filter it via your thought processes as far as you can. That's ...straightforward enough.)

But in that case: What's even the point of looking for patterns? Let's say we did find patterns in someone's Automatic Writing, beyond Orphia Nay's Forer and Barnum, so what? If you did put in all of Shakespeare, then maybe you've simply got an eidetic memory, or at least your subconscious does. And if you did put in Shakespeare-esque but original work, then that would mean that you're a cool creative guy, and have tapped into a cool technique to unleash your creativity: but beyond that, what? ...That is: I can see how something like this might, perhaps, be useful in therapy, or maybe in creative writing sessions, but I'm at a loss what any pattern we might find there, even if shown to be 'true' patterns, would prove, as far as the paranormal. It all seems straightforward enough, right?


arthwollipot said:
No, after. That was around 1986-87 or so.
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Why go to the trouble of doing all of that, then? If you hadn't been religious at that point in time, that is? (To the extent you might be comfortable sharing on a public forum!)
 
Myriad said:
The difference is, when you're automatic driving you're not conscious of doing it. If you become aware of doing it, you don't think "oh weird it's like my hands are moving the steering wheel by themselves; let's watch and see how that's going to work out." If you become aware of it, you're not doing it any more. At least, as far as I've experienced or been told. But also from what I've been told, I think automatic writing is more like my SF con experience, being aware it's happening (possibly, even, willing it to continue happening) but not being aware of directing what's being written.
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That's ...weird? Outside of pot, and the like, I suppose it's explained by the lack of sleep, that you mentioned.

But different, yes. Very different than the more straightforward thing @arthwollipot describes, in his post that I responded to just now.
 
Myriad is describing "flow" where you do the thing without consciously thinking about it. I often find myself in a flow state while swordfighting, especially against a good opponent.

While I was writing, I was conscious that I was writing and what the words were. I was simply not premeditating the words - they would come spontaneously, without forethought.

And to answer your other question, I was doing it to pass the time. I had a job at the time which consisted of starting a thing going, then waiting several minutes for it to finish, during which I had nothing else to do. And I would be doing this repeatedly throughout the day. While the thing was running, I would pick up the pen and just start writing.
 
Ah, I don't know. Flow, I'd say, is a third thing, different from both these. Yep, your sword fighting, sure. I'd say I've encountered it when running, when working out, even in the course of something as prosaic as working (on particularly involved research, sometimes); and most often when meditating. I don't know that you can aim for flow, but you know it when you've got it.

And again, the automatic writing, sure, no deliberate premeditation, but given the writing itself was deliberate, again, I don't see what a pattern, even if found beyond Barnum etc, might prove, beyond something completely straightforward. (That is, I'm now unclear why the hoohaa over Automatic Writing. And there is hoohaa, not in your case, but in theistic and woo-ridden circles there is. Might they do it any differently than you, then? I don't know!)

...And cool, your reasons for doing this. Just experimentation, apparently, and passing the time. Was wondering, is all.
 
Myriad said:
I never seriously attempted automatic writing, and never did it by accident. But I did have an analogous experience once, of seeming to merely watch as my hands carried out a wiring task without my consciously directing them. The task was conceptually simple (adding small battery-powered "glowing eyes" to a friend's Nazgul costume headpiece at an SF con) but involved many different steps and tools (stripping wires, soldering connections, heat shrink insulation, securing the lights and batteries in place and so forth). Due to other things of great importance (to me) going on at the con, I'd gone without sleep for several days. Fortunately the task was one I could (almost) literally do in my sleep!

I interpret the experience as a state of dissociation between the observing-and-recording and the doing-wiring-with-my-hands portions of my sleep-deprived brain. I suspect "automatic driving" (not in the sense of the vehicle's transmission) is far more common, but I avoid that as it seems unacceptably dangerous.
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I had an 'automatic driving' incident a couple of weeks ago, I was on a main road (UK so driving on left) with side roads coming up first on the right and a few yards later on the left, both of which I had priority over. A little way ahead of me were two cars driving close, but it wasn't quite tailgating, a cyclist coming toward not quite at the left hand side road and a car waiting to pull out from the right one. The cyclist reached the left hand side road just as the first car got there too and swerved straight between the two cars to turn into it, it was an insane move, I was sure I was going to witness an accident (somehow the cyclist made it through the gap, but he must have cleared by centimeters) but for a second my conscious attention was entirely on the road directly in front of me. At this moment apparently without my knowing violation my hands jerked the steering wheel to the left, and it was only as that manoeuvre prevented me hitting the car which had pulled out of the side road to my right without checking the main road was clear.
 
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