A split hair’s difference, and heaven and earth are set apart!” – Sang ts’an Subject: The Uri Geller FAQ

Q: When did Uri first get his remarkable ability?

A: Uri thinks it was when he was a young child. He was with his mother ( a member of the Freud family ) when some cutlery he was eating with bent. He also remembers being hit by light from the sky.

Q: Was this from a higher intelligence?

A: Andrija Puharich suggested that Uri’s subsequent ‘powers’ came from an extraterrestrial source.

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Q: Does Uri believe this?

A: Uri is quoted as stating ” 90% probably not.”, but retains an open mind.

Q: Who brought Uri to the attention of ‘The West’?

A: Andrija Puhariach introduced Uri to astronaut Edgar Mitchell, Hal Puthof and Russel Targ at the Stanford Research Institute. Uri was tested and validated by the SRI and the results were written up in ‘Nature’ magazine.

Q: Then what?

A: Uri became a media celebrity, and toured the world giving demonstrations of his abilities.

Q: Why did Uri drop out of the ‘lime-light’?

A: Uri claims to be misrepresented by a group of sceptics which lead him to defend himself in Court. In one case, a Tokyo Court ruled that Geller had been insulted and awarded a judgement against one sceptic for 500,000 Yen. In another case, a Hungarian Court ruled against another newspaper over a different matter in favour of Uri, making the newspaper print a retraction. Yet another case resulted in Geller obtaining a written apology and acknowledgement of error from Prometheus Books.
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Q: Then what?

A: Uri decided to work for oil companies, using his ability to prospect for minerals. He says he gained his wealth and independence from this work. He also went to ‘spiritually recharge’ himself at a location under Mount Fuji, Japan and decided to “take a break.”

Q: So, did Uri ‘give it up’?

A: Not at all. He met with Nobel prize-winner, Brian Josephson and decided to undertake ” confidential, but positive, work for scientists.”

“IN AN OFFICE at King’s College I had set up several experiments designed to measure the pressure applied by Geller during metal bending.The two main ones were very simple. The essential apparatus for one of them was a balance of the type used to weigh letters and parcels; it was sensitive enough to measure weights to a quarter of an ounce. A brass strip about 20 cm long was taped horizontally to the platform of the balance.

The major portion of the strip extended out from the platform, and Geller stroked the top surface of it while I measured, directly, by reading the scale, and by using an automatic recording device, the pressure he was applying.

At the end of the test the strip had acquired a bend of ten degrees although Geller had at no time applied more than half an ounce (20 gm) of pressure. It was out of the question that such a small pressure could have produced that deflection.

What is more, the actual bending occurred upward- against the pressure of the finger. Earlier, another subject gave a similar result, producing, with less than an ounce of downward pressure, a smaller upward deflection (two degrees) on a strip of copper. “
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Hasted was elected Chair of Experimental Physics, London University.

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“A BRIEF PSYCHOKINETIC INVESTIGATION OF MR. URI GELLER

J.B. Hasted, D.J. Bohm, E.W. Bastin, and D.O’Regan

Birkbeck College (University of London)

We possess four numbered and weighed brass Yale keys which were bent through angles of between 10 and 40 degrees under light stroking action by Mr. Geller. If, under symmetrical four point loading, force pulses of the order of 500 N (Say 50 kg weight) had been applied to the keys, similar bends would have been produced. No loss of surface brightness or change of weight, within the experimental error of 1 mg was observed. Mr. Geller applied a light stroking action between forefinger and thumb, or by forefinger with key placed on the table. In all cases several witnesses watched the entire operation intently from within 1m. In one case the key was not stroked but was simply, held under a cold water tap. In all cases the bending took a time of the order of minutes to complete, and it usually appeared to continue slowly for a short while after the stroking had, been terminated. No physical or chemical explanation of these Phenomena is readily apparent. The mean grain size at the bent surfaces has been compared with that in unbent and mechanically bent specimens by X-ray reflection and electron micrograph. No significant change in grain orientation or size was noted. “

“Based on preliminary investigations of Uri Geller,I cannot establish fraud .The powers of this man are a phenomenon which theoretical physics cannot yet explain.” Dr Friedbert Karger (Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Munich, Germany)

“Geller asked me to put my hand over a spoon supplied by me, we could all see the spoon clearly. Geller then put his own hand over mine and began concentrating. It was just ashe stopped that we all saw the handle of the spoon begin to distort.” Dr Edward W Bastin (Holds doctorate degrees in both physics and mathematics. He won an Isaac Newton studentship to Cambridge University, and for a time was visiting fellow at Stanford University, California)

“The apparatus for the other test was a small cylinder imbedded in a strip of aluminum in such a way that one end of the cylinder, covered by a pressure-sensitive diaphragm, was flush with the surface of the strip. When pressure was applied to the diaphragm by a person’s rubbing the strip gently with a finger, an electric current proportional to this pressure was generated by a device installed inside the cylinder. This pressure-measuring device had been used with various subjects, but no bending was achieved. In Geller’s case the consequences were drastic.

Holding the strip in one hand, he made it bend in the appropriate region so that the pressure could be measured. But as the bending occurred the mechanism in the cylinder suddenly stopped functioning. I took the apparatus from Geller and observed, to my horror, the pressure sensitive diaphragm begin to crumble. A small hole appeared in its center and spread across its whole surface till the diaphragm had completely disintegrated, the entire process taking about ten seconds. After another three minutes the strip in which the cylinder was imbedded had bent a further thirty degrees.

Attempts to influence objects without contact yielded more information. Geller held his hands over a plastic container in which had been placed a small crystal of lithium fluoride; within ten seconds the crystal broke into a number of pieces.

There was absolutely no chance of Geller’s having touched the crystal. Throughout the experiment I could see a gap between his hands and the container holding the crystal. He also buckled a small disc of aluminum, which again was inside a plastic container. I held my hands between Geller’s and the container in order to prevent any possibility of his directly manipulating the disc. – Taylor

Q: OK, but what about the magicians who have seen Uri?

“As a magician, I believe that the tests we did (with Geller) could not be duplicated in any way by a magician’s methods.”
Abb Dickson (Professional magician – U.S.A. and President of the International Brotherhood of Magicians 1997-98) Abb Dickson has been named as a new director of the World Alliance of Magicians (WAM).

“Uri bent a spoon for me, the first time he did it, I thought there must be a trick. The second time I was stunned, completely, completely stunned and amazed. It just bent in my hand.

I’ve never seen anything like it. It takes a lot to impress me.

Uri Geller is for real and anyone who doesn’t recognise that is either deluding himself, or is a very sad person.”
David Blain, (American Magician. Star of ABC’s Television Specials.)

Q: So, what’s the secret to Uri’s success?

A: Positive thinking. Uri thinks that a collective energy of certain ‘beliefs has the ability to make positive transformations.

Q: But is it true?

A: Attorney at Law, Ruth M.Liebesman states:

“We are happy to let people believe or disbelieve as their conscience dictates. Unfortunately, a few people are very threatened by what Uri can do, and do not want people to believe what we know; that what Uri does is real. As a result, some of the lies have been beyond reprehensible, many of them have been without any factual basis. But that’s where I come in. I protect Uri from the lies.”

Sources and links:

Uri Geller Magician or Mystic by J Margolis : UK – Orion / USA – Welcome Rain (2000).

Clarification of Legal Issues.

Scientists and Uri Geller.

Professor Hasted, Chair of Experimental Physiscs, Birbeck, London.

Article on Uri and Meta Analysis.

Taylor Experiments.

Magicians and Uri Geller.

Fortean Times ‘The Nine’ (article).