In 1997 it became the title of a compilation of surrealist writing of André Breton, Paul Éluard and Philippe Soupault, amongst others.
Breton's prefatory essay The Automatic Message relates the technique to the underlying concepts and aesthetic of surrealism.
The Magnetic Fields (Les Champs Magnétiques) (1919) by Breton and Soupault, was the first work of literary surrealism and one of the foundations of modern European thought and writing.
The Automatic Message contains the authorised translation by the poet David Gascoyne, who was himself a member of the group and a friend of both authors.
The Immaculate Conception (1930) traces the interior and exterior life of man from Conception and Intra-Uterine Life to Death and The Original Judgement, and includes a section with a series of "simulations" of various types of mental instability.