The Truth About Uri Geller Read online

  The Truth About Uri Geller

  James Randi

  Prometheus Books (1982)

  Rating: ★★★☆☆

  Tags: Body; Mind Spirit, Philosophy, Fiction, General, Biography Autobiography, Parapsychology, ESP (Clairvoyance; Precognition; Telepathy)

  Body; Mind Spiritttt Philosophyttt Fictionttt Generalttt Biography Autobiographyttt Parapsychologyttt ESP (Clairvoyance; Precognition; Telepathy)ttt

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  Why won't Uri Geller perform in front of professional magicians? Can he really bend spoons, keys, and nails with his "psychic" powers? Randi tells all in this examination of Geller's feats."A healthy antidote to charlatanism on all levels". -- Carl Sagan

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  FOREWORD

  INTRODUCTION: WHO IS URI GELLER?

  HOW DOES URI DO IT?

  ABOUT THE “SRI REPORT”

  WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

  ANDREW WEIL’S SEARCH FOR THE TRUE GELLER

  THE MAN WHO “DISCOVERED” URI GELLER

  THE TIME MAGAZINE EPISODE WITH GELLER

  THE WONDERFUL TELEPORTATION TO AND FROM BRAZIL. . . OR HOW NOT KNOWING ENOUGH ABOUT THE SUBJECT CAN BE VERY EMBARRASSING

  PHOTOGRAPHS THROUGH A LENS CAP

  THE PERSONS BEHIND THE GELLER MYTH

  THE SPANIARD WITH THE X-RAY EYES

  THE OLD BROKEN-WATCH TRICK REVEALED

  HE DIDN’T FOOL THEM IN ISRAEL!

  ALAN SPRAGGETT THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET, THEN THE TOWEL

  GELLER’S MAJOR AMERICAN TV APPEARANCES

  GELLER IN ENGLAND

  A CENTURY AGO: SAME GAME, DIFFERENT PERSONNEL

  THE MAGICIANS’ ATTITUDE AND HOW IT CHANGED

  CONCLUSION: WHAT GELLER HAS DONE, AND WHERE HE CAN GO FROM HERE

  OBJECTIONS TO THIS BOOK

  APPENDIX

  GLOSSARY

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ABOUT THE JREF

  Dedicated to Uri Geller and Shipi Shtrang, two men who fooled the world—almost

  “I’ll have you hanged,” said a critical and ignorant king, who had heard of The Psychic’s Powers, “if you don’t prove that you are a mystic.”

  “I see strange things,” said The Psychic at once. “A golden bird in the sky, and demons under the earth.”

  “How can you see through solid objects? How can you see far in the sky?”

  “Fear is all you need.”

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Since this book was first published in 1975 under the title The Magic of Uri Geller, much has occurred in the Geller saga. I will attempt to bring the reader up to date.

  I have not revealed this previously, but it is surely time to do so. In May of 1975, just before the book was committed to the hands of the printer, I sent Uri Geller a registered, carefully composed letter. It was received by him personally at his apartment in New York City.

  The letter offered Geller a way to ward off the dilemma that my book was sure to bring about. I told him that I would meet with him at a time and place of his choosing to discuss what we might work out so that I would not have to proceed with publication. It was something I was willing to forgo if a better solution could be arrived at, but I was convinced that the truth had to be told, one way or another. Though I did not say in the letter what offer I would make, I was prepared to accept a statement from Uri to the effect that he had performed his deceptions in order to show that scientists are easily fooled and that the media are inclined to snap up every paranormal claim they can find, uncritically. In other words, I was offering him a way out that would not only make him a hero and a prince of hoaxers, but also pave the way for him to step into legitimate show business as an established conjuror.

  He could have avoided the albatross I was about to hang about his neck, the book would be the official announcement of his revelation to the world, and we’d all be a lot happier.

  Knowing the business as I do, I have no doubt that this man could have rescued himself and become a huge success in the theater had he chosen to accept my offer of that private talk. He chose not to, and the manuscript went to the printer.

  Weeks before the book was released, I received two letters, both from the same lawyer, on behalf of Geller and two scientists who had tested and validated his powers. The letters stated that, if I made any untrue statements about these individuals, I would be sued for libel. Fair enough. In order to prove libel, a plaintiff has to prove that an untrue statement was made. Obviously, every statement in this book was carefully read and considered by that lawyer. I was never sued.

  In March of 1977, I received a letter from Yascha Katz, Geller’s former manager, offering to “discuss” the matter with me. I had referred to him as a “dupee” rather than as a “duper,” and he found that to be a suitable premise upon which he might approach me. Enlisting the interest of the Italian RAI television folks, who had just completed a lengthy and very negative study of paranormal claims through journalist Piero Angela, I flew to Israel to interview Katz. What he told me was the single greatest indictment of Uri Geller I’d ever heard. This former colleague claimed that Geller owed him upwards of $30,000 in unpaid commissions and that he (Katz) had been dumped after Geller got his start in the United States. He described the scene at the airport in Tel Aviv when he and Geller were boarding the plane to America. Katz had asked, one final time, if his apparent powers were the real thing or a deception. Uri had looked into his eyes and sworn it was all kosher, and the two had walked hand-in-hand up the ramp.

  Katz described how he had then been dragooned into serving as a confederate in the Geller vaudeville act, peeking into sealed envelopes, tossing objects over his shoulder as “materializations” credited to Geller, and listening in on conversations to obtain needed information for the deceptions. He had done this when his regular confederates, Shipi Shtrang and others, had been unavailable.

  The expose was broadcast in Italy and published in New Scientist magazine in England. Geller then loudly proclaimed that Katz had stolen money from him, and Katz countered by announcing that he was suing Geller. Nothing ever happened. Ever since, the popularity of this psychic superstar has been waning. Most of the scientists who formerly supported him jumped off his comet as it dimmed. Others have simply lapsed into silence on the subject. The Stanford Research International folks merely grumble that Geller was “only 3 percent of the total work” they carried out in the paranormal field and declined to discuss the matter further—except to insist that they were not fooled in the first place. Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ have contradicted themselves. They said early on in the drama that if they ever even suspected a subject of using trickery, they would throw him/her out on his/her ear. Now they confide that they knew all the time Geller was a trickster but wanted to study his methods!

  John Taylor, formerly Geller’s most vocal and dedicated supporter, has written a book, Science and the Supernatural, in which he does a 180-degree turn at high speed without academic whiplash, reversing himself on the matter in a rather peculiar fashion. He tells us that since only the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum can explain Geller’s feats—if they are genuine—and his research shows that EM forces are not involved, therefore the phenomena do not exist. What we look for in vain is a statement from Taylor admitting that he was fooled—completely, thoroughly, and definitively. But the raw courage it took to write the book, preceded as it was by rather tame articles in scientific periodicals that hinted at the reversal to come, can earn only praise from my camp.

  John Hasted continues to believe in Geller, the spoon-bending children, and almost everything paranormal, in spite of a plethora of rebuttals, denials, a
nd criticisms of his claims. Charles Crussard, still convinced that he was and is incapable of error, labors on in France to convince the world that he was right in believing in the powers of Geller and of his own Gallic star, Jean-Pierre Girard. Crussard seems not to be aware that Girard long ago declared, as I thought Geller might choose to, that he was playing “psychic” as a hoax on the scientists.

  Professor Wilbur Franklin, a metallurgist at Kent State University who had declared strong support of Geller’s abilities before meeting me and seeing several demonstrations of psychic tricks—including spoon and key-bending—reversed his opinion of the famous “platinum ring fracture” and finally decided that it was, as others had known all along, simply a bad brazing job. He died soon after.

  In general, Geller can no longer obtain a serious hearing in the scientific community. He has refused to show up in labs where it appeared that he might be subject to genuine observation, and he has refused tests at the last minute because of “negative vibrations.” He has walked off numerous radio and television shows when my name has been mentioned, and cancelled out on others where I appeared to challenge him. On one television show in Holland, he stood up and slapped the face of a magician who, unknown to Geller, had been introduced into the panel; he was booed from the stage. On a Baltimore television show (as on others) he was plainly seen to bend a spoon with his two hands surreptitiously, and then to conceal the bend and reveal it slowly to the hosts of the show, who oohed and aahed appropriately. Then he declared that a little girl who had rubbed his hand had performed the apparent miracle. The videotapes make interesting viewing indeed.

  There is much more to tell, and some of it is related in my latest book, Flim-Flam!, available from this publisher as a companion volume to this one. There are more books in the works as well. The Hydra of the paranormal grows heads faster than one can lop them off. But one tries.

  Thank you for your interest in an alternative point of view about these claims. It would be a thankless task to prepare this material were it not for the many letters I receive expressing support and gratitude. These make it well worth doing.

  James Randi

  Rumson, NJ

  May, 1982

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The author wishes to thank sincerely: Villamor Asuncion for typing beyond the call of duty; David Berglas for valuable cooperation; Rose Bonanno, David Davies and Judy-Lynn del Rey; the late Joseph Dunninger for his valued friendship; Dr. Christopher Evans; Dr. Sarah Feinstein, Moses Figueroa, who shared many tense moments with me; Martin Gardner for research materials and other valuable assistance; W. Geissler-Werry; the late Felix Greenfield for caring to fight the good fight; Dr. Joe Hanlon, Farooq Hussain, Dr. Ray Hyman and Leon Jaroff; Norman King for his kindness in many ways; Billy McComb for extensive use of his premises and for his patience while I was in England; Lora Myers; Long John Nebel for his continued camaraderie; Stanley Palm; Fred Pohl, Jr., for patient attendance; Dr. Jack Salz, Marcello Truzzi; Dr. Maurice Wilkens FRS; and especially James Pyczynski.

  Air Canada for travel arrangements to the Continent.

  The many periodicals that have allowed me to use excerpts from their accounts. They have been most generous.

  And the other gentlemen at King’s College, London. I am richer for having known them.

  To the men such as Targ, Puthoff, Bastin, Hasted, Bohm, Taylor, and others who have lent their scientific acceptance to a chimera, I suggest that it is time to call in their loans.

  FOREWORD

  When Psychic Uri Geller first burst into the news in 1973, a naive America was ripe for the plucking. With consummate showmanship, and leaving a trail of bent and broken silverware behind him, he traveled across the country, making followers—and fools—out of mighty institutions and prominent personalities. Geller convinced executives and researchers at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), one of the nation’s most distinguished “think tanks,” that he could read minds, foretell events, and, with sheer psychic energy, distort magnetic fields, streams of electrons, and solid metallic objects. He convinced Apollo-14 Astronaut Ed Mitchell to help finance the research at SRI and persuaded Gerald Fineberg, a well-known physicist, into sponsoring a Columbia University colloquium featuring an amateurish SRI film that “documented” Geller’s miracles. Even Nature magazine, the world’s most prestigious science journal, published a detailed SRI report on Geller’s remarkable talents, thus endowing Uri with an aura of respectability that an accompanying editorial disclaimer did little to diminish. The New York Times, Newsweek, network commentators including Barbara Walters, and a host of other journalists, both print and electronic, treated Geller seriously and even with awe, utterly failing to exercise the healthy skepticism so important to their professions.

  Then, with the U.S. almost under Geller’s spell, along came Randi. James (The Amazing) Randi did not have the distinguished credentials of many of the people whom Geller had converted. Born in Toronto in 1928, he was a child prodigy, but never attended college or had any scientific training. Magic was—and has remained—his all-consuming interest, and his prowess at legerdemain has won him invitations to perform before royalty in Europe and Asia, at the White House, on national television, and on college campuses around the world.

  Randi first encountered Geller (and I first met Randi) at the offices of Time magazine in Manhattan, where Geller had come directly from SRI to convince the editors that his powers were genuine. After Geller had performed and departed, Randi, who had been posing as a Time editor, proceeded to duplicate all of Geller’s feats, demonstrating that only fast hands and clever psychology were necessary. His revelations contributed to Time’s first story on Geller, which charged in effect that SRI had been hoodwinked by an Israeli nightclub magician.

  From that time on, Randi has relentlessly and gleefully investigated and pursued Geller, determined to put a stop to someone he felt was sullying the good name of magicians and bringing dishonor to their profession. In The Truth About Uri Geller, Randi discloses the lengths to which he went and the ingenious snares he devised to expose Geller’s methods. After reading Randi’s logical and rational explanations of Uri’s tricks, only the most fanatic and gullible followers (alas, there are many) will continue to believe in Geller and in the psychic phenomena that he claims to effect. Better yet, Randi’s revelations may give pause to the next charismatic “psychic” to appear on the scene. For no matter how clever or deceptive the next Geller is, James Randi will be there, his eyes gleaming, ready to do battle for legitimate magic and magicians everywhere.

  Leon Jaroff,

  Senior Editor, Time Magazine

  INTRODUCTION: WHO IS URI GELLER?

  I have read with keen curiosity the articles by leading scientists on the subject of psychic phenomena . . . There is no doubt in my mind that some of these scientists are sincere in their belief but unfortunately it is through this very sincerity that thousands become converts. The fact that they are scientists does not endow them with an especial gift for detecting the particular sort of fraud used by mediums, nor does it bar them from being deceived . . .

  —Harry Houdini, A Magician Among the Spirits

  He is an Israeli citizen, born in Tel Aviv on December 20, 1946, the only child of Itzhaak Geller, a retired Israeli Army sergeant, and Manzy Freud, said to be a very distant relative of Sigmund. Uri attended grade school in Tel Aviv, was sent to a kibbutz at age 9, when his parents divorced, and at age 11 moved to Nicosia, Cyprus, with his mother and new stepfather, who owned a hotel there.

  In Nicosia he attended a Catholic high school, where he learned English; there are no records at the Israeli Ministry of Education to show that he graduated. At age 18, he entered the Israeli Army as a matter of course, connected with a paratrooper unit. He did not complete an Officers Training Corps course. Leaving the Army after minor injuries, he was employed as a fashion model for a time, then was a camp counselor, at which job he met Shimson (Shipi) Shtrang, several years his junior. The two happened upon
a book that dealt with magic and magicians, and began working together on the subject. An act developed, and they began working at the kibbutzes, and private parties, and in nightclubs, claiming supernatural abilities for what was essentially a two-person “code” routine. Eventually they were brought to court1 for using the words “psychokinesis,” “ESP,” and “parapsychology” in their promotion, and from then on they were not allowed to use such terminology, since they were performing conjuring tricks. This, coupled with the exposure that Geller had faked a photograph of himself with Sophia Loren for the Israeli newspapers, led to Geller’s decline in his own country.

  At this point, he was “discovered” by Dr. Andrija Puharich, an American parapsychology buff who convinced various persons in the United States that Uri was the real thing. Shortly thereafter, Uri and Shipi came to America, where their rise was meteoric.

  Geller made countless appearances on TV and did numerous college and lecture-hall shows. Though the content of his in-person performances seemed rather trivial, the believers—and their ranks grew—marveled at even the most minor effect he produced. He had numerous reverses, too, but they were either ignored or explained away by the media and the faithful.