Observations placeholder
Madame d’Esperance - Shadow Land - 12 Automatic writing experiments
Identifier
020719
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
SHADOW LAND OR LIGHT FROM THE OTHER SIDE by Elisabeth d’Esperance(1897)
We had all tried the psychograph with more or less success, but this did not meet all requirements, the process was slow and the writing indistinct. It was suggested that if it were really a spirit who wrote, he could probably use the hand of one of us as well without as with the aid of the psychograph. So the trial was made and one after another we took a pencil in the right hand and invited the spirit to write, we watching curiously for the result.
In several cases we could see how the muscles of the arm and hand twitched, and the convulsive jerks of the fingers that held the pencil. Beyond a few scrawls nothing was forthcoming.
Others who tried did not feel any affection in their hands or arms and soon resigned the pencil.
When it came to my turn I first noticed a tingling, prickling, aching sensation in my arm, as one feels if one strikes one's elbow; then a numb swollen sort of feeling which extended to my finger tips. My hand became quite cold and without sensation, so that I could pinch or nip the flesh without feeling any pain.
After a few minutes the hand began to move slowly and laboriously, imitating the motions of writing; it made repeated attempts to form letters and, after a while, succeeded in writing a few large ill-formed, ill-spelled words. Another attempt resulted in a decided improvement; the sensations in my hand and arm, though not painful, were decidedly unpleasant, so that in spite of my curiosity to see what would come of the writing, I was not sorry to have a stop put to it by the clock warning us that we had been seated the regulation time.
The subsequent meetings were devoted to further experiments of the same kind, and it was not long before my hand became quite an adept in the art of caligraphy, and would write, rapidly and well, whole pages of clearly formed characters, while we were conversing or receiving messages.
We very soon noticed that the handwriting had quite different characteristics, and not only the writing itself but the matter written had a very distinctly marked individuality.