Ectoplasm Encounters

I just finished an eight week class on intuitional development. Normally, the last class is communicating with Spirit, and we did that on the seventh week. The last class was held in Colby Memorial Temple’s séance room, which has been there since 1923. Imagine all the séances held in that room through the years. The energy is amazing.
Before class, I got the keys from the office to make sure they would work, and they did. I was surprised to see a large, rectangular mirror hanging above the medium’s chair in the cabinet. The cabinet in our séance room consists of a pole near the ceiling reaching across the width of the séance room and curtains that are pulled, creating a cabinet. The cabinet space is to create ectoplasm in hopes of Spirit materializing. Red lights are used because light dissipates ectoplasm. In the old days, they didn’t have light, so séances were done in the dark. I read somewhere that they used to put flour outside the cabinet to make sure the medium was not getting up and moving around. It was always checked afterward.
I sat in a phenomenon circle for 18 months. It met once weekly, same time, same place. I never saw Spirit materialize in those sessions, however, I did see ectoplasm, which is a cross between smoke and fog. In one instance it looked like smoke. Have you ever seen a cigarette resting in an ashtray and the smoke rise? That’s what it looked like. One time I did see a full manifestation of Spirit made out of ectoplasm. It happened during a Wednesday Night Message Service when I was receiving a reading from the medium. It appeared right behind him. Amazing. I am a medium, so I saw that. To be true phenomenon, more than one person must see it.
So, when I saw the mirror in the séance room, it made me think of trickery. I am a writer. Let me count the ways. There could be faces somehow sketched in the mirror was my first thought. What can I say, I’m a skeptic at heart. I had never seen a mirror in the séance room, so I draped a blue sheet over it. Class was about demonstrating transfiguration. Transfiguration occurs when ectoplasm comes from the medium’s, or the sitter’s eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth, and causes the face to change, over and over. Everyone sees it. The faces could be loved ones of those watching in the audience, guides of the person sitting, or just spirit wanting to come in. I went first and could hear the students chatting up how this happened and that happened. One student sent me an email the next day after class: ‘Last night was an eye-opening experience.’ This is not for the lighthearted. The reason we practice transfiguration and other phenomena is to prove the continuity of life. Spiritualism has been around for a very long time – modern Spiritualism since 1848.
Me being who I am, a believer, but also a skeptic at heart, asked around about the mirror. Someone said if there were sketches of face in the mirror, they would be the same ones. The mirror, if shaped in a circle and pointed and certain degree, could allow spirit to project out. I may try it sometime. Why not? We’ve all done mirror gazing when we were kids. Then there’s water gazing (used in ancient times) and cloud gazing (one of my favorite pastimes) and candle gazing. All of these are a way to communicate with Spirit, to prove there is life after so-called death.