ECTOPLASM - Ectoplasm emerged as a nifty way for mediums to "show" people that those spirits really did exist and could physically manifest. Usually, this ectoplasm would kind of ooze from the body -- the mouth, an ear or any other orifice you could imagine. This ectoplasm sometimes looked like gauzy, cloth-like material or mysteriously took the form of faces of the spirit that was being invited to talk. Some of the most famous "physical" mediums were later found to be cutting out pictures from newspapers and using the cover of darkness to "manifest" the stuff - For a long time, ectoplasm was absolutely something mysterious. In a séance, a medium supposedly communicates a spirit. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, séances were a popular fad. People were quite into the idea that souls or spirits were floating around us. Ectoplasm emerged as a nifty way for mediums to "show" people that those spirits really did exist and could physically manifest. Usually, this ectoplasm would kind of ooze from the body -- the mouth, an ear or any other orifice you could imagine. This ectoplasm sometimes looked like gauzy, cloth-like material or mysteriously took the form of faces of the spirit that was being invited to talk. Others would just swallow some cloth or paper and spit it up for effect. A kind of gross trick, but not really from another dimension, after all. It's pretty easy to find lots of photographic "evidence" of the kind of spooky ectoplasm

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Ectoplasm

What is ectoplasm?

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A strange visage appears on a piece of cloth next to the head of medium Marthe Beraud
 (aka Eva C) during a seance, circa 1910. Ectoplasm got its start in such seances.

Ectoplasm emerged as a nifty way for mediums to "show" people that those spirits really did exist and could physically manifest. Usually, this ectoplasm would kind of ooze from the body -- the mouth, an ear or any other orifice you could imagine. This ectoplasm sometimes looked like gauzy, cloth-like material or mysteriously took the form of faces of the spirit that was being invited to talk. Some of the most famous "physical" mediums were later found to be cutting out pictures from newspapers and using the cover of darkness to "manifest" the stuff

BY KATE KERSHNER

To most of us, the definition of ectoplasm is "a slime in 'Ghostbusters.'"

To a more select group of people, it is the outer layer of cytoplasm that helps make up an amoeba.

And to an even smaller subset of the population, ectoplasm is a substance that secretes off spirits -- or their earthbound medium -- and might just help that medium produce spooky, otherworldly feats for awed witnesses.

Now. Guess which explanation for ectoplasm is actually rooted in reality?

It doesn't exactly take a biologist to figure out that we should probably go for the amoeba one, as it does sound vaguely familiar -- in that high school science class kind of way. Also, ghosts aren't real.

But don't tell that to the small, yet vocal, part of our audience who chose the latter definition.

Because for a long time, ectoplasm was absolutely something mysterious but not altogether insane -- if you were hanging out at séances, that is.

In a séance, a medium supposedly communicates (or helps others communicate with) a spirit.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, séances were a popular fad. People were quite into the idea that souls or spirits were floating around us, waiting to be nudged with a question.

Ectoplasm emerged as a nifty way for mediums to "show" people that those spirits really did exist and could physically manifest.

Usually, this ectoplasm would kind of ooze from the body -- the mouth, an ear or (let's just be polite) any other orifice you could imagine.

This ectoplasm sometimes looked like gauzy, cloth-like material or mysteriously took the form of faces of the spirit that was being invited to talk.

Or perhaps not so mysteriously, considering that some of the most famous "physical" mediums were later found to be cutting out pictures from newspapers and using the cover of darkness (ectoplasm would supposedly disappear in light, you see) to "manifest" the stuff.

Still others would just swallow some cloth or paper and spit it up for effect. A kind of gross trick, but not really from another dimension, after all.

It's pretty easy to find lots of photographic "evidence" of the kind of spooky ectoplasm mediums were into.

And it probably isn't a huge surprise that people took these pictures as proof; in the burgeoning days of photography, it was easy to assume that white splotches on a badly rendered picture were ghosts or that the carefully staged pictures were candid.

Lesson being, for those asking you for a definition of ectoplasm at a party, you can really judge what kinds of people they are by which definition they cleave to.

Kate Kershner, Contributing Writer
Kate Kershner has a degree in creative writing from Western Washington University.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/unexplained-phenomena/ectoplasm.htm

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA - Medical science is only beginning to understand the ways in which the mind influences the body. The placebo effect, for example, demonstrates that people can at times cause a relief in medical symptoms or suffering by believing the cures to be effective — whether they actually are or not. Using processes only poorly understood, the body's ability to heal itself is far more amazing than anything modern medicine could create. So, while there are many unexplained phenomena, and frankly some of them are dubious, the explainable science of the body and mind, even if we're still trying to figure much of it out, may be among the most amazing phenomena of all. Science is powerful, but there is much it can’t explain. And when people see, hear or believe something that is not explained, science finds itself trying to prove things don’t exist, and that’s truly impossible. You’ll learn more about some of the most common inexplicable phenomena — from ghosts to supposed man-like beasts, from incredible experiences at the line between life and death to amazing but unexplained feats of the mind itself. Some residents and visitors in the small city of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hum in the desert air. Despite the thousands of Bigfoot that must exist for a breeding population, not a single body has been found. Psychologists note that people subconsciously pick up information about the world around us, leading us to seemingly sense or know information without knowing exactly how or why we know it. Psychic powers and extra-sensory perception (ESP) rank among the top ten unexplained phenomena if for no other reason than that belief in them is so widespread.

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Spooky!

Top 10 Unexplained Phenomena

By Live Science Staff

What Science Can't Explain

Aliens

Science is powerful, but there is much it can’t explain.

And when people see, hear or believe something that is not explained, science finds itself trying to prove things don’t exist, and that’s truly impossible.

In the following pages, you’ll learn more about some of the most common inexplicable phenomena — from ghosts to supposed man-like beasts, from incredible experiences at the line between life and death to amazing but unexplained feats of the mind itself.

How much of this is real? We’ll let you decide.

The Taos Hum

Some residents and visitors in the small city of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hum in the desert air.

Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Some believe it is caused by unusual acoustics; others suspect mass hysteria or some secret, sinister purpose.

Whether described as a whir, hum, or buzz and whether psychological, natural, or supernatural no one has yet been able to locate the sound's origin.

Thing is, a survey revealed that those who claim to hear the sounds actually hear many different sounds, suggesting the experiences may be subjective, not actually objective sounds (and pretty certainly not one particular sound).

The next item on our list could fill big shoes if it had to. Guess what it is?

Bigfoot

Bigfoot

For decades, large, hairy, manlike beasts called Bigfoot have occasionally been reported by eyewitnesses across America.

Despite the thousands of Bigfoot that must exist for a breeding population, not a single body has been found.

Not one has been killed by a hunter, struck dead by a speeding car, or even died of natural causes.

In the absence of hard evidence like teeth or bones, support comes down to eyewitness sightings and ambiguous photos and films.

Since it is logically impossible to prove a universal negative, science will never be able to prove that creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster do not exist, and it is possible that these mysterious beasts lurk far from prying eyes.

Call us skeptical, and check out our complete story about Bigfoot.

Intuition

CEO and employees

Whether we call it gut feelings, a 'sixth sense,' or something else, we have all experienced intuition at one time or another.

Of course, gut feelings are often wrong (how many times during aircraft turbulence have you been sure your plane was going down?), but they do seem to be right much of the time.

Psychologists note that people subconsciously pick up information about the world around us, leading us to seemingly sense or know information without knowing exactly how or why we know it.

But cases of intuition are difficult to prove or study, and psychology may only be part of the answer.

If your intuition is telling you that the next slide is about mysterious disappearances, you're right!

Mysterious Disappearances

Families of missing persons sometimes consult psychics
when they feel the police aren't doing enough.

People disappear for various reasons. Most are runaways, some succumb to accident, a few are abducted or killed, but most are eventually found.

Not so with the truly mysterious disappearances. From the crew of the Marie Celeste to Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart, and Natalee Holloway, some people seem to have vanished without a trace.

When missing persons are found, it is always through police work, confession, or accident never by 'psychic detectives').

But when the evidence is lacking and leads are lost, even police and forensic science can't always solve the crime.

One word about our next slide: Boo!

Ghosts

Paranormal Haunting

From the Shakespeare play "MacBeth" to the NBC show "Medium," spirits of the dead have long made an appearance in our culture and folklore.

Many people have reported seeing apparitions of both shadowy strangers and departed loved ones.

Though definitive proof for the existence of ghosts remains elusive, sincere eyewitnesses continue to report seeing, photographing, and even communicating with ghosts.

Ghost investigators hope to one day prove that the dead can contact the living, providing a final answer to the mystery.

Our next mystery is not about ghosts. Our next mystery is not about ghosts. Wait a minute? Haven't I read that before somewhere?

Deja vu

A confused man. The growing complexity of science -
and the different levels at which people understand science -
may require society to rethink scientific expertise.

Deja vu is a French phrase meaning 'already seen,' referring to the distinct, puzzling, and mysterious feeling of having experienced a specific set of circumstances before.

A woman might walk into a building, for example, in a foreign country she'd never visited, and sense that the setting is eerily and intimately familiar.

Some attribute deja vu to psychic experiences or unbidden glimpses of previous lives.

As with intuition (see #3), research into, human psychology can offer more naturalistic explanations, but ultimately the cause and nature of the phenomenon itself remains a mystery.

The next mystery is really out of this world. Read on!

UFOs

Jerusalem's dubious UFO

There is no doubt that UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) exist — many people see things in the skies that they cannot identify, ranging from aircraft to meteors. Whether or not any of those objects and lights are alien spacecraft is another matter entirely; given the fantastic distances and effort involved in just getting to Earth from across the universe, such a scenario seems unlikely.

Still, while careful investigation has revealed known causes for most sighting reports, some UFO incidents will always remain unexplained. [UFO Sightings & News]

You must check out the next mystery. We're deadly serious.

Near-Death Experiences and Life After Death

Many people report seeing a bright light at the end
of a long dark tunnel after a near-death experience.

People who were once near death have sometimes reported various mystical experiences (such as going into a tunnel and emerging in a light, being reunited with loved ones, a sense of peace, etc.) that may suggest an existence beyond the grave.

While such experiences are profound, no one has returned with proof or verifiable information from "beyond the grave."

Skeptics suggest that the experiences are explainable as natural and predictable hallucinations of a traumatized brain.

A study of people in cardiac arrest in 2015 found that when the heart is dying, it gets peppered by signals from the brain, which tries to stay active.

The scramble of signals might be responsible for near-death experiences, researchers figure.

Two mysteries to go. Can you divine what they might be?

Psychic powers and ESP

This is not our columnist, Benjamin Radford. But Radford does see
the future:  He predicts that predictions for 2009 won't
be any more accurate than they were in 2008.

Psychic powers and extra-sensory perception (ESP) rank among the top ten unexplained phenomena if for no other reason than that belief in them is so widespread.

Many people believe that intuition (see #3) is a form of psychic power, a way of accessing arcane or special knowledge about the world or the future.

Researchers have tested people who claim to have psychic powers, though the results under controlled scientific conditions have so far been negative or ambiguous.

Some have argued that psychic powers cannot be tested, or for some reason diminish in the presence of skeptics or scientists.

If this is true, science will never be able to prove or disprove the existence of psychic powers.

The Body/Mind Connection

Medical science is only beginning to understand the ways in which the mind influences the body.

The placebo effect, for example, demonstrates that people can at times cause a relief in medical symptoms or suffering by believing the cures to be effective — whether they actually are or not.

Using processes only poorly understood, the body's ability to heal itself is far more amazing than anything modern medicine could create.

So, while there are many unexplained phenomena, and frankly some of them are dubious, the explainable science of the body and mind, even if we're still trying to figure much of it out, may be among the most amazing phenomena of all.

Live Science Staff

For the science geek in everyone, Live Science offers a fascinating window into the natural and technological world, delivering comprehensive and compelling news and analysis on everything from dinosaur discoveries, archaeological finds and amazing animals to health, innovation and wearable technology. We aim to empower and inspire our readers with the tools needed to understand the world and appreciate its everyday awe.

https://www.livescience.com/11345-top-ten-unexplained-phenomena.html 

PSYCHOKINESIS - Mind Over Matter - Some people link psychokinesis to the spiritual world, suggesting for example that some reports of ghosts — such as poltergeists — are not manifestations of the undead at all, but instead the unconscious releases of a person's psychic anger or angst - The word psychokinesis is derived from the Greek words for "mind" and "motion" and is also called PK or telekinesis. Though many Americans believe in psychic ability, about 15 percent of us, scientific evidence for its existence remains elusive. If people could move everyday objects with nothing more than their thoughts, this should be quite easy to demonstrate. The idea is that if the ability exists, its force is obviously very weak. Therefore, the less physical energy that would have to be exerted on an object to physically move it, the more obvious the effect should be. The idea of people being able to move objects through mind power alone has intrigued people for centuries, though only in the late 1800s was it seen as an ability that might be scientifically demonstrated. This occurred during the heyday of the early religion Spiritualism, when psychic mediums claimed to contact the dead during séances, and objects would suddenly and mysteriously move, float, or fly by themselves across the darkened room, seemingly untouched by human hands.

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Psychokinesis

Facts About Mind Over Matter

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Some people even link psychokinesis to the spiritual world, suggesting for example that some reports of ghosts — such as poltergeists — are not manifestations of the undead at all, but instead the unconscious releases of a person's psychic anger or angst

By Benjamin Radford - Live Science Contributor 

Scientific evidence for the psychic ability to move objects or bend spoons remains elusive.

"Who here is psychic? Raise my hand!"

That's an old joke, but there are several claimed types of psychic powers, including precognition (knowing the future) and telepathy (describing things at a remote location).

But for sheer impressiveness it's hard to beat psychokinesis, the ability to move objects through mind power.

The word is derived from the Greek words for "mind" and "motion" and is also called PK or telekinesis.

Fictional psychokinetics are easy to find: The popular X-Men comic and film franchise includes the character Jean Grey, whose powers include extrasensory perception and psychokinesis.

The 2009 movie "Push" is about a group of young Americans with various psychic abilities who team up and use their paranormal powers against a shadowy U.S. government agency.

Though many Americans believe in psychic ability (about 15 percent of us, according to a 2005 Baylor Religion Survey), scientific evidence for its existence remains elusive.

Some people even link psychokinesis to the spiritual world, suggesting for example that some reports of ghosts — such as poltergeists — are not manifestations of the undead at all, but instead the unconscious releases of a person's psychic anger or angst.

If people could move everyday objects with nothing more than their thoughts, this should be quite easy to demonstrate: Who wouldn't like their latte delivered by a psychic barista from across the counter, floating it right to your hand with a mere gesture?

This doesn't happen, of course. Instead researchers have focused on what they term "micro-PK," or the manipulation of very small objects.

The idea is that if the ability exists, its force is obviously very weak. Therefore, the less physical energy that would have to be exerted on an object to physically move it, the more obvious the effect should be.

For this reason, laboratory experiments often focus on rather mundane feats such as trying to make dice land on a certain number at an above-chance rate, or influencing a computerized random number generator.

Because of this change in methodologies, psychokinesis experiments rely more heavily on complex statistical analyses; the issue was not whether a person could bend a spoon or knock a glass over with their minds, for example, but whether they could make a coin come up heads significantly above 50 percent of the time over the course of 1,000 trials.

Spiritualism and mediums

The idea of people being able to move objects through mind power alone has intrigued people for centuries, though only in the late 1800s was it seen as an ability that might be scientifically demonstrated.

This occurred during the heyday of the early religion Spiritualism, when psychic mediums claimed to contact the dead during séances, and objects would suddenly and mysteriously move, float, or fly by themselves across the darkened room, seemingly untouched by human hands.

Though many people were convinced — including, ironically, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes — it was all a hoax.

Fraudulent psychics resorted to trickery, using everything from hidden wires to black-clad accomplices to make objects appear to move untouched.

As the public slowly grew wise to the faked psychokinesis, the phenomenon faded from view.

It was revived again in the 1930s and 1940s, when a researcher at Duke University named J.B. Rhine became interested in the idea that people could affect the outcome of random events using their minds.

Rhine began with tests of dice rolls, asking subjects to influence the outcome through the power of their minds.

Though his results were mixed and the effects were small, they were enough to convince him that there was something mysterious going on.

Uri Geller, shown speaking at a press event in Moscow in 2009,
made millions in the 1970s by claiming he could bend spoons with his mind. 

Unfortunately for Rhine, other researchers failed to duplicate his findings, and many errors were found in his methods.

In the 1970s, Uri Geller became the world's best-known psychic and made millions traveling the world demonstrating his claimed psychokinetic abilities, including starting broken watches and bending spoons.

Though he denied using magic tricks, many skeptical researchers observed that all of Geller's amazing feats could be — and have been — duplicated by magicians.

Public interest in psychokinesis returned in the 1980s.

One person nationally known for claimed psychokinetic ability, James Hydrick, tried to demonstrate his powers on the television show "That's My Line" in 1981, following several successful television appearances.

He claimed to move small objects, such as a pencil or the pages of a telephone book, with his mind.

Host Bob Barker consulted with skeptic James Randi, who suspected that Hydrick was merely discreetly blowing on the pages to make them move.

To prevent this method of trickery Randi placed styrofoam bits around the open book, as the lightweight pieces would clearly be disturbed if the pages were moving because of Hydrick's breath instead of his mind.

After many awkward minutes in front of Barker, Randi, a panel of judges, and the live studio audience, a flustered Hydrick finally said that his powers weren't cooperating.

Hydrick later admitted that his psychokinetic powers had been faked, and marveled at how easy it had been to fool the public.

Frauds and fakery

The history of psychokinesisis a history of frauds and fakery, both proven and suspected.

Even many researchers admit that the data fall far short of scientific standards of proof; researcher Russell Targ, in his book "The Reality of ESP" (2012, Quest Books) acknowledges that "the evidence for laboratory psychokinesis is quite weak."

Recent advances in virtual reality technology may, however, be the next best thing.

In 2017, a company called Neurable announced plans to develop psychokinesis — or at least a virtual reality form of it — for a game called Awakening.

Using a combination of eye movement tracking technology and electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors in a headset, the game allows a player to move and manipulate objects in a virtual world merely by looking and thinking.

After an initial calibration process that takes several minutes, the players can select and move computer-generated images.

Perhaps one day technology will allow us to actually move objects with our thoughts, but until then we must be satisfied with the power depicted in fiction and fantasy.

Benjamin Radford

Live Science Contributor

Benjamin Radford is the Bad Science columnist for Live Science. He covers pseudoscience, psychology, urban legends and the science behind "unexplained" or mysterious phenomenon. Ben has a master's degree in education and a bachelor's degree in psychology. He is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and has written, edited or contributed to more than 20 books, including "Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries," "Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore" and “Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits,” out in fall 2017. His website is www.BenjaminRadford.com.

https://www.livescience.com/28119-telekinesis.html