The term ectoplasm was coined in 1894 by Charles Richet, a French physiologist who was also a psychic investigator. It comes from the Greek word ektos, which means "plasma." Ectoplasm is said to secrete from mediums as they are in contact with the spirit word.
What is a Medium?
A medium is a person who is said to be able to communicate with the spirits of people who are deceased. While mental mediums receive information through their minds, physical mediums, (like the ones who produced ectoplasm,) cause physical things to happen such as a table levitating or rappings on the wall during a seance.
What is Ectoplasm?
Ectoplasm is a rubbery or dough-like substance which emerges from a physical medium's body, often through an open body part, such as the mouth. It appears best with the use of dim lighting and is usually white in color.
Ectoplasm can be either cold or warm and allegedly is in a semiphysical state inside the medium's body, waiting to unconsciously come out of the medium during a seance. The medium is also said to bring out ectoplasms in other people who are in attendance at the seance. Ectoplasm was offered as proof that the medium was really communicating with the deceased.
Ghostbusters and Ectoplasm
Ectoplasm made it to the big screen in 1984's blockbuster, Ghostbusters. Starring Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray as parapsychologists-turned-Ghostbusters.
Ghostbusters gave audiences a comedic look at ectoplasm. It again came to life in the 1989 sequel, Ghostbusters II.
Is Ectoplasm Real?
Medium Mina Crandon was very talented at producing ectoplasm. But researcher Eric J. Dingwell believed she was a fraud. When she produced an ectoplasmic hand, upon investigation by Harvard biologists, the ectoplasm actually turned out to be an animal lung which had been formed to look like a human hand.
Crandon wasn't the only medium to try to pull a sham. Numerous other mediums were found to be using fake ectoplasm. As the public learned the truth, it took credibility away from all mediums in spiritual circles and because of this, the materialization of ectoplasm during seances slowly faded away.
In looking at the oozing ectoplasm which mediums can supposedly emit during spirit communication, there is no scientific evidence to support it's existence. So the general consensus is that ectoplasm does not really exist, although from time to time, some psychics will still produce this mysterious substance.
Readers may also enjoy reading The Spiritualist Church and Are Ghosts Real?
Source:
- Encyclopedia of Death and the Afterlife, James R. Lewis, (Visible Ink Press,) 1995.
Janis Masyk-Jackson - I'm here to seek out the truth about some of life's mysteries. There is nothing new about New Age beliefs. These are beliefs that have ...
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