Ectoplasm photographed at suicide scene on top of Leslie Dam Wall

For those people who've see "Ghostbusters," ectoplasm may be a familiar word. In the movie, it was used to describe the slimy green goo that ghosts slopped all over the three ghost-hunting heroes. But what is ectoplasm, really? And can it be explained by any other phenomena other than ghosts?

For the beginner, ectoplasm is the supposed residue left by spirits. This concept became especially famous in the time of Freud, and made up a large portion of the Spiritualist movement in the twentieth century. According to studies done during this movement, ectoplasm can take many forms, but is often seen as a yellow-green hue or ooze around a ghosts body. Ectoplasmic residue is often spotted in pictures, when a ghost interferes with a shot. It can also be spotted in the air and sometimes with a special flashlight or pair of goggles. At times, moving through ectoplasm has been "noted" to be the cause of illness or possession. Breathing or exuding it is a sign of being in contact with the supernatural world.

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So ectoplasm is not only a gooey substance. People seem to have different ideas on what ectoplasm is. Here is another example of a photograph that is considered to have ectoplasm.

Photograph 1
Taken December 1948, in complete darkness, with a Kodak Infra-red plate.

"My mother is in deep trance sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, which, with the black curtain seen in Photograph 3 formed the very simple cabinet which assisted the 'building process' of the materialised spirit people. The ectoplasm is emanating from her mouth and in this form it is quite transparent, very similar in appearance and texture to chiffon.

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However ectoplasmic mist seems to be most pertinent to this thread.


The ectoplasmic mist shows the outline of the
upper-torso of a spirit.




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Originally posted by Yossarian

Photograph 1
Taken December 1948, in complete darkness, with a Kodak Infra-red plate.

"My mother is in deep trance sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, which, with the black curtain seen in Photograph 3 formed the very simple cabinet which assisted the 'building process' of the materialised spirit people. The ectoplasm is emanating from her mouth and in this form it is quite transparent, very similar in appearance and texture to chiffon.

Hehehe. Honey, just sit still and stuff this pile of cloth in your mouth. lolol!
Anyway...

Here's a place I'd like to stake out one night just because it looks so much like your typical haunted house from a story. Middle of no where. Roof sagging in, so old a forest has replaced the lawn and yard. The first couple of times I drove by it I thought it was an old barn you don't normally see houses gone this far. It's in farm country so there are no nieghbors.



[edit on 11/8/2006 by librasleep]

Ok lets make two things clear here.

You say that you were not smoking, and that it was too warm there for it to be fog. It's approaching summertime in Australia anyways...

Okay carry on people. If The collective is telling the truth about he/she not smoking, then those two theories cannot be used to debunk the photo.

Folks,regardless of what created the image, there is an image there,no? You all are trying to pick it to death. Look at the picture!! There is something there!!

The ghosts I've seen have looked as life-like as you or me -- with the exception they for some reason have no legs visible from about the knee area down (it doesn't affect their height though).

However, once I 'felt' something very powerful and disturbing. It was in Australia, strangely enough, at the no-longer used dam out on the road going past the Fenton estate in West Burleigh, Gold Coast, Queensland.

It's a very picturesque spot, with the trees reflected on the surface of what was once the dam and which is now basically a lake. There's a raised walkway that leads out to what was the old pump-station and on the other side of the wall is the old dam face itself. Only a little water leaks through it now, plunging down to a dark, overgrown gully.

We were on the sunny side though; late afternoon. The scenery was stunning and we pulled off the road to look, seeing we had some time to kill before an appointment. We left the car and walked to the edge of the water. My companion decided to walk out to the pump station.

I stayed where I was, sipping a drink and gazing out to the mirror image of the trees on the water, over on the opposite side. Beautiful sunny late-afternoon. Glorious surroundings. We were in a marvellous frame of mind.

No other way to describe it, other than to say I was soon swamped by feelings of horror, depression, forboding, etc., because it was exactly as if someone was speaking to me. Except I was alone.

The speaker was a young girl. Her way of speaking was to fill my mind with images of what had happened to her. She'd been taken to the dam at night by a group of men on motor cycles. They were drunk. They'd raped her repeatedly. Then they'd wrapped chains around her and thrown her into the dam. She'd been terrified. She showed me that she had dark hair, shoulder length. The chains were still around her. I received an image of the events during which she was murdered, followed by an image of her scattered skeleton intermingled still with the chains in dark water.

She expected me to do something on her behalf.

My friend returned from his exploration of the pump house, to find me in a subdued mood. I asked him what the pump station was like. He replied it was much as could be expected; graffiti all over the walls, remains of a small fire, rubbish, etc.

We got back in the car and went on our way. It felt to me exactly as if the sun had been removed from my surroundings. Everything seemed shadowy and gloomy; inside the car, the roadway, etc., even though in actuality, nothing had changed and the sun was still shining as brightly as before.

Not long afterwards, I returned to the same spot with someone else. I'd said nothing about the affect it had had on me, etc. Again, even though once again it was a glorious day, the other person grew fearful looking. I asked what was wrong. They said they wanted to leave --that the place felt bad, sad. Then they said: ' Someone got killed here, didn't they?' I felt guilty for subjecting them to it, but I'd wanted to see if what I'd experienced was simply imagination or if others would sense it too. I've driven past the spot since, but haven't stopped.

All this took place twenty or more years ago. I don't think of it very often at all. But when I do, I feel guilty for not doing something for the girl, for not at least researching old news reports to see if a girl went missing in the area. The fact is, at the time I went to the dam, I had a very full and demanding life and wouldn't have known where to begin looking for information. Still wouldn't, in fact.

In movies, intrepid paranormalists scour libraries and come up with the information. But real life is different. The girl could have lived anywhere within a hundred mile radius. Motor cycles can cover large distances in a few hours, especially at night on unpoliced roads. If a girl really was murdered in the way I was led to understand, her disappearance may never have been reported; people may have assumed she moved or ran away from home. Short of getting permission from the local Council and paying someone to dredge the edges of the dam, there's no way to prove if anyone actually was murdered there. And I was in no position to approach Council or pay anyone to dredge for bones. It would have been very labour intensive because the edges of the dam are thick with plant growth. And I would never have risked the inevitable media attention such a search would attract-- the media always ridicules ghost topics.

Maybe the girl will find someone else to help her. Or, those bikies must be getting pretty old by now and she might have already exacted her revenge on them, via dreams, hauntings, guilt, fear, etc. All in Time .......

Originally posted by librasleep

Here's a place I'd like to stake out one night just because it looks so much like your typical haunted house from a story. Middle of no where. Roof sagging in, so old a forest has replaced the lawn and yard. The first couple of times I drove by it I thought it was an old barn you don't normally see houses gone this far. It's in farm country so there are no nieghbors.

[edit on 11/8/2006 by librasleep]

That looks like an exelent place to start, what is it an old church or something? just looks like a church because there is only one door at the front. There is an old farming house just outside of Allora same description, but looks WAY haunted. And Dock6 thats a pretty amazing experience, thank you for sharing that with us.

Dock6, that was a truly spooky story, I am not a particular believer in ghost storys but that one sent continuous shivers down my spine as I read it, and I do believe it!
If it were my experience I am pretty sure that I would have had to at least of attempted to avenge that poor girls soul, even just to give me a little peace of mind. Maybe just google the location with a few of the key words from your story. Or if it doesnt scare you, then you should go back and ask some questions to try and bring you a little clue or something, good luck (might stop you thinking about it so much).

Anyway back to the point of this thread, a few nights ago I was out on the beach taking pictures of the moon. As I sat on a bench in the dunes, smoking a cigarette, I continued to take pictures using the flash to try and pick up the dune grass infront of the moon, all my pictures came out like this, I had faces, figures and shapes of all sizes in the smoke that I was exhaling.

I could have cropped half of the pictures I took and posted them on the net if I wanted to create a hoax and I am sure some of them could have fooled half the people that looked at them too. But hey, thats not my style.

Now look, I am not saying that this pic is a fake, but I am saying that it looks almost identical to the pic's I ended up with in it's essence, and mine were smoke.

If this is fake you should have cropped the figure and It would have made a better spirit picture.

If it is'nt fake then it is a truly amazing occurance to have captured, so well done.

Please dont take offence, as I am just denying ignorance like I am supposed to here on ATS, and I am not here to upset anyone in anyway.

Good luck and I hope you can get some real pro outlook on this pic.

Kindest regards xS_Gx