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13 Va. L. Rev. 22 (1926-1927)
Copyright of Automatic Writing

handle is hein.journals/valr13 and id is 42 raw text is: VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW COPYRIGHT OF AUTOMATIC WRITING.1 N THE London Times of July 23, 1926, is an account of the trial of the case of Cummins v. Bond in the Chancery Divi- sion of the High Court of Justice, before Mr. Justice Eve, in which a spirit medium, Miss Geraldine Cummins, producer among other things of the script known as The Gospel of Philip the Evangelist, sought an injunction against publication by the sitter, Mr. Frederick Bligh Bond, author of The Gate of Re- membrance and The Company of Avalon, an architect and writer upon psychical subjects, of certain writings automatically produced by the medium, called The Chronicle of Cleophas. 2 According to her counsel, the writing was extremely rapid- some 2,000 words in an hour. It was produced thus: the plain- tiff covered her eyes with her left hand, took a pencil in her right hand, and began to write on a sheet of foolscap. Another sheet was supplied when that was full. During that time she was only partially conscious, and what was written she only partially remembered afterwards. The production caused great exhaustion. There was no doubt, however, that what was writ- ten was the work of the plaintiff, and the result of an operation of the brain which directed the hand. There was no suggestion that it was dictated or was a copy o.f any existing book or work. In the argument reference was made to the well known poem Kubla Khan, produced by Coleridge while under the influence qf opium. It was said that the chronicle had a considerable commercial value, particularly in the United States. The plaintiff in her evidence testified that so far as she was 1 Other articles in this series: The Fortune Teller (1923) 9 VA. L. Rzv. 249; Spiritualism and Crivie (1922) 22 CoL. L. Rev. 439; The Conjurer (1921) 7 VA. L. Rzv. 370; Psychic Phenomena and the Law (1921) 29 HARv. L. IRv. 625; 11 Am. B. A. J. 419, note 18. 'One of the two disciples who walked with Jesus to Emmans on the day of his resurrection was named Cleopas (Luke XXIV, 18). Sir Arthur Conarx Doyle attaches much importance to the script involved in this suit. 2 HIsToRY oF SPIRITUALISM (1926) 259.

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