New of the World Sunday – February 6, 2000

News of the World – Sunday
February 6, 2000

The centre of Uri’s power

Top psychic Uri Geller has been given many gifts on his global travels. He shows us his favourites in his Berkshire home. Report by Nick Fiaca.

Millions have ben amazed by Uri Geller’s incredible spoon-bending antics and watch-fixing powers. Whether it’s in front of TV audiences or one-on-ones with celebrities, they’ve all marvelled at his psychic powers.

For the past 14 years, Uri, wife Hanna, 49, son Daniel, 19, and daughter Natalie, 17, have lived in an eight bedroom mansion by the River Thames in Berkshire. And his house is full of the presents he has picked up on his travels.

“These items are all gifts. I believe that when you get a gift from someone, their energy is with that object”, says Uri, who’s 53. “These are just a few of the things that I’ve been given. I could have had hundreds of gold Rolex watches, olus cars and boats. Once the Mafia offered me a Spider sports car with the keys, ready to go – but I refused.”

Uri shows us a few of his favourite things and explains the story behund each of his trasured objects.

JADE FLOWERS

“I used to have a little hut under Mount Fuji in Japan. In the village, there was a woman aged about 85 who used to take care of the hut and my children, who were very small. When I told her we were leaving Japan because my kids had to go to school, she said she was going to work on a gift for me. It took her six years to do this and it’s carved from jade, piece by piece.”

MEXICAN CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

‘This is the symbol of friendship and it’s the centrepiece of the room. It’s handmade and was a gift from an American who got it for me in Mexico. I’m a Mexican citizen because I found oil for them! In my naivety, I didn’t have any contract with the government. If I had, I would probably be worth between £1 billion and £2.5 billion today. But I did it out of friendship.”

CRYSTAL BALL

“For centuries, it has been said that crystals have healing powers. I studied them and then decided to fill my whole house with crystals. This is one of my most unusual ones and it is probably millions of years old.”

ELVIS STATUE

‘Elvis arranged a meeting with me in a caravan outside Las Vegas because he wanted to learn how to bend spoons. I’m interested in anything to do with him. This statue belonged to a friend’s wife, and it saved her life. Two robbers broke into her home and ransacked the place. One was just about to slash her throat with a knife when he noticed Eivis’s statue. He was a big Eivis fan, and they just left without harming her.’

JOHN LENNON EGG

“John Lonnon gave me the little egg held by this Tibetan statue, which I bought myself. I lived near John in New York and we met regularly. He gave me the egg only a few months before he was shot – he claims it was dropped into his hand one night by an alien!”

COLOMBIAN STATUE

“I’ve had this 25 years and got it from the president of Colombia when I visited him once. I was admiring the statue inside a glass case at his home, when he came over and explained that it was thousands of years old. Then he opened the cabinet and gave it to me. I helped some of Colombia’s geologists find incredible archaeological treasures, so this was a gesture from them.”

STEIFF TEDDY BEAR

“This bear is 80 years old. Russian soldiers used it for target practice and it has bullet holes in it. I bought it for £12,000 at an auction and the cash went to a Bosnian orphanage. Now I send bears like him to sick children around the world. My son put Exeter City’s scarf on him to bring the team luck.”

CRYSTAL CHAIR

‘One day about 14 years ago, I found a brochure on the floor at home advedising Danny Lane’s glass furniture, so I called and asked him to carve two chairs and a table. I had a psychic hunch he was going to be famous, so I asked him to sign the chairs. Now they’re pieces of art.’

SALVADOR DALI HORSE

“When I met the artist Salvador Dali in Spain, I bent a fork for him and it freaked him out. He said: “I’m going to give you some of my sculptures” The most unusual one is this horse – you can even lift the saddle off.”

CROW

“This was made for me by the son of Moshe Dayan, the late military and political leader of Israel. The bird is sitting on an overturned catapult. It’s very symbolic, like the bird has won.”