New Materialization Film

The Felix Experimental Group reports the newest film of ectoplasmic materialization at our friends, the Montcabirol Circle, seen here in this video of a bit more than 5 minutes, which shows the medium's confinement in the cabinet before the curtains are drawn, and after a few moments of loud, Scottish music (there is a method to the madness) unformed ectoplasmic material can be seen briefly exposing itself, withdrawing for a few seconds to gather more energy, and then forming itself into a hand, which probably belongs to one of the three spirit team members whose hands have managed to materialize and be caught on film. In this case, given his preference for loud and nostalgic Scottish tunes, it's probably that of John Campbell Sloan, a well-known and sometimes crabit direct-voice medium in Scotland during the first half of the twentieth century. Note that the ectoplasm is being displayed against a card - also manipulated by Spirit - to help make it stand out better in the darkness. [If you click on the video, it will take you to YouTube where you can see it a larger version.]



And here is the film of the first and greatly historic materialization event, also of John's hand. Be open-minded and do not attempt to analyze or judge - keep your opinionated ego-mind at bay. Be questioning if you want, but remain open. Here, a board with luminous paper, provided by the earthly team, is brought out and levitated behind the hand to give it more visibility.

For a while, it has seemed that the use of ectoplasm by Spirit for manifestation purposes was on the wane, but now appears to be coming back with more and more frequency. Tim has manifested several times in the arms of August using ectoplasm. The following excerpts from our book may assist in understanding what you're seeing in the videos:

I reached back and grasped his hand. It was definitely a hand, but seemed very small for an adult. Tim tried to pull away from me but I only held on more firmly. As we each pulled in opposite directions his fingers stretched as if made of raw bread dough. Without letting go, I stopped pulling and so did he, and I felt his hand fill out until it felt like a normal, adult-sized hand. (The Risen, p. 262)

and again:

“Yessss,” he murmured very faintly, as if with a voice coming not from human vocal cords but sounding like a soft funnel of wind. I reached up and gently grasped his hand, and this time he didn’t pull away, nor did I try to turn around. As before, his hand felt just like bread dough and I could feel it moving and swelling as the hand and arm gained shape and strength. Although it didn’t feel like a human hand, I knew it was Tim’s all the same, and I caressed the fingers softly and carefully as they caressed mine back. I continued to whisper with growing excitement, “Oh my god, it’s really you, you’re here! ” I was ecstatic! (The Risen, p. 271)

Below is a video of what appears to be some stunning film stills of a full materialization event — probably in Brazil, (known for its fervent spiritist communities,) as the brief text accompanying it seems to be in Portuguese, which Babelfish translates, as "Materialization of the fiancé for Grown Jose. Removed of the program Social Vision, transmitted stretch through the Band-Bahia, Saturdays, to 09h (during the summer schedule)."

We note in The Risen that ectoplasm is:

". . . highly plastic and pliable, able to take on the visible form of human bodies and body parts, and even animals and objects. There is a little bit of ectoplasm in everyone. It’s rarely able to withstand exposure to sunlight and most artificial lighting, although it has been observed to tolerate red and infrared light more easily, thus rendering it visible in certain circumstances. We know how powerful and damaging sunlight can be, and have seen its effects on goods that have been in shop windows for a period of time or on curtains and rugs, and on our own skin as well. The sun ages our skin slowly over years, but it ages ectoplasm instantly. In experiments where a bright light was shown on ectoplasm, it immediately retracted back into the medium’s body, causing great pain and nausea to the medium, and even illness for days. There have even been reported deaths. " p. 169

Some explanation of what you're seeing: this is a full materialization of a woman in spirit. The film demonstrates how they use a closet as the medium's cabinet -- the medium stays inside, in trance, and the cabinet helps gather and store the spirit energy necessary to enable various phenomena; it's rather like a battery. They use a red light to enable the filming, as white light would disable it. (The similarities to a photographic dark room are apparent here.) The medium is shown reclining in a trance state with the ectoplasm beginning to extrude from her mouth. It often comes from other orifices (yes, we know, ewww.)

She has materialized outside the medium's cabinet (the medium is inside and completely unconscious in trance) and stands next to who we believe might be Jose, the man who had been her betrothed at the time of her transition, when they were both much younger. (This is our assumption - there are other men in the film, which is in one language and sounds as if it's being spoken over in another; if anyone can translate what's being said here, please share!)

She appears to be heavily veiled in some muslin-like material, and skeptics often claim this is used to hide a terrestrial embodied person's identity who is committing the fraud. In actuality, this "muslin" is ectoplasm, formed to protect her still-vulnerable body formed by the highly volatile ectoplasm from what little light is allowed to be projected on it. It is also there to protect the medium, for should the ectoplasm be assaulted by too much light (and it doesn't take much), the ectoplasm, which has been gathered by Spirit chemists to extrude from the medium's body, will suddenly disintegrate and try to re-enter the medium's body without proper preparation. This would very likely seriously injure the medium, while ending the manifestation. Note how she briefly demonstrates this effect by exposing her one hand -- which is not yet fully formed, but rather crude and perhaps even without skin, as the body slowly builds into human form, using the ectoplasm as the material. Her "veils" are somewhat artfully formed and draped for a pleasing appearance, which suggests rather a high degree of skill and energy; many materialized spirits can only achieve the crudest of drapings, which sometimes look like a person with a sheet thrown over their head. With time and practice, the sheeting can be reformed to manifest more elaborately and more of the body, which begins to achieve a slightly stronger resistance to the effects of light. In this case, it appears that the medium's team have devised a way to give the materializing spirit control over the lighting, able to dim or increase the brightness of the red light as she needs.

We look forward to more amazing things from the Montcabirol Circle!

For more stimulating stuff, see Victor Zammit's spirited presentation about his investigation and first-hand experience authenticating the modern materialization medium, David Thompson.