Uri Geller

Uri Geller (Hebrew: אורי גלר‎; Tel Aviv, December 20, 1946) is an illusionist Israeli-British, television personality and self-proclaimed psychic. He is known for television portrayals of him in which he supposedly bends spoons with the power of his mind and other illusions. Geller uses magic tricks to simulate the effects of psychokinesis and telepathy.

Early Years

Geller was born on December 20, 1946 in Tel Aviv, which was then under the British Mandate for Palestine. Her mother and her father were of Austrian-Jewish and Hungarian-Jewish origin, respectively. Geller is the son of Itzhaak Geller (Gellér Izsák), a retired Army Sergeant Major, and Margaret "Manzy" Freud (Freud Manci). Geller claims to be a distant maternal relative of Sigmund Freud.

At the age of 11, Geller's family moved to Nicosia, Cyprus, where he attended Terra Santa College Secondary School, learning English. At the age of 18, he joined the Israeli Army's paratroop brigade, with which he served in the 1967 Six-Day War and was wounded in action.

During 1968 and 1969 he worked as a photographic model; during that time, he began performing for small audiences as a nightclub entertainer, becoming well known in Israel.

Geller began performing in theaters, public halls, auditoriums, military bases, and universities in Israel. By the 1970s, Geller had become well known in the United States and Europe. He also received attention from the scientific community, whose members were interested in examining his alleged psychic abilities. At the peak of his career in the 1970s, he worked full-time, performing for television audiences around the world.

Career

Geller became known for demonstrating on television what he claimed to be psychokinesis, dowsing, and telepathy. His performances included bending spoons, describing hidden pictures, and making clocks stop or run faster. Geller says that he performs these feats through the force of his will and force of mind.Magicians and skeptics alike claim that Geller has been caught cheating and that his performances can easily be duplicated with magic tricks. of stage.

In 1975, Geller published his first autobiography, "My Story", and acknowledged that, in his early career, his manager convinced him to add a magic trick so that their performances would last longer. This trick involved Geller appearing to guess the car registration numbers of audience members, which his manager had given him before the performance. One of Geller's most prominent critics is skeptic James Randi, who has repeatedly accused Geller of trying to pass off magic tricks as evidence of paranormal powers. Randi wrote the book The Truth About Uri Geller challenging Geller's claims, and often duplicated Geller's performances using stage magic techniques.

In the mid-1980s, Geller was described as a 'multiple millionaire', and it was claimed that he performed dowsing services for mining groups at a standard fee of £1 million. In 1986, Australian Skeptic magazine reported that Geller had received A$350,000 and was granted an option on 1,250,000 Zanec shares at 20c each until 5 June 1987.

Geller folding a spoon in a shopping center in Switzerland in 2005

Geller starred in the horror film Sanitarium (2001), directed by Johannes Roberts and James Eaves. In May 2002, she appeared as a contestant on the first series of the reality television show I'm a Celebrity. . . Get Me Out of Here! where he was first eliminated and finished in last place. In 2005, Geller starred in Uri's Haunted Cities: Venice, an XI Pictures/Lion TV production for Sky One, which led to a 'behind the scenes' release; in early 2008 called Cursed; both productions were directed by Jason Figgis. In early 2007, Geller hosted a reality show in Israel called The Successor (היורש), where the contestants allegedly displayed supernatural powers; Israeli magicians criticized the show as simply magic tricks. In July 2007, NBC signed Geller and Criss Angel to Phenomenon, to search for the next great mentalist. Contestant Mike Super won the position. In January 2008, Geller began hosting the television show The Next Uri Geller, broadcast by Pro7 in Germany.

In February 2008, Geller started a show on Dutch television called De Nieuwe Uri Geller, with a format similar to its German counterpart. The aim of the program was to find the best mentalist in the Netherlands. In March 2008, he started the same show in Hungary (A kiválasztott in Hungarian). During the show, Geller speaks in Hungarian and English. Geller also goes through his standard routines of making stopped clocks tick again, spoons jump off TVs, and tables move. Geller co-produced the television show Book of Knowledge, launched in April 2008. In October 2009, a similar show, called The Successor to Uri Geller i>, was broadcast on Greek television.

Controversial performances

The Tonight Show

In 1973, Geller appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and this appearance is chronicled in the NOVA documentary, James Randi - Secrets of the Psychics (James Randi - Secrets of Psychics). In the documentary, James Randi says that "Johnny had been a magician and was skeptical" of paranormal powers that Geller claimed to have, so prior to the recording date, Randi was asked "to help prevent any deception." On Randi's advice, the show prepared its own props without informing Geller, and did not allow Geller or his staff "to get anywhere near them." When Geller joined Carson on stage, he seemed surprised that he wasn't going to be interviewed, and that instead he was expected to display his skills using the provided items. Geller said "This scares me" and "As you know, I told your people what to bring" and & # 34; I am surprised because before this program his producer came and read me at least 40 questions that they were going to ask me & # 34;. Geller was unable to display any paranormal abilities, saying "I don't feel strong" and he expressed his disgust at feeling that Carson was "pressuring" him. to act. According to Adam Higginbotham's November 7, 2014 article in the New York Times:

The result was a legendary shock, in which Geller offered nervous excuses to his host while his skills failed him over and over. "I sat there for 22 minutes, humiliated," Geller said, when I spoke to him in September. I went back to my hotel, devastated. I was about to pack the next day and return to Tel Aviv. I thought, that's all, I've been destroyed.

According to Higginbotham, this appearance on The Tonight Show, which Carson and Randi had orchestrated to prove Geller's alleged abilities false, backfired,

To be amazed by Geller, he was immediately invited to "The Merv Griffin Show". I was on my way to becoming a paranormal superstar. "That Johnny Carson show built Uri Geller," Geller said. For a confident and enthusiastic audience, their failure only made their gifts look more real: if they were doing magic tricks, they would surely work forever.

2013 BBC documentary

In 2013, a BBC documentary called The Secret Life of Uri Geller – Psychic Spy? (The Secret Life of Uri Geller - Psychic Spy?) featured Uri Geller, Benjamin Netanyahu, Christopher 'Kit' Green, Paul H. Smith, Harold Puthoff, and Russell Targ. The documentary claimed that Geller had become a "psychic spy" for the CIA, that he was recruited by the Mossad and that he worked as an "official secret agent" in Mexico, being a frequent guest of President José López Portillo. In the film, Geller claims to have erased floppy disks carried by KGB agents by repeatedly chanting the word 'erase'.

ESP Magazine

As part of a massive demonstration, Geller's photograph appeared on the cover of ESP magazine under the headline "On September 1, 1976 at 11 p.m. E.D.T THIS COVER CAN BEND YOUR KEYS". According to editor Howard Smukler, more than 300 positive responses were received, many involving bent objects and detailed descriptions of the surrounding circumstances, including the bending of the Providence, Rhode Island city key.

Noel's House Party

Television host Noel Edmonds often used hidden cameras to record celebrities in similar "hidden camera" for his television show, Noel's House Party . In 1996, Edmonds planned a situation where shelves would fall off the walls of a room while Geller was inside. Cameras caught images of Geller from angles he hadn't expected, showing Geller gripping a spoon firmly with both hands as he stood up to show a fold in it.

The Successor

In late 2006 and early 2007, Geller starred in The Successor, an Israeli TV show about finding his "successor". During one segment, he had a compass move, apparently as a result of his paranormal abilities. Critics say slow-motion footage from the episode showed Geller placing a magnet on his thumb immediately before the compass movement Geller denied it was a sleight of hand, saying he appreciated the & # 34; mystical aura & # 34; that the publicity gave him.

Geller performed the same trick with a compass in 2000 on ABC TV's The View, which Randi later duplicated on the same show the following week.

Alleged paranormal powers

Geller claims that his feats are the result of paranormal powers granted to him by aliens, but critics such as James Randi have shown that Geller's tricks can be replicated with stage magic techniques.

In the early 1970s, an article in The Jerusalem Post reported that a court had ordered Geller to refund a customer's ticket price and pay court costs after finding that had committed fraud by claiming that his feats were telepathic. A 1974 article also hinted that Geller's abilities are tricks. The article alleged that his manager Shipi Shtrang and Shipi's sister, Hannah Shtrang, secretly assisted in Geller's performances. Geller. Geller later married Hannah and had children with her.

Parapsychologist Andrija Puharich met Geller in 1971 and endorsed him as a genuine psychic. Apparently under hypnosis, Geller claimed that he was sent to Earth by aliens from a spacecraft fifty-three thousand light-years away. Geller later denied the claims of space fantasy, but stated that "there is a small possibility that some of my energies have an extraterrestrial connection". Puharich also stated that Geller teleported a dog through the walls of his house. Science writer Martin Gardner wrote that "there was no fraud expert to watch", and therefore no one should take Puharich's claim seriously.

In his biography of Geller, Uri: A Journal of the Mystery of Uri Geller (1974) Puharich claimed that Geller had communicated with super-intelligent computers from outer space. According to Puharich, computers sent messages warning humanity that disaster was likely to occur if humans did not change their ways. Psychologist Christopher Evans, who reviewed the book for New Scientist, wrote that though Puharich believed every word he wrote, the book was gullible and "those Geller fans who might have hoped to use the book as ammunition to impress skeptics...would be most disappointed of all." Randi has written that the biography contains "silly theories" but it was "both a boost and a millstone for Geller".

The "exploits" Geller spoon bending are discussed in The Geller Papers (1976), edited by Charles Panati which caused controversy when published. Several prominent magicians came out to demonstrate that Geller's psychic feats could easily be duplicated with stage magic. Martin Gardner wrote that Panati had been duped by Geller's tricks and that The Geller Papers was an "embarrassing anthology".

Many scientists, magicians, and skeptics have suggested possible ways that Geller might have misled his audience using diversion techniques. These critics, who include Richard Feynman, James Randi, and Martin Gardner, accuse him of use their demonstrations fraudulently outside of the entertainment business. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, who was an amateur magician, wrote in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985) that Geller was unable to bend a key for himself and his son. Watchmakers have described some of his claims as simply resetting a stopped mechanical watch by moving it slightly.

In 1992, Geller was asked to investigate the kidnapping of Hungarian model Helga Farkas: he predicted she would be found alive and well, but she was never found and is believed to have been murdered by her kidnappers. Geller was a friend. by Bruce Bursford and helped him "train his mind" during some bicycle speed record-breaking competitions in the 1990s.

Since the publication of his first book, My Story in 1975, he has claimed that his wealth originated from being commissioned as a mineral prospector by dowsing and not from bending spoons and forks.^{[citation needed]} In 2007, skeptics noted that Geller appeared to have abandoned his claims that he does not perform magic tricks. Randi highlighted a quote from the November 2007 issue of Magische Welt (Magical World) magazine in which Geller said: "I will no longer claim to have supernatural powers. I'm an artist. I want to put on a good show. My whole character has changed".

In a later interview, Geller told Telepolis: "I said this to that German magazine, so what I said, that I changed my character, as far as I can remember, and I no longer say that I do supernatural things. It doesn't mean he doesn't have powers. It means I'm not saying 'it's supernatural', I'm saying 'I'm a mystifier!' That's what I said. And the skeptics turned it around and said, "Uri Geller said he's a magician!" I never said that." In that interview, Geller explained that when asked how he does his feats, he tells kids to "forget the paranormal." Forget bending the spoons! Instead, focus on school! Become positive thinkers! Believe in yourself and create a goal! Going to college! Never smoke! And never touch drugs! And think of success!"

In February 2008, Geller stated on the television show The Next Uri Geller (a German version of The Successor) that he had no supernatural powers, before winking at him. one eye to the camera.

In March 2019, The Guardian reported that Geller wrote an open letter to British Prime Minister Theresa May, stating that he would telepathically prevent her from taking Britain out of the European Union. in Geller's words "As much as I admire you, I will telepathically stop you from doing this, and believe me I am capable of doing it."

Parallels to scenic magic

Geller admits: "Sure, there are magicians who can duplicate [my performances] through gimmicks." He has stated that even though his spoon bending can be repeated using gimmicks, he uses psychic powers to achieve your results. James Randi has stated that if Geller really is using his mind to perform these feats, "he's doing it the hard way."

Stage magicians have noted various methods for creating the illusion of a spontaneously bending spoon. Most common is the practice of diverting attention, an underlying principle of many stage magic tricks. There are many ways in which a bent spoon can be presented to an audience to appear to have been manipulated using supernatural powers. One way is through brief moments of distraction in which a magician can physically bend a spoon without being seen by the audience, before gradually revealing the curve to create the illusion of the spoon bending before the spectator's eyes. Another way is to pre-bend the spoon, perhaps by heating it, reducing the amount of force that must be applied to bend it manually.

During telepathic drawing demonstrations, Geller has claimed the ability to read the minds of subjects while they are drawing. Although in these demonstrations he cannot see the drawn image, he is sometimes present in the room, and on these occasions he can see the subjects as they draw. Critics argue that this may allow Geller to infer common shapes from the movement and sound of the pencil, with the power of suggestion doing the rest.

Watchmakers have noted that "many supposedly broken watches have simply been stopped by gummy oil, and simply holding them in your hand would heat the oil enough to soften it and allow the watches to work again".

In 1978, Yasha Katz, who had been Geller's manager in Britain, said that all of Geller's performances were just stage tricks, and explained how they were actually done.

In November 2008, Geller accepted an award during a magician's convention, the Services to Promotion of Magic Award from the Berglas Foundation. In his acceptance speech, Geller said that if he hadn't had psychic powers, then he "must be the greatest." to have been able to fool journalists, scientists, and Berglas himself. In October 2012, Geller gave a lecture for magicians in the United States at the Genii magazine 75th anniversary party.

Scientific evidence

Geller's performances in which he duplicates drawings or bends spoons often take place in informal settings, such as television interviews. During her career, she allowed some scientists to investigate his abilities. One such study was commissioned by the United States Defense Intelligence Agency as part of Project Stargate and conducted during August 1973 at the Stanford Research Institute (now known as SRI International) by parapsychologists Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ. Geller was isolated and asked to reproduce simple drawings prepared in another room. The experimenters concluded that Geller had "demonstrated his paranormal perceptive ability in a convincing and unequivocal manner." Writing about the same study in a 1974 article published in the journal Nature, they concluded that it had been successful enough to warrant more serious study, coining the term "Geller effect" to refer to the particular type of abilities they felt Geller had displayed.

However in "An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural", Randi wrote: "Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ, who studied Mr. Geller at the Stanford Research Institute, knew, in at least one instance, that Geller was showing them a magic trick." Randi explained that "Ray Hyman, who investigated the project on behalf of the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, outlined the protocols for this 'serious' of Geller's alleged powers as 'sloppy and inadequate'' Critics have pointed out that both Puthoff and Targ already believed in paranormal powers and that Geller was not properly vetted before the experiments. Psychologist CEM Hansel and skeptic Paul Kurtz have noted that the experiments were poorly designed and were vulnerable to deception.

Critics of the experiments include psychologists David Marks and Richard Kammann, who published a description of how Geller might have cheated on an informal test of his alleged psychic powers in 1977. His 1978 article in Nature and the 1980 book The Psychology of the Psychic (second edition, 2000) describe how a normal explanation for Geller's alleged psychic powers is possible. Marks and Kammann they found evidence that while at SRI, Geller was allowed to look through a hole in the lab wall that separated him from the drawings he was to reproduce. The drawings he was asked to reproduce were placed on a wall opposite the peephole that researchers Targ and Puthoff had filled with cotton gauze. In addition to this bug, the researchers had also allowed Geller access to a two-way intercom that allowed him to listen in on the researchers' conversation during the times they were choosing and/or displaying the target drawings. These basic errors indicate the great importance of ensuring that psychologists, magicians, or others with a deep understanding of perception, who are trained in methods of blocking sensory signals, are present during psychic testing. Marks, after evaluating the experiments, wrote that none of Geller's paranormal claims had been proven under scientifically controlled conditions, and concluded that "Geller has no psychic ability whatsoever." However, I think he is a very intelligent magician and very practiced & # 34;.

Litigation and Lawsuits

Geller has sued or threatened legal action against some of his critics with mixed but generally negative success. These include libel charges against James Randi and illusionist Gérard Majax.

In 1971, a mechanical engineering student named Uri Goldstein attended one of Geller's shows, and later sued the show's promoters for breach of contract. He complained that Geller had promised a demonstration of various psychic powers, but had only performed sleight of hand tricks and stage magic. The case was brought before the Beersheba civil court. Geller was not present as the summons had been sent to the office of promoter Miki Peled, who had ignored it as trivial. Goldstein received 27.5 lira (about $5) for breach of contract. Goldstein later admitted that he went on the show specifically with the intention of suing them to get his money back, and that he had already found a lawyer to represent him before he attended the presentation.

In a 1989 interview with a Japanese newspaper, James Randi was quoted as saying that Geller had led a scientist to "shoot himself in the head" after finding out that Geller had set him up. Randi later claimed that it was a metaphor lost in translation. The story was also repeated in a Canadian newspaper, which quoted Randi as saying essentially the same thing: "A scientist, a metallurgist, wrote an article backing up Geller's claims." that he could bend metal. The scientist shot himself after he showed him how to do the key-bending trick'. In 1990, Geller sued Randi in a Japanese court over statements published in the Japanese newspaper. Randi claims that he could not afford to pay for his legal defense, therefore he lost the case by default. The court found Randi's statement to be an "insult" in lieu of libel, and entered a symbolic verdict against him, causing Geller to be paid only "one-third of one percent of what he had demanded". Since the crime of "insult" recognized only in Chinese and Japanese law, Randi was not required to pay. Geller later agreed to waive the Japanese fine in 1995. Randi maintains that he has never paid Geller anything.

In 1992, Geller filed a $15 million lawsuit against Randi and CSICOP for statements made in an International Herald Tribune interview on April 9, 1991, but was unsuccessful because the statute of limitations had expired. In 1994, Geller petitioned to have it dismissed without prejudice, and was ordered to pay $50,000 for the publisher's attorney's fees. After failing to pay on time, Geller was fined an additional $20,000. Due to the penalty, the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, which, according to Randi's attorneys, means that Geller cannot bring the same lawsuit in any other jurisdiction. In 1995, Geller and Randi announced that this resolved "last remaining lawsuits" between himself and CSICOP. As part of the settlement, Geller agreed not to seek payment from the 1990 Japanese decision, in exchange for Prometheus Books inserting an errata in all future editions of Physics and Psychics, correcting the misstatements made about it.

In 1991, Geller sued Timex Corporation and the advertising firm Fallon McElligott for millions of dollars in Geller v. Fallon McElligott over an advertisement that it shows a person folding forks and other items, but being unable to stop a Timex watch. Geller was fined $149,000 for filing a frivolous lawsuit.

In 1998, the UK's Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC) rejected a complaint made by Geller, saying it was "not unfair for magicians to show how they duplicate such 'psychic feats' &#3. 4; in the UK Equinox episode "Secrets of the Super Psychics".

He also considered a lawsuit against IKEA over a line of bent-legged furniture called the "Uri" line.

Copyright

In November 2000, Geller sued the Japanese video game company Nintendo for £60 million over the Pokémon species "Yungerer ", translated into English as "Kadabra", which he claimed was an unauthorized appropriation of his identity. The Pokémon in question has psychic abilities and carries a spoon in its hand.. Geller also claimed that the star on Kadabra's forehead and the lightning bolt patterns on her abdomen are popular symbolism among the Waffen SS of Nazi Germany. The katakana for the character's name, ユンゲラー, is visually similar to the transliteration of Geller's own name into Japanese (ユリゲラー). He is quoted as saying, "Nintendo turned me into an evil, hidden Pokémon character." Nintendo stole my identity using my name and image". Pokémon anime director and storyboard artist Masamitsu Hidaka confirmed in an interview that Kadabra would not be used in a Pokémon Trading Card until a settlement was reached on the case. As of 2020, the deal has not been reached and the last Kadabra card released was in the Skyridge e-Reader set (2002/2003).

In 2007, Geller issued a DMCA notice to YouTube to remove a video uploaded by Brian Sapient of the "Rational Response Squad" which was taken from an episode of the television show Nova titled Secrets of the Psychics. The video includes footage of Geller being unable to pull off the tricks of he. In response, Sapient contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation, issued a DMCA counter-notification, and sued Geller for DMCA misuse. Geller's company, Explorologist, filed a countersuit. Both cases were settled out of court; A monetary settlement was paid (but it is unclear who paid whom) and the eight seconds of footage owned by Explorologist were released under a non-commercial Creative Commons license.

Personal life

Geller has lived in Jaffa in Israel since 2015. He previously lived in the town of Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. He is trilingual, fluent in Hebrew, Hungarian and English. appearance on Esther Rantzen's talk show, Esther, in 1996 , Geller said she had suffered from anorexia nervosa and bulimia for several years.

Michael Jackson was the best man when Geller renewed their wedding vows in 2001. Geller also arranged the television interview between Jackson and journalist Martin Bashir, Living with Michael Jackson.

Geller is president of the International Friends of Magen David Adom, a group that lobbied the International Committee of the Red Cross to recognize the Magen David Adom ("Red Star of David") as a humanitarian aid organization.

In 1997 he tried to help second division football club Exeter City win a crucial end-of-season game by placing "energy-infused" behind the goals at Exeter's ground (Exeter lost the game 5–1); he was named co-chairman of the club in 2002. The club was relegated to the National League in May 2003, where he remained for five years. Since then he has cut ties with the club. He had also been involved with Reading FC and claimed in 2002 that he had helped them avoid relegation by getting the club's supporters to look him in the eye and say 'win, Reading, win'. Reading manager Alan Pardew dismissed Geller's role in the club's survival, which was achieved thanks to a draw in the crucial game, declaring "as soon as we get a little bit of joy, thanks to all the hard work and the efforts of my staff and players, he suddenly comes out of nowhere and tries to become the center of attention".

Following Michael Jackson's death, ITV broadcast an interview with Geller about his association with Jackson, entitled My Friend Michael Jackson: Uri's Story, in July 2009.

Properties

On February 11, 2009, Geller purchased the uninhabited island "Lamb" 100 meters by 50 meters off the east coast of Scotland, formerly known for its witch-hunt trials and beaches that Robert Louis Stevenson described in his novel Treasure Island. Geller claims that buried on the island is an Egyptian treasure, brought there by Scota, the mythological half-sister of Tutankhamen in Irish mythology, 3,500 years ago. And she claimed that she will find the treasure through dowsing. Geller also claimed to have strengthened the island's mystical powers by burying a crystal sphere that once belonged to Albert Einstein there.

In 2014, the Duke of Kent unveiled a twelve-foot-tall gorilla statue made of approximately 40,000 metal spoons in Geller's Berkshire garden, with the possible intention of moving it to Great Ormond Street Hospital. statue was welded by sculptor Alfie Bradley and financed by the British Ironworks Center of Oswestry. According to Bradley, many of the spoons were donated by school children from around the world. Speaking at the presentation, Geller said: "This will not raise money for charity. It will do better. It will amaze sick children".