Friday, August 21, 2009

Ectoplasm





Medium, Dorothy Henderson, October 2, 1928

Materialization was the word used in the circles of psychical researchers to describe a phenomenon that first became common in séances in the 1870s: the summoning of spirit presences in the form of objects and of bodies, or of traces of objects and bodies—touches to the cheek or hands of the sitters, slaps or caresses or breezes as of something passing, sometimes fingerprints or other marks, the sounds of bells ringing or ethereal music, apported flowers and other gifts from the spirits, and, above all, ectoplasmic manifestations. These took two predominant forms: luminous, veiled, phantom-like beings, or revenants...
-from Ethereal Body: The Quest for Ectoplasm by Marina Warner in Cabinet

No comments:

Post a Comment