The World of Ted Serios: "Thoughtographic" Studies of an Extraordinary Mind [Library Binding]

Jule Eisenbud (Author)

Product Details

• Library Binding: 260 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company; Rev Sub edition (November 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089950423X
• ISBN-13: 978-0899504230
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,949,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Mind Found and Lost-The World of Ted Serios., March 24, 2001

By 

Stephen D. Weiss (Palm Desert, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The World of Ted Serios: "Thoughtographic" Studies of an Extraordinary Mind (Library Binding)

This absolutely fascinating and rivetingly true story is perhaps the only verified account of paranormal activities ever photographically documented with clear, crisp images. But...these images were taken by Ted's mind...and he was never in view of the objedts that came out on the film! Written by psychotherapist Dr. Jule Eisenbud, M.D., the book details the incredible events which occurred between Dr. Eisenbud and his patient, a Chicago hotel doorman named Ted Serios over a period of several years. What makes the story very believable are several facts - Firstly, Ted Serios was an alcoholic with a penchant for bar brawling, comfortable as a hotel doorman and not in any way a person seeking a new career; secondly, he was a very reluctant patient and was never a publicity seeker; and thirdly, he dissapeared abruptly one day and was never seen again by Dr. Eisenbud, ending the scientific experiments forever. If Serios was a true publicity hound or trying to create a "Vegas Lounge Act", he would have gladly stayed with the exposure Dr. Eisenbud was giving him. and Dr. Eisenbud himself comes across as a serious and dour scientific investigator in no way trying to sensationalize his amazing find.

Ted Serios was brought to the attention of Dr. Eisenbud by someone who heard of Ted's incredibly spooky gift of producing photographic images with his brain. Dozens of examples of the photos are in the hard-cover book. Among the most amazing shots are three that will forever remain embedded in my mind - one, a "photo" of a building as taken by Ted's mind set in the 19th century next to a modern one produced traditionally of the same building. You can clearly see the modifications made over the years from one photo to another; two, several pictures of cities which have never been successfully identified as anywhere on Earth (!); and three, a photo of the backs of what appear to be American Revolutionary War-era soldiers climbing an incline or hill. All of Ted's pictures were produced under highly scientific conditions with the subjects requested in advance. Eastman-Kodak and Polaroid representatives were present during many of the experiments to load cameras and ensure against trickery. In one series of experiments, camera company representative handed Ted a series of sealed cameras which they loaded, and Ted was then placed nude in a room devoid of all furntiture. he was still able to produce his "mind" pictures on film!

For those interested in the paranormal and X-files fans, I highly recommend they obtain and read this facinating and eerie book. Ted Serios was so special, so unique, that no one, even Dr. Eisenbud, had time to fully comprehend Ted's gift before he dissapeared forever - a truly unique mind found and lost.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In All Serios-ness, September 1, 2008

By 

Phoebe Stogstill (by the shores of Gitchee Gumee) - See all my reviews

As a late-teenager, I caught this "bull-in-a-china-shop" little man on a TV talk show with his "handlers." I think it may have been the Joe Pyne Show. I was hooked. I went to great pains to get a copy of THE WORLD OF TED SERIOS. I pored over the information and Dr. Eisenbud's analysis of it. I tried to catch Ted on more talk shows. I was fascinated by the possibilities. How many others had this talent if it truly exists? I was young and impressionable and wanted to believe in all things paranormal. I later mentioned that I had a copy of the book to a college professor of Psychology who asked to borrow it. He never returned it and I felt a loss, was too intimidated to ask the prof for it back--what if he lost it and was too embarassed to tell me? I did not want to put him on the spot, so I left it alone, but of course there was a resentment there. Time has passed, the excitement faded, the "talent" was debunked by skeptics over and over again. I thought there was probably no way to get another copy of the book. When I saw some used copies available on Amazon, well, I ordered one, naturally, and have been slowly re-reading it in great detail, after first just reading it once again. The photographic images are beautiful and dream-like, fake or not, and appreciated by me, as an artist. As I got older--it has been 40 years--90 percent of my brain was ready to join the skeptics and would have if not for an incident that happened to me in the early 1970s--a freak occurrence with a Polaroid camera. My niece who came to visit from out of state was about four years old and I got the camera out of its case and decided to take a picture of her for my parents. It was black and white film and had to be fixed with a "fix stick" It was new film in the camera. In the image I shot was not only the current picture of my niece, but a less clear image of her when she was 2-3 years younger in a different outfit, tilted at a slant. Then there was another very faint image of an object that was not in the room photographed, nor anywhere else. Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I thought. Maybe there is so much we do NOT know. About auras, electrical energy, something I have also just now coined as "atomic memory." Hey, it could happen! It was not exactly thought photography but something similar. If you get your hands on this book you will find it a great read, no matter what your opinion of the scientific possibility.

1 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An unemployed drunk who fooled a scientist, August 28, 2007

By 

K. McGue "in tokyo" (tokyo) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The World of Ted Serios: "Thoughtographic" Studies of an Extraordinary Mind (Library Binding)

Ted Serios was an out of work alcoholic who got scientists to give him unlimited supplies of Budweiser in exchange for psychic photos, which were produced by him looking at the camera through a small black tube. While he would rant and rave, working up an image, this tube would be substituted with one with a transparency in it and a small lens. Even after he was discredited and disappeared, and probably died, his photos sold for big money....