Since 1861, more than two dozen persons in several countries have claimed to obtain on photographic plates and film a variety of types of images that could only have been produced paranormally. This essay, chapter 13 of Psychic Exploration, delves into psychic photography and thoughtography. The full volume of Psychic Exploration can be purchased as an ebook or paperback version from all major online retailers and at cosimobooks.com.

This is a new release of the original 1931 edition.

SECOND EDITION. In The World of Ted Serios, Jule Eisenbud, a Denver based psychiatrist and psychical researcher, examined anomalous "thoughtographic" phenomena ostensibly produced by Ted Serios, a Chicago hotel elevator operator who claimed he could mentally produce images on unused Polaroid film. Because "instant" Polaroids were developed immediately, skeptics could not easily attribute success to darkroom chicanery. Eisenbud, a seasoned investigator of anomalous phenomena, conducted thousands of trials with Serios over a three-year period between 1964 and 1967. Hundreds of images were produced as well as so-called blackies and whities-Polaroids that were massively under or overexposed, produced either when the film hadn't been unwrapped or under other conditions clearly ruling out under or overexposure. Eisenbud and multiple witnesses tested Serios in different locations, often under conditions that seemed clearly to rule out fraud-for example, separated at considerable distance from the film or camera. Nevertheless, the images continued to appear, and sometimes they bore striking similarities to sealed "target" images Serios had been challenged to duplicate with his mind. Magician and debunker James Randi, as expected, claimed it was all fraudulent. But despite Eisenbud's substantial financial incentives to magicians to produce the same phenomena under the same conditions, neither Randi or others accepted the challenge. More than fifty years on, Jule Eisenbud's investigation into Ted Serios' thoughtography is one of the most intriguing cases in the annals of anomalous phenomena.

In the early days of photography, many believed and hoped that the camera would prove more efficient than the human eye in capturing the unseen. Spiritualists and animists of the nineteenth century seized on the new technology as a method of substantiating the existence of supernatural beings and happenings. This fascinating book assembles more than 250 photographic images from the Victorian era to the 1960s, each purporting to document an occult phenomenon: levitations, apparitions, transfigurations, ectoplasms, spectres, ghosts, and auras. Drawn from the archives of European and American occult societies and private and public collections, the photographs in many cases have never before been published. The Perfect Medium studies these rare and remarkable photographs through cultural, historical, and artistic lenses. More than mere curiosities, the images on film are important records of the cultural forces and technical methods that brought about their production. They document in unexpected ways a period when developing photographic technology merged with a popular obsession with the occult to create a new genre of haunting experimental photographs.

For over thirty years, Stephen Braude has studied the paranormal in everyday life, from extrasensory perception and psychokinesis to mediumship and materialization. The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations is a highly readable and often amusing account of his most memorable encounters with such phenomena. Here Braude recounts in fascinating detail five particular cases—some that challenge our most fundamental scientific beliefs and others that expose our own credulousness. Braude begins with a south Florida woman who can make thin gold-colored foil appear spontaneously on her skin. He then travels to New York and California to test psychokinetic superstars—and frauds—like Joe Nuzum, who claim to move objects using only their minds. Along the way, Braude also investigates the startling allegations of K.R., a policeman in Annapolis who believes he can transfer images from photographs onto other objects—including his own body—and Ted Serios, a deceased Chicago elevator operator who could make a variety of different images appear on Polaroid film. Ultimately, Braude considers his wife’s surprisingly fruitful experiments with astrology, which she has used to guide professional soccer teams to the top of their leagues, as well as his own personal experiences with synchronicity—a phenomenon, he argues, that may need to be explained in terms of a refined, extensive, and dramatic form of psychokinesis. Heady, provocative, and brimming with eye-opening details and suggestions, The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations will intrigue both adherents and detractors of its controversial subject matter alike.

*Psychic Exploration, A Challenge for Science* is a primer on psychic research, life’s purpose, and the meaning of the universe. Originally published in 1974, this landmark anthology of nearly thirty chapters on every area of psychic research is finally available again. Edgar D. Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut and moonwalker, as well as a distinguished researcher of the study of human consciousness, brought together eminent scientists to write about issues once considered too controversial to discuss. This book includes fascinating chapters on the history of parapsychology, telepathy, hauntings, psychic phenomena, and consciousness, along with an extensive glossary and index. This timeless anthology continues to be appealing as a reference work for those curious about the history of parapsychology, fans of the world of psi, and readers interested in the meaning of the universe. Contributors include: Willis W. Harman, Jean Houston, Stanley Krippner, Robert Masters, William G. Roll, Russell Targ, Charles T. Tart, Montague Ullman, and many more. “ […] perhaps the most important change [since the initial publication of *Psychic Exploration*] has been due to advancements in quantum physics […] If this trend continues, then the age-old puzzle at the core of religious epiphanies, mystical insight, and creative genius will finally yield to scientific explanations: What is the true nature of consciousness?” —From the New Foreword by Marilyn Schlitz, PhD, and Dean Radin, PhD

Paraphysics is a blending of physics, electronics, biology, biofeedback, and the new science of subjective awareness with the methodology already established in some areas of psychic research and systems engineering. This essay, chapter 18 of Psychic Exploration, outlines some of the areas in which outer-space research, in a synergistic blending of many disciplines, has produced benefits to inner-space research. The full volume of Psychic Exploration can be purchased as an ebook or paperback version from all major online retailers and at cosimobooks.com.