Fact or Faked: The History of Ectoplasm Done Wrong

I don't watch much paranormal television, but I've been housebound lately and my television consumption has increased.  I was watching Fact or Faked:  Paranormal Files today and something they said made me angry.  I wanted to say, "Read a book!" to the hosts of this show, but reading seems to be a lost art.  The hosts of this show wanted to investigate the ectoplasm claims from the early 20th century.  They said that although tons of research was done on this, no one had shown ectoplasm was a hoax.   Ectoplasm was conclusively proven to be a hoax in the 1920s and it was a disgusting and vile hoax at that.  Here is a post I did on the revolting history of ectoplasm two years ago.

During the time contemporary to and following World War I there was and explosion in what was then called spiritualism or mentalism. Spiritualism is a religious movement revolving around communicating with the dead via a medium. This explosion was brought on by the massive number of people that died in the war and of sickness during this time period. One of the more bizarre activities that became prevalent in this movement was the explosion of ectoplasm. Ectoplasm is a term used to define a physical manifestation of the supernatural and it usually came out of the medium's nose, mouth, or ears. The term, defined by Charles Richet, meant spiritual energy externalized by psychics. It was for many years used as absolute confirmation that the supernatural was tangible and provable. It was supposed to be the physical remains of a ghostly presence. Ghosts were there and they were real and the medium could prove it by showing ectoplasm.

Ectoplasm was so believed in that it was featured in respectable scientific journals and it's existence was confirmed by the great minds of the time including William Butler Yeats and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was so believed in that Scientific America sought to do a study on it and offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who could demonstrate the release of ectoplasm in front of a scientific panel. This reward lead to the beginning of the end of the scientific validity of ectoplasm.

What was discovered was both revolting and eye opening. Although many techniques and materials have been used by mediums to produce ectoplasm, the medium examined by this panel was found to be storing a sheep gut and fat mixture in a sack in her vagina which she expolsed at the appropriate time to make it appear as if she was expelling ectoplasm. Further research into other psychics revealed many other grotesque techniques for producing this fraudulent material. Some women learned how to regurgitate on demand and swallowed yards of muslin and cheese cloth which they would vomit on command. Others stored materials in their rectum.  After careful study, not a single medium that could produce ectoplasm was shown to be doing it by supernatural methods.

Although this story is disgusting. It is more about the disgustingness that is possible within humanity when exploiting the needs of those suffering from the lost of a loved one than the vileness of the actual act. Although I love a good ghost story, it is always amazing to me how much more horrifying live people can be than ghosts. Ghosts have never been shown to leave real ectoplasm, but it is amazing how many mediums were shown to be literally pulling it from there asses.

So, to all those Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files fans out there, the Fact of Faked team did not prove anything that wasn't already shown to be fake in the 1920s by Scientific America.  I don't mean to say I don't enjoy Fact or Faked.  I obviously do or I wouldn't have watched it enough to do this post. In fact, I really like Fact or Faked quite a bit.  I love the skeptical approach to the paranormal.  I was just surprised at the lack of research that went into this one particular case.