Boy makes photographic images appear by power of thought - searching for documentary - please help!

The latest episode of the TV show "fact or faked" included some "ghost writing" appearing on Polaroid photographic images. The fact or faked team wasn't able to solve the mystery and deemed it unsolved.

And I just read the thread called "The Psychic Children Of China - UNBELIEVABLE!" where the OP source is long on claims and short on proof. People were asking to see videos of these amazing feats, etc.

The confluence of these two events triggered a vague memory I have about seeing a video of a child with a related claimed psychic ability. It was on a documentary of some sort that aired in the USA before the year 2000, but I don't remember the name of the documentary. One of the reasons I'm starting this thread is to see if anyone else DOES remember the name of the documentary so I can find more information about this case and research it.

Here is what I remember about the video. There was a boy, maybe about 11-13 years old, who I'm pretty sure was Asian, at least he didn't speak English though I guess he could have been a non-English speaking American Asian, or else he lived in Asia.

He could take a camera or film (I think it may have been a Polaroid but am not sure), and hold it up to his forehead, visualize an image in his mind, and then he'd suddenly yell out the word in his language that roughly translates to the English "POW". He claimed that it was at that instant, he used the power of his mind to form a photographic image on the film.

Then the photographic image would develop, and it matched the image he had formed in his mind, though it was fuzzy and didn't look like a real photograph. In the example they showed on the documentary I saw, the image he formed on the film had a resemblance to the Eiffel Tower in Paris which is the image he was trying to form.

I suppose he could have been a 12 year old magician playing parlor tricks but he seemed to have the film crew fooled if he was playing tricks. But after being reminded of this by the odd photos in the "fact or faked" show along with the thread about Chinese kids with psychic abilities, I'd be interested in doing some more research about this kid who would be well into adulthood by now to see if his ability was ever confirmed, or debunked.

Can anyone help me figure out the name of this documentary, the name of the boy, etc, so I can do some more research on it? I tried searching in a search engine and it's hard to enter search terms that come up with even related subjects. Hopefully, someone here besides me will remember seeing that show.

Couldn't it just be the picture developing, pre taken?

Your memory is good! Yes, he was Asian in appearance and name, and it was a PBS show. Check PBS.

It was mid 1980's or so perhaps???

It seems I ran across it (on the Internet) as an example of a hoax in the past few years. Perhaps searching with the word 'hoax' will get the details you are looking for quicker.

I'll scout around and see if I can find anything. If you don't hear back from me, I didn't find anything.

Originally posted by Trexter Ziam
Your memory is good! Yes, he was Asian in appearance and name, and it was a PBS show. Check PBS.

It was mid 1980's or so perhaps???

It seems I ran across it (on the Internet) as an example of a hoax in the past few years. Perhaps searching with the word 'hoax' will get the details you are looking for quicker.

I'll scout around and see if I can find anything. If you don't hear back from me, I didn't find anything.

The time frame you mention is possible.

Thanks for the tip to check PBS, that's more than I remembered about it!

And thanks for looking too, I'll be looking some more myself thanks to your help!

reply to post by Arbitrageur


As I remember, he was Japanese. He held the film in front of him and made a gesture and sound like a sneeze. Pictures similar to but not the same as the actual objects developed. He did the skyline of Tokyo or some other city.

Originally posted by depth om
Couldn't it just be the picture developing, pre taken?

It didn't look that much like a photograph as I recall, though you could see an object shaped like the Eiffel tower. So if it was hoaxed as trexter says, it may have been hoaxed some other way. I don't know if using X-rays projected through some kind of mask could have produced an image like that? (which would be done in advance, as you suggest).

[edit on 6-8-2010 by Arbitrageur]

reply to post by pteridine
That was my recollection too but since I wasn't sure I didn't want to get too country specific.

It's nice to see some other people remember it too.

Thoughtography

paranexus.org...

reply to post by Arbitrageur

In one of Lyall Watson's books perhaps "The Nature of Things" is the account of Kodak who would place prospective employees in a chair that had undeveloped film in the seat to elimate people who could expose film by being in close proximity to it.

There is also the account of people who have an effect on machines...
...stopping them working or functioning bizzarly.

reply to post by Arbitrageur



i remember that also.

it was awhile ago like trexter said.

the pics were kind of fuzzy but you could see things.

can't help you with finding it. sorry

Originally posted by psynthysys
Thoughtography

paranexus.org...

Thanks for the link.

There's a reference there to a Japanese guy named Kiyota, Masuaki (1962-) who did some psychic photography and spoon bending, but unless the show I saw was a really old rerun, the boy featured in the show I saw would have been born much later than 1962.

It's interesting to note that Kiyota admitted to some cheating on his spoon bending feats, which I suppose casts some doubt on his thought photography also, though the article doesn't mention him ever admitting to cheating regarding the thought photography.

[edit on 6-8-2010 by Arbitrageur]

Originally posted by troubleshooter
In one of Lyall Watson's books perhaps "The Nature of Things" is the account of Kodak who would place prospective employees in a chair that had undeveloped film in the seat to elimate people who could expose film by being in close proximity to it.

Thanks for the reply. So did the book make any mention about what percentage of people who sat in that chair were rejected because they affected the film?

I remember that too. would be great if someone could find it. Didn't Uri Geller also do stuff like that?

reply to post by wigit
Yes.

The link psynthysys posted mentions that.

But I don't know how he did it.

Here it is Season 1 Episode 3 Part 1 of 5

reply to post by JJBB22
Thanks, That's the "ghost writing" episode I mentioned!

Though I'm not sure they exhausted every possible means of faking it. For example, did the team buy their own film at a randomly selected store, bring it to the site and keep observation/control over the film at all times? That would be one simple test to detect one type of faking, but I'm not even sure they did that, did they?

I had my hopes up for a minute that you actually found the video that Trexter Ziam mentioned on the thought photography!

Too bad they disabled embedding on that video but I don't know how to find out if embedding works or not until I try it so I guess we have to try?



[edit on 6-8-2010 by Arbitrageur]

Originally posted by wigit
I remember that too. would be great if someone could find it. Didn't Uri Geller also do stuff like that?

I still haven't found the documentary I'm looking for.

However I did find this Japanese show of Masuaki Kiyota. Seems like the boy I saw had glasses and he doesn't so I don't think it's the same guy.


That looks pretty fake to me, I don't see how you can put a different image on each piece of film when they're all stacked together like that in the film pack. Here's what Randi has to say about him:

www.randi.org...

Kiyota, Masuaki (1962- ) This Japanese psychic, first discovered by parapsychologist Tosio Kasahara, became famous as an Asiatic version of Uri Geller, bending spoons and other cutlery. But his real forte was a routine using a Polaroid camera, which was, in turn, a takeoff on the work of Ted Serios. However, Kiyota's Polaroid photos were apparently produced by preexposing the film, since it was noted that he made great efforts to obtain a film pack and spend time with it in private.
In 1984 he thoroughly convinced parapsychologist Dr. Jule Eisenbud, who tested him with X-ray film and accepted kinks and small blemishes on the developed film as evidence of psychic power.
In a 1984 television program in Japan, high-speed tape revealed one of the simple, non-psychic methods that Kiyota used to bend the spoons.

The documentary I'm looking for looked a little more believable than this show if I recall correctly, though I may have been more gullible before 2000 when I saw it.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
reply to post by JJBB22

 

Thanks, That's the "ghost writing" episode I mentioned!

Though I'm not sure they exhausted every possible means of faking it. For example, did the team buy their own film at a randomly selected store, bring it to the site and keep observation/control over the film at all times? That would be one simple test to detect one type of faking, but I'm not even sure they did that, did they?

I had my hopes up for a minute that you actually found the video that Trexter Ziam mentioned on the thought photography!

Too bad they disabled embedding on that video but I don't know how to find out if embedding works or not until I try it so I guess we have to try?



[edit on 6-8-2010 by Arbitrageur]

Aww sorry, I should of read your post more clearly but Ill go have a search for the video you want , as well

On YouTube if you search for "PSI Kids" you might find him on that, although I am not sure. It sounds like an old case, I do recall the guy you are talking about, I just can't remember his name and I've exhausted google ><

Originally posted by JJBB22
On YouTube if you search for "PSI Kids" you might find him on that, although I am not sure. It sounds like an old case, I do recall the guy you are talking about, I just can't remember his name and I've exhausted google ><

Thanks for helping me look. I've worn Google out pretty much but not sure if it's completely exhausted yet..thanks for the tip, I'll look some more when I have more time.