Down Memory Lane – The Bath Chronicle – October 4, 1999

The Bath Chronicle

October 4, 1999

DOWN MEMORY LANE

URI GELLER, famous for the bending of spoons, is seldom out of the news for long.

This picture dates back to October 1975 when Uri bent a spoon and a fork at Longleat for the Marquess of Bath – as well as causing other strange things to happen.

At the time Uri was in the local news because he had apparently banned Bath University’s Dr Brian Pamplin from a demonstration at the country house.

Uri told The Bath Chronicle that he did not agree with the two-way mirrors system used by Dr Pamplin when he was researching the spoon-bending phenomena. He said: “This is banned in America and I do not agree with it. It was not fair on these young girls”.

He said that he did not wish to meet Dr Pamplin, a senior lecturer in physics, who tested six girls claiming to have powers similar to Uri’s.

In front of a small audience at Longleat Uri bent and snapped a £50 silver spoon in Lord Bath’s dining room by simply rubbing the handle gently between forefinger and thumb.

He also moved, at long range, the needle of a compass and rounded off the demonstration by bending a £20 silver sword which formed the centrepiece of a £20,000 table decoration.

Lord Bath told onlookers of strange happenings in the library the night before when Uri visited after dinner. A blotter, a book and a miniature inexplicably fell to the ground. As they walked along a corridor a picture fell behind them, smashing the wooden frame.