A lady named Jenny Gellatly sentPsychic World a letter from her home in New Zealand. Jenny wrote that she had begun experiencing a form of inspiration whilst in a partial or light trance state. During this period Jenny was prompted to write by a force she describes as being one of 'huge energy'. Whilst under the influence of this energy Jenny was told 'go get pen and paper'. The product of the first of these inspirational writing sessions contains the following paragraph;'Music brings joy, its form has a dimension beyond mankind's present knowledge. Sonnets of light and sound, which stir the soul, are my gift to you. Passion is to be found in sound, also suffering, joy, all the emotions. It is a gift of purity without measure in any other sphere. Tenderness cannot be conveyed so well as in sonatas, symphonies and arias. They breathe of the soul, you will know joy to listen'. Signed; Mozart.

In her letter Jenny describes herself as 'Mrs Average Housewife'. As a writer I can see that there is nothing average about the concepts considered in that paragraph. It is both inspired and, in its own way, inspirational. Jenny included many other examples of the messages communicated to her from the unseen energy that forms the words she writes. All are of a standard that would be outside the range of an untutored mind. Having read both Jenny's letter and her inspired writing I do believe that the latter came from a source beyond the physical plane. This source may or may not be the spirit of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, perhaps there is a New Zealand psychic researcher who would care to comment/investigate.

Andrea Grievson, the author of 'Read How We Died' (Con-Psy Publications) explains that she receives communication, regarding the passing into spirit of individual entities, in a similar manner. Andrea describes her work as being created through 'Automatic Writing'. When I spoke at length to Andrea on this subject she told me that during her dedicated writing sessions she feels as though the communicating spirit that directs her thoughts overshadows her entire being. These thoughts she then transcribes into the written word.

In his book 'A Guide For The Development Of Mediumship' Harry Edwards explains that automatic writing is 'Akin to trance speech, the difference being that the hand is used to transcribe the intuitive thought-flow, instead of speaking it'. I highly recommend this book to all Psychic World readers. Both myself and my dear wife Mary have developed and practised 'Automatic Writing', though our experiences differ considerably from the two examples described above. Our method is to simply hold an ordinary biro loosely between finger and thumb with the business end resting on a sheet of plain paper. There usually follows a tingling sensation in the hand holding the pen, rather like pins and needles. Then ideas form in the mind and the hand then seems to move of its own accord pushing and pulling the pen across the paper and forming words.

Deciding to test this phenomenon I asked my wife Mary to select and place an object in the ground out of my sight and I would then ask the communicating force or spirit to identify the object. This being done I sat quietly and meditated for a while before taking the pen to paper and asking the question 'What did my wife bury in the ground'. I felt my hand tingle but no words or thoughts formed in my mind, instead the pen drew three round objects close together. When I showed the drawing to my wife she agreed that this was quite correct, she had placed three penny pieces in the earth.

One afternoon, shortly after this experiment, a lady friend of ours was sitting with us in the garden and I was telling her about automatic writing. Being a total disbeliever she suggested that I give her the chance to test this phenomenon. So I took the pen, placed it on the paper and asked the lady what she wanted to know as proof, she asked me to ask the communicating force or spirit to state her weight, she had, she said, weighed herself that very morning. After a moments pause the pen wrote down a weight in stones and pounds, it was exactly correct. This shocked the lady, who shall remain nameless for my own health's sake. She then wanted to know what spirit had been watching her on the bathroom scales weighing herself naked. I decided against asking, but it certainly wasn't me.

A few months later Mary decided to try automatic writing, she followed the simple instructions and experienced the same tingling sensation in her hand. The pen wrote out the name of 'Mary Thomas' my wife's late grandmother. The content of my wife's message is of a personal nature, though in general terms it centred upon her late uncle Joseph Boydell Thomas of The Avenue, Leigh, Lancashire whom had left all his money, house and family heirlooms to his cleaning woman. As a test of the veracity of this communication Mary then asked for details concerning myself. The pen wrote 'Books sell all over the world'. Now that was in the year 1991, at the time I had no intention of being an author. The very idea was considered by me to be beyond belief. However in 1998 I had three books published in America, Canada, Australia and throughout the world. The communicating spirit or force had foreknowledge beyond the bounds of the possibilities current at the time. This, to me, is truly amazing.

If you are considering attempting 'Automatic Writing' I would suggest that you first of all take personal advice from a respected Spiritualist Medium. Your local Spiritualist Church will be pleased to provide you with a list of such mediums practising in your area. As in all matters concerning the direct communication of spirit it is better to be prepared and properly advised before you begin. Unlike spontaneous communication through visitation or manifestation, automatic writing is a long term psychic/mediumistic facility that may, with proper control, enable you to receive messages direct from discarnate entities. With such a power you must always exercise extreme caution and restraint.