Objects materialized out of thin air, usually by a spiritualist medium. Apports became an important part of the spiritualism craze that swept much of the Western world in the late 19th century. The conflict between science and still strongly held mystical and religious beliefs led to an unprecedented interest in the mystical in all strata of society. When a few spiritualist mediums began to hold seances that seemed to confirm the possibility of communication with \u201cthe other side,\u201d people started to flock to them. It seemed that some mediums were able not only to talk with spirits or to be the medium of the spirits’ communication with living persons but also to provide physical evidence of the spirits\u2019 presence. Sometimes this only included such things as mysterious rappings or movements of the table around which the guests were seated, but in the presence of some mediums, the spirits seemed to want to be more concrete in proving their existence: They rained coins onto the table; they materialized as a mysterious substance called ectoplasm that oozed out of a medium\u2019s mouth or nose; they presented fruit and flowers, jewels, and sometimes even live animals to the people present.<\/p>\n
Usually these materializations took place in dimly lit circumstances, and careful investigation proved in several instances that the materializations were frauds. Fraudulent mediums, often with the aid of hidden assistants, used stage magicians\u2019 tricks mirrors, objects hidden in sleeves, skillful use of various draperies, optical illusions, hidden gramophones, and distraction, for example to fool their clients.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Objects materialized out of thin air, usually by a spiritualist medium. Apports became an important part of the spiritualism craze that swept much of the Western world in the late 19th century. The conflict between science and still strongly held mystical and religious beliefs led to an unprecedented interest in the mystical in all strata […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a"],"yoast_head":"\n