The word ectoplasm (a noun) comes from the Greek: ektós = out of, outside + plasm = production, occult. It stands for a visible form with certain physical properties and which is sometimes delivered by the medium in a trance state.⁽¹⁾

Regarding its use, it comes from Metaphysics and Parapsychology, and relates to physical effects phenomena, commonly called "materialization". However, for this to occur, it needs the assistance of a medium or psychic. 

Researchers⁽²⁾ 

Ernesto Bozzano (1862-1943), an Italian researcher, reports that ectoplasm was well known by the alchemists of the seventeenth century.⁽³⁾ He mentions that the polymath (the one who has studied a lot or is acquainted with many sciences) Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a famous spiritualist of the eighteenth century, made experiments with the substance, however, without employing the term ectoplasm and registered it as "a kind of steam coming out of all his pores, a quite visible water, reaching down to touch the carpet.”

The ectoplasm, a substance still almost unknown in our days, has been very little studied. However, it was greatly mentioned at the end of the nineteenth century. At the end of that century, men of Science were astonished by the physical effects produced by powerful mediums in outstanding materializations. 

- In England

Perhaps the most famous of these cases was the one that was accompanied by Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), an English chemist and physicist, member of the Royal Society of London Science, and who studied the Spiritist phenomena, as well as the ectoplasm phenomenon in several materializations of the Spirit “Katie King” with the assistance of the English psychic Florence Cook (1856-1904).

Crookes performed sessions of materialization in which the Spirit became tangible and said its name was Katie King, an Indian woman, who said she had lived a few centuries before. Crookes’ letters and articles were published in England in spiritualist newspapers, such as the “Quarterly Journal of Science", dated January 1874).

Crookes mentions that Katie was materialized for two hours talking to those present and being touched by them. Crookes respectfully asked her permission to touch her, and listened to her heart beating at a slower pace than the psychic’s Florence Cook, who was furnishing the ectoplasm.

There is no need to say that the famous scientist took the strictest measures to prevent any fraud or mystification. One of these preventive measures was to lock the psychic in a next room while the Spirit Katie materialized in another room. Another reliable proof too was that Katie materialized beside the psychic and was then photographed. One more proof: Crookes cut, with Katie's permission, a lock of her hair. Katie herself took the scissors and cut a great quantity of her hair, as well as parts of her dress and veil and distributed them to those present. Soon after, she showed the holes in the dress in the light and then she stroke the parts that had been cut off and the cloth immediately reset and became as it was before it was cut.

Still in England, the physicist William Jackson CRAWFORD (1870-1920), who studied ectoplasm properties, achieved through these studies remarkable experiences. He became aware of the strong proofs showing that ectoplasm originates in the tissues, as he studied the medium (Miss Goligher) using a scale to weigh her before and after she delivered ectoplasm. He saw that her weight came down after she delivered the ectoplasm, and it went back to the original weight after the ectoplasm was reabsorbed. In one of the experiments regarding the emission of ectoplasm, the scale showed that the psychic delivered 23.7 kg of ectoplasm!4 In another experience, parts of Miss. Goligher’s body became kind of flaccid after she delivered ectoplasm, and returned to its normal as soon as it was reabsorbed. Using a dynamometer suspended from the ceiling, attached to the medium's legs, he found again and again and always with the same results that tension on the device decreased from 1.8 kg to 0.45 kg. 5 

- In France

Charles Robert RICHET (1850-1935), scientist, physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize in Physiology 1913, discovered and suggested the name of ectoplasm to address materialization processes.

Still in France, another doctor, biologist, researcher and physiologist - Gustave Geley (1865-1924), together with RICHET, studied the ectoplasm, and both proved that it is an emanation from the psychic’s body, and it looks like a milky plasm. 

- In Germany

Albert von SCHRENK-NOTZING (1862-1929), physician and researcher, dedicated to the Spiritist cause, achieved the amazing feat of, in experimental psychic sessions, collecting portions of ectoplasm, which he called "teleplasm". By submitting such material to examination at a histological laboratory (study of the formation and composition of living beings tissues) in Berlin and Vienna, he proved its organic nature, i.e., it did come from incarnated beings. 

Researches 

From the mentioned experiences (most of them occurred in the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century to our days), in the scientific field, ectoplasm was and is still treated with extreme reserve. I have not heard of new researches nowadays. This is due probably to the fact that "materialization" was never proved officially by science and, instead, there are books recording it as a fraud.

In any case, I understand that a spiritual phenomenon is not subject to scientific method, which is proven in a laboratory. The spiritual phenomenon is subject to the Spirits that are present and this proves that they occur "in spiritus" and not "in vitro". And a strong obstacle to prove it is the fact that the materializations depend on the ectoplasm, which is known to be sensitive to light - except red and infrared light - which prevents reliable photographic records (with flash).

However, medical professionals or scholars of Spiritism, who participated in some recent experiences with this substance, said that if it were studied with scientific rigor, probably it would open a new era in the treatment of cases considered of impossible recovery. 

It is the case, for example, of Spiritist applications made in the restructuring of living tissue damaged or destroyed by cancer. The always remembered teacher, J. Herculano Pires (1914-1979): (...) said: "Pietro Ubaldi, even if not a medium or a Spiritist, admitted in his works that the ectoplasm could be a new natural way of reproduction - a biological process different from the known one, eventually a substitute of the current form of sexual reproduction.”

I quote the opinion of Ubaldi, showing that not only researchers and Spiritists, but other people, serious and reliable, in a not too distant time, studied the same subject, the ectoplasm. 

Features 

The ectoplasm has many features and, as already mentioned, it is refractory to light with exception of red and infrared light.

In most of the cases, it is released through the natural orifices of the psychic’s body, such as ears, nose, mouth, pores, and so on.

Besides the psychic, the main supplier of ectoplasm, other psychics, present at the session, can also deliver ectoplasm for the production of materializations, but always in smaller quantity. 

Special features 

There are several ones, such as:

a. Colors: they can vary from gray, white, yellowish, to spotted or black;

b. States: they are tangible, amorphous, similar to flakes, solid; when the phenomenon begins it is diffuse, foggy, thin as white smoke, going sometimes to semi-liquid consistency or pasty;

c. On touch: it can be like a spider’s web or like a solid form of an object;

d. Command: the key feature of the ectoplasm is that it sweetly obeys the mental command of the medium, as well as of the Spirits and persons attending the meeting.

e. Production and reversal: everybody can produce ectoplasm. However, there are people who do it in abundance, and they are called "mediums of physical effects". It reverts to its origin (to the medium's body that produced it), with the same ease with which it was issued. 

Ectoplasm and Spiritism 

Spiritism studied the ectoplasm:

- Allan Kardec, referring in particular to tangible appearances in "The Book of Mediums", Chapter VI, paragraph 104, clarifies that:

The spirit that wants or can be made visible, takes sometimes a more precise manner, with all the appearances of a solid body. (...) In some cases, finally, under certain circumstances, the tangibility can become real, and it can be touched, and feels like a normal living body. (…)Tangible apparitions are rare; however, those that have occurred nowadays through mediums of great power are authenticated by irrefutable evidence. 

(The second and final part of this article will be published in the next issue.)

Notes: 

1. In the Encyclopedia Larousse, Volume 4, page 1114, 1990, Publisher: Editora Universo Ltda., SP/SP

2. The items "The Researchers" and "The Researches" used several information from the book Spirit, Perispirit and Soul, authored by Hernani Guimaraes Andrade, Chapter VIII (Ectoplasm and Ectoplasmy), 1984 edition, Publisher: Editora do Pensamento, 1984 SP/SP. I also inserted notes about Ectoplasm from Wikipedia and other existing free publications on internet. On this matter, I also quoted Spiritist literature sources – Author’s Note.

3. In Thought and Will, Ernesto Bozzano, Chapter Ideoplasty, 8^th edition, 1991 FEB, RJ/RJ.

4. This experience is narrated in several works. I quoted "The History of Spiritism" by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), edited by FEB, RJ/RJ. In this courageous work Conan Doyle mentions Ectoplasm 69 times.

5. CRAWFORD, WJ in Psychic Mechanics, 2^nd edition, 1975 LAKE, Sao Paulo/SP.

6. PIRES, J.Herculano in Agony of Religions, page 94, 1989. Publisher: Editora Paideia, SP/SP