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If you've ever looked through a book with old photographs of mediums, you've probably seen photos that show something that looks like goo oozing out of a medium's ear or nose. This ''ooze" is called ectoplasm, an emanation of physical material from the spirit realm. Some photographs obviously are faked, making the whole idea seem pretty outrageouswhich it is! But that doesn't mean it's not true. A few photos exist that look much more . . . ethereal. But what's even more amazing are firsthand accounts of people who have witnessed the appearance of ectoplasm. |
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Shiri Hughes, who is an expert in this area and provided expert advice to us in writing this book, reports witnessing four physical mediums over the course of 40-plus years of experience. She explains that a physical medium must be very strong physically because the process is exhausting; therefore they are most often (but not always) men. The medium sits in a chair at the end of the séance room, with a contraption of pipes, very like a circular shower-curtain rail, above him, from which are suspended heavy black velvet drapes reaching to the floor. This is known as the cabinet. (Participants are welcome to come up beforehand to make sure there are no trapdoors, no holes in the ceiling, and no hanky-panky.) |
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The lights are turned off beforehand with the exception of one or two primary red bulbs, which enable participants to see the ectoplasm but does not frighten or upset the spirit forms. With the curtains pulled around the medium, the participants sing or say prayers, while the medium goes into a trance and the white ectoplasm is extruded from his body. The first such séance that Shiri witnessed was held by the medium Warren Smith, who had such extraordinary strength that the ectoplasm completely filled the enclosure where he sat. It bubbled up at the top of the curtains like a pot of boiling milk, and came dropping down on the outside of the curtains like huge, two-or three-foot blobs of freshly whipped cream. Nothing gooey, nothing messy, or repulsive, and it all vanished when it hit the floor. |
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Out of this cabinet walk loved ones from the spirit world, using the ectoplasm to form their body, clothes, and features. Your name is called when it is your turn to come forward, hands behind your back so that you do not touch the spirit. To do so could bring death to the medium, as the ectoplasm is believed to be his physical essence, which is now separated from him by quite a few feet. You hold a short conversation with your spirit and it then returns to the cabinet to allow another to come forward. |
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Shiri reports that at the last of the physical séances she attended, the spirit who came to greet her was her father-in-law. The resemblance was so startling that she exclaimed, "Why Walter, the likeness is so great I'd have known you anywhere!" To this he |
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