The most common objection to the authenticity of the True Life in God messages that is made by Vassula’s fiercest critics is that the messages are received through a form of automatic handwriting. This involves an entity moving Vassula’s hand to write whatever it is that the entity wants her hand to write. This entity, the critics say, cannot be God because God would never deprive someone of their free will in this way. He would not force someone’s hand to write His message – he would leave them free to choose whether to write or not to write.

This objection is based on a misunderstanding of how Vassula receives and writes down the True Life in God messages. It is true that the very first message that Vassula received – from her guardian angel, Daniel – was received as a result of her hand being moved to write, ‘I am your guardian angel, Daniel’. And it is true that there are occasions within the messages where God takes over Vassula’s hand and writes something ‘Himself’. However, the vast, overwhelming majority of True Life in God messages were received through the form of locutions, where Vassula receives a mental inspiration and writes down what she is inspired to hear or see or think. No violation of her free will is involved: she writes down, as best she can, the locution that she has received moving her own hand herself. Just like someone taking dictation.

Of course, it might be said by Vassula’s critics that the very small number of occasions where her hand is taken over establish that she is not receiving messages from God. If she were, they would argue, God would never take over her hand. But one could argue that on those occasions, God does have Vassula’s consent to take over her hand, and so no violation of free will is involved on these occasions either.