Uri Geller

Uri Geller can be described with many different terms. He could be referred to as a psychic, a telepath, a mystifier, a mystic, or a magician. It is said that Uri Geller has demonstrated a great amount of extraordinary abilities through the power of his mind, and this has created fame for Geller along with controversy. He has undergone scientific testing to the point where the CIA have verified his abilities to be genuine, and he has even worked with both the CIA and the FBI. Uri Gellers abilities have ranged from being able to recieve and transmit thoughts, to stopping a cable-car in mid-air using only his mind. Geller's trademark ability, and so the one most commonly associated with him, is the ability to bend objects such as spoons and keys with psychokinesis. 

History

Uri Geller was born in Tel Aviv on the 20th of December 1946. Tel Aviv used to be part of Palestine, but is now part of Israel. Geller's parents were both Jewish; with his dad, Izaak Geller, being Hungarian-born, and his mum, Margaret Freud, being Berlin-born and of Austrian descent. It's suspected, although I've found no definitive confirmation, that his mum was distantly related to Sigmund Freud. 

Geller's abilities are said to have started when he was very young. I've found two seperate stories surrounding the origins of his powers; one which may serve as how he gained the powers, and the other which may simply describe when Geller first became aware of his abilities. The first story takes place either during late 1949 or early 1950; placing Geller as being either four or five years old. One telling of this event says he was four years old and that he encountered a sphere of light in a garden near to his house. A second telling says that he was five years old and a bolt of light touched his forehead while he was in his garden in Tel Aviv. I believe both of these stories are the same, but that Chinese whispers has occured around the details of when the event occured and where it occured. An interesting detail with this story is that a retired Israeli air force officer was an eyewitness to Geller encountering this light and so has recently talked about it, somewhat validating the event. 

The second story, which is the first time Geller's abilities were used, occured when he was five years old; after the incident with the light. While he was eating a meal, his spoon curled up in his hand and then broke even though no pressure had been applied to make the utensil behave in such a way. Geller's parents were understandably shocked, but nothing occured as a result of the event. Geller didn't tell anyone about what had happened until much later. While in school, Geller developed his powers further by demonstrating them to fellow pupils. Despite the incident with the light which had occured, Geller's mum thought he had inherited his abilities from Sigmund Freud. 

When Geller was eleven years old, he moved to Nicosia, in Cyprus, with his mum until he was sixteenth as she had married a Jewish Hungarian man who may have been called Tiber. While in Cyprus, Geller went to Terra Santa College; a high school where he studied English. When Geller was sixteen, he moved back to Israel and served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army. While in the army, Uri Geller fought in the Six Day War of 1967. His military career ended during this war once he became wounded in action. From leaving the military, he worked as a model between 1968 and 1969. While in this job, Geller's image was used for many different ad campaigns.

It was during 1969 that Geller begun to capitalise on his abilities. Through this year, Geller demonstrated his telepathic and psychokinetic abilities to small audiences and he became a full-time performer. During August 1971, his abilities were seen being performed in Tel Aviv by the parapsychologist Andrija Puharich; and by the end of that year Uri Geller had become a household name throughout Israel by conducting a number of stage performances. Geller even recieved a publicity boost from the Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, who, when asked on national radio what she predicted for the future of Israel, replied with 'don't ask me, ask Uri Geller'. 

During 1972, Uri Geller left Israel and travelled to Europe where he quickly gained more attention. He became known for a number of abilities which you can read below:

1. Telepathy: Recieving thoughts and transmitting images

2. Dowsing: Finding the locatuons of precious metals, minerals, and oils

3. Psychokinesis: Bending, breaking, and softening a number of solid objects with his mind

4. Fixing broken watches and appliances, including influencing Big Ben to stop

5. Moving compasses with his mind

6. Erasing computer tapes and disks

7. Sprouting: causing tiny seeds, mainly red radish, to grow a few centimetres in seconds

It was while in Germany that Geller was seen, by reporters and photographers, stopping a cable car with his mind. He also stopped an escalator in a shop. Also in 1972, Geller travelled to America. He journeyed there on the invite of both Captain Edgar Mitchell, an Apollo 14 astronaut who was the sixth man to step on the moon, and Andrija Puharich, who was a scientist, inventor, and author. While in America, Geller met many different scientists. These included the following:

1. Professor Gerald Feinburg, Colombia University Physics Department

2. Ronald Hawkesbury, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 

3. Ron Robertson, Atomic Energy Commission

4. Dr Wernher Von Braun, NASA

Wernher Von Braun even testified that his wedding ring bent in his hand without it being touched by Geller at any time. The 70s were a very prominent time for Geller, and an appearance on David Dimbleby's 'Talk-In' brought Uri Geller overnight fame in Britain. He was such a prominent figure, and was viewed as genuine in such a way that in 1973 he worked with the CIA as part of their Stargate programme. He has also worked with the FBI. While working with these groups, he has used his abilities to erase KGB computer files and track down serial killers. 

Geller was, as expected from working with such groups, put through scientific experimentation to verify his abilities. The nature of these experiments, and their results, were all published in 1975 within 'The Geller Papers'. He was tested at the Stafford Research Institute, now called SRI International, which is in California. Here, Geller correctly called out 8/10 dice throws against the odds of one million to one. He also correctly guessed the location of some hidden targets; a feat with a probability of one trillion to one. All of these tests were documented in an official SRI film, and they were published as a scientific paper in the prestigious British journal 'Nature'. This publication was viewed as absolute proof to Geller's abilities being legitimate. 

Further experiments occured at Birkbeck College, which was part of the University of London. A whole team of research physicists were involved, and they were headed by professor JB Hasted, the professor of experimental physics and the head of the physics department. The theoretical physicist professor David Bohm, who had worked with Albert Einstein and who had the Aharonov-Bohm effect in quantum mechanics named after him, was also in the team. During these tests, Geller caused a Geiger counter to register 500 times the normal count, and he deformed a molybdenum crystal by one centimeter in diameter. He also caused part of another crystal, which was inside a pill capsule, to disappear. 

Other people who witnessed Geller's achievements at Birkbeck were; the writer, Arthur C. Clarke; the sponsor for Great Britain's first university chair in parapsychology, Arthur Koestler; the director of the rockets division of Rolls Royce, AV Cleaver; and the head of the electrical engineering department of City University, Arthur Ellison. 

Geller has demonstrated his abilities in many other locations too. He caused the recently invented alloy, Nitinol, to become deformed in a way that contradicted its inbuilt characteristics while at the US Naval Surface Weapons Centre in Silver Spring, Maryland. In 1984, he erased a computer tape at Tokai University, Tokyo, while in the presence of a team of scientists and one of Japan's leading computer experts. Also in 1984, he rendered a computer non-operational, while in Switzerland, by garbling a floppy disk. Then, in 1985, he performed a similar feat as in Switzerland but instead at the headquarters of the Wang computer company near London with a dozen people watching. Uri Geller continued these demonstrations through 1986 and 1987, and during this time he completely erased the computer tapes belonging to Germany's biggest newspaper publishing group: Axel Springer Verlag.

A list of some sites Uri Geller demonstrated his abilities in are as follows:

1. Kent State University 

2. The University of Los Angeles

3. The Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory

4. The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Munich

5. INSERM Telemetry Laboratories; Suresnes, France

6. Western Kentucky University, Department of Mathematics

7. King's College

8. The University of London

9. Tokai University 

10. Tokyo Denki University

Through the 1970s and 1980s, Uri Geller repeatedly showed scientists, highly specialised technicians, the general public, and tv viewers that his abilities were genuine; and many people agreed, including the scientists. During 1998, Uri Geller even met Brian Josephson, a professor of physics who had won the Nobel prize for physics in 1973. Geller has said that his best financial year occured in 1978 as he filled stadiums worldwide with his liveshows; something which earned him $70,000 a night. 

Uri Geller has appeared on many TV programmes over the years such as 'Sixty Minutes' with Mike Wallace and, in more recent times; 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here'. One particularly noteworthy TV appearance from Uri Geller occured in 1973. During this year, Geller appeared on 'The Tonight Show' with Johnny Carson. What Geller didn't know before this appearance was that the magician and skeptic, James Randi, had contacted the team behind the programme and instructed them to not let Geller use his own props and that the props provided should be set out in a particular way. As a magician, Randi knew how magicians would be able to replicate what Geller had been demonstrating and so wanted certain controls to be introduced to rule out any methods a magician would use. Randi knew that if Geller was using trickery, then with the controls in place then Geller wouldn't be able to do a single trick unless his abilities were genuine. Geller then appeared on the programme and was unable to do any tricks with the props provided by the team. 

Randi thought that after Geller's disastrous tv appearance no one would book him and that everyone would know Geller to be fake. As you've read from the amount Geller performed for people through the 80s, Randi was very wrong with his assumption. Geller continued to remain in the public eye, although did live in Japan for a year. He was good friends with John Lennon during the 70s, and one day Lennon told Geller that he looked like an Auschwitz survivor and that he should go and find spirituality. This prompted to move to Japan with his family, and he lived at the foot of Mount Fuji. He had been married to Hanna Shtrang since 1979 and they had two children. In the 80s; Geller moved to Berkshire, England, and in 2009 he bought an Island called 'The Lamb' which is off the east coast of Scotland.

A fact about Geller which I feel isn't well known is that he and his friend Meir Gitlis, the head of an electronics company, have both developed a number of inventions which are in production. These are as follows:

1. The Moneytron: tells fake bank notes from real ones

2. The Diamontron: tells fake diamonds from real ones

3. The Gazgal leak detector

4. Sensors for defence installations

5. Small affordable earthquake sensors 

6. An earthquake shock absorber which can go in foundations of new skyscrapers

7. The Gold-meter: a compact electronic device which examines solid and other precious metals via an electro-chemical process controlled by a micro computer

Uri Geller is also an extremely artistic individual. He's been painting since he was six years old, and he worked with Salvador Dali for two years. He's exhibited his drawings, paintings, and other artworks in major galleries and museums in America, Europe, Japan, and Israel. His creations of pottery, led crystals, natural rock crystal jewellery, and watches, are all in great demand worldwide. His drawings have even been featured on Belinda Carlisle's and Michael Jackson's most recent albums. Geller has met many celebrities over the year including Andy Warhol, Picasso, and Peter Max. Michael Jackson was Geller's best man when he renewed his vows in 2001.

In 1992, Geller created a sculpture he has called 'The Geller Effect' by riveting bent cutlery onto his 1976 Cadillac. It was a popular work and was exhibited in a prestigious Israel museum in Jerusalem. It has been seen by over a million people, including the Prime Minister of the time, John Major, while it was on display at the International Car Show in England. The car has been on display for many charities, and has featured in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, and TV programmes across the world. From the October of 1999, the car was on loan to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore Inner Harbour, Maryland, USA. It also went on loan to the Beaulieu National Motor Museum in England. There are photos of it being within the Uri Geller Museum, which is located in Old Jaffa, Tel Aviv-Yaso, Israel.

Uri Geller is hugely famous, and even today he's made a significant mark on pop culture. He's been featured in many articles, and in May 1976 he was featured in the Vol 1, No 133 Marvel Daredevil comic as a guest star. He's also appeared in films plus the 2014 documentary about James Randi 'An Honest Liar'. The spoon bending scene in the film 'The Matrix' was inspired by Geller's abilities, and songs have been written about him. During the November of 2000, Uri Geller sued Nintendo because he claimed they turned him into an evil Pokemon. The Pokemon in question carried a spoon and used psychic mind waves to give its victims bad headaches. I've found that this Pokemon was called Yun Geller, although it seems like it was called, or renamed to, Kadabra. 

Geller has recieved a number of awards, such as in 2008 when he recieved the 'David Berglas International Magic Award' for his services to promotion of magic, even though he has always claimed that what he does is genuine. He has also been mentioned in at least 1,250 books, and has founded the Uri Geller Charitable Foundation which helps sick and under privileged kids. He can be hired as a speaker for between £10,000 and £15,000, and is a motivational mind power coach to Premier league footballers, industrialists, Formula One drivers, boxers, and racing cyclists. Geller himself cycles fifteen miles a day. 

Geller has also had a fair bit of involvement with world affairs. He has attended nuclear disarmament negotiations in order to bombard and influence the Russian chief negotiator with positive thought waves so that the Soviet delegation would sign the Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty. Plus, Uri Geller addressed a group of US senators and national security executives at the high-security room in the Capitol Building in Washington. He also helped to negotiate a price amicable agreement between the Palestine Red Crescent and Israel's Magen David Aden, and in 2006 he lectured to the heads of Reuters in Jerusalem and to the heads of Google Europe. In 2017, Uri Geller was deemed as a 'psychic warrior' by the CIA.

Uri Geller recieved a Mexican nationality as a token of appreciation by the Mexican president Jose Lopez Portillo after he used his dowsing abilities to find a huge offshore oil field for Mexico's national oil company 'PEMEX'. Geller was also paid one million dollars for this. 

Finally, as alluded to with how Geller's abilities came to be, Uri Geller seems to have an odd connection to aliens. Apparently he has predicted that aliens will land on Earth in the next ten-to-twenty years, and that he was shown evidence of aliens existing by Wernher Von Braun. During this experience, he apparently saw big walk-in fridges which contained dead aliens. However, I've also found a contradictory source saying that Uri Geller doesn't believe in ufos and aliens. 

My Thoughts

Before writing this article, I was convinced the Uri Geller was faking his abilities. I had written an article on James Randi, I'd seen the documentary about Randi's life which detailed his battles with Geller, and I was certain Geller faked everything he did. Having researched the other side of that story, I can't deny that there seems to be little credible arguement out there which goes convincingly against Uri Geller. However, I still think Geller has been faking his abilities and I feel I have valid reasons as to why. 

During this article I listed a number of abilities it's said Geller could perform, yet it seems like bending objects was his go-to. There have been television appearances where he's made clocks work too. The best arguement against these tv appearances is Randi's work in trying to disprove Geller. Randi appeared on TV repeating Geller's routine, except Randi was using trickery during the replication. This showed a magician could easily do what Geller was doing. I feel like the most significant case against Geller is the Tonight Show appearance where the props were set out in a way which ruled out any trickery. I feel if Geller was genuine, then he should have still been able to demonstrate his abilities under those conditions. 

Another reason why I think Geller's abilities aren't genuine are the fame and monetary aspects to his life. Various achievements in his life are relating to encouraging peace and charitable behaviour, yet he has never backed away from fame and money where use of his 'abilities' is concerned. I think that if his abilities were genuine, then he would undergo far more studies and that he would charge far less for demonstrating his abilities. I know people who have told me their parents have psychic abilities, and that people approach them for help. These people, who I do believe are legitimate, I am told take no payment even after payment is insited by those they have helped. I believe that if significant money is involved in something relating to the paranormal, whether that be investigators or psychics, then there is probably something not quite legitimate about it. 

Every significant thing Uri Geller has done feels like an advertising campaign to me, and it all feels like it's been done to boost his fame or wealth. Even suing Nintendo feels like a business move, rather than the move of someone who has legitimate psychokinetic abilities. He also sued Randi for defamation when Randi tried his best to inform the world of how Geller could be faking things. This seems to me not like a move to further boost his own credibility, but instead as a move to gain more money from something relating to his abilities. 

As for Uri Geller being scientifically tested by a number of people: Randi showed scientists can be fooled too. Project Alpha was a study being conducted by a university, and Randi planted two magicians in the study to fool the researchers into thinking they had legitimate psychic abilities. They succeeded. It was a study conducted over the course of roughly two years, and it showed that scientists can be decieved by simple trickery. I feel this is exactly what Uri Geller has done. 

To discuss the alien side of Geller, I highly doubt that aliens have anything to do with Geller's abilities if they are genuine. I also highly doubt that he's seen dead aliens. I do think that aliens exist, and I suspect that they may have visited Earth at some point in history; but I dont think they're giving people psychokinetc abilities. 

Thank you for reading to the end of this post! Another point I will quickly say as to why I don't think Geller's abilities are legitimate is: if many scientists, and even the CIA, are so confident in the legitimacy of Geller's abilities; why is the world not taught that these powers exist in people? It's good food for thought, and if Geller's psychic abilities are legitimate, it then opens up questions regarding the spirit and potential existence of an afterlife as telepathy is communication between two individuals without the use of the body.  So if telepathy exists, it stands to reason that spirits exist. It was interesting to learn about Geller's CIA connections, and I had no idea before writing this that he was as influential as he is. 

A special thank you to Damain, Nicolette, Kerry, The Cornish Ghost Whisperers, Beardo Gets Scared, and Starlight Phoenix Paranormal for your continued support of The True Paranormal. If you want to follow The True Paranormal you can do so on Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Tumblr. You can also subscribe to The True Paranormal on YouTube, or directly to this website through the bar on the left which will give you email notifications. That bar also lists all of the links which will take you to The True Paranormal's various social media platforms. If you want to contact me about your own experiences, or about anything at all paranormal, you can email thetrueparanormal1@gmail.com 

Sources I Have Used

1. Uri Geller

2. Uri Geller: Short Bio

3. IMDB

4. Telegraph

5. BBC News

6. Rational Wiki

7. Uri Geller Museum

8. Speakers Corner

9. Neurologica Blog

10. Sky News

11. Center For Inquiry

12. Daily Mail

13. The JC

14. IJPR

15. Andrew Tobias

16. Encyclopedia

17. The Guardian

18. Haaretz

19. One Ahead

20. IMDB: Bio

21. Uri Geller: History

22. BBC News: Geller 75

23. Mirror

24. Groovy History

25. On This Day

26. The Famous People

27. Sky News: Convinced CIA

28. Jewish News

29. Uri Geller: Campaign

30. Telegraph: Sports

31. Jon Finch

32. Spyscape

33. Skepchick

34. Celebrity Net Worth

35. Magic Tricks For Kids