Automatic writing is a pyschic ability that many claim allows them to produce written words without the act of actually writing. These written words are claimed to come from a supernatural, spiritual, or a subconscious source. Automatic writing, and other trance utterings, is what fills the pages of the Cross-correspondence scripts made by the Society of Psychical Reasearch (SPR). The scripts were supposed accounts of intelligible messages from beyond the grave or from teleapathy. There are many skeptics for the correspondences that say it is just "meaningless" data in which the members of SPR are creating from self-delusion and by chance. Even though there are many skeptics about these series of correspondences, it doesn't stop many people from joining the Society. Amoung other authors mentioned in Jill Galvans article "Tennyson's Ghosts: The Psychical Research Case of the Cross-Correspondences, 1901- c.1936", Tennyson is one of them. 

At first reading In Memoriam by Tennyson, I didn't really understand how Tennyson could be seen as someone who would join the SPR. After reading In Memoriam a second time, I saw it. In this particular lyric series about Tennyson's friends death, I saw that Tennyson talks about and refers to spirituality quite a lot. It made me realise that Tennyson has a very strong sense of the spiritual side and his belief in it. In the lyrics of his poem Tennyson mentions the spirituality of his friend and himself a lot. After reading this and making the connections, it would make sense that Tennyson would join the SPR. Tennyson, being curious about spitirts and the spirituality of his friend, has lead many to believe that Tennyson had a strong belief system of the supernatural and therefore in the cross-correspondences that came about from this belief. In the end it was discovered that Tennyson became an honorary member in 1880 as a "cutting-edge voice in explorations of the spirt." (Galvan). His exploration through In Memoriam other other works is what lead Tennyson to become such highly praised member in the SPR. And before reading In Memoriam and before this article, I would never have thought of Tennyson as a person who believes in the supernatural because his poem makes him seem religious more than spiritual. Which normally they go hand-in-hand, but after discovering this it made me realise Tennyson believes in much more than just the religion.