Fukurai's Nensha and the Serios Sessions

Thoughtography's modern history begins with Tomokichi Fukurai, a psychologist and associate professor at Tokyo Imperial University, who around 1910 coined the Japanese term nensha, "thought copying," for the claimed ability to imprint mental images directly onto photographic plates. Fukurai had already drawn controversy for his experiments with the young clairvoyant Chizuko Mifune; when his nensha experiments with other subjects also failed to produce results that satisfied his university colleagues, the resulting scandal contributed to his forced resignation.

The claim resurfaced decades later in America with Ted Serios, a Chicago bellhop who, in sessions with psychiatrist Jule Eisenbud between 1964 and 1966, produced hundreds of Polaroid images while holding a small paper tube, his "gizmo," against or near the camera lens and concentrating intensely, sometimes producing blurred or abstract images and occasionally what Eisenbud described as recognisable scenes. Eisenbud, a professional psychiatrist with no known conjuring background, documented the sessions extensively and published them in his 1967 book The World of Ted Serios, arguing the results could not be explained by ordinary means.