Ectoplasm

Ectoplasm is a substance that paranormal creatures and people associated with them emit or are covered in. In some works, ectoplasm works as a property of matter, while in others it's just used to give supernatural entities another layer of otherworldliness. It's common for ectoplasm to be treated as a form of spiritual energy akin to Soul Power.

Ectoplasm can be used to visualize ghosts and differentiate them from normal people in visual media. It's also useful as an indicator that a ghost has been in an area or has interacted with an object. In some works, ectoplasm slime can only be seen under UV light. If this ecto-goo can be weaponized it doubles as the ability Goo It Up.

The strange substance is represented in fiction in a variety of ways but it's often depicted as slimy, gaseous, a form of energy, or a ghostly glow. Ectoplasm has been traditionally portrayed as white or translucent but due to the popularity of the Ghostbusters franchise (and Green Is Gross), green is a common color for the mysterious substance in fiction.

The fictional portrayal of ectoplasm has its roots in old spiritualism and occultism circles. It was believed by certain individuals that ectoplasm was the viscous white substance that mediums secrete during seances. There's several old photos floating around of mediums with what appears to be ectoplasm emerging from their orifices but those photos are staged using white cloth as a stand in for ectoplasm. There is no scientific evidence that the substance in its supernatural sense exists; however, the term "ectoplasm" is used in real-life biology to refer to the translucent outer layer of a cell.

See also Covered in Gunge and Our Ghosts Are Different.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Totsugami: People possessed by ayakashi release a white substance called ectoplasm from their mouths. The ectoplasm is composed of fingernail and saliva.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • In the anime, Pumpking the King of Ghosts has an ability called "Ectoplasmic Fortification", which can increase the attack power of Zombie-type monsters by 10% each turn.
  • Bakura's deck is classified as "Occult" and features mostly Fiend and Zombie-type Monster cards. When dueling against Bonz, he uses the Spell Card Ectoplasmer to finish the match while his Monsters are prevented from attacking.

Fan Works

• In Don't Be Sorry, a Ghostbusters (1984) fanfic, Ray and Winston go out to hunt a ghost and come back covered in thick, blue slime. Ray puts some of it in a petri dish and gives it to Egon, but Egon isn't interested.
• Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Ectoplasm is an item dropped by ghosts that resembles a greenish humanoid figure made of slime. It can be used to craft soil into graveyard dirt and chests into cursed chests, both of which can spawn new ghosts.

Film — Live-Action

• Casper Meets Wendy: Ectoplasm is mentioned a couple of times by Casper's uncles and implied to be some form of essential bodily fluid for ghosts.
• Ghostbusters: In most iterations of the franchise, Ectoplasm takes the form of sticky, viscous slime, usually bright green.
  • Ghostbusters (1984): The ghost haunting the library in the opening scenes leaves ectoplasm dripping from the card catalogs, which Venkman finds particularly hard to fling off of him. Later, Slimer charges at Venkman and covers him in ectoplasm but otherwise unharmed, prompting the famous line, "He slimed me!". And when Venkman meets Dana, but finds that she's been demonically-possessed by Zuul, he notices ectoplasm dripping down her apartment's walls.
  • Ghostbusters II: It's explained that ectoplasm is psychoreactive, which becomes a plot point with experiments on exposure to positive and negative emotions. At the climax, the heroes coat the interior of the Statue of Liberty and play positive music to animate it. They march it through the city, further soaking up positivity from cheering onlookers, allowing it to break through the negatively charged barrier of slime created by the Big Bad.
  • Ghostbusters (2016): At the beginning, a ghost vomits ectoplasm goo all over Abby.
  • Ghostbusters: Afterlife: Muncher leaves behind a faint blue trail of ectoplasm that also, unlike Slimer's from the original films, has a faint glow to it.
  • Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire sees Trevor discover ectoplasm dripping from the ceiling in the firehouse. It turns out Slimer himself has been hiding in the attic, and he promptly slimes Trevor when discovered.
• The Haunting in Connecticut gives it a very distinctive appearance, resembling sewage in coloration and texture, but floating in the air like fog. More disturbingly, it emits from a medium's mouth while they're channeling spirits.

Literature

• Captain Underpants: In Captain Underpants And The Terrifying Return Of Tippy Tinkle Trousers, Young George and Herold pulled a prank on a Gang of Bullies that involves with a ghost they made up. They used shaving cream to make it look like foamy white ectoplasm and put it in the bullies' lockers. When the bullies saw the ectoplasm in their lockers, they scream and ran.
• The Dresden Files: Creatures that are purely magical in nature take form in the physical world through ectoplasm. When killed, their bodies revert to colorless goo and quickly evaporate to nothing, as the spirit is all that holds it together.
• Dumb Witness: A spiritualist describes to a deeply sceptical Hercule Poirot a seance in which one of their number had been surrounded by a nimbus of glowing ectoplasm. Since this was the subsequent murder victim, she thinks this was a sign of the spirits claiming her. It turns out she was actually poisoned with phosphorus.
• Ghostbusters: A Paranormal Picture Book: Before the ghosts show up, Peter finds green goo in the library.
• Reaper Man: Spirit medium Mrs. Cake refuses to have anything to do with ectoplasm, as she finds it disgusting. Apparently, you can't get it out of the carpets, even with vinegar.

Live-Action TV

• Angel: Ethros demons leave a trail of a glowing, viscous substance wherever they go. When Angel and Wesley find some around a house, they realize that someone who lives in it is possessed.
• The Haunted Hathaways: Ectoplasm is depicted as a bright blue opaque goop. Covering a living person in ectoplasm allows them to travel through a mirror to the ghost world, but once it wears off they can never return. Louis uses it to give Frankie a trip to the ghost world for her birthday in "Mostly Ghostly Girl".
• Supernatural:
  • Ectoplasm is a tarry black substance that manifests (or sometimes literally secretes from the host's orifices, if dealing with cases of possession) from the presence of a seriously active and angry ghost. Sam and Dean have only encountered it a handful of times; it's usually a sign the ghost they're dealing with is extremely dangerous or incredibly messed-up in life. It also produces high EMF readings.
  • A variant is introduced in "Southern Comfort": its distinctive dark green colour is the telltale sign of a Spectre, an "avenging Spirit" who is created when the individual was killed in an act they consider a great betrayal, and thus latches onto those who carry similar grudges and forces them to act out their fury.

Music

• Super Ghostbusters: Discussed in a song in which the singer lies that his toilet is blocked with ectoplasm.

Tabletop Games

• Blades in the Dark: Ectoplasm is electrically charged and more properly known as "electroplasm," it's found in both people and the blood of sea-going leviathans (which are actually giant demons). The industrialized post-apocalyptic empire uses it as a power source.
• Chronicles of Darkness:
  • Geist: The Sin-Eaters: Player characters and other Bound use ectoplasm as Mana through their Symbiotic Possession. It forms where The Underworld touches the physical world, appearing as a neutral gel, syrup, or vapor that quickly disappears if not collected. Sites with a steady flow of ectoplasm are especially prized as Home Bases.
  • Mage: The Awakening: Death magic can produce ectoplasm in the form of neutral white goop. As a conduit to Twilight, it reflects images of un-manifested ghosts and helps ghosts manifest through it.
• Dungeons & Dragons: As pseudo-matter manifested from the Astral Plane, ectoplasm is associated with psionics rather than ghosts or spirits. It can be directly manipulated with some psionic powers and has a few uses in Item Crafting.
• Pathfinder: Ectoplasm is a slimy pseudo-matter associated with the Ethereal Plane where ghosts dwell, so it can interact with incorporeal creatures as if they were physical. Some spells create, manipulate, or even weaponize it, and one sorcerer bloodline develops ghostly powers like ectoplasmic Combat Tentacles and Voluntary Shapeshifting into a cloud of the stuff.

Video Games

• The Elder Scrolls: Throughout the series, Ectoplasm is a common drop from various "ethereal" enemies including ghosts, wraiths, and shades. It's described as a filmy goo, usually has a faint glow, and can be used as an alchemical ingredient with its most common property to restore and/or fortify Magicka.
• Ghostbusters: The Video Game features multiple colors of ectoplasm. Ectoplasm often acts as a physical barrier, usually needing a specific gadget or proton pack setting to remove it. It's pointed out that black ectoplasm can be especially dangerous to come in physical contact with.
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Harry can be injured by ectoplasm goo dropped by beings like Peeves the poltergeist. There are also larger buildups of it that block the path and have to be cleared with spells.
• Haunting Starring Polterguy: Poltergeist Polterguy constantly has to collect ectoplasm (bilious green slime) that drops from the ceiling to the floor when he successfully has scared a person out of the room or when he's in the crypt.
• Physical Exorcism: Case 01: Brucie can use ectoplasm to cause evil spirits to manifest, allowing them to be attacked physically.
• Pokémon Sword and Shield: Cursola's body is stated to be made of ectoplasm. It formed from the spiritual energy it absorbed flowing out of its shell until its shell ended up floating in an ectoplasmic body.
• Scribblenauts: Ectoplasm is one of the items the player can create. It's a small green blob that sinks in water, puts out fire, and makes two character classes very curious — the Ghost Hunter, and the Cryptozoologist.
• Terraria: Ectoplasm is a material dropped by Dungeon Spirits, hostile ghosts that pop out of killed undead in the Dungeon after Plantera is defeated. The Ectoplasm is primarily used to make Spectre equipment.
• Total War: Warhammer II: One of the ingredients available for use in the Grom's Cauldron mechanic is Ectoplasm, depicted as a bottle of green slime and obtained after defeating armies containing spectral units. When cooked into a meal, it provides the Ghostly Protection ability, which increases its targets' resistance to physical (but not magical) attacks.
  "Magic pus makes dish betta! No, me don't know where came from!"
• The Witcher: Ectoplasm is an alchemy ingredient that can be obtained from the bodies of ifrits, barghests, specters, noonwraiths, and nightwraiths. It can be used in Hydragenum and Albedo potions.
• Wobbledogs: Ghosts that consume food will produce ectoplasm that your Wobbledogs can eat, taking the appearance of a slimy green blob. Wobbledogs that consume ectoplasm develop black bodies and white legs, alongside occasional random mutations.

Webcomics

• Homestuck:
  • After being brought back to life as a sprite — a being visually very similar to a classic movie ghost, complete with Fog Feet — John's grandma and Rose's cat both show the ability to phase directly through walls with the caveat of leaving large patches of slime covering the places where they do so; this is bright blue for Nannasprite and pink for Jaspersprite, matching their colors. When John alchemically combines Nannasprite's slime with a box of fruit gushers, he gets a pack of "Hellacious Blue Phlegm Aneurysm Gushers" that restore health when eaten.
  • When characters use a transporter machine to teleport a person or thing to them in a manner that would create a time paradox (such as by trying to grab a version of them from the past when they demonstrably never suddenly vanished into thin air), they instead get a "paradox ghost imprint" composed of thick green goo.

Web Original

• Neopets:
  • Ectoplasm Nachos and Steamed Ectoplasm are two items you can buy from the Spooky Food shop. They both depict pale blue slime with two ghost heads emerging from it. This makes sense, since normal ghost pets are also a pale blue color.
  • Wraith Ectoplasm is an award given out during the Wraith Resurgence plot. It's a vial filled with creepy purple goo. As Wraith-painted pets are a creepy black-and-purple, it's implied this ectoplasm functions similarly to ghost ectoplasm, in that it's what they're made of.
  • Discussed in one Festival of Neggs plot, where a strange, glowing goo is seen all over the place. Several characters wonder if it's ectoplasm, which is a distinct possibility, since it was indeed seen in the Haunted Woods. However, when Sophie tastes it, she determines it's not, since she knows what ectoplasm tastes like. It turns out to be a substance secreted by a new species of pet-pet called the Talpidat.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time: In "James Baxter The Horse", a ghost spits ectoplasm over Finn and Jake.
• The Casagrandes: In "Phantom Freakout", the ghost composer spits blue goo onto Ronnie Anne at one point, and she claims it's worse than the drool of her dog Lalo.
• Danny Phantom: Ectoplasm plays a big role in the series. Danny's very transformation happened when he got his DNA infused with ectoplasm, giving him his half-ghost status and abilities. Normal ghosts are entirely made of ectoplasm, and it can also be used to power machinery and ghost-hunting tech.
• Ghost Force: Fury's powers are about using ectoplasm or something slimey to bind rogue ghosts or shield himself and his friends.
• Hilda: In "The Draugen", everything the draugen ship passes through gets covered in ectoplasm.
• The Loud House: In "Ghosted!", a ghost named Shanks Bogey leaves some glowing, sky blue slime on the premises of Lori's college. Lincoln identifies it as ectoplasm and tries to take some home with him in a jar to study, but accidentally gets it on the coach's face.
• The Real Ghostbusters:
  • Ectoplasm has various properties in the series, some of them inconsistent. For example, in one episode, the ectoplasm was spreading over New York, and was said to be incredibly slick, causing people, and vehicles, to slide everywhere. However, in another episode, Slimer uses his ectoplasm to "glue" Peter to a wall and save him from being sucked through a portal in a t.v. that a group of ghosts were using. Adhesive and slippery are not typically associated with the same substance.
  • Ectoplasm can also grant normal humans the ability to pass through solid matter, which Slimer uses to help the Junior Ghostbusters escape from Samhain's stronghold in one episode by sliming them and then allowing them to pass through the barriers.
• The Simpsons: In "Tales from the Public Domain", in the segment that parodies the William Shakespeare play Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet's father tells him about his death. After that he went through the castle wall, leaving some green ectoplasm behind. Hamlet's father came back, leaving more ectoplasm on the wall, saying he needs a sweater cause it's cold outside.
• South Park: Referenced in one episode. Randy Marsh is caught looking at porn on a computer, and claims the white substance he's covered in is "ectoplasm" from a "scary ghost".
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Subverted in "Graveyard Shift", where Squidward tries to claim that the green slime oozing from the walls means a vengeful ghost called the Hash-Slinging Slasher will arrive, but then says, "Oh, wait, they always do that". Thus, implying this green slime is actually a type of mold or fungus.
• The Venture Brothers: In an episode where he tries to bring Hank and Dean back from the dead, the resident wizard Dr. Orpheus ends up covered in ectoplasm.

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