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Diagram of a typical Serios gimmick. The left end is held close to the lens of a Polaroid camera focused to infinity and the image on the transparency is thrown onto the Polaroid film.

You use the Serios gimmick by holding it in the hand with the lens end toward the palm. The victim—holding the Polaroid camera, which has been focused to infinity (distant)—is to snap the shutter when your hand is held before the lens. Keep the tube pointing straight into the camera. If it is off-center it will produce smeary pictures, as Serios did on many occasions. The photo that results is usually of poor but interesting quality. The pictures are often in the middle of a Polaroid frame, with a circular shape surrounded by black, as would be expected. If you like, you can be sure your device is not detected by placing a loose tube of paper around it. The device will slide out easily, and you can offer the paper tube for examination, though any parapsychologist will hesitate to look too carefully.

In 1967, writer Paul Welch had a piece on Serios in Life magazine that was totally supportive. The paper tube, which Serios called his"gismo" and which was used to conceal his optical device, was nevermentioned. Although it was prominent in all of Serios's work, and showed up in most photos, Life chose to censor all reference to it to make abetter story, for once the "gismo" was made known it would not be hard to figure out that the experimenters were allowing rather wide latitude for procedure in their "scientific tests."

But Eisenbud, leaping to the bait the "gismo" supplied, was quick to proclaim that though Serios liked to use the paper tube, he often did not, merely holding his hand there instead. When two photographers—Charles Reynolds and David Eisendrath and Persi Diaconis, a prominent conjuring authority at Stanford University, went to Denver to see the super-psychic in action, they got the same old runaround. After one attempt, Serios quickly placed his hand in his pocket. Diacon reached for it, trying to intercept the "gismo" before it could be emptied. Eisenbud threw himself between the two men and objected to this action, apparently forgetting that he had invited the three there to observe and that he was now interfering with that observation. A moment later, Serios produced the then-empty paper tube from his pocket for examination. A bit late.

The Serios gimmick as it is held before the lens of a Polaroid camera. It can be concealed by surrounding it with a larger paper tube. The device is secretly and easily disposed of later.

Observers are invited to observe, but are blocked when they look too closely. . . .

Diaconis notes that at one point Dr. Eisenbud had asked of the observers, "If he's only genuine 10 percent of the time, isn't that enough for you guys?" No, it's not. For that 10 percent is well within the noise level of your very loose "experiments," doctor. In fact, a much higher percentage would still be within those very generous limits, given the expert observations of Reynolds, Eisendrath, and Diaconis. But we will admit that if the experiments had been done with good security and at least a brave attempt at proper control of the subject, 10 percent would be impressive. As it is, no one is impressed or satisfied.

When a photographer for Technology Review at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a roll of film from his own camera, this was one of the photos. A chair is visible in the photo, superimposed over a shot of the author's hand as it was held against the lens. As can be seen from the in-focus building, the camera was set for "infinite" focus for this shot, which was taken under the same conditions as the famous "psychic photographs" of Ted Serios. Technology Review

Life chose not to say a word about the Reynolds-Eisendrath-Diaconis investigation, which had shown that the experiments they observed, contrary to what had been said by Eisenbud in his book, were "without adequate control over the essential materials" and revealed "irreparable