The investigation of Carpenter on unconscious cerebration and of Faraday on unconscious muscular action showed early in the movement that it was not necessary to look outside the medium's own personality for the explanation of even intelligent communications unconsciously conveyed through table-tilting, automatic writing and trance-speaking - provided the matter communicated was not beyond the range of the medium's own knowledge or powers.
At a higher stage still we have the delicate movements necessary for Automatic Writing or Drawing.
A parallel case to Automatic Writing is the action of the speech centres, resulting in the production of all kinds of utterances from trance speeches in the ordinary language of the speaker to mere unintelligible babblings.
The more thoughtful spiritualists, however, are chiefly interested in the assurance of life and progress after death, and the moral and religious teaching, which they obtain through automatic writing and trance-speaking.
Planchettes, at the time, were small wooden devices that were used to help write out messages in sessions known as automatic writing.