WEBVTT - What exactly is ectoplasm? 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.440 Important announcement before we dive in. We would love to 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:10.320 hear from you, folks, particularly on your podcast review platform 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:11.440 of choice. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:15.239 Particularly particularly on Apple podcasts. If the spirit moves you, 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:17.200 we'd love to hear what the show means to you 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:19.160 in the form of a nice five star review. 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:20.599 Yeah, if you've been listening to the show for a 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.640 while and you you like it, we would massively appreciate 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.080 a little love in those review sections, comment sections, wherever 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:28.920 you can access it. We would just love to hear 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:29.479 what you think. 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:34.040 Toss a coin to your witchers, as they say occasionally, 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.280 and it does make a difference. Just know this, folks, 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:41.640 every time you give us some of those stars inter review, 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:47.880 our boss looks at a strange, occult necronomicon esque spreadsheet 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.600 and says, we'll give them one more. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.800 Evening, And sometimes an angel gets its wings and on 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:54.480 with the show. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:59.560 From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:03.960 riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:07.000 learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:08.760 production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.919 Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:22.480 my name is. 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:24.319 Don't they call me Ben? 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.640 We're joined as always with our super producer Paul, mission 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.880 control decands. Most importantly, you are you, You are here. 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:35.480 That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know. 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:40.520 We're so glad you came over, fellow conspiracy realist. Good evening, Humans, 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.959 AI Inspectors alike. We've got a special one for you tonight. 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:49.920 It's for the spirits, the skeptics, and the ghostbusters. It's 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.880 a little gooey, it's a little gross. It's a literal 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:59.480 sticky subject on me. Yeah, Yeah, We're finally doing something 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.760 we talked to about in a previous couple of previous episodes. 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.280 We talked about star Jelly, remember and angel hair phenomenon, 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.160 the weird stuff that falls from the sky series. 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.240 Oh, how could we forget? It was a golden time, 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:17.480 It was a golden age, and the history of stuff 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:19.399 they don't want you to know. A couple of weeks ago. 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.160 And we've talked about ghosts extensively on this show, and 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:27.839 photography and the history of attempting to capture whatever it 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:32.000 is that the spiritualism movement was so into all those 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:32.799 years ago. 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:35.960 Or does all of that stuff the idea of capturing 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:39.000 somebody's particular color that they emit. They can only be 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.560 captured with a certain photographic process crillion photography. 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.240 Yes, I love it, and the idea of EVP like 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.360 that famous Michael Keaton I think Michael Keaton film from 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.960 way back when we also, what we see here is 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:59.200 a common theme, the idea of chasing some tangible proof 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.480 of intangible spirits, and that leads us to tonight's exploration, 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:15.840 what on earth is ectoplasm? Exactly? Here are the facts. 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.160 I don't know about you guys, but I think we 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.960 should dive in straight to the cool part. Ectoplasm can 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.720 mean several things, but well that's a bit of foreshadowing. 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:29.280 But for now, maybe we start with ectoplasm and the 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:34.080 paranormal or supernatural sense, the slime that covers you know, 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.160 the breakout star of Ghostbusters slimer. 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:39.560 Yeah, and I have questions. 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.320 I said that at the top, but like, how come 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:46.240 the ectoplasm went from green to pink between Ghostbusters one 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:46.600 and two? 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.800 It's never really explained. I wouldn't know. I just learned 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:53.200 it when you said it. Now, Yeah, this lineman, you 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.640 don't know Ghostbusters to it? This lime that fly but 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.360 I don't know the colors. Yeah, Oh, I'm sorry. Ben 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.000 I forget. Yeah, well that's true. 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.560 The slime and Ghostbusters two is pink, and they don't 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.600 really differentiate it from the slime in Ghostbusters one. 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:09.680 So it's a little bit odd. 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.160 That just kind of an odd contribution to the lore 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:13.440 without really much justification. 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.839 Oh so not the slime on the character Slimer, but 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:18.960 the actual. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:19.960 Slimer is still Slimer. 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.240 But he's barely in Ghostbusters two, if he's in it 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.080 at all, I want to say. But it's like slime 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.039 fills the sewers of the city and starts, you know, 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.799 oozing out of everything, and if you go the carpathi 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.279 and I guess it is responsible. But it's an entirely 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:34.960 different kind of ectoplasm. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.000 Oh wow, I can't remember. I can't remember if it 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.720 has anything to do with actually conjuring any of the 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.200 ghosts or like, do the ghosts come out of it? 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:47.440 Or is Slimer being made out of slime somehow ectoplasm? 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.520 It's like a byproduct, right, like of a supernatural encounter. 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:54.280 Yeah, Ghostbusters one, We'll get this out of the way 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:58.160 quite Ghostbusters one. It's it's always bugged me. They don't 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:02.600 have a huge backst worry for slimer. But in Ghostbusters one, 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:07.719 I believe as gooser Spoiler is coming to end the world, 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:13.159 more spirits are gathering. And then in Ghostbusters two, when 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:18.480 Vigo the Carpathian the Scourge of Moldavia or the Sorrow 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.360 of Moldavia, the Scourge of Carpathia or whatever. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.520 When he's come guy in the painting right, when he's. 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:32.000 Coming back, they discover this huge river of ghost goo 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.560 and that can be charged with positive or negative energy, 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.919 and then that also brings back a bunch of ghosts 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:40.880 we have spoiled Ghostbusters. 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.479 It is representative of what we're talking about today. And 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.719 I guess maybe they go more into detail with the 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:50.840 ectoplasm and Ghostbusters too, because you mentioned the positive negative 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.360 charge and they actually like experiment with it and stuff. 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.559 And Ghostbusters one it's much less of a plot point, 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.600 and then two it really is a big deal because 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:03.080 they find that river, it seems stuff seems to emerge 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:05.480 from it. In one, it's more of an afterthought and 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:07.880 something that you get stuck all over you when you. 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:10.479 When a ghost, you get slimed. That was sort of 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:12.240 the joke, right, I've been slimed. 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:14.359 Yeah, do you do? 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:16.200 You guys. Not Like. 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:20.880 My immediate thought when I hear ectoplasm now is of 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:23.520 South Park. Of course Crim Fresh? 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.680 Right, No, isn't it the episode No, but the one 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.119 where he's covered in ghost go like with Randy. 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:30.560 I thought it was the Crim Fresh I was a member. 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.320 Oh maybe it is, Maybe it is. I think of yeah, whatever, 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:34.560 whatever it is. 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.440 Back in the day, I think it's season twelve, like eight, 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.599 maybe oh nine, and it was. Yeah, that's what I 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.600 think of now every time I think of ectoplasms. 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:46.880 It was a spooky ghost. It was. 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:52.200 It's weird because the term dates back pretty far. It 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:57.160 was it was nineteen thirteen when a French physiologist named 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:03.120 Charles rashe R I see came up with or he 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.119 used this to describe something paranormal. It comes from the Greek. 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.120 For all our etymology nerds, it's a portmanteau of the 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.600 two words ectos, meaning just outside, and plasma, which means 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:19.160 anything molded or formed. So outside molded or formed. And 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:23.080 this was a huge deal. It reached its haiti and 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:24.080 popular culture. 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:25.120 It's hey evening. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:30.520 During the movement of a pseudo religious thing called spiritualism 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:34.080 in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and we're 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.080 going to have an episode on the rise and fall 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.040 of that movement in a future evening. I think either 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.400 I don't know, it might be here. It might be 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:45.240 ridiculous history because it's one of those Venn diagram explorations. 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.160 Yeah, we did do something on that though recently, Ben 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:52.040 I swear where we talked about the methods of kind 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.240 of the hacky kind of methods that were used to 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.960 take people in with mentalism and some of the tricks 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.760 that were used, like in the Tables and the Peppers 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.080 go moist illusions and things like that. I cannot recall though, 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:05.160 which show we talked about this on or what the 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.280 nature of the episode was, but it's all kind of fresh. 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:09.840 But I'm glad that you mentioned the origin of the word, 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.240 because in my mind I was thinking of another term 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:14.920 that's been in the Newslet lady is like ectopic, the 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.760 idea of like an ectopic prectic pregnancy. And I'm glad 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.360 you have officially taken all doub out of my mind 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.239 that those words are related, that it is just about 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:23.760 something that happens outside. 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.880 Yeah, ecto as in something you're currying outside in this 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.760 paranormal context, Ectoplasm is what the three of us have 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:36.719 been talking about here, a mysterious substance that is manifested 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:44.040 by individuals with some sort of extrasensory ability, most notably mediums, 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:50.240 specifically physical mediums who commune with the dead or sometimes 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:56.080 completely non human incorporeal spirits. Which is an interesting thing 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.800 because these mediums were, you know, for the most part, 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.160 they were saying, we are in communication with a dead 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.840 human being, but they would also sometimes be talking to 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:14.760 a sentient thing that did not exist on the mortal plane, 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.480 which I thought was fascinating. 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:19.559 It's a weird trip. 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:23.680 I didn't know there were other categories of ectoplasm. There's 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:29.960 teleplasm that's when the medium is emitting ectoplasm at a distance, 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.920 like across the room or in some stories, in a 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:40.240 totally different locale. And then idioplasm that's that's when the 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.880 ghost goop molds itself into the likeness of a person, 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:44.680 you know what I. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:48.040 Mean, yeah, or just some other you know, face, an 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.880 entire body in some cases. And it's weird stuff too, 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:57.200 because it's I like, this idea of teleplasm like just 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:01.160 shows up in different places because you can stories and 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.840 they are stories. Let us assure you of this stuff, 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:07.719 whatever it is, we're about to describe it showing up 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.559 on the medium, like you said, Ben, across the room, 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.920 on the table, underneath the table, in the belly button, 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.880 in the face, just weird in the butt. 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:20.520 Oh oh, if you must. 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.080 You guys, remember that line in True Detective Season one 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:28.000 where Cole where rust Cole says, I smell the psychosphere 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.160 and then his partner thinks he's saying he smells a 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.679 psycho's sphere. And for the longest time I thought that 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:37.920 was because the subtitles say that, But psychosphere is a 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:44.200 thing that refers to it's like the sphere surrounding psychic energy. 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:45.520 And reality around the Earth. 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.120 And I think that term psychoplasm ban that you mentioned 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.120 probably pertains to that. The idea of this being some 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:55.360 sort of byproduct of these this sort of clustered bubble 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.480 of like supernatural energy, I guess right. 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:05.079 Yeah, yeah, being the light fantastic, right, Going from from 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:10.520 everything that science tells humanity death is a one way street, right, 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:15.480 and two from a you know, the idea of scientifically 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:19.280 exploring allegations of the afterlife and the paranormal, you would 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:26.120 want as a scientist, physical reproducible, measurable proof, something tangible 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:32.560 of returning from beyond death, and so ectoplasm or ecto 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.400 as the cool kids called it, not to be confused 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:36.680 with ecto cooler. 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:39.160 It was. 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.800 It was for many people, many very intelligent people. It 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:49.160 was considered the smoking gun of the afterlife, of proof 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.720 of something beyond the physical plane. And if you you 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:57.000 can see pictures of this, and as as you were saying, Matt, 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:00.680 you can read all sorts of stories and anecdotes. Uh, 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:07.040 and when you see the photographs it, uh, maybe we're 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:11.720 spoiled in the world of special effects and CGI. But 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.240 it doesn't exactly take your breath away. It's kind of 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:20.480 a gauzy substance and usually it comes from some orifice 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.720 of the medium's body. And it's cool because it's like, yeah, 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.880 it's like symbiat suit in comic books, right, like the 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:30.880 venom symbia. 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:32.959 It coats the The. 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:37.320 Idea is it coats the spirit, right, like a like 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:38.480 a translucent mech. 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.440 Well, it's almost like it is the medium, the physical 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:46.000 medium through which the spirit plane can enter this realm. 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.000 Like that's kind of the idea. It's it's I was 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:49.400 trying to. 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:50.760 Come up with a metaphor, and ill I have one 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:52.520 dot if you guys have been thinking about it, but 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:57.040 likelub well almost but the idea of you need to 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.959 be covered in this stuff in order to get through 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.120 through a barrier of some sort. 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.640 I know, there's this stuff that people like stunt actors 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.960 when they set themselves on fire in movies, they coat 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.439 their skin with this particular type of material that keeps 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:12.960 the fire from actually touching them. 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.120 It's like the reverse of that kind of I guess 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.480 in a way. I mean, you know, I think that 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:19.280 I think that gibes that tracks. 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:25.480 There's also from the idea of tangible manifestation of otherwise 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:29.400 invisible energy. You could think of the way that you 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:33.600 can see sound waves by vibrations in sand, Like if 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:37.080 you've ever seen that experiment where there's a disk of 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:41.199 sand and then people start playing sounds and you can 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.200 sound Yeah, yeah, you can see the waves of sound 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:46.600 reflected there. 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.800 I think between those two we pretty much got it. Yeah, 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.520 because it is I see what you're getting at mad Itism. 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.760 That's a little hard to put into words because it's 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.880 like a it's something it's almost like a space suit 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.280 in a way. It allows you to traverse a particular 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.480 boundary that you should not be able to exist in. 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.560 Like it's almost like without this stuff, the ghosts either 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.240 couldn't make it. The spirits couldn't either make it into 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.040 this realm or this plane, or they would they would 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:15.360 perish in some. 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:17.120 Way, or they couldn't be perceived. 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:19.560 Yeah, that's the other thing. 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:26.200 The other thought is that when one of these beings, otherworldly, spiritual, ghost, whatever, 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.040 when they show up in our physical realm, this is 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:31.480 what they leave behind. 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.960 What they're wearing that allows them to be perceived at 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:34.840 all too, right. 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.560 Like their fingerprints or the way that you can see 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:43.280 you can see human oils after flesh touches glass. It's 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.440 kind of a residue. And then like to make a 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.280 I'll dumb it down because I think this is maybe 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.000 this is the dumbest example I can think of. It's 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:59.120 why people throw sheets over ghost the laziest ghost costume 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.840 in the history of Halloween. Now that you have the 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:03.400 sheet on, you can see the thing. 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.440 Yeah, Like there's a whole big sequence at the end 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.880 of it follows where they're in this school swimming pool 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:11.040 to the gym and they. 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:12.360 Have to follow the ghost around. 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:14.480 They keep throwing stuff over it so they can like 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:16.720 track it, and then they shoot it because I guess 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:18.600 you can shoot ghosts in modern movies. 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:22.360 It's interesting that we're describing it as gauzy because that 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:25.760 is where like that is how it has been described 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:31.160 a bunch, but there's almost another another version of it 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.360 that is more And you described it as lubeanole like 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:39.760 a but almost as a louby substance, almost translucent, slightly white. 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.920 Hesitating talking about other excretions of the human body here, 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:47.040 because that is kind of the way it's described in 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:47.960 other instances. 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:52.280 Milk going bad. Almost it's like an off AIRYA product. 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:58.160 Yeah, because what's that gross Japanese fermented soybean ben Nato Nato. Yeah, 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.880 it has kind of that tacky like it gets stuck 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:03.560 on your fingers, you know. And by the way, I 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:05.720 was saying lube not to be gross, but just the 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:07.280 idea of it helps you. 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:08.680 Get through something. 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.920 It's like it is a protector, a protection that kind 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:15.520 of helps you navigate a tight boundary. 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:16.960 Now that sounds like I'm being grosser. 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:19.920 Well no, no, you know, if somebody thinks it's gross, 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:23.240 then maybe it's time for you, fellow listener, and take 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.680 a self inventory, because they're all kinds of lubricants. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.960 Now, I just made it weirder spiritual lubricut. 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.840 I'm bringing up milky patches there, because that is the 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:36.960 phrase that Charles Rushet, the guy who coined the term, 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:42.400 used when he first started describing ectoplasm in a paranormal sense. 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:47.760 He began by observing a physical medium named Usapia Palladino, 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:52.400 very cool name, and her ecdoplasmic projections were to him 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:57.400 white veils and milky patches, so he called them examples 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.560 of ectoplasm. And because every sidy is at heart a 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:05.040 doubting tabas, people wanted to touch this, they wanted to 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.920 engage with it, to take samples right, and to analyze 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.639 those samples, which gets tricky later. But we have accounts 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.840 of people that you would consider otherwise skeptical who totally 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.440 believe this, and you can read first hand accounts of 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:24.720 them saying, I visited a medium. They extruded ectoplasm. I 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.320 touched it. It's cool to the touch, it was viscous, 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:30.920 it was slimy, and everybody was on board. 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.560 Yeah, And well, we'll get into the reasons why it 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:37.560 might be so slimy but also somehow you know, look 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:43.040 like a a gauzy almost cloth of some sort, but 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.160 it is really sticky and wet because of maybe where 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:46.640 it's been. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.400 And that's interesting too, because a lot of historical burials 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.200 involved like shrouds and kind of gauzy coverings that would 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.720 be placed over top of the of the body. I 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:00.600 don't know, it's just an interesting connect and I'm saying 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:02.040 it's like means anything. 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.240 Necessarily, people totally leaned into it because at least part 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:06.240 of this so it was branding. 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.359 Yeah, because again, we have a ton of proof of 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:11.680 the existence of this stuff. I don't want to spoil 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:13.320 it right now, but this is sort of a lot 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:14.919 of there's a lot of Laura wrapped up in this, 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.560 and a lot of like historical telephone. I think those 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.159 early burial traditions may well have played a part in 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:24.720 what people have described as as having seen. 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:30.399 There's another aspect here. Folks like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.399 who is famous for a couple of other things, he 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:37.639 was also big into the investigation of ecdoplasm and mediums 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:42.200 and spiritualism. He worked with a medium who was identified 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:47.480 as ev c her full name Eva Correri, but at 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:52.480 first he was just calling her ever c. He touched ecdoplasm, 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:58.639 this medium created and he said, holy smokes, jeepers, you guys, 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:02.919 that's what he said at jeepers. This feels like a 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.439 living material, right, I'm not just touching something cool to 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:12.239 the cool to my fingers. The tactile sensation alone is 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:14.959 not the end of the story. This is moving and 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.679 responding to my touch. This thing, whatever it is, is 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:22.480 kind of like a gunkier version of T one thousand 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.480 in Terminator two. It's changeable, it's mercurial. 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.679 Oh so reminds me of the black goo from the 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.200 Alien films that has sort of a sense shant quality 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:34.119 to it as well. 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:40.720 Yeah, or X files, the black oil goo stuff. That's 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.920 very interesting that Arthur, I was gonna say, Arthur C. Clark, 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.720 and that Arthur Conan Doyle like touched it and he 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.840 did like write about it. And it's a weirder thing 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.560 than even I'm imagining when I'm looking at these historical photos, 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:57.520 at least for this episode, where we'll get into those 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.920 and like what those look like specifically and why there's 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.040 some weirdness with the photography going on there and the 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.280 experiments and the quote controls and all that stuff. But 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:12.159 that is very that's very interesting to me because it 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:14.480 would be i don't know, as a writer like that, 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.879 if that were real and that we're true, or if 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.399 you wanted people to believe it was true, you could 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:23.920 come up with some very compelling stories. 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:25.320 Sure. Yeah. 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.760 I mean also, he's the creator of Sherlock Holmes, right, 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:36.520 And one of the mortal sins in writing fiction is 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.919 to write a character who is the smartest person in 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:43.199 the room, because it's so difficult to do. No, it's true. 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:45.800 I mean, think about it. Every time you see a 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:50.719 super smart character that isn't actually behaving as though they 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:54.399 are super intelligent, it's because the smartest character in the 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.760 room can only ever be as smart as the person 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:03.240 writing that character, which is it's just tricky. It's very 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:07.800 difficult to pull off. So shout out to sir Doyle himself. 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.320 He wrote Sherlock Holmes, and he was still, for a 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:14.320 time very convinced about this ecoplasm stuff. 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:15.760 For a time. 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:20.639 We also know that kind of like how star jelly decays, 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.240 this stuff seemed to decay at first. It was like 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:27.080 clear phlem or snot. 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:28.560 It was almost divisible. 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.320 And again under those conditions that we just teased the 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:37.200 second and go, it would become gradually more gradually translucent, 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:41.240 from transparent to translucent, and then it would start darkening 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:45.000 and becoming more visible as the medium's connection to the 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:50.160 spirit world intensifies. Some people said it would glow kind 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:53.480 of like bioluminescence from beyond the grave. 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:54.360 But. 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:59.840 It only happened in low light. The problem with taking 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:04.600 samples is it would dissipate very quickly under exposure to light. 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.760 Side note Also, we found a lot of people reporting 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:15.080 that ectoplasm had a peculiar strong odor, but no one 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:20.440 seemed to agree on what that odor is like. No, 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:25.520 there's not a single universally accepted description of the smell. 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:28.720 They're just a lot of people saying it kind of smells. 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:33.359 We're laying some really gross foreshadowing points here, folks. Now, 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:36.760 this like the brief history as we're diving in. This 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:39.920 can all sound somewhat ridiculous as we hear it laid 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:42.840 out in this manner. No, I mean, it's it's crucial 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:46.320 that we remember a lot of the proponents of ectoplasm 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:50.240 and spiritualism. They didn't think this was woo woo hippie stuff. 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:52.600 They didn't think it was a cult or in any 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:58.160 way necessarily infernal. In their mind, this was a marriage 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:03.560 of science and spiritual world. The guy we mentioned Rashe, 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:07.199 for example, he's a legit physiologist at this time. He 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:10.720