Ted Serios and his Thoughtographs

Theodore Judd Serios (1918-2006), a bellhop from Chicago who appeared to possess a genuinely uncanny ability. By holding a Polaroid camera and focusing on the lens very intently, he was able to produce dreamlike pictures of his thoughts on the film; he referred to these images as "thoughtographs..."

Full article here.

Collection of thoughtographs here.

Wikipedia page here.

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Paul - Wed Feb 28, 2018
Category: Eccentrics | Freaks, Oddities, Quirks of Nature | Photography and Photographers | Unsolved Mysteries | 1960s

Comments

It's hard to believe he was taken seriosly.

Posted by ges on 02/28/18 at 11:20 PM

As a kid I would pick up cheap paperback books whose main subject matter was about people with abilities that The Amazing Randi would love to skewer and debunk. I remember this guy's story being in one of those books. Even as a 10 year old kid I thought the whole thing was a bit wacky.

Posted by KDP on 03/01/18 at 09:43 AM

Let's sharpen up Occam's Razor. Ted Serios was an unemployed bellhop and hardcore alcoholic. Hard to buy alcohol when you are unemployed. It is FAR more plausible that Jule Eisenbud found Serios and set up a fraud to make a name for himself.

Posted by PupTentacle on 03/01/18 at 11:00 AM

After seeing Otto in 'A Fish Called Wanda' go take a gun through the airport metal detector, I've wondered how much a magician like Randi could smuggle through.

Posted by BMN on 03/01/18 at 11:11 AM

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