Automatic Writing and Thought Reading.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 419, 19 October 1889, Page 3

Automatic Writing and Thought Reading.

Automatic writing forms paVt of a class o^ movements that have now for a long time been the subject of inquiry in France, and whicti may be described under the ereneral name of unconscious movements produced by ideas. As a result of numerous observations it is now a well-known fact that with excitable individuals every idea produces in the body unconscious movements, which at times are so precise and clear that by - registering them we are able to guess at the person's thoughts. The method of the experiment is frequently the following. The individual is asked to think of a word, a number, or of any object whatsoever, and at the same time a pen is thrust into his hand, with the assurance that Ms thoughts will be divined. It frequently happens then that the person, although not feeling any movement in his hand, will spontaneously write the word that he has thought of. This experiment affords an elementary instance of the operation known as thought reading, and it can reasonably be understood how any clever experimentalist may be able to dispense with the use of the pen, and to guess at a man's thoughts by simple contact with the hand. As iright be readily expected, such movements provoked by ideas are produced in hysterical persons with the greatest facility. When the penholder is placed in the hand of an anaesthetic subject, the automatic writing will be produced without his knowledge,, ( and, the most secret thoughts of the patient may be learned. A careful study of these movements will, says the 'Open Court' (an American weekly paper), further more prove that they are less simple than is generally supposed. They are no mere reflex movements produced by ideas. Thfs is proved by the fact thafc the manner in which the idea is expressed depends upon the attitude given to the anaesthetic hand. Thus the subject is asked to think of the number 3. If he holds a pen in his hand he will write the figure 3. If he holds no pen, and if before the experiment the fingers of the insensible hand have been shaken, the subject will raife his finger three times ; the same will apply to the wrist or to the movement of any other member. If the subject has a dynamo metei in his hand he will press three distinct times upon this instrument. If the experimentalist himself assumes the initiative by raising the finger of the subject a certain number of times, the finger after having yielded three' times to the impressed movement will stiffen. Automatic writing does nofc only serve to express sensations perceived by the second consciousness ; it is likewise able to express' the thoughts that, this second consciousness spontaneously combines. Hysterical persons have been found who, when a pen was put into their hands and their attention diverted, began to write, unconsciously, entire well-con-nected phrases, recitals, confessions, etc. The principal subject — the one communicated with by word — suspects nothing, and ' does'notsee what his anesthetic hand is doing ; it is bhe second consciousness which employs this mode of expression. .

Haven't you noticed that weak-ririnded people are nearly always headstrong ?