Ectoplasm isn't from Ghostbusters; it's from spiritualism—the belief that people can communicate with their dead loved ones through mediums—and it came into vogue after the Civil War. But are spiritualists for real, or were they playing tricks? The great illusionist Harry Houdini knew a lot about tricks, and he was obsessed with proving that anyone taking money for talking to spirits is actually just pulling a mean magic trick. When Houdini's good friend, writer and scientist Arthur Conan Doyle, set out to prove Houdini’s legendary escapes were due to help from the spirit world, Houdini would spend the final chapter of his life battling his experiments to expose the phonies and the fakes in this mystical world.

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