It's been a long time since I've heard the work "Seance." Martha A., as she is known within psychic circles, has decided to give that craft a renaissance in this skeptical day and age. A practitioner of the lost art of the Seance, she allows herself to become possessed by certain "spirit guides" and on occasion produces ectoplasm. For those who believe ectoplasm to be the slimy substance seen in the "Ghostbusters" movie, I would recommend reading about Mina Crandon (AKA Margery), one of the most ballyhooed of all the ectoplasm-spewing psychics in the 1920's. Back then, ectoplasm was often the texture of cheesecloth or custard, and generally came in shapes such as human faces, hands, legs, and just about anything else you can think of.

Saving Face: Martha A. Spits Up the Other Side

Martha A. has resurrected not just the dead, but this lost of all psychic arts. Completely unable to vouch for the veracity of her claims or her photographs, I will just take this one at "face" value (pun intended) and leave it to the reader to draw his or her own conclusion.

I was able to conduct a telephone interview with Martha A. while she was visiting a friend in the super-freaky town of Casadega - A town filled with mediums and psychics and witches, all a short distance from the tasty waves at Daytona Beach!

D: How would you describe your particular, um, talent?

M: It's not really a talent. It's more a way of seeing things, letting things see through you. Today, in this television age we call it "channeling" because that's what we do. We are nothing but a vessel. Way back when, it was called being a "medium." Here in Casadega a lot of people still call themselves that. Anyway, the way I work is this: I have a "spirit guide" named Simon. He was a watchsmith in England in the late nineteenth century. He died in a boating accident in the English channel. He tells me that he knew me as his daughter in that life, and never gave up his paternal instincts even on the spiritual plane. Simon and I have great communication together, and he is the source of whatever it is I know.

D: When did you first talk to Simon?

M: I was in my early twenties. It was probably 1962. I was attending college when I became interested in honing my skills psychically. I believe he was waiting for me all that time, watching me grow up, hoping I would contact him one day. One day I was meditating and we just started to talk, just like you and I are talking. He told me the whole story. At first I didn't want to believe it but gradually I accepted the fact that I could hear him talking, and he knew things. Instinctively I just knew it was right. It just felt right.

D: In no way am I trying to challenge the existence of Simon, but did you eve r try to find him in any historical record?

M: What difference would that make? This works like everything else. On faith. Let's say I found Simon didn't exist - Records were kept very poorly back then and you could easily say his records were lost somehow. If I found that he did, then maybe he really existed and somehow I'd heard about him somewhere. I don't even know Simon's last name. I just know. I just know.

D: I didn't mean to challenge his existence.

M: No, I understand how you must feel. I just have to tell you how I feel about him. It's important that you know.

D: Tell me about the ectoplasm.

M: I wish there was another name for it. "Ghost-juice" or something! (laughs) I was conducting a Seance one day in the mid 1970's. Now you have to understand that I generally don't remember what happened after a Seance. I come out of my trance, which is like being asleep only Simon is there, and people tell me what I told them. I am sometimes completely amazed by what I've told them about. Anyway, I came out of a trance and there was a waxy kind of blob of something sitting in front of me. I thought somebody had vomited! But it didn't smell. Anyway, I looked down at it and saw a woman's face made of this kind of translucent jelly. It startled me and the guests told me that while I was talking it just came out of my mouth when I was telling them about a ring that had been stolen from one of the guest's mothers. Simon told me later that it was as if she was so mad that she clawed through the spiritual plane and tried to reach through my body. About an hour after the proceedings, the mass had just turned to dust. I can't explain it.

D: How often do you have these kinds of manifestations?

M: You can hardly set your watch by it. I think my sensitivity is such that certain spirits see a door and they try to go through it. They push, but they are on another plane. They can only push so hard. You could say it depends less on me than it does on the spirit.

D: How does Simon feel about this? Does he protect you?

M: Simon says that there is no way for the spirits to hurt me. If anything, it hurts them, robs them of essence.

D: How do you generally feel after one of these Seances?

M: Spent. I usually go to sleep for several hours after one of these ectoplasmic things happens. It can really take it out of you!

sources

Interview with Martha M. December 18, 1998

Photo's courtesy of Martha A.