Mar 27, 2025 08:28 PM
(This post was last modified: Mar 28, 2025 12:11 AM by Magical Realist.)
One can easily find online the many fraudulent cases of ectoplasm typically claimed to be exuded from mediums during seances. Fabric much like cheesecloth, often regurgitated from the mouth, seems to have been a favorite of various charlatans. But with a little more digging one can find on the internet eyewitness accounts of the actual phenomenon recorded in historical documents. It has always stumped me as to why there were such widespread attempts to fake this bizarre and distinctive phenomenon if it was never real to begin with. I believe it was, though less evidence for ghosts than for some sort of psionic ability latent in the human brain. Here's some of those very credible accounts:
https://seancescience.com/inside-seance-...ectoplasm/
WHAT IS ECTOPLASM?
"Ectoplasm is an as yet mysterious substance that is exuded from the body’s orifices. It presents itself as a vapor or liquid that quickly solidifies and is molded into various shapes or forms. These range from clouds in which images may appear, to disembodied limbs, to phantoms that walk among and converse with observers. It is also subject to the psychological idiosyncrasies of individual personalities, and may at times be influenced by what Jung called the “trickster” aspect of our psyches.
WHAT IS ECTOPLASM MADE OF?
The medium Helen Duncan’s was said to form as a clear material and, very much like egg albumin when cooked, become opaque. An analysis of a sample was said to contain albumin.
In a letter to the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (JSPR) a member, Denise Iredell, described Duncan’s ectoplasm as a “milky substance spilled from her nostrils” that would ebb and flow “to and from the floor” and would “snake out across the floor to the ankle level” of the sitter who had been called. She compared it with “the movement and solidification of egg white which spills from a broken egg in a pot of boiling water.”
She reported that it concentrated and intensified into a “blob” between four and six feet above the ground but with a “misty substance swirling around the lower levels,” and smaller putty-like blobs, which formed on the head of the emerging figure and then refined into features.
ODOR OF ECTOPLASM?
Mrs. Iredell, later in her letter, noted that the “characteristic smell of ectoplasm” was “markedly present.” Curious as to what she meant I asked a gentleman who lived in London and knew her well, to find out. He phoned her and, being a very conservative older person, was embarrassed to tell me that her response was “semen.”
I then mentioned it to another old friend, Arthur Ellison, a scientist and former president of the SPR and experienced researcher who had attended another (male) medium’s ectoplasmic-producing séances, and he confirmed that the odor was indeed similar to that of semen.
I guess that would make some sense since it is of organic elements from the body.
LAB ANALYSIS OF ECTOPLASM
Some 19th century researchers analyzed samples of other mediums’ ectoplasm and found that it contained fats, proteins, and other natural substances found in the human body. Later researchers analyzed samples of the stuff and determined that it was made up of organic substances such as leucocytes, epithelial and other cells. They agreed that it was albuminous and resembled lymph and chyle but was not identical to them.
The skeptical experts who investigated the famous Neapolitan physical medium Eusapia Palladino under tightly controlled conditions (They were dubbed “The Fraud Squad” by journalist Brian Inglis.) said of ectoplasm that it exuded from the entranced medium’s body through various bodily orifices but could dissipate or be reabsorbed by the medium.
This was seen more clearly in Duncan’s séances. Her ectoplasmic phantoms would gradually sink into the floor or flow back under the curtains into the cabinet and thus back into the medium.
Maurice Barbanel, editor and friend of Duncan, described the shrinking size of ectoplasmic forms outside the cabinet, dwindling until they “resembled small globes of light” before disappearing as if through the floor.
In D. D. Home’s séances hands of many different shapes and sizes would materialize often ending at the wrist or elbow. Although they were quite solid they would dematerialize while in full view. Sir William Crookes reported that he held on to one hand as it gradually turned into a vapor and disappeared. The editor of the Hartford Times reported shaking hands with one of them. When the hand found that it couldn’t get away it yielded itself to him for his examination, turned itself over and back, then shut its fingers and opened them. He then poked his finger through the hand forming a hole. The wound closed leaving a scar before disappearing.
A similar thing happened when in Crookes’ house; a Dr. Tapp attempted to take the phantom Katie King’s pulse. His fingers went right through her wrist.
D.D.HOME’S PHANTOM PEOPLE
Under Crookes’ test conditions in good light Home too produced phantom people. A dark, shadowy, semi-transparent man was seen by a group of observers waving the window curtain with his hand, then fading away as the group watched. Another time a phantom form came from a corner of the room, took an accordion in its hand, and then glided about the room playing the instrument. Crookes adds that they could see Home, who always stayed seated in their sight in the room, at the same time. When the phantom came close to Mrs. Crookes she gave a slight cry whereupon it sank through the floor. This incident was described in separate reports made by Crookes, Serjeant Cox , the rev. Stainton Moses, and by Ellen Crookes herself."
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/744950
"Before it was known as ectoplasm, it had been called a "soul substance" (Flammarion 80), a "biogen" (Coues), a manifestation of the perispirit (Kardec), and a psychoplasm (Lewes 118). It was believed to have emerged from the medium's bodily orifices and would often accumulate in pale clumps on her breast or shoulder, on the séance room table, or on the floor. Ectoplasmic blobs, however, became commonplace only at the very end of the nineteenth century. Before it was seen, ectoplasm was experienced as a phantom touch in the dark or force that tipped tables. Those who studied the substance were likely responsible for ectoplasm's evolution. Theories concerning its formation varied. Some believed that the stuff was evidence of the spirit world, others thought it was a material projection of certain psychic states, some considered it a manifestation of the fourth dimension, and still others believed it was nothing more than a grotesque stage act.1 Not unlike the full-body manifestation, ectoplasm dislodged furniture and made physical contact with members of the séance circle. The gifted and somewhat mischievous spiritualist medium Eusapia Palladino produced big wandering pseudopods that tipped tables (Richet 402). According to British physicist Oliver Lodge, Palladino's manifestations led Richet to exclaim: "C'est absolument absurd, mais c'est vrai!" [It's absolutely absurd, but it's true] (302). But ectoplasm would soon evolve into something even more absurd. It dripped from the noses, ears, and genitals of those skilled enough to produce it. It was soon viewed as a new biological order, a substance that made visible unseen mechanisms and worlds. And unlike the full-body materialization, ectoplasm showed no signs of disappearing. There were still mediums who produced fully or partially formed phantoms, but the modern manifestation became more viscous and rudimentary. It was not a body. It was not even recognizable as a ghost. It was as though the spirit world had reassessed the plausibility of the full-body materialization and found it wanting. [End Page 34]
But perhaps it wasn't the spirit world but the psychical researcher that dictated this shift. Richet argued that ectoplasm was a manifestation of the medium's will or life force rather than the physical embodiment of a spirit (458). This marked the beginning of the spirit world's transition. Contemporary science formed the foundation of these new non-spiritual theories of the séance room and its discontents. But the substance had been around much longer than Richet or Palladino.
According to Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the most zealous spiritualists of the period and creator of Sherlock Holmes, one of fiction's most ardent rationalists, ectoplasmic phenomena had first been described by the eighteenth-century mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg. In the midst of an angelic visitation, the mystic noted feeling "a kind of vapour steaming from the pores of my body. It was a most visible watery substance..."
https://seancescience.com/inside-seance-...ectoplasm/
WHAT IS ECTOPLASM?
"Ectoplasm is an as yet mysterious substance that is exuded from the body’s orifices. It presents itself as a vapor or liquid that quickly solidifies and is molded into various shapes or forms. These range from clouds in which images may appear, to disembodied limbs, to phantoms that walk among and converse with observers. It is also subject to the psychological idiosyncrasies of individual personalities, and may at times be influenced by what Jung called the “trickster” aspect of our psyches.
WHAT IS ECTOPLASM MADE OF?
The medium Helen Duncan’s was said to form as a clear material and, very much like egg albumin when cooked, become opaque. An analysis of a sample was said to contain albumin.
In a letter to the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (JSPR) a member, Denise Iredell, described Duncan’s ectoplasm as a “milky substance spilled from her nostrils” that would ebb and flow “to and from the floor” and would “snake out across the floor to the ankle level” of the sitter who had been called. She compared it with “the movement and solidification of egg white which spills from a broken egg in a pot of boiling water.”
She reported that it concentrated and intensified into a “blob” between four and six feet above the ground but with a “misty substance swirling around the lower levels,” and smaller putty-like blobs, which formed on the head of the emerging figure and then refined into features.
ODOR OF ECTOPLASM?
Mrs. Iredell, later in her letter, noted that the “characteristic smell of ectoplasm” was “markedly present.” Curious as to what she meant I asked a gentleman who lived in London and knew her well, to find out. He phoned her and, being a very conservative older person, was embarrassed to tell me that her response was “semen.”
I then mentioned it to another old friend, Arthur Ellison, a scientist and former president of the SPR and experienced researcher who had attended another (male) medium’s ectoplasmic-producing séances, and he confirmed that the odor was indeed similar to that of semen.
I guess that would make some sense since it is of organic elements from the body.
LAB ANALYSIS OF ECTOPLASM
Some 19th century researchers analyzed samples of other mediums’ ectoplasm and found that it contained fats, proteins, and other natural substances found in the human body. Later researchers analyzed samples of the stuff and determined that it was made up of organic substances such as leucocytes, epithelial and other cells. They agreed that it was albuminous and resembled lymph and chyle but was not identical to them.
The skeptical experts who investigated the famous Neapolitan physical medium Eusapia Palladino under tightly controlled conditions (They were dubbed “The Fraud Squad” by journalist Brian Inglis.) said of ectoplasm that it exuded from the entranced medium’s body through various bodily orifices but could dissipate or be reabsorbed by the medium.
This was seen more clearly in Duncan’s séances. Her ectoplasmic phantoms would gradually sink into the floor or flow back under the curtains into the cabinet and thus back into the medium.
Maurice Barbanel, editor and friend of Duncan, described the shrinking size of ectoplasmic forms outside the cabinet, dwindling until they “resembled small globes of light” before disappearing as if through the floor.
In D. D. Home’s séances hands of many different shapes and sizes would materialize often ending at the wrist or elbow. Although they were quite solid they would dematerialize while in full view. Sir William Crookes reported that he held on to one hand as it gradually turned into a vapor and disappeared. The editor of the Hartford Times reported shaking hands with one of them. When the hand found that it couldn’t get away it yielded itself to him for his examination, turned itself over and back, then shut its fingers and opened them. He then poked his finger through the hand forming a hole. The wound closed leaving a scar before disappearing.
A similar thing happened when in Crookes’ house; a Dr. Tapp attempted to take the phantom Katie King’s pulse. His fingers went right through her wrist.
D.D.HOME’S PHANTOM PEOPLE
Under Crookes’ test conditions in good light Home too produced phantom people. A dark, shadowy, semi-transparent man was seen by a group of observers waving the window curtain with his hand, then fading away as the group watched. Another time a phantom form came from a corner of the room, took an accordion in its hand, and then glided about the room playing the instrument. Crookes adds that they could see Home, who always stayed seated in their sight in the room, at the same time. When the phantom came close to Mrs. Crookes she gave a slight cry whereupon it sank through the floor. This incident was described in separate reports made by Crookes, Serjeant Cox , the rev. Stainton Moses, and by Ellen Crookes herself."
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/744950
"Before it was known as ectoplasm, it had been called a "soul substance" (Flammarion 80), a "biogen" (Coues), a manifestation of the perispirit (Kardec), and a psychoplasm (Lewes 118). It was believed to have emerged from the medium's bodily orifices and would often accumulate in pale clumps on her breast or shoulder, on the séance room table, or on the floor. Ectoplasmic blobs, however, became commonplace only at the very end of the nineteenth century. Before it was seen, ectoplasm was experienced as a phantom touch in the dark or force that tipped tables. Those who studied the substance were likely responsible for ectoplasm's evolution. Theories concerning its formation varied. Some believed that the stuff was evidence of the spirit world, others thought it was a material projection of certain psychic states, some considered it a manifestation of the fourth dimension, and still others believed it was nothing more than a grotesque stage act.1 Not unlike the full-body manifestation, ectoplasm dislodged furniture and made physical contact with members of the séance circle. The gifted and somewhat mischievous spiritualist medium Eusapia Palladino produced big wandering pseudopods that tipped tables (Richet 402). According to British physicist Oliver Lodge, Palladino's manifestations led Richet to exclaim: "C'est absolument absurd, mais c'est vrai!" [It's absolutely absurd, but it's true] (302). But ectoplasm would soon evolve into something even more absurd. It dripped from the noses, ears, and genitals of those skilled enough to produce it. It was soon viewed as a new biological order, a substance that made visible unseen mechanisms and worlds. And unlike the full-body materialization, ectoplasm showed no signs of disappearing. There were still mediums who produced fully or partially formed phantoms, but the modern manifestation became more viscous and rudimentary. It was not a body. It was not even recognizable as a ghost. It was as though the spirit world had reassessed the plausibility of the full-body materialization and found it wanting. [End Page 34]
But perhaps it wasn't the spirit world but the psychical researcher that dictated this shift. Richet argued that ectoplasm was a manifestation of the medium's will or life force rather than the physical embodiment of a spirit (458). This marked the beginning of the spirit world's transition. Contemporary science formed the foundation of these new non-spiritual theories of the séance room and its discontents. But the substance had been around much longer than Richet or Palladino.
According to Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the most zealous spiritualists of the period and creator of Sherlock Holmes, one of fiction's most ardent rationalists, ectoplasmic phenomena had first been described by the eighteenth-century mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg. In the midst of an angelic visitation, the mystic noted feeling "a kind of vapour steaming from the pores of my body. It was a most visible watery substance..."