Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [121]
Bersari's kids were to have met me to try for my $10,000 when I visited Italy, but Bersari suddenly became very shy and decided against it. Funny, but I never met any of Hasted's kids either, except Knowles, and she scored a big zero. Bersari, defending his methods, says that "present research, in spite of the difficulties and absurd prejudices encountered, continues to add valid contributions." Sure.
Another cause célèbres that has faded away but made a big splash while it lasted was the "thoughtography" feat of Ted Serios, ex-bellboy turned "psychic," who discovered that by using a simple little device and gathering a few simple minds about him, he could work magic. Serios showed Dr. Jule Eisenbud, a Denver psychiatrist, that he could cause images to appear on the film of a borrowed and controlled Polaroid camera. For two years Eisenbud supported the Polaroid Corporation by purchasing vast quantities of film and having Serios make silly pictures. It was all described in a book by Eisenbud, The World of Ted Serios, which documents just how easily a psychiatrist can miss discovering his own delusions. In one episode Serios was asked to produce a picture of the Thresher, a nuclear submarine that had just been reported missing. Serios obliged, providing an image Eisenbud claimed actually was the Thresher, though in metaphorical form. To the untrained mind it seemed to be a photo of Queen Elizabeth II of England in her coronation robes, but that just shows how we ordinary folks can miss the great truths of science, not having the extensive training that would enable us to see beyond that mere superficiality. For, as Dr. Eisenbud shows, Queen Elizabeth is easily translated into the submarine.
Now it will be admitted that Liz has put on a few pounds in recent years, but her outline in no way resembles an atomic submarine. The doctor's proof is even more esoteric, as behooves a parapsychologist. Eisenbud explains that the Queen's name in Latin is Elizabeth Regina, and there we have half of it! What? You didn't see it? You'll never be a parapsychologist at this rate! Let's look at it again, shall we? ElizabeTH REgina. Is that better? Eisenbud's keen mind discovered the initial four letters of Thresher in the middle of the Queen's Latin name! How clever of him. Being a Freudian psychiatrist, he might be expected to drag Mom in here somewhere—and he does. Queen Elizabeth is a mother figure to millions. And the sea is the mother of all life, it is said. The Thresher is in the sea. The French for "mother" is mére. The French for "sea" is mer. Note that these two words are similar. Ted Serios is attached to his mother, and her name is—Esther! Isn't parapsychology just grand, folks? For in the name Esther we have the SHER we sought to complete THRESHER!
Serios has faded from the scene, though he was the darling of the psi nuts for quite some time. Fate magazine tried to give him a comeback a while ago, running an article with two very fuzzy photos that it said were "psychically" produced by Serios and that were supposed to show the then-fugitive Patty Hearst with short-cropped hair. I have looked at those photos and I cannot see a person, let alone Patty. A few days after Fate hit the stands, Patty Hearst was apprehended. She had long hair. A miss? No, of course not. The explanation given for Serios's boo-boo was that his photos showed her as she wanted to be. Or did I lose you somewhere?
Serios accomplished his wonders with a simple device that is easily made. You will need a small, positive (magnifying) lens, preferably about half an inch in diameter and with a focal length of about one and a half inches. The latter can be ascertained by measuring the distance between the lens and the image of a distant object cast upon a piece of paper. You'll need a small tube—as long as the focal length—to hold the lens. From any color transparency (a thirty-five-millimeter slide or a sixteen-millimeter motion picture frame, for example) cut a circle that will fit onto one end of the tube and attach it with glue. The