Jule Eisenbud Collection on Ted Serios and Thoughtographic Photography -
Historical Note
Born in New York City, New York, November 20, 1908, Jule Eisenbud was heavily involved with psychoanalysis and psychology throughout the early stages of his professional career and opened his own private practice in 1938. Eisenbud was a clinical faculty member at the University of Colorado, and an honored member of the American Society for Physical Research and Parapsychology Foundation.
Eisenbud met his main subject, Ted Serios, in 1961 in Chicago. At the time, Serios was an unemployed bellhop who claimed that he had the ability to put images on film with his mind. Although initially skeptical of Serios, a significant number of successful experiments under tightly controlled conditions convinced Eisenbud that Serios's talent was legitimate. Ted Serios's ability, which came to be known as "thoughtography", gained national attention with his appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson and an ongoing challenge between Serios and renowned magician "The Amazing Randi." Eisenbud offered a large sum of money to any magicians who claimed they could duplicate Serios's actions under the same conditions, but he never received a challenge.
The actual process of producing a thoughtograph was fascinating to watch, as Serios often required vast amounts of liquor to get going and became very restless before he could produce an image. Once he was "hot", or ready to produce, Serios placed a paper tube, or "gizmo" on his head (supposedly to channel the paranormal energy), and has a photograph taken of his face from very close range. These 'gizmos', were tube like constructions of varying length, width, and diameter improvized from paper, plastic, or other materials available at the site of the experiment. The fact that Serios uses a "gizmo" in many of his thoughtographs is one of the most criticized parts of the experiment, as many have accused him of placing some sort of micro-lens in the gizmo while the observers looked away. Eisenbud has often countered by ensuring constant close observation of Serios, and examining the gizmo for such a lens before and after shots. The debate and skepticism of the experiments is detailed greatly throughout much of his correspondence, and witness statements as well.
The images that are produced consist of "whities", blackies", and various forms of images, often buildings of various sorts. These images are supposed to relate to randomly selected "target images" chosen without Serios's knowledge beforehand, of which he is asked to determine on his own and create. While some of his thoughtographs have corresponded to the target photos or verbal requests of the observers, the success rate in this regard is generally very low. For example, following a selected target photo of an iron, Serios produced an automobile that was mysteriously shaped like the same iron. In one of his more spectacular feats, Serios produced a clearly distinguishable image of Eisenbud's ranch right on the spot, after Eisenbud's wife Molly suggested that they take a trip there. The majority of the results are "whities" or all white images, and "blackies" or all black images, which are abnormal themselves, as the image produced should have always been Serios. The majority of Serios's successful thoughtographs are of various buildings or landmarks, to which similar photos could often be found in travel books. The images are in various degrees of focus, with many in a "zoomed" in appearance of a small part of a larger image. In addition, many of the images have abnormalities, such as being slightly skewed, turned side-ways, or slight alterations from the corresponding image that could be found to match the thoughtograph.
Serios continued to produce thoughtographs until the late 1960s, at which point, Serios seems to have "lost his ability" to produce. At the peak of Serios's success, Eisenbud published his first book on Ted Serios, titled "The World of Ted Serios," in 1967. Although Serios lost his ability to produce photographs, Eisenbud stood by his conviction that Serios's thoughtography was real, groundbreaking, and deserving of much more attention than it was given. Furthermore, Eisenbud asserted that the Serios thoughtographs were not replicated under the same conditions by any magician or scientist. To this day, whether or not Serios was a fraud is still unclear. However, no one has been able to successfully demonstrate how Serios could have produced such images through any method other than Eisenbud's theory of psychic energy, or 'thoughtography'.
Eisenbud also worked with several other research subjects, including a man who claimed he could bend spoons with his mind, a woman who claimed she could predict cards before they were chosen at random, and another woman who claimed her hand was "possessed" and wrote things on its own. However, Eisenbud's main focus remained on his work with Ted Serios, on which he actively gave speeches, promoted, and defended until his death in March 1999.
Serios's photographs continue to be displayed in various photographic conventions to this day, and at the publishing of this finding aid in 2005, scriptwriter Chris Carter (of X-Files fame) was working on a script for a movie documenting the relationship between Ted Serios and Jule Eisenbud.
