Q & A

May 25th 1998
Volume 88 No. 21

SPOON-BENDING psychic Uri Geller, an Israeli who now lives near London, has put his supernatural powers to work for England’s team. He says that last month he planted “magic crystals” on the field in Marseilles, where England will play its World Cup opener against Tunisia on June 15 and that he recently spent an hour infusing the World Cup trophy with positive English energy. (“I even bent it a little!” he says.) We probed his psyche about the upcoming tournament.

SI: If you can bend spoons with your mind, why can’t you bend free kicks into the goal?

Geller: I can, and many times I do. I’ll stand by the pitch, activate my abilities and bend the ball into the net. SI: Right. Tell me, those magic crystals are really just Sea Monkeys, aren’t they?

Geller: No, they’re 40-million-year-old rock crystals from Brazil.

SI: So that’s why Brazil is so good.

Geller: That I don’t know. But I can say that when Italy’s Roberto Baggio missed the penalty kick in the last World Cup to give Brazil the title, it was because 70 million Brazilians were using their telepathic powers against him.

St: How will the U.S. players do?

Geller: They will quality for the second round. If they use me, they’ll go beyond that.