Thoughts on Film: The World of Thoughtography

Thoughtography or Nensha (念写) is the act of transferring a psychic image from one’s mind to a photograph. The act of burning an image onto film was discovered and investigated in the early 1900s. This was when Japanese psychologist and associate professor at the Tokyo Imperial University conducted various studies on subjects who claimed such powers.

Thoughtography was influenced by spirit photography but has no direct link to it. Thoughtography has its own field of research with psychiatrists and academics backing psychic claims. As with all these types of claims, there are indeed those that are highly sceptical and believe that many of these people are fraudulent in their practice.

One such person that came to prominence in the 1960s was Chicago bellhop Ted Serios who claimed he used psychic powers to produce photographs on polaroid film. These claims were endorsed by psychiatrist Jule Eisebud who also wrote a book on Serios The World of Ted Serios (1967). Serios would use what he called his “gizmo” which was a small tube he held up to the lens and pointed at his forehead. The shutter released. Unfortunately to his detriment it was claimed that Serios would often be drunk during these experiments which put sceptics in a difficult position. Eisebud would also say that Serios was psychopathic, a sociopath and an alcoholic. An observer of his experiments was Nile Root. He believed that his elaborate mannerisms may have contributed to the fraudulent behaviour i.e messing around with his "gizmo" to produce these so called “psychic images”.

An article in Popular Photography claimed that Serios inserted an object, possibly a small piece of photographic transparency, into the "gizmo" for the lens to capture. The images would never be as clear as onlookers wanted them to be, often blurry, dark or completely white. It posed a problem for those wanting to interpret them. It satisfied the sceptics.

The word Nensha is Japanese for psychic photography and has been used in modern day horror. Nensha (念写) is a psychic power possessed by all incarnations of Sadako who used it to create the images on the Cursed Videotape within The Ring franchise.

Thoughtography was the premise of The X-Files 1996 episode "Unruhe", and was also referred to in the 1994 episode "Born Again".

This psychic phenomenon has captured modern horror writers and directors.

Whether this is a fraudulent act of psychic powers, or it is real, it must be said that they produce some rather interesting looking photographs. In a fictional setting it makes for a compelling tale of the supernatural.