Direct Writing
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
A term used in spiritualism for spirit writing which is produced directly, and not by the hand of a medium, or through a mechanical contrivance such as a psychograph or planchette.. The best known form of direct writing is that made popular by the mediums Slade and Eglinton-slate-writing (q.v.) But the spirits are not dependent solely on prepared materials, but can produce direct writing anywhere, and under any circumstances. Thus during a poltergeist disturbance at Stratford, Conn., in 1850-51, direct writing was found on turnips which sprang apparently from nowhere. An unfinished letter left for a few moments would be found completed in a different hand, though during the interval it might have been in-. accessible to any normal agency. Direct writing may also be produced at spiritualistic séances, either by means of slate-writing, or by putting scraps of paper and pencil into a sealed drawer or a closed box. A sound as of writing will shortly be heard, and on the paper being withdrawn it will be found to contain some sort of message from the spirit world. Experiments on these lines were carried out by a noted spiritualist, Baron de Guldenstubbé, in 1856. Paper and pencil he locked in a small box, the key of which he carried about with him. At the end of thirteen days he found some writing on the paper; and on that same day the experiment was repeatedly performed, each time with success. Another method he adopted was to visit galleries, churches, and other public places, and to leave writing materials on the pedestals of statues, on tombs, and so on. In this way he obtained writing in English, French, German, Latin, Greek, and other languages purporting to come from Plato, Cicero, St. Paul, Juvenal, Spencer, and Mary Stuart. The Baron was accompanied on these expeditions by the Comte d'Ourches and others of his friends, while on one occasion a medium is mentioned as being present. It is probable, indeed, that a medium was essential to these spirit performances; for, though the medium's physical organism is not used as an agent, the writings generally take place in the vicinity of one gifted with supernormal faculties. Not only is legible hand-writing produced in this way; sometimes mysterious hieroglyphs are inscribed, which can only be deciphered
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When the Encyclopaedia of Occultism described this in 1920 it treated direct writing as a genuine phenomenon needing only the nearby presence of someone "gifted with supernormal faculties." By then the technique had already been badly damaged: Henry Slade was prosecuted in London in 1876 after Ray Lankester seized a slate bearing a message written before the sitting had begun, and in 1886 S. J. Davey, working with Richard Hodgson for the Society for Psychical Research, reproduced Eglinton-style slate-writing as straightforward conjuring, then published sitters' sincere but wildly inaccurate accounts of what they thought they had seen. Slate-writing died out with the sealed slates and locked boxes that made it possible, and is now discussed almost entirely as a case study in fraud and in the unreliability of eyewitness testimony. The Stratford, Connecticut disturbances of 1850-51, cited here as evidence, are likewise remembered as an early poltergeist case centred on adolescents in the Phelps household rather than as a documented event.
Written for this edition, 2026.