What is an ectoplasm? Does it have anything to do with the paranormal?

Question

What is an ectoplasm? Does it have anything to do with the paranormal?

Answer 1

All the above answers are correct about the mediums making and faking the substance that ghosts leave behind also the gooey stuff in the movie Ghost busters is correct.

the only thing anyone failed to mention is today on the Internet you see pictures supposedly of ghosts. These pictures look like fog but the  photographer swears there was no fog so many Paranormal Researchers claim this is ghost ectoplasm. In my experience with this it can be very light fog that the researchers did not see, but came up on film. I have noticed light fog which my team members failed to see and they would argue with me that it was not fog but ghost.

I also know that film can fog for many reason and we can also have bad film that fogs when developed.

But many Scientific Paranormal Researchers say the fog is ghost ecto.

BB

Answer 2

its short for electromagnetic plasma.

Answer 3

ectoplasm is what a ghost or entity leaves behind. it's kind of obvious to everyone. no offense.

Answer 4

Ectoplasm is a substance invented by mediums in an effort to show physical evidence of paranormal events.  It was basically just another in a long list of parlor tricks.  Ectoplasm went the way of the dodo after the debunking of the mediums.

Just another example of how so many things in the world of the paranormal seem to be nothing more than trends.

Answer 5

Ectoplasm is a "substance" left behind from a visiting ghost/spirit/entity.

Back in the 1800's and early 1900's, "mediums" would have seances in darkened rooms with heavy curtains draped everywhere.

Then the lights or candles would go out, and when the room was re-lit, people would see a wad of discolored cheesecloth (ie.... ectoplasm) coming from the mediums mouth, nose, or draped across their shoulders to enforce the belief the room was visited by the dead.

And when people have streaks of light, or a blob of discoloration to one side of a picture, they assume it's ectoplasm.

Even though it could have been humidity differences, catching the exhale of the photographers' breath, a dirty lens, improper lighting, etc.

The gooey substance that you see in the movies (Ghost busters and Poltergeist) has never been present when I was doing any paranormal investigations.

Answer 6

I got some ectoplasm on my ceiling where four ghost in my house left.  I really don't know who could test what it is made of.  It is clear, on the ceiling where the shadows left.

Answer 7

The meaning of the word has changed a lot over the years.

It was originally coined to mean a physical substance that was created by the bodies of spiritualist and mediums as a byproduct of physic activity but during the 1980s it's meaning changed to include a snot like substance which is supposed tobe created by as a byproduct of ghosts interacting with the material world (most of this was due to the film ghost busters). Later it's meaning was expanded (mostly by TV) to be a byproduct create when something crosses between this world and the next.

The original meaning is the true meaning as far as professional parapsychology goes, but the latter two meanings are common with amateur ghost hunters and with TV/movies.