It is said that ectoplasm is the reason that ghosts can materialize. The reason that this residue is visible is because it gives spirits a physical link to the corporeal world. Many cases of ectoplasmic residue often mark a strange appearance or physical disturbance in a haunted area. For this reason, when ectoplasm is spotted, specialists in spirit divination and ghost tracking are called. Ectoplasm has also been known to come from the body of a "medium," or a person acting as a bridge to channel with the spirit world. Photographic pictures along these lines will include shadows or fog around a medium's stomach, heart, mouth ears or nose. In some cases, ectoplasm can even come from a living person, as can be seen in eighteenth-century photos.
For as many objets of "proof" that exist, there are also a great deal of shams. In the twentieth-century divining rooms that sprung up during the Spiritualist movement, seances were often held for members of the public. During these rituals, webs and pieces of gauzy fabric were covered with flourescent paint and glowing materials to create fake ectoplasm. Sometimes liquid was released in an effort to create tears or rain by spirits. Sometimes this cloth or liquid would be dropped from the ceiling, and pulled back up before the end of the seance. Visitors would be warned not to touch the "spirit residue," lest they come to grave harm. Since seances were often held in the dark, an unknowing public was awed and taken in by feats that they could not explain.
