Flo Stair

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s definition ectoplasm pertaining to the supernatural is “a substance held to produce spirit materialization and telekinesis”. Ectoplasm is better remembered as green slime that ghosts left behind in the 1984 blockbuster hit “Ghostbusters”.  Whether ectoplasm is actually real or not has been much debated in the scientific and paranormal community.

After World War I there was an increased interest in spiritualism, a religious movement that involved contacting deceased loved ones using a psychic medium. The increased interest in this movement was mostly likely brought on by all the soldiers and that had died during the war, and their family wanting to contact their loved ones beyond the grave.

Ectoplasm was supposed to be physical proof that they were communicating with the dead. It was a term used to define a physical emanation of the supernatural, most like coming out one of the medium’s orifices such as the mouth, nose or ears. Some early researchers merged the idea of ectoplasm with the theory of “ectenic force,” these researchers were trying to find a physical explanation for psychokinetic experiences happening during séances.  Count Agenor de Gasparin and his colleage M. Thury hypothesized its existence to explain the phenomena of tables turning and the sounds of tapping during séances. The two researchers claimed they have had success with their experiments on ectenic force, but their results have not been verified independently.

Ectoplasm was so commonplace that it was revered in the scientific community and was featured in scientific journals, its existence was confirmed by such great minds of the times such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Butler Yeats. Once Scientific America offered $5,000 to anyone that could demonstrate this phenomena to a scientific panel, this money was a means to an end to the validity of ectoplasm.

Many researchers uncovered fraud, and do not believe ectoplasm is plausible. Many séances were conducted in poor lighting which enabled the mediums to follow through with their illusion of ectoplasm. Researcher Harry Price debunked medium Helen Duncan’s ectoplasm, by analyzing a sample of the ectoplasm she produced from her mouth. His finding determined it was a piece of cheesecloth that she had swallowed and regurgitated later. Duncan also used dolls and masks that would ooze fake ectoplasm.

What the scientific panel uncovered was even more disturbing than what Price discovered. Many methods and materials were used to create the illusion of ectoplasm. Some mediums would cut magazines or photographs and stick them to cheesecloth and pass them off as spirits of the dead. The medium examined by the scientific panel had a very creative methodology. She concealed a sheep gut and fat mixture in her vagina, which she would expulse at a certain time to make it look like she was expelling ectoplasm.

With the exposure of these frauds the displays of ectoplasm and credibility of mediums waned. After the were war fake mediums preyed and exploiting desperate people wishing to contact their loved ones, and ruined the credibility of real mediums. Although this term is widespread in popular culture, it is mostly rejected in the science community and is still debatable up until this day if it is real or faux.

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You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout….not because Santa Claus will put you on the naughty list, but because you’ll get a swat from a scary incubus with claws, known as Krampus, and possibly dragged into hell in a basket.  Depending on where you live, the holidays may not be all about holiday cheer and positivity, but instead, a rather terrifying one if you weren’t a good boy or girl this year!

If you’re from Germany or Bavaria, or any Alpine region, the legend of Krampus may be a familiar one.  In fact, December 6th marks a day known as Krampusnacht (Night of Krampus), also regarded as the “night before St. Nicholas”.  To celebrate, people will have parties featuring men dressed as the holiday devil himself.  Costumes include sheepskin, claws, horns, and switches so that they can swat unsuspecting children and maybe a few ladies.   Other costumes will also include witches, devils, wild-men, and other scary get-ups while bearing torches and copious amounts of alcohol and an event called Krampuslauf (Krampus Run).  In fact, these men are encouraged to terrorize the children.  Interestingly enough, the Pennsylvania Dutch culture has a figure very similar to Krampus called, Pelsnickel or Belznickel.  So some traditions stayed after the migration from Germany to North America.

Krampus means, “claw”, and he is the darker counterpart of Saint Nicholas.  While Santa Claus will reward nice children, Krampus will swat naughty children, terrify them with his cloven hooves and monstrous tongue that would make Gene Simmons blush, and tying them to baskets with chains and taken down to hell.  If that’s not motivation to behave, I don’t know what is!

The belief and lore of Krampus is actually older than Jesus.  Krampus was born from an Alpine Pagan tradition during winter solstice that dates back to pre-Christian times.  In fact, the origin of Krampus has a performance element to it due to villagers dressing up as mythic creatures, animals, wild-men, and devils and performing in parades and plays (known as mummery).  It is believed that this was one of the early inspirations for Halloween.  And here’s another fun fact, the common figures in these rituals was Old Man Winter and a horned Goat-Man.  Sound familiar?  Santa actually has more pagan roots associated with winter solstice than our traditional Christian-themed Christmas holiday.

It’s not only the men who get to have “fun” during this season, women can also have their share as well.  Many women will wear masks and dress up as the Nordic goddess Perchta, otherwise known as Frau Perchta.

It would have been a sin to deprive you of this image of Krampus and Santa riding it SOA style.

One of my favorite parts about the Krampus tradition is the Krampus cards, holiday greeting cards with a humorous and dark twist featuring our favorite holiday devil.  These booomed in the mid-1800’s as Christmas cards became popular in Europe.  Of course there needed to be balance between the good and evil, light and dark, grim and cheerful…right?

In the last 10 years, Krampus has been featured on the series, Supernatural, and has even paid a visit to The Colbert Report.  Monte Beauchamp has played a large role in resurrecting Krampus in American culture by reintroducing the figure in his books and shedding light on the vintage art.

Here’s a video of a Krampusleuf from 2010:

If you want to learn more about Krampus, take a gander at these websites:

Krampus.com

Krampus: Devil of Christmas

10 Fun Facts About Krampus

The post Krampus: The Holiday Devil appeared first on Association of Paranormal Study.

Written by APS Founder & Mid Atlantic Director:

Alex Matsuo

Today, the mainstream media has seemed to make the paranormal “normal” so to speak.  Many people credit television shows and documentary style of presenting the paranormal in such a way where it’s no longer a novelty or cliché, but a legitimate experience that many people share.  Many people think that the paranormal craze started in the late 20^th/early 21^st century and that this is a fairly new thing.

Actually, it’s not.  However, the perceptions of the paranormal has changed and evolved over the course of human history, and it’s a cycle that is simply repeating itself as opinions and the influence of religion changes.

What we call the paranormal today was called something else completely different before the term was even coined.  For the purpose of consistency, I’ll use the term “unknown” for the duration of this piece.

For thousands of years, humans worshipped deities whether it was in the form of a single God or several different gods and goddesses.  There was an awareness and knowledge of a spiritual world that was beyond our physical world.  Communicating with deceased ancestors was not out of the norm, and was a common practice.

But then, things changed…

Let us consider Elizabethan England, or the Renaissance.  The Reformation movement saw a new age of Protestantism and Catholicism became a hushed practice.  There wasn’t any mainstream knowledge of the unknown at the time, and those who studied and practiced it were regarded as evil or unholy so to speak.  Stories of such individuals like Doctor Faustus ran rampant to show the repercussions of seeking knowledge and consorting with the Devil.  According to the Bible, those that looked like spirits of our loved ones were really evil spirits in disguise meant to trick us.  And mediumship was out of the question as well and they were not popular people (but still consulted in secret).

Salem was not the only one famous for witch trials.  In England, there was a very real fear of witches and any sort of practice that would be interpreted as consorting with the Devil.  After participating in several witch trials in North Berwick, King James I of England (and VI of Scotland respectively) wrote a favorable account of witch hunting in his book, Daemonologie, in 1597.  This perception was acceptable and enforced.

Now, let’s fast-forward to the 19^th century.

http://www.occultopedia.com

Victorian times found a fascination with gothic themes and horror.  Stories of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde plus Charles Dickens incorporating ghosts in his works.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the rise in spirit photography, Spiritualism, séances, eerie special effects on the stage, and the founding of The Ghost Club in 1862 plus the Society for Psychical Research (1882), and American Society for Psychical Research (1884).  If there weren’t a widespread acceptance in what they perceived as the unknown, it wouldn’t have been as popular as it was.

It seems that acceptance of the unknown comes in waves.  The popularity of the unknown today is not unique, but it looks like this is here to stay for a while.  Hopefully, this acceptance will continue and not go back into hiding in a few decades.

But also rest assured that the acceptance of the unknown has come and go because there are people who have had experiences, regardless of societal views.  The popularity that we see today is thanks to media exposure heightening our awareness, but the popularity is not new for us, and hopefully the cycle will continue in the believer’s favor.

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