Margery Crandon tried to prove she was a legitimate medium by producing ectoplasm that was actually animal tissue

A closer look

Trying to definitively prove the afterlife exists often requires hiding butchered animal parts in your underwear. Mina 'Margery' Crandon was the most famous medium of the nineteen twenties, known for exuding a strange psychic substance called ectoplasm from her body while wearing only a bathrobe. She completely baffled scientists and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, until magician Harry Houdini ruthlessly investigated her. The mysterious ghost stuff was later analyzed by biologists who revealed it was actually carved up animal lungs and windpipes she had smuggled into the seance room.