Here is a definition of automatic writing, or spirit writing from the Free Dictionary,

Writing performed without conscious thought or deliberation, typically by means of spontaneous free association or as a medium for spirits or psychic forces.

Automatic writing is the process, or product, of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. It differs from inspired scripture in that in inspired scripture,

The process of inspiration was not a mechanical dictation where the apostles heard a voice and wrote down what they heard. Nor does it mean that they went into some sort of a trance and God wrote through them without their knowledge. Instead, the writers were free to write what they wanted as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In fact, the writings reflect the personality and style of the various writers. Yet, the personality and style of the writers did not degrade the quality or authority of the biblical writing.(source)

Automatic writing is Ouija Board with a pen. Some of the more remarkable things about automatic writing is that the people through which these written products emerge describe a very similar experience. No matter which millennia or decade they participate in their writings, they describe similar sensations, similar feelings, and the same process. Where I quote their descriptions of their own process, I put in bold type the similar phrases they use to describe it.

You would be surprised at how many people have produced written works of novel, poetry, plays and even music by this occult process. It is an old, old practice. I suppose because fascination with the “other side” by pagans is also a constant throughout time. It is a fascination for the Christian, too, but we are fortunate to have THE authoritative and perfect, inerrant, infallible bible. It is God’s revelation of Himself to us, and it in its entirety is profitable for reproof, correction, training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16).

For those without a relationship with God and an inability to understand the bible, they still long for eternity. So they seek it anyway, but unknowingly through satan.

Hildegarde receiving a writing, tentacles from the other side, reaching into her brain

Hildegarde of Bingen was a Catholic mystic. (1098 – 1179). Her visions became important content for the Catholic Church and eventually were accepted as theological works. In one vision she wrote of her process, “And it came to pass … when I was 42 years and 7 months old, that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming… and suddenly I understood of the meaning of expositions of the books…”

You hear the automatic writers use the word “suddenly” quite often.

William Butler Yeats is an infamous occultist, participating in automatic writing for a decade, having been introduced to it by his wife Georgie. His famous poem Second Coming (Slouching Toward Bethlehem) was written in 1919. During the first years of his marriage, he and his wife Georgie experimented with automatic writing, and he and George contacted and were contacted by many spirits and guides they called “Instructors”. The pair also experienced flashing lights, cracking sounds and breaths of warm air as signals of the entity’s presence.

Automatic writer Rudyard Kipling said circa 1915, “My Daemon was with me in the Jungle Books, Kim, and both Puck books and good care I took to walk delicately, lest he should withdraw. I know that he did not because when those books were finished they said so themselves… When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait and obey.”

The main difference between holy inspiration of the bible writers, and occult practice of automatic writing, is that in the former, hard thinking was required. Study, thought, and knowledge was demanded of the men and is still demanded of all Christians today. In Galatians 6:11, Paul wrote,

See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.

Pulpit Commentary says,

Through some cause or other, we know not what the cause was, writing with his own hand was not a welcome employment to him; so far unwelcome that he generally devolved the actual penning of his letters upon an amanuensis, merely authenticating each letter as his own by a postscript added in his own hand (see 2 Thessalonians 3. fin.). Perhaps Philemon forms the only’ exception (see ver. 19), apart from this letter to the Galatians. We may, therefore, imagine the apostle as painfully and laboriously penning one portion after another of the Epistle; often pausing weariedly in the work as he came to the end of each γράμμα, that is, to the end of each section of his argument, each seeming to him a long and toilsome effort. And now at last he exclaims,” Look, what long, laborious performances of handwriting I have achieved in writing to you! And from that learn how deeply I am concerned on your behalf, and how grave your present spiritual peril appears to me to be!” Ordinarily it was only a brief “piece of writing” that he wrote with his own hand; here, long pieces, added one after another with painful effort.

The bible writers prayed, and then used their minds to produce what the Spirit wanted them to produce. Today, preachers, writers, commenters, seminary students, bloggers, and theologians do the same. (Though their words are not inspired). Their minds are completely engaged, because the Spirit transforms the mind. How many times we are urged to think, study, wrestle, renew your mind, do not be double minded but single-minded, etc. See the verses here that speak to the thoughts and mind of a Christian:

93 verses about Thoughts And The Mind

Contemplative prayer is to automatic writing as marijuana is to crack. It is the beginning of a practice that, seemingly benign or innocent, will drag you down to the depths of Sheol and ultimately to death. In contemplative prayer and automatic writing, the directive is the opposite. Rather than engage the mind with the text of the bible, we are told to “Drift, Wait, and Obey.” Clear your mind. Be still. Be quiet. GotQuestions describes the process,

Contemplative prayer begins with “centering prayer,” a meditative practice where the practitioner focuses on a word and repeats that word over and over for the duration of the exercise. The purpose is to clear one’s mind of outside concerns so that God’s voice may be more easily heard. After the centering prayer, the practitioner is to sit still, listen for direct guidance from God, and feel His presence.

In Occult writing, and in Contemplative-meditative prayer (which I mentioned is a precursor for deepening occult activities), the point is to DISengage from the process, free the mind, and let someone or something else take over.

Leaving Catholic Hildegard of Bingen in the 1100s behind, we now shoot up to the 1820s. Joseph Smith received the Book of Mormon from an alleged holy angel named Moroni. In his 2002 book, “Automaticity and the Dictation of the Book of Mormon“, Scot C. Dunn wrote,

“In this essay, automatic writing refers to the ability to write or dictate text in a relatively rapid, seemingly effortless and fluent manner with no sense of control over the content. A consideration of this phenomenon is important for Mormons since a number of authors have asserted that this was the method through which Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon. Such a claim, if correct, can have important implications for the way Latter-day Saints approach their scriptures.” … It is clear that Smith’s translation experience fits comfortably within the larger world of scrying, channeling, and automatic writing.”

“Scriptures”. You see that yet again, as Hildegarde’s writing was taken as theological treatises, Smith’s are also taken for theological treatises, going so far as to call them ‘scriptures’. Just because the heathen senses an other-worldly presence, it does not mean it is a holy presence. The holy presence for the Christian is the Spirit dwelling inside us, a presence we usually cannot feel but know by faith is there. For unsaved people any presence they feel will be an evil, demonic presence.

There is a whole slew of writers throughout the 1900s who channeled their books. You would be surprised at how many. The famous writer, Richard Bach who wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull got his book from channeling an entity through the practice of automatic writing. Bach was influenced by by occultist Jane Roberts,

In late 1963, Roberts and Butts, living in the Elmira, New York area, experimented with a Ouija board as part of Roberts’ research for a book on extra-sensory perception. According to Roberts and Butts, on December 2, 1963 they began to receive coherent messages from a male personality who eventually identified himself as Seth. Soon after, Roberts reported that she was hearing the messages in her head. [inner voice] She began to dictate the messages instead of using the Ouija board, and she eventually abandoned the board. Roberts described the process of writing the Seth books as entering a trance state. She said Seth[the entity] would assume control of her body and speak through her, while her husband wrote down the words she spoke. They referred to such episodes as “readings” or “sessions”. Ten volumes of “Seth books” emerged.

That’s the way it goes. One person gets a piece of writing from the spirits on the other side, and a friend says, ‘hey, that’s cool, I want to do that too’, and the first occultist becomes a mentor to the second. Yeats was a student who became a mentor/teacher in His occult club known as Golden Dawn. Roberts taught Bach. In a circle of friends, a little leaven spoils the whole lump. Occult practices don’t stay politely to one side, but soon permeate the entire sphere of friends, and then soon goes looking for other spheres to pollute.

“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44″Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45″Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:43-45)

Like Hildegarde heard an inner voice, so did Bach. Richard Bach was on a walk one day when he heard an inner voice declare, “Johnathan Livingston Seagull.” There was more. He went home and began writing immediately, furiously, trying to keep up with the flow of words that were coming spontaneously to mind.” He said his book came in one sitting.

In 1923, AJ Russell “authored a book called “For Sinners Only.” One day, he was gardening. He wrote,

“I worked on, thinking of nothing in particular. Suddenly a strange experience came to me. There seemed to be a faint electrical crackling in the clear air about me. There was positively nobody else in the garden, but someone or something spoke to me: a voice that was audible and yet (paradoxically enough) quite soundless. That seems the only way to express what I shall always believe was a supernatural experience. I felt a message impinge on my brain from the air. It alighted softly like the caress of a leaf or the touch of a gentle zephyr. It was accompanied by a sense of exaltation both pleasurable and unforgivable.

Russell’s experience sparked the interest of two ladies in the 1930s, who were curious to try Russell’s recommended method of “Quiet Time”. (AKA Automatic writing). Russell had recommended sitting down with pencil and paper, letting the mind go blank, cleared of thought, and then allowing any entity to impinge a message to it and through the listener writes it down.

The two ladies did so and God Calling was the result. God Calling is yet another book received by an unknown entity from the other side via automatic writing. The people being used for this channeling were unknown, only calling themselves Two Listeners, because they wish to remain anonymous. All we know is that they are women, one Catholic and one Anglican. They sent their manuscript to Russell and so impressed, he published it.

The For Sinners Only book caused the Two Listeners to write God Calling and God Calling caused Sarah Young to do some automatic writing of her own, and Jesus Calling was the result.

“I began reading God Calling, a devotional book written by two anonymous “listeners.” These women practiced waiting quietly in God’s Presence, pencils and paper in hand, recording the messages they received from Him. The messages are written in first person, with “I” designating God…this little paperback became a treasure to me. It dovetailed remarkably well with my longing to live in Jesus’ Presence. (Sarah Young)

Sarah Young wrote the pseudo-Christian book Jesus Calling in exactly the same way as all the other automatic writers. Young describes her process:

“One night I found myself leaving the warmth of our cozy chalet to walk alone in the snowy mountains. I went into a deeply wooded area, feeling vulnerable and awed by cold, moonlit beauty. … Suddenly I felt as if a warm mist enveloped me. I became aware of a lovely Presence, …When I prayed for myself, I was suddenly enveloped in brilliant light and profound peace. Yearning to hear the Lord’s voice isn’t complicated. But it does require some discipline to find a quiet place and to allow some time just listening. Perhaps the hardest part is clearing your mind. With all the noise of life regularly cascading through your mind, it can be hard to hear God’s voice.”

A Course In Miracles is another pseudo-Christian book gotten through automatic writing. Author Dr. Schucman said,

“That was my introduction to the Voice. It made no sound, but seemed to be giving me a kind of rapid, inner dictation which I took down in a shorthand notebook”. And, “I call it a voice, but “a voice” has sounds…or sounds as though it has something to do with hearing. And I didn’t hear anything. I think it’s the sort of hearing that you can’t really describe.” (A Course in Miracles, Schucman)

In 2008, William P. Young wrote a story for his kids about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that his wife encouraged him to publish. It became the runaway bestseller The Shack. Christian apologist Norman Geisler wrote of The Shack‘s origins by quoting from The Shack‘s afterword,

“In the final section of the book titled “The Story behind THE SHACK,” he reveals that the motivation for this story comes from his own struggle to answer many of the difficult questions of life. He claims that his seminary training just did not provide answers to many of his pressing questions. Then one day in 2005, he felt God whisper in his ear that this year was going to be his year of Jubilee and restoration. Out of that experience he felt lead to write The Shack. According to Young, much of the book was formed around personal conversations he had with God, family, and friends (258-259).” Toward the end of writing the book, Mr Young had said that he spent one weekend writing four chapters, and one chapter, came out whole and he never edited it.”

Neale Donald Walsch wrote a trilogy called Conversations with God. In this interview with Walsch, we learn that it is also is a book born from hell through automatic writing.

Interviewer: Since your original “Conversations With God,” has your communication with God continued, and if so, is your experience akin to channeling or automatic writing?
Neale: Yes, although sporadically, the communications do continue. The process is quite simple. First, it must be absolutely quiet because I can’t do this work with anything or anyone distracting me, even in the slightest way. So generally, these communications occur at 4:00 in the morning, when there is no sound of any kind. It’s not channeling or automatic writing, but more like taking dictation. [automatic writing IS dictation & vice-versa]. What it feels like is someone is whispering into my right ear. There is a voice inside my head, a voiceless voice saying things to me, and I write down what’s being said, literally one sentence at a time. It’s as if I were listening to a voice that doesn’t have a voice.

Neale: The feeling is always a physical warmth, and a kind of joy that makes me want to cry. I find myself often moved to tears by what is being written in front of me. Sometimes, I just sit on the couch and write the words down and cry because the beauty of the thoughts and how exquisitely they are being expressed. It’s 5:00 in the morning, and there’s no one around, mind you. I feel like I’m being embraced in the kindest, gentlest way one could even hope to imagine.

Interviewer: What are some of the ways each of us can begin to strengthen our personal communication and rapport with God?
Neale: One way is to sit and be absolutely still and quiet, and go to a wonderful secret place. I don’t necessarily mean sit in meditation, but be somewhere absolutely quiet.

Beth Moore wrote When Ungodly People Do Ungodly Things, or rather, God wrote it for her. Moore was only the channel for it. Moore describes her process-Moore says-

In conscious writing it is the writer who moves the pencil; in automatic writing it is the pencil that moves the writer. Source
“When the message for this book was complete (in His estimation — not mine!), [just like Kipling’s Daemon said, too] God compelled me to ink it on paper with a force of the Holy Spirit unparalleled in my experience. He whisked me to the mountains of Wyoming where I entered solitary confinement with Him, and in only a few short weeks, I wrote the last line.”

Screen shot from Moore video where Moore describes her vision of a coming outpouring, a vision she says God gave directly to her. In my opinion, Moore does not look too stable there.

Whisked her? Like He did to Philip? “And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.” (Acts 8:39). Moore continues,

“Oddly, the concept for this book came complete, God delivering the title to me in full. My Bible was open to these verses for the first time in a long while, and the instruction from the Lord came so unmistakably that I dated it in the margin: April 19, 2000. My pen still didn’t touch the paper until almost exactly a year later when I knew His Spirit was saying to me, ‘Now.’ I headed to the mountains, and within a few weeks it was done.”

Not so odd, as we have learned. Just satanic.

We have learned that any heathen in any era can be used for automatic writing. We know that the bible says,

No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds (2 Corinthians 11:14-15)

Automatic writing is one way the unholy angels masquerade as righteous, delivering the age-old satanic promise of wisdom from beyond.

For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. (Genesis 3:5-6).

It goes without saying that the work-product received always, ALWAYS is at contradiction to one or more doctrines of the bible. Invariably. Including Beth Moore’s books. These so-called godly books are from satan, who is the father of lies. The only book from the other side worth trusting is the bible. Period.

Brethren, gain your wisdom from the perfect Word. If you read Jesus Calling, or Beth Moore’s ungodly channeled books, or The Shack, or any of these supposedly divinely delivered books and writings, then aren’t you, too, eating the fruit of the tree from which you were commanded not to? Do not ingest poisonous fruit from a subtle schemer such as satan. Stay in the pure word, a lovely and wonderful holy book given to us by our precious Jesus. It is good fruit from the Firstfruit of all. (1 Corinthians 15:23)

CONCLUSION-

1. Automatic writing is an occult activity,
2. Automatic writing is an occult activity encroaching into the true church,
3. Automatic writing is an occult activity rapidly being accepted by the true church,
4. Now you know the buzz words regarding automatic writing,
5. Do not purchase, read, or accept automatic writers, including Sarah Young, Beth Moore, and William P. Young, Marianne Williamson, etc.,
6. Do not do automatic writing yourself.

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Further Reading

The End Time: Ungodly Channelers and Automatic Writers, three part series

Pastor Mike Abendroth: Escaping Mysticism, Jesus is NOT Calling, (15-minute video)

Wikipedia, List of Modern Channeled Books