Exposing Ectoplasm and the Fraudulent Mediums Who Coughed It Up

Spiritualism enjoyed great popularity during the first few decades of the 20^th century. One of its biggest proponents was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series. Doyle traveled the world preaching the merits of spiritualism, largely based upon his belief that he had spoken to his deceased son through a medium.

Fake ectoplasm came in different forms. Here, it’s seen with faces, coming from Mary Marshall’s nose during a séance at Hamilton House on June 27, 1932 taken by Thomas Glendenning Hamilton. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Not only did Doyle believe we could talk to the dead, he also maintained that manifestations in the form of ectoplasm were real. In the November 1920 issue of The Strand, he described the ghostly material as “streaky, viscous stuff hanging like icicles from the chin, dripping down on to the body, and forming a white apron, or projecting in shapeless lumps from the orifices of the face. When touched, or when undue light came upon it, it writhed back into the body as swiftly and stealthily as the tentacles of a huge octopus.”

But while Doyle was a firm believer, many others weren’t. His friend, Harry Houdini, being the most vocal of them. The magician and other similarly minded people eventually exposed many fraudulent mediums over the years. What follows are a few examples reported by newspapers.

In 1923, Mrs. Elizabeth Allen Tomson began holding séances in New York. One evening during a sitting reports claim “something appeared in film or gauze which was said to be ectoplasm for the spirit within.” For one attendee, Richard Gallagher, it was his first experience with such a manifestation. So he decided to find out more about the strange substance. “Just as it was about to embrace him he bit it vigorously,” papers said. The material ripped and came apart.

“When that spook put her arms around me, I just began eating ectoplasm as fast as I could. I filled my mouth with it and when she yanked away, the ectoplasm just poured out of my mouth,” Gallagher said. Tomson seemed to act like the huge octopus Doyle described. “All that I could hold on to was a tatter that caught on one of my teeth.”

Gallagher said he wasn’t afraid of the stuff and had only one regret about the experience: “I might have got enough of that ectoplasm to screen the porch next summer.”

Headline from the Evening Post, November 1, 1926.

Mrs. Tomson was not pleased and scolded Gallagher for not paying her the courtesy due to a lady.

The ectoplasm eater didn’t seem concerned with hurting the medium’s feelings. Newspapers reported, “Mr. Gallagher boasts that he is the only man who ever bit a spook and got away with it—or some of it!”

On Halloween in 1926, spiritualist investigators arranged a séance with a medium named Harold Evans. They roped him into his chair to ensure any movements of objects and limbs were not made by him. The room was darkened, as rooms were during séances. Soon, a clucking sound was heard, which was said to be the sound of spirits drawing ectoplasm from Evans.

Houdini demonstrating fake ectoplasm. By Harry Houdini (“Spirit Tricks”. Popular Science. December, 1925.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The investigators were ready for it and quickly shined flashlights on the activity, “disclosing Evans in his shirt sleeves and stockinged feet, draped in a flowing white overall. The ropes with which he had been bound were a tangled heap on the chair. Evans attempted to tear off the robes and swooned.”

Exposed, the fraud offered to give up his mediumship if the matter was kept quiet. “This is the end of the world for me,” he said.

Typically the ectoplasm was made from cheesecloth. Just one of many tricks mediums used to amaze and fool paying customers.