#hélènesmith

[jenner-benjamin]

Hélène Smith

Examples of automatic writing, written in ‘Martian’ by Hélène Smith, 1894.

Hélène Smith was a Swiss medium from the 1800s. The surrealists described her as ‘the muse of automatic writing’.

When Smith was just a child she reported experiencing visions that described life and landscapes on the planet Mars, as well as other scenes from the spirit world. It was also made known that she hallucinated peculiar and unknown letters that took the place of familiar letters in the alphabet. Professor Théodore Flournoy suggested that these fictitious events in her early years formed the basis for what would later become the Martian language she was famed for.

Her mediumistic communications typically carried messages from the deceased, always being aided by ‘Leopold’ her spirit guide. Flournoy attended a séance by Smith in 1894, after which he began evaluating Smith’s mental states during séances and automatisms. He described Smith’s mediumistic manifestations as ‘subliminal romances’, a beautifully labelled term that describes the complex narratives relating to her previous lives or lives on other planets. 

The most interesting of her romances was that of her life on Mars. Smith would endure somnambulatory trances and whilst in these states she would experience vivid recollections of what she considered to be the inhabitants and various flora that can be found on Mars. The visions would later be represented through drawings. Whilst in a trance Smith would transcribe Martian communication which would later popularise automatic writing.

Martian landscape, as described by Hélène Smith, 1899.

The Martian language would present itself to Smith in the forms of auditory hallucinations. She wrote the letter forms and later translated these into French, however Flournoy was able to prove that the Martian language was a creative falsification. The phrase he coined to explain this particular fabrication of language was ‘cypotomnesia’ - when a forgotten memory returns without it being recognised. 

I do not mind that the Martian language was fabricated, I enjoy the story of the origins of Smith’s conlang. I have been discussing ideas of how to portray a narrative using asemic writing and this is a good example of such. The automatic writing that Smith produced embraces the story of her hallucinogenic experiences of foreign worlds. The writing may be constructed but the narrative is honest. Perhaps a narrative can be portrayed with an entire body of text that highlights an event or idea rather than trying to tell a story word by word and reading the writing from left to right as we would a traditional narrative.

Examples of automatic writing, written in ‘Martian’ by Hélène Smith, 1898.

[asalvadorsala]

La fille de Jaïrus, 1913 #HélèneSmith #VisionaryWomenArt