Ted Serios, thoughtographer

Image via WikipediaThis is a favorite subject of mine, since I first heard about this through the skeptic magazine mailing list (email list).

Today I visited the wikipedia entry for Ted Serios, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Serios, and found out that Mr. Serios died two years ago.

Stage magician and noted skeptic James Randi took an interest in investigating Serios. Though he produced photographs similar to Serios's, Randi stated that he refused Eisenbud's request to perform the trick with the same degree of blood alcohol that Serios had when producing his photographs and wearing a rubber suit. ^[5]

Randi's Website comments: "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." ^[6]

In an New Scientist article 'The Chance of a Lifetime' (24th March 2007), an interview appears with the noted mathematician and magician Persi Diaconis. During the interview Persi mentioned that Martin Gardner had paid him to watch Ted Serios perform, during which Persi caught Ted sneaking a small marble with a photograph on it into the little tube attached to the front of the camera he used. 'It was', Persi said, 'a trick.'