A closer look

If you attended a seance in 1890, you might witness a medium spewing 'ectoplasm'—the physical manifestation of the spirit realm. In reality, you were watching a scammer who had just swallowed twenty feet of cheap muslin cheesecloth and was slowly gagging it back up in the dark. Some even rubbed the fabric in goose fat to make it look shiny and organic. People paid huge sums of money to sit in a parlor and watch someone painfully vomit a scarf.