When researchers had numerous facts proving that ectoplasm is a completely real substance, scientists began to look for an answer to new questions: what is it and where does it arise?
Two diametrically opposite points of view appeared on the problem of the origin of ectoplasm. Some researchers believed that ectoplasm is a material product unknown to science, which, under special conditions, is secreted by the human body. Other scholars have suggested that ectoplasm is a metaphysical, otherworldly substance that appears under the influence of spirits summoned by mediums.
Some even considered it to be a special "primary matter", which was described by the medieval mystic Henry Vaughan.
Moreover, numerous statements appeared that ectoplasm was already known to alchemists, but they described it not in direct, but in cipher text.
The famous writer A. Conan Doyle, in turn, was convinced that ectoplasm is not some kind of mystical structure, but in a special way a materialized memory or image that was formed in the mind of the medium, and when he fell into a trance, this image appeared in our reality. And for such statements, Conan Doyle had good reasons, since he himself repeatedly witnessed the formation of various figures from ectoplasm.
The already familiar ectoplasm researcher William Crawford proposed his hypothesis explaining the appearance of this mysterious substance. In one of his works, published in 1921, he described the vision of the problem as follows. By the way, it should be borne in mind that Crawford calls the spirits "operators".
“The operators influenced the minds of those present and their nervous systems. The smallest particles, maybe even molecules, of psychic energy were removed from the nervous system through the wrists, palms, fingers or other parts of the body of the participants in the session.
The released tiny particles of psychic energy were combined together into a significant force that could come into contact with any person and act on his nervous system. The flow of energetic particles "covered" all the participants of the circle. The flow, gradually increasing at the expense of the participants, at the highest point of its tension reached the woman-medium and charged her with energy, then, having received part of her energy, returned to those present, and so on. In the end, when the energy tension reached its peak, the circulation process ceased, and the particles of energy were concentrated in the nervous system of the medium, who henceforth played the role of a reservoir of this energy. Operators received a good supplier of energy of the type they needed, that is, nerve energy that could act from the body of the medium - the storage of a significant amount of this matter. Through nervous tension, this energy could from time to time leave its reservoir and manifest itself in sessions …"
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Further, Crawford writes: “I compared the white cloud, which forms the structures I study, with photographs of materialized forms at different stages, obtained in sessions with various mediums around the world, and came to the following conclusion: the substance of the structures is very similar (if not its analog) that substance from which the materialized figures are formed. In fact, it will not be an exaggeration to say that this white, transparent, foggy substance is the basis of all mental phenomena or phenomena that arise on the basis of mental laws. They are simply impossible without this substance. It is she who is part of all structures that arise in the session room. When handled and used correctly, these structures are the ones I have studied, or materialized body parts (hands or faces),- can come into contact with the usual forms of the matter around us. In my personal opinion, this substance can be the basis for such special psychic manifestations as “direct voice”. The phenomenon known as "photography of spirits" is also based on the same matter."
In turn, the famous medium Robert Cheney considered ectoplasm to be the spiritual counterpart of cellular protoplasm. He assumed that she was in the intercellular space of the physical body of the medium, making constant oscillatory movements between the physical and spiritual forms.
When a medium "creates" spirits, he uses his own ectoplasm, and also some part of the mysterious way takes from the bodies of people present at the session. As a result of such actions of the spiritualist, the spirit is enveloped in an ectoplasmic substance and appears in front of those present.
While studying a strange substance, scientists discovered the phenomenon of the so-called "ectoplasmic stroke", which is a painful reaction of the ectoplasm for a medium to a sudden flash of light. In this case, the ectoplasm is almost instantly drawn into the body and causes serious injuries to the spirit …
And yet, although at the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th centuries, there seemed to be a lot of facts proving the real existence of ectoplasm, nevertheless, over time, mistrust began to appear in relation to this phenomenon. And first of all, such views were formed under the influence of disclosed hoaxes on the part of some mediums.
For example, it was found that the "ectoplasm", which was isolated during one of the sessions by the Scottish clairvoyant and medium Helen Duncan, consisted of gauze and egg white.
And after some time, interest in the phenomenon of ectoplasm on the part of official science disappeared completely.
Bernatsky Anatoly