Israeli huckster Uri Geller claims aliens give him his powers
Bend your spoon
09.26.2023
He made the prince live to be 100 years old - and moved ships with the power of his thoughts. But in public he only bends spoons. Showman Uri Geller knows for sure that he received magical powers from aliens.
When Golda Meir was asked to give a forecast for the new year, 1970, she replied: “I am not a prophet. Better ask Uri Geller!” The illusionist and mystifier Geller, whose crowning trick was bending spoons with the power of his gaze, did not answer this question then. He was preparing to conquer the United States with his superpowers. Around the same time, James Randi, an expert in debunking paranormal phenomena, read an article about Geller in an American newspaper. This man will become Geller's personal nightmare: he will repeat his tricks over and over again, claiming that they are “quackery and nothing more.” Their history will be saturated with hatred and scandals. But at the same time, it is seasoned with a fair amount of magic.
Geller is confident that he decides the fate of the World Cup
To tell the truth, it’s even strange that Geller ignored Golda Meir’s words about the forecast. Of course, he never shied away from loud statements. “With the power of my mind, I moved the container ship Ever Given, which blocked the Suez Canal in 2021!” “I made Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, live to be 100 years old!” Finally: “It was I who helped the England team win against the Scots at the European Championships in ’96! The power of my mind took the ball away during the penalty!” When this or that important event happened in the world, Uri Geller rarely missed the opportunity to attribute it to his magical powers.
Geller became interested in illusionism after the army
He was born in Tel Aviv in 1946. Geller's father was a military man, and his mother, as he himself claimed, was related to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Geller became interested in illusionism in the late 60s, after he served in the IDF airborne brigade and was wounded during the Six-Day War. One day he saw a performance by the British David Berglas on TV - a magician was looking for a hidden card in a deck and bending metal objects “with the power of his gaze.” Geller decided he could do it just as well.
Soon Uri performed in Tel Aviv clubs with similar numbers. At the same time, he claimed that he possessed telepathy and the gift of prophecy. According to Geller, he received these abilities from aliens with whom he came into contact at the age of three. “I was walking in the park, and then a sparkling ball-shaped object hovered above me. He enveloped me in an unearthly light so that I eventually lost consciousness. When I woke up, I realized that the aliens had given me power,” he explained.
Geller began his career in Tel Aviv clubs
Geller, who dreamed of a career overseas, ended up in the United States in early 1971. There he found a fan and a producer in one person: 53-year-old paranormal investigator Andrija Puharich. In the past, Puharich conducted experiments with hallucinogens in Mexico, and in 1968 he gained fame by revealing the Brazilian healer Jose Arigo to the world. He claimed that he could perform surgical operations with his bare hands. Puharich claimed that he "tested" Uri Geller. Allegedly, he put the magician into a hypnotic trance, and he once again confirmed the story with the aliens. “At that moment it was not Uri. I heard the metallic voice of the alien himself, who said: “We found Uri in the park, and he is our ally. Uri is called to help humanity,” Puharich wrote.
It was not the genie who helped Geller, but aliens
Unlike Puharich, ex-magician James Randi flatly refused to believe in miracles. From the age of 17, Randy traveled around the world with traveling circuses: he himself performed as an illusionist and saw thousands of tricks during his life. In none of them, he said, “there was any mysticism,” but only “sleight of hand and fraud.” Since the late 60s, Randy began appearing on television programs as an exposer of psychics and magicians. He was one of the first to accuse healer Jose Arigo of falsification. “All these operations where he allegedly reaches under the skin with his hands are fake and an illusion. The remains of the organs that such a surgeon removes from the body, all this blood - everything is hidden in a sleeve or on the table. And it just comes out at the right moment,” he argued. As Uri Geller's fame in the United States grew at the instigation of Puharich, Randi's irritation also grew. “I have nothing against magicians - as long as
Uri only loves his own spoons
In 1972, Uri Geller was invited to the popular TV show Johnny Carson. Randy knew about this and advised the show organizers in advance: not to let Geller use the brought props, but to give him a new one on the spot. The result was a colossal failure. Geller could not bend a single spoon and did not guess a single object in a sealed capsule - such guessing was another of his “crown” tricks. "I can not concentrate! You say: do this or guess that!” – Geller complained to the presenter. “Yes,” Carson joked. “But I thought that was the whole point.”
For some reason, Michael Jackson added Geller to his list of enemies
Surprisingly, the failure did not harm the Israeli’s career at all. They started calling him on TV even more often! Geller went on big tours in Europe, Japan and Australia - and continued to bend his spoons there. At the same time, his statements became more and more exotic from year to year. Thus, the Israeli claimed that he was sent to Mexico on instructions from the CIA. There, Geller allegedly stood in front of the Soviet embassy and, with the power of his mind, forced its employees to erase important data. He also said that he helped the United States “push through” the signing of a secret treaty with the Soviet Union. According to him, through telepathy he inspired the “Soviet people” to abandon the build-up of nuclear potential.
Geller allegedly helped the CIA
It later turned out that in the 70s, Geller actually took part in the study of paranormal abilities under the auspices of the CIA: they were carried out jointly with Stanford University in California. The Israeli went through a series of experiments. Among other things, it was necessary to guess what the people in the other room were drawing on paper - and Geller guessed several drawings quite accurately. However, James Randi, who came into possession of the protocols of these tests, assured that Geller was being cunning here too. According to the whistleblower, the Israeli had the opportunity to peek at some of the drawings. And in one of the tests, CIA officers, who clearly favored him, accidentally or intentionally left the microphone on - so that Geller could hear what was being discussed behind the wall. Randy moved on. He introduced into the study participants two people specially trained in magic tricks - and their abilities,
Sleight of hand - and a little UFO
In turn, the whistleblower himself became a victim of criticism. In 1981, he published the book The Truth about Uri. In it, Randy, among other things, explained how to perform tricks using prepared props and distracting the attention of the audience. On the TV show, Randy repeated the spoon bending trick more than once. "Geller says, 'Bend over!' And I will say any word, for example: “Broccoli!” Do you see? The spoon bent. Not because of the strength of my calling, but because I technically know how to do it. There are a lot of ways, and the simplest one is to file the spoon itself before the focus,” he explained. However, some viewers did not want to give up their belief in magic. “You are negative and have built a system of denial!”, “The key to understanding psychic abilities lies in the fact that you need to believe in them!”, “Why don’t you read the newspapers and reconsider your point of view?” – something like this is how Uri Geller’s fans attacked Randy during live broadcasts.
Geller's spoon is good for both lunch and dinner
Geller himself also did not stand aside. In 1991, he filed a lawsuit against the whistleblower. The Israeli demanded payment of $15 million - that’s how much he estimated the damage caused to his reputation by Randy’s statements. The court did not admit the latter's guilt. Geller was ordered to pay $120,000 to cover the defendant's legal costs. Later, Geller also sued Nintendo, a game production company. He believed that the image of one of the Pokemon whose weapon was a spoon was copied from him.
James Randi passed away in 2020 at the age of 92. But his battle with magic was not over. Back in 1996, Randy founded a foundation that researches and verifies reports of various kinds of mysticism. The foundation promises to pay a million dollars to anyone who provides convincing evidence of paranormal phenomena. To date, no one has been able to receive this award.
A spoon made an Israeli rich
Uri Geller is 76 years old. He retired from performing stunts long ago and now devotes his time to charity. In the 90s and 2000s, Geller was close friends with Michael Jackson. The Israeli spoke in support of the pop singer at the 2004 trial and said that Jackson was falsely accused of pedophilia. Allegedly, Geller once put the artist into a state of hypnosis. While in a trance, “when a person cannot lie,” Jackson told him that he had not committed any illegal actions. It is interesting that after the singer’s death, a list of personal enemies was found in his archive - the name of Uri Geller was also on the list.
In 2022, Geller unexpectedly proclaimed the creation of a new state. The fact is that he owns the small island of Lamb off the coast of Scotland. So, the illusionist drew the flag of the island - based on a drawing allegedly created with the help of his “friend and mentor Salvador Dali”, wrote a simple constitution - “The island is friendly to all countries” and declared that from now on anyone can become a citizen of the island. Just a dollar. Geller promises to donate all proceeds to fight childhood heart disease.
Mikhail Blokov