Still in the "The Book of Mediums", Chapter VI, item 109, Allan Kardec states that the perispirit is the beginning of all manifestations previously considered miraculous. Later, referring in particular to the characteristics and properties of the now called ectoplasm, he named it "perispiritic fluid" in "Genesis", Chapter XIV, items 35 and 36, or, according to other translators, “perispirital fluid".

After Kardec, the Spirits instructed that the ectoplasm is a "finished product", i.e., ready to be used in materialization sessions or with other purposes (therapeutic?), and it is composed of substances, other than the organic substances of the psychic.

- The Spirit Andre Luiz, for example, describes at length[1], a materialization session, according to the vision of the Greater Plan: To the ectoplasm used in the session of ectoplasmy (materializations) it is added potential energy of the Sidereal Spirits and other elements called “Nature’s resources”.

- Thereby, the phenomenon of materialization, to achieve success, needs to have the energy of three essential elements:

     1. Subtle energies, emanating from the Protecting Spirits;

     2. The energy of the psychic (ectoplasm) and eventually issued by other participants. Here, the psychic’s ectoplasm is described by the spiritual director as a “nervous energy, flowing abundantly, like a kind of thick fog and milky… and it is a plastic matter very sensible to our mental creations”.

      3. Energy taken from the Nature elements of the Earth  (water, plants, etc.). 

NOTE: In the aforementioned book Spirit, Perispirit and Soul, Hernani Guimaraes Andrade considers the existence of the following types of ectoplasm: ectomineroplasma originating from the mineral materials; ectophytoplasma, extracted from vegetables; ectozooplasma, produced by animals; ecto-humanplasma generated by humans. But simplifying the terminology in order to make the meaning more accessible to people, I consider it as follows: mineral, vegetable, animal and human ectoplasm.

Still referring to the Spiritual author Andre Luiz, there is another narrative regarding ectoplasmy sessions,[2] where it is detailed how the medium, who furnishes the ectoplasm, spiritually unfolds under the protecting spiritual influence.

In sequence, materialization of flowers takes place and they are offered to the psychics attending the session. 

- Francisco Candido Xavier (1910-2002), the reputed Brazilian medium, "in the beginning of his task on Earth he exercised, among other types of mediumship, the one of physical effects", according to the following story:[3] The meetings he promoted with several friends in Pedro Leopoldo and in Uberaba became famous. Those, who had the privilege to witness the meetings with him, say the phenomena they saw were unforgettable. (...) Chico was in a small room, leaning back in a chair. When he went into a trance, within minutes an intense light appeared and began to flow flooding throughout the meeting environment. To everyone's surprise and joy, Emmanuel appears materialized in full body, dressed as a Roman, with the Southern Cross stars shining on his chest. At these meetings, Andre Luiz and Scheilla materialized too. They did the laying on of the hands on the sick, leaving the water in the bottles perfumed. Later, Emmanuel recommended that it would not be convenient for Chico to go on wearing himself out with materialization activities, because his main task, in this life, was to write.

- However, the most expressive news about Ectoplasm, are found in the narrative[4] of amazing facts, regarding three children (sisters of the psychic of physical effects Ophelia Corrales, in the Republic of San Jose, Costa Rica): the doors of the place where the mediumship session was taking place were locked, and the three children were transferred/transported to a nearby house and then they were transferred back in the same manner – both places had their doors locked and the children left from one room to another and then came back with the doors locked!

Note: I recall "Star Trek" on TV, created in 1966 by Gene Rodenberry in which the crew of the ship "Enterprise" went through this dematerialization phenomenon in one place, followed by their coming back in the same way, they were transported and then materialized again…

Still the late Herculano Pires informed: [5]

A known physical in Sao Paulo, a university teacher, said that the materialization phenomenon is possible considering the present knowledge of Physics, but for it to happen it would be necessary to use a quantity of energy only possible to be obtained during a period of two hundred years. However, as demonstrated by Spriritism scientific experiences (and this may be proven if the Spiritual Plan allows it, and only if there is a justified reason), the materialization phenomenon is produced within minutes. Moreover, there was an error on the part of that scientist (the physician from Sao Paulo) when he classified scientifically the phenomenon as physical instead of physiological, since this is the right classification of such a phenomenon. 

Apports 

The term "Apport", used in parapsychology, is the sudden appearance of objects, animals or people in an environment, where there is a psychic of physical effects. Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834-1882), a German astronomer and physicist, professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of Leipzig, member of the Royal Society of London, the Imperial Academy of Physical and Natural Sciences in Moscow, Scientific Society of Psychic Studies in Paris and the British Spiritual Association of London, honorary member of the Physical Sciences Association in Frankfurt-on-Main) - phew! - This brilliant scientist imagined the same type of transportation or transference through the Fourth Dimension.

Other options are the dematerialization of the aforementioned elements and materialization again in a different place.

Obs.: I mentioned Dr. Zöllner’s curriculum to show the high level of scientific interest regarding this subject.

I hereby mention another phenomenon that makes us think. In the far away Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean, large stone statues, called "Moai", according to a local legend, would have been carried by the power of thought of a priest. The rock blocks were brought from a stone quarry miles away, and they came "over the air"...

No less impressive are the reports mentioning slates being transferred/transported from room to room, with their doors and windows closed, as well as plants that grow in the very environment of the medium sessions, from other plants, called “psychic plants”, since they enabled the birth of other plants (materialization), and there are cases of some of these plants that even bear fruit![6]  

General Considerations 

Ectoplasm was a prevailing subject in the late nineteenth century, when reliable and dedicated men studied it thoroughly, opening doors for those to come. Because they did not dispose of advanced instruments to carry out the necessary experiences, they were limited to materialization phenomena, with materialization mediums and laboratory tests with the resources of a century ago…

By the way, this issue, which in the last century puzzled so many researchers, today no longer is taken to laboratories and perhaps even to very few Spiritist Centers. I imagine that because Humanity has evolved to the point of allowing us to consider that such facts represented nothing more than a spiritual awakening and that the Friendly Spirituality at the time brought to Humanity. And it is important to establish that materialization "popped" across Europe soon after the Spiritism Coding, as if the Spirits wanted to consolidate it, literally. 

I am among those who consider Ectoplasm as another blessing, one more from the countless gifts that God gives us. Ectoplam’s potential is unthinkable. Thus, it is sad for me to see that Ectoplasm is not presently in our research laboratories.

Therefore, I feel sorry when I see that there is no scientific interest regarding this transcendental question. However, since "Nature does not make leaps", I believe that in the right time man will pay attention to this subject again. And this will be one of the valuable contributions that Spiritism will provide to Humanity, since the opportunities to use Ectoplasm goes beyond all imagination: from transporting/transferring people/objects, to their dematerialization at their place of origin and materializing them again at their destiny, including the cure of fatal illnesses.