Direct Voice
For the spirit world to be able to speak to us using their own voice they have to able to vibrate the physical atmosphere. As they do not have a physical body they have to find an artificial way to do this. One way is to create an artificial voice box out of ectoplasm (see picture right) this enables them to talk to us as they once did when they lived upon the earth.
Because the voice box can very often be small and very quiet, the assistance of a trumpet is often used to not only amplify the sound but also to direct to the person they wish to speak to. A seance trumpet is a cone of aluminium about 2 feet long (60cms) by making the voice box in the small end it will act as a simple megaphone and amplify the sounds.
Ectoplasm
Ectoplasm is a substance taken from the mediums body and according to Arthur Findlay, mixed with an etheric substance. This enables the spirit controls to affect physical matter. Depending upon the way it was developed it is very often light sensitive. For that reason many seances are held in either total darkness or a low red light.
Ectoplasm is extruded from the medium through any opening, very often through either the mouth, ears or nostrils. The picture (left) shows Jack Webber with ectoplasm streaming from his mouth. Also see picture above where it is coming out of one of his ears to produce a voice box for direct voice phenomena.
In 1990 I was present at a seance with Gordon Higginson at Stansted Hall when ectoplasm started to come from the solar plexus area as a thin cloud. It then condensed and formed into two arms complete with hands.
The picture on the right shows an ectoplasmic rod about to levitate a table.
Ectoplasmic phenomena is now very rare. One of the reasons for this is the very long time it takes to develop. It can also be quite hazardous for the medium. On several occasions the physical medium Helen Duncan had her seances raided by the police to try to prove fraud. When they tried to grab hold of the materialised forms the ectoplasm withdrew so rapidly back into her that it caused internal haemorrhaging. She died of heart failure ten days after her last seance was disrupted in this way.
http://www.s-upton.com/spm/religion.htm