Ectoplasm Debunked
Séance images reveal the suspicious nature of ectoplasm. Flashbulbs captured the moment ectoplasm appeared on the medium, revealing an emission that looked more like a cotton wad than otherworldly residue. In 1923, Hungarian medium Ladislaus Lazlo was confronted with images of his ectoplasm attack. He admitted that he used a wad of “cotton wool smeared with goose fat.”
Skeptic Walter Prince noticed that ectoplasm looked suspiciously like a wad of gauze, paint, and cotton batting, and occasionally newspaper cutout faces embedded in the ectoplasm. The ectoplasm was obscured enough in the dark but in the light of the flashbulb appears to be comprised of craft store supplies. Medium Mina Crandon’s credibility was lost when the ectoplasm hand she emitted during a séance turned out to contain a fingerprint from her (very much alive) dentist. Ectoplasm’s popularity waned, but spiritualism continued to flourish.
