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 THOUGHT- OGRAPHY 

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The above photograph is known as the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, Norfolk, England, taken by a professional photographer a Captain Provand, who was on an assignment for the next edition of the Country Life Magazine U.K. in September 1936. His assistant, Indre Shira, saw the lady coming down the stairs but Captain Provand didn't, but he took the photograph anyway, and was very surprised at the outcome. this photograph was given to the magazines experts to examine and those at Kodak and could not come to any conclusion as to why or how the image came to be there on the print. Another one for the scientist to ponder on.

The above photograph is know by many as the Greenwich Ghost. In 1966 it was taken in Queen’s House, Greenwich, London by Reverend R.W. Hardy. He took it as a reminder of this imposing staircase he did not see anything at the time of taking the shot. On developing the film it clearly shows a shrouded figure, bent over and climbing the stairs. As is usual in these circumstances, the photo and original negative were examined thoroughly by experts at Kodak. They could not explain the figure and were certain the photograph was not double-exposed.

The development of the modern scientific community soon had something to work on with the coming of modern Spiritualism in the 1800's. They turn their attention to the pioneers who at first welcomed them with open arms as they thought the scientists had open minds. The Spiritualists of the time soon found out most had blinkers on and would not remove them. They had fixed ideas and nothing would change their minds.

As most people find out for themselves the mysterious Spiritual and Psychic Phenomena does not stick to hard and fast rules that are imposed on the scientific people. The photographers of the past and many times in this present age think the scientist will take notice of evidential proof of the Spirit photograph, only to find out the scientists blanket cover all the Spirit photographs as fakes and Spirit Phenomena as fraud and all Spiritualists corrupt. It is easier for them that way as it does not go against their upbringing in their pigeon holed, blinkered religions.

The photograph was taken by a Mrs. Mabel Chimney in 1969 and the extra is the deceased mother who is sitting in the back seat of the car behind her husband. The couple had just finished photographing the grave of Mrs Chimney to use up the film before taking it to the Chemist to have it developed, she took a picture of her husband sitting in the car by himself. On picking up the photographs from the shop she saw the Spirit Extra seated on the back seat and recognized it as her mother, surprised at this Mrs Chimney had it examined by the photographers at a national newspaper who declared it genuine and not tampered with in any way. They sent it off to a photographic expert at Kodak for analysis. Who could not put up any explanation, only to say it had not been tampered with in any way, neither in their opinion had the photograph been double exposed.

In 1891, and published in 1895, an experimental Spirit photograph was taken by Sybell Corbett, who was staying in the Combermere Abbey, Cheshire, England. with her sister. Setting the camera up in the large library she noted the time in her diary and left the camera on open exposure for one hour. The room was kept free of any visitors for that period of time. When the developed plate was seen, it revealed a faint image of a man sitting on one of the chairs. The photograph was shown to one of the relatives of the owners of the house, and they confirmed the apparition was Lord Combermere, who had been accidently killed five days before, was being buried in the churchyard up the road on that very day.

Ada Emma Deane with what is said to be a thought imposed Spirit form.

Tomokichi Fukurai
In 1910, Tomokichi Fukurai, an assistant professor of psychology at Tokyo University and a firm believer in the supernatural, took a woman named Ikuko Nagao under his wing. Unlike his previous failed experimentation with clairvoyant Chizuko Mifune earlier that year, Fukurai was determined to prove his claims as true and decided to work with Nagao's skill, a talent he labeled nensha (spirit photography). Unfortunately, Nagao's efforts were also labelled as fraudulent; distraught by the claims, she developed a fever which ultimately led to her death. However, Fukurai was undeterred, and in 1911, Fukurai worked with other nensha practitioners but found little success.

In 1913, Fukurai took on a subject that would advance his claims further, a woman named Sadako Takahashi. Takahashi, who claimed to have developed both clairvoyance and nensha through breathing and mental exercises, met Fukurai and soon was able to breathe life into his sagging studies. She was able to convince enough skeptics that later that year Fukurai published a book called Tōshi to Nensha, later translated and published throughout the world as Clairvoyance and Thoughtography. Fukurai would later work with another nensha practitioner, Koichi Mita, who was said to create a thoughtograph of the dark side of the moon.

In the end, however, Fukurai's theories never gained widespread popularity, and in 1919, he resigned his post at the university to continue his research. Before his death in 1952, Fukurai founded the Fukurai Institute of Psychology, an organization that studies the paranormal and still survives to this day.


Ted Serios
In the 1960s, Chicago resident Ted Serios became notorious for the production of nensha on Polaroid film supposedly using only his psychic powers. His abilities were endorsed by Jule Eisenbud, a Denver-based psychiatrist who wrote a book lauding Serios' talents called The World of Ted Serios: "Thoughtographic" studies of an extraordinary mind. Serios' images, which often appeared surrounded by dark areas on the film, were often of typical postcard scenes. Serios eventually was only able to produce his photographs while holding "the gismo" to his forehead. This device has been described as "a small section of tubing fitted with a piece of photo squeegee."

As Eisenbud's book readily admits, many of Serios' thoughtographs were produced while Serios was drunk or drinking alcohol. According to Eisenbud, "Ted Serios exhibits a behavior pathology with many character disorders. He does not abide by the laws and customs of our society. He ignores social amenities and has been arrested many times. His psychopathic and sociopathic personality manifests itself in many other ways. He does not exhibit self-control and will blubber, wail and bang his head on the floor when things are not going his way." (as quoted in professional photographer Nile Root's own investigation into Serios.)

Most of Serios's feats were dismissed as a simple hoax by most educated people. Eisenbud's faith in Serios was extreme, and even as late as the 1980s, Eisenbud claimed that previously unidentified thoughtographs were images of Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter. Pictures of Ganymede had only become available a year before thanks to Voyager 2. "Unfortunately," wrote Eisenbud, "I couldn't get an astronomer or optical scientist to agree."


Uri Geller
In 1995, famed psychic Uri Geller began to perform nensha by using a 35mm camera upon which the lens cap would be left on. He would then take pictures of his forehead, and then have the pictures developed, to which Geller claimed that the images had come directly from his mind.

Stage magician and skeptic James Randi immediately criticized the event, claiming fraud on Geller's part (see below).


Criticism
Root was present at the March 1966 session where Serios claimed to have created thoughtographs and states that the small, handheld device Serios used was in many ways a miniaturized daguerreotype maker, creating the pictures in this manner. Furthermore, Root charges that Serios' wild manner and actions may have been a deliberate attempt to hide prestidigitation to insert the object into the "gizmo" which would then expose the film. Root has since then given extensive details on how he believes the thoughtographs were created, as well as "digital versions" of the same.

Randi, based on his studies of Eisenbud's work, makes similar claims about Serios. A quote from Randi's website states:

"If Mr. Serios did not use a trick method, all the rules of physics, particularly of optics, everything developed by science over the past several centuries, must be rewritten to accommodate Eisenbud's opinion. No such revisions have been found necessary."

As for the Geller incidents, Randi states that Geller is either performing a similar act as Serios, or is using already-exposed film in the camera, a charge Geller has consistently denied.

Source from wikipedia

Photography where extra faces appear on developed film, go back as far as the history of photography itself. Some have even claimed to photograph actual human thought-forms. Photography of this sort almost inevitably provoked accusations of fraud that were difficult to disprove. In 1910, Dr. Tomokichi Fukurai, a professor of literature at the Imperial University of Tokyo, conducted a series of experiments in thought-ography. The publication of his findings aroused such hostility among Japanese scientists that he was forced to resign his position. He then continued his work at a Buddhist university associated with a temple of the esoteric Shingen sect of Buddhism on top of Mt. Koya. His works were translated into English in 1931 in a book titled Spirit and Mysterious World. Although it showed a carefully planned scientific investigation, even the psychical researchers of the time were not ready to deal with this type of data, embedded as it was in Buddhist philosophy.

It was not until the late 1950s that a claim for psychic photography was taken seriously by researchers. The special gift for creating these photographs was discovered in Ted Serios, a Chicago Bellhop who had little formal education. The phenomena began when Serios allowed a friend to hypnotize him just to pass away the time. Serios claimed to be able to describe the locations of buried treasure. The friend then suggested that he concentrate on making photographs of the locations when he pointed a camera at a blank wall and triggered the shutter. They did not find buried treasure, but to their amazement, actual images appeared on the Polaroid prints of things that were not visible in the room.

The phenomena came to the attention of members of the Illinois Society for Psychic Research who eventually persuaded a Denver psychiatrist, Dr. Jule Eisenbud, to observe one of Ted's demonstrations. After a long string of failures, Serios managed to produce a striking success for Eisenbud, who, although he had engaged in previous psychical exploration with the context of psychoanalysis, was unprepared for phenomena of this sort. After a sleepless night, he invited Serios to Denver for further study. Eisenbud spend two years conducting well-controlled studies with Serios. He was quite aware of the history of fraud and gullibility in research of this sort and claims that he took every precaution to guard against it. He book, The World of Ted Serios, published in 1966, contains the results obtained from his examinations.

Livery Stable
Thoughtograph


The way in which Ted's mind ostensibly shaped the pictures was sometimes quite remarkable. In one session, in front of several witnesses, Ted first tried to reproduce images of the medieval town of Rothenburg. Then the experimenters asked him to try to reproduce an image of the old Opera House in Central City, Colorado. Serios agreed, and then asked the experimenters if they would like a composite of both images. The results are extraordinary. The photograph shows a striking resemblence to the livery stable across from the old Opera House. However, instead of the brick masonry, the image shows a kind of embedded rock characteristic of the buildings in the medieval town.
 

The large photograph shown is an enlargement of a Polaroid "thoughtograph" of the Denver Hilton Hotel. Eisenbud held the camera, which as pointed at Serios' forehead. Ted, at the time, was trying to produce an image of the Chicago Hilton ("I missed, damn it.") Eisenbud claimed that this image could only have been made with a lens different from that of the Polaroid 100, from an angle well up in the air, between the tree tops. This suggests that the thoughtographs are associated with out-of-body or traveling clairvoyant states.

Eisenbud's book is noted for detailed observation, but even more remarkable is the penetrating study of this anomalous phenomena and the reaction to it of scientists and educators. To Eisenbud, the photographic manifestations seemed to follow a pattern pointing to the active operation of the animistic powers known to ancient people:

As to building blocks for a theoretical structure that might bridge the gulf on other fronts between the mental and physical,...I can't think of a better place to begin than right where Ted is (and hopefully where others like him will be). For in a study of images and imagery of this sort – and in phenomenon like dreams, hallucinations, and apparitions, which prove not less remarkable and even more familiar than Ted's image – we are confronted by various organized entities with one leg in the world of reality and one leg in that extraordinary world we ordinarily term appearance.
Adequate understanding of the Serios phenomena can only be obtained through detailed study of the experimental reports. During the following years, studies were also conducted by researchers at the Division of Parapsychology of the University of Virginia Medical School. These researchers failed to detect any signs of fraud in their cooperative subject, and they successfully obtained numerous striking photographs. While they were calling for further study of this puzzling phenomena, Serios' abilities began to fade and he has remained less active for the past thirty years. However, as of this writing, in November 2000, reports continue to come in of researchers who are obtaining some photographic evidence with Serios.
Skeptics claim that Ted Serios was definitely exposed by Charlie Reynolds and David Eisendrath, both amateur magicians and professional photographers. They presented their account in a Popular Photography piece (October 1967) based on one weekend with Serios and the psychiatrist Jule Eisenbud, whose book, The World of Ted Serios, had sparked their ire.

However, the November 1967 issue of Popular Photography published Eisenbud's response letter:

I hereby state that if, before any competent jury of scientific investigators, photographers and conjurers, any chosen by them can in any normal way or combination of ways duplicate, under similar conditions, the range of phenomena produced by Ted, I shall (1) abjure all further work with Ted,  buy up and publicly burn all available copies of The World of Ted Serios,  take a full-page ad in Popular Photography in order to be represented photographically wearing a dunce cap, and  spend my spare time for the rest of my life selling door-to-door subscriptions to this amazing magazine. No time limit is stipulated.
An article in Fate, August 1974, revealed that only one magician had responded to this delectable invitation. The Amazing James Randi couldn't resist the bait, but on learning of the conditions he backed out. According to Randi, one of the conditions was that he perform in a state of alcoholic intoxication, as Serios had typically done. As a non-drinker, Randi found this condition unacceptable.

Is this a hoax? To me is certainly looks like one that is stage managed.

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