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Everyone wanted to get in touch with the departed. Mediums started to host séances where they supposedly communicated with the dead, and they were using increasingly bizarre methods to wow their audiences. One of the oddest? Ectoplasm.
Ectoplasm was essentially a “manifestation” of the spirit in the medium, which involved something coming out of the person. This was a “materialization" of the spirit world.
Ectoplasm apparently worked as a sort of amplifier: a "voice box" for spirits to communicate with the living.
The sitters would usually be around a table in a very dark room and hold hands. The medium would then enter a trance until ectoplasm started pouring out of somewhere...
One of the Fox sisters said that the tricks of the mind were ultimately the most powerful ones. "A great many people when they hear the rapping imagine at once that the spirits are touching them. It is a very common delusion."
Mediums were not only experts at tricking sitters with ectoplasm, but they also made sure people in the room would hear the ghosts.
The belief that we were able to communicate and interact with the dead was big at the end of the 19th century. Spiritualism was a force to be reckoned with!
A séance in a dark room with a medium manifesting could be sexy at times. Especially when the medium channeled a flirtatious spirit, who would touch and even kiss sitters!
Mediums would protect themselves from skeptical people, by keeping them away from the ectoplasm. They would either suck it back or warn sitters that touching ectoplasm would kill the medium!
The famous medium Helen Duncan was known for materializing large quantities of ectoplasm. She used to channel a child named Peggy, who was covered by a veil of ectoplasm.
Historian Marina Warner inspected a sample of the famous medium’s ectoplasm. As suspected, there was nothing supernatural about it. It was simply a piece of fabric.
Ectoplasm was usually a gooey substance, but could be made of other stuff, such as liquids or fabric (e.g. cotton gauze).
British writer Arthur Conan Doyle described it as "a viscous, gelatinous substance which appeared to differ from every known form of matter in that it could solidify and be used for material purposes."
Mediums would get into a trance and ectoplasm would flow out of their mouths, ears, eyes, and other orifices.
Most mediums were female, and ectoplasm would come out of their bodies. Not much was known about female anatomy at the time and that added to the mystery, and indeed the believability of the phenomenon.
It is believed that some mediums did use animal intestines as ectoplasm, for a more gruesome effect.
Ectoplasm could appear as different shapes, including flowers, faces, gloves, or even people.
Many people investigated the medium and her ectoplasm, including a group of 15 scientists. And so did Houdini, who instantly recognized a trick he performed himself (the "needle trick”) when Carrière pulled "inflated rubber" out of her mouth and made it disappear.
Sources: (Grunge)
See also: The mysterious history of palm reading
Although they exploited people’s grief and basically made a living off tricking people, Spiritualism gave many women the opportunity to step out of their traditional roles and become spiritual leaders.
The medium could do so right in front of the sitters, or go into their spirit cabinet (a large piece of furniture) where the spirit would manifest.
French physiologist professor Charles Richet was the first to coin the term “ectoplasm,” which he described as "absurd but true."
Famed illusionist and escapist Harry Houdini was very skeptical about the whole process (and mediums in general), and indeed put the idea forward that all they did was use a regurgitation technique for the effect.
While ectoplasm played central stage in the world of Spiritualists, the first record of an ectoplasm-like event dates back to a Christian in the 1700s. Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg claimed that vapor came out of his pores when an angel visited him.
To prove she wasn’t hiding anything inside her, French medium Eva Carrière (pictured) invited doctor and physical researcher Baron von Schrenck-Notzing to give her a "gynecological examination" during a séance.
This went on until 1888, when they confessed that it was all a hoax. But by then, there was no going back from the Spiritualist boom.
Leah, Margaretta, and Catherine Fox from Rochester, New York, were key in the spread of Spiritualism. They claimed that their house was haunted and, to cut the story short, became famous mediums.
Weirdly enough, his wife, Bess, tried to contact him after he died, through a séance. And so have other magicians throughout the years.
Beyond the veil: eerie encounters with ectoplasm and spiritualists
What is this substance mediums oozed from their bodies?
LIFESTYLE Mediums
We have written before about the tricks psychics don't want you to know, but now it's time to look back on 19th-century trickery. Back then, the Spiritualist movement was in full swing. Mediums would hold séances and 'manifest' spirits in many ways, including through ectoplasm. But what do we know about these mediums, and what the heck is ectoplasm anyway? Well, you're about to find out! Click on for more.