Hallucinating Ted Serios: The Impossibility of Failed Performativity
Ted Hiebert
Hallucination: the perception of an impossible image -- that which can never appear but which does so anyway The psyche turned inside out perhaps -- no longer a private subjectivity but one that has entirely lost the ability to see itself -- projected instead into the world it sees. A private world, appearing only to the eyes of the one projecting it ... until now that is.
The postmodern prophet has spoken -- and it was unintelligible. Projected images with psychic eyes, imagined images somehow burned into existence. The words, perhaps, came out wrong, but the images came out exactly as he imagined. For it was his imagination that made this man particular.
Ted Serios claimed he could project images from his mind directly onto photographic film; 'psychic photography', or 'thoughtography' it is called. Serios would point a camera at his forehead, and take a photograph. Sometimes there was a period of intense focus or visualization involved. Sometimes there was also an excessive amount of alcohol. Sometimes someone else would trip the shutter of the camera, to ensure that Serios was not tampering with things. Often several dozen unsuccessful trials were needed to get a successful image, but nevertheless, these images did appear. Or so it was claimed.
Of course no one believed him. At least at first. Until a psychiatrist named Jule Eisenbud decided to take Serios seriously. It is the typical story perhaps -- undiscovered psychic meets intrigued researcher -- but not the typical ending. For while Serios' claim was never fully dismissed, neither was it ever proven. He was not a recognized prophet, then -- but this too is fitting -- for hasn't anyone who believes in the postmodern already missed the point? That it is exactly no longer about belief at all, nor about truth. Rather, perhaps, it is only now about stories, and the ways in which fictions can be seen surrounding the world -- a choir of ghosts chanting 'real, real, real'.
For there is something hidden in the Serios images -- not merely a message of a fantastic world, but rather also a fantastic message about the world we already live in. Bordering on the complete inverse of everything we have been led to believe, the Serios images reveal themselves, and us, as inextricably wrapped up in a story of impossibility.
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