Uri Geller: Should We Have Paid More Attention?

My strange day began one afternoon in 1976 at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona.

I was 25 years old and making $10,000 a year as a publicist at Mesa Community College (MCC). On this particular day my assignment was to pick up Israeli psychic Uri Geller and deliver him to Mesa Community College where he was scheduled to be the guest performer in the college’s Night People’s Program.

Geller, best known for bending spoons by rubbing his fingers over them, was at the height of his popularity having appeared on several national television programs including Johnny Carson’s the “Tonight Show.”

Almost as incredible as the enigmatic spoon-bending act was tiny Mesa Community College’s amazing lineup of celebrities in 1976 (America’s bicentennial) including actor Vincent Price and “Roots” author Alex Haley at the peak of his fame.

I was a little late arriving at the airport. Phoenix was a lot smaller at that time but it also lacked the freeway system it has now, so street traffic could be very bad. I had seen Geller on television so I knew him, but he didn’t know me. Yet, he walked right over to me and shook my hand.

Geller’s appearance was impressive. He was a handsome, wiry built 30-year-old, 6 feet, dressed like a Calvin Klein model in jeans and jacket (I later found out Geller did in fact do some modelling). But it was his personality that stood out. He had a way of instantly enshrouding you in his intensity. That, and the eyes, like two magnets that grabbed onto you and wouldn’t let go.

To my surprise, Geller was not alone. He was traveling with another similarly built man about the same age, but much calmer and smoking a pipe. This was Geller’s best friend and manager Shimshon (Shipi) Shtrang, who would, a couple of years later, become Geller’s brother-in-law after Geller married Shtrang’s sister Hannah.

From the onset, Geller badly wanted me to believe in his paranormal powers.

He insisted on bending a spoon for me. He effusively emphasized he did this with his mind and that it was not a trick. He said he was 5-years-old the first time he bent a spoon this way. He claimed to have been eating when the spoon bent and fell into his soup.

Geller basically dragged me into the airport’s restaurant and insisted we sit at a table away from other customers. When no one was looking, Geller removed a spoon from the table and held it just low enough below the table so only I could see it.

After just a few passes of his forefinger over the spoon’s handle, it began bending – just like on TV. I wasn’t terribly surprised, but it did fascinate me that the spoon continued to bend even as we walked out of the airport.

Geller gave me the altered stolen utensil as a gift.

The Uri Geller Show (Live From Mesa, Arizona!)

Mesa Community College’s gym was packed that evening. Those attending were advised to bring broken watches and clocks.

I introduced Geller who was very nervous right before the show began. I made an inappropriate joke about how the sky opened up to flashes of lightning as Geller’s plane landed at Sky Harbor. The audience groaned and I think there were a few boos. Geller on the other hand was very well received. He took control and soon had his fans hanging on every word about the cause and effect between mind and matter.

Besides bending spoons, Geller, who had been a popular nightclub entertainer in Israel, also did a thing where he told everyone in attendance to close their eyes and focus all their energy on the broken objects they had brought with them. After several minutes of this, there were people who could be heard making comments like “oh my god,” and “I don’t believe it.”

The following day I talked to several of the MCC teachers who had seen Geller. Some reported that during the show their watches or clocks suddenly became hot and a few actually did start ticking again after many years of silence.

Uri Geller at Denny’s

Geller was running on empty after his show. I’ve never seen a human being go from being the most energized person in the world to the most energy depleted. The whites of his eyes were red and he even had trouble standing.

In a feeble voice barely above a whisper he said he needed to eat. STAT.

We went to the Denny’s across the street from MCC. The party consisted of me, Geller, the pipe-smoking Shipi and several of the college’s employees involved in the Night People’s Program.

Geller ate – a lot. Gradually as he worked his way through the layers of food, the red in his eyes disappeared and he recharged. Soon he was the same Geller as before the show, animated, intense and charming. He was especially charming and not so subtle in his advances toward an attractive woman from the college who was dining with us. I suspect he might have been trying to bend her heart with his sexual energy. Whether or not he succeeded, I do not know.

One other odd thing happened during the feast at Denny’s: With my head down and focused on what I was eating, I had that feeling you get when someone is starring at you. I looked up and Geller was giving me the laser eye. Then, as serious as delivering a death sentence, he said:

“You are very intelligent.”

Not knowing how to respond, I think I just smiled and looked back down at my plate.

Some 44 Years Later

Uri Geller is now 73. He will be 74 in December. After the novelty of bent spoons wore off, Geller’s fame waned somewhat, but he still occasionally appeared on TV and even made news now and then while living mostly in England.

Perhaps his most famous moment following his spoon bending years occurred in 1996 during a Euro soccer match between Scotland and England. He was in a helicopter above the stadium. The players, of course, looked small from up in the air, but Geller could follow the game by listening to play by play calls in a headphone. At the most critical juncture in the game, Irish star Gary McAllister put the ball down for what might have been an easy penalty shot. But right before the kick, Geller concentrated on the ball then screamed One! Two! Three! Ball Move!

And it did.

McAllister missed the shot. Geller was a hero among British die hard soccer fans. He received 11,000 hate mail letters from Scotland.

Geller did something similar to this on an Irish TV show called “Brain Hacker” hosted by Keith Barry. He once again moved a soccer ball, allegedly with his mind and with the help of the audience and their concentration.

Over the years, magicians have steadfastly claimed that Geller is just doing tricks. Others, like the CIA, have not been so sure.

Documents declassified from the CIA  in 2017 show that Uri Geller succeeded in convincing the intelligence agency of his psychic abilities.

Apparently, Geller was tested in 1973 by the CIA as a possible participant in what was called the Stargate Project. It primarily involved remote viewing, the purported ability to psychically “see” events, sites or information from a great distance. In other words, the CIA wanted to recruit Geller as a kind of psychic secret weapon in order to obtain intel on the then Soviet Union and other enemies of the United States and possibly Israel.

According to the declassified documents, the experiments involved a series of tests where Geller was isolated in a room and asked to copy a picture drawn by a person he could not see. The experimenters concluded that:

“As a result of Geller’s success in this experimental period, we consider that he has demonstrated his paranormal perceptual ability in a convincing and unambiguous manner.”

Geller is on record as saying he has “done many things” for the CIA including standing outside the Russian Embassy in Mexico and paranormally erasing floppy discs being flown out by Russian agents. Another time he had to get near someone involving an important nuclear deal and convince him telepathically to sign with the bombardment of words “Sign! Sign! Sign!”

Lennon, Geller and Extraterrestrials

Geller has also had some odd involvements with high profile celebrities such as John Lennon who made the claim in the mid-70s that he was visited by aliens while staying in New York. In interviews, Lennon said he was lying naked on his bed when he had an overwhelming urge to get up and go to his window. There he saw a UFO with a bright red light on top hovering over the next building about 100 feet away. The story was corroborated by May Pang (assistant turned girlfriend) who said the circular object came nearer as they walked out onto the terrace. At one point they could make out a row of white lights that ran around the rim of the craft.

To his dying day, Lennon swore this actually happened.

He even consulted his friend Uri Geller, and, according to Geller, revealed an even more intimate encounter of an extraterrestrial nature. In this second encounter, Geller said Lennon told him he had been visited by bug-eyed aliens. This time, as relayed by Geller, when Lennon was awakened, he went to his bedroom door, opened it, and found four small aliens waiting for him. They then stunned Lennon with their minds, rendering him helpless.

Allegedly, Geller also received an egg-shaped object from Lennon that was left as a “gift” by the extraterrestrials. Geller showed this object to journalists several years after Lennon’s death in 1980.

Imagine that. Certainly sounds far-fetched. On the other hand, having encountered a possible alien abduction of my own in the rain forest of Costa Rica, I’m a little more open-minded than most in these matters.

Then there was Geller’s much publicized on-again off-again friendship with entertainer Michael Jackson. Apparently, Michael Jackson was one of Geller’s biggest fans. So they met in 1999 in a New York City hotel through a mutual friend. From there the friendship blossomed. They shared late night shopping trips and even a visit to parliament.

Geller even designed part of the sleeve note for Jackson’s final studio Invincible album. Jackson was the best man in Geller’s 2001 ceremony where Geller and his wife Hanna renewed their vows. Geller had given Jackson the wedding ring 24 hours before the ceremony because Geller wanted the ring to absorb Jackson’s energy.

Things went south after Geller introduced Jackson to journalist Martin Bashir in 2002 and encouraged Jackson to make a documentary with Bashir called Living with Michael Jackson. The documentary contained much commentary by Bashir which was very critical of Jackson.

Geller has also admitted to hypnotizing Jackson regarding the child abuse allegations that ended up in a contentious court case. Geller stated that although he knew questioning Jackson under hypnosis was unethical, hearing him deny the accusations while in a trance confirmed innocence in his eyes.

The Case for PK

Psychokinesis (PK) is a broad term in parapsychology applying to any physical effect (from our normal level of size-reality to the quantum size-level) caused by the mind/consciousness. This might include effects on electronics, random number generators, healing or metal-bending – as in bending spoons.

Telekinesis, or action at a distance, does not necessarily imply the involvement of consciousness/mind, even though it’s become the term most often used for mind over matter effects involving movement of objects and people – or soccer balls.

Clairvoyance is the claimed ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception – a mainstay of the CIA’s remote viewing programs.

While generally met with a roll of the eyes and crooked smile by those who don’t have these abilities, the truth of the matter is this: Parapsychology involves the application of standard scientific and scholarly methods to a class of commonly reported, but not yet fully understood phenomena associated with human experiences. What we call telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinetic effects have all been independently repeated in labs around the world, and reported in peer-reviewed journals.

Take Dr. Dean Radin, who worked with the research staff at Princeton University’s PEAR (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research) Lab and is currently the chief scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and Associated Distinguished Professor of Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Radin has been engaged in research on the frontiers of consciousness for 40 years, producing over 90 peer-reviewed papers describing some pretty amazing experiments in psychokinesis and the like. According to Radin, many scientists are understandably skeptical about psychic phenomena, but a fast growing subset across many disciplines are becoming more open as a result of paying attention to the empirical data and to increasingly persuasive arguments that consciousness is more important than previously thought.

Radin points to the American Psychologist, the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association, the world’s largest no-nonsense organization of academic psychologists. In May 2018, American Psychologist carried a major article on the evidence for parapsychological phenomena, and concluded based on 10 meta-analyses of over 1,000 published experiments that these phenomena are real.

This article – along with others that are beginning to appear in mainstream, peer-reviewed journals – are making important inroads into past prejudices that prevented this line of research from being taken seriously.

A main thesis that runs through Radin’s books (such as “Supernormal” and “Real Magic”) is that the material world, as defined by today’s science, is not all there is. There are suggestions that consciousness lies underneath, or before, what we currently call physics, chemistry and biology.

This position is what a philosopher would call “idealism.” In one recent interview, Radin said:

“In a nutshell, the scientific worldview, called materialism, can be expressed as ‘everything is made of matter, including mind.’ By contrast, the worldview of idealism is the exact opposite: ‘Everything is made of mind, including matter.’

“I think that idealism is a better fit to explaining psi phenomena than materialism, but it doesn’t make sense to dismiss materialism because it’s just been too successful. So I’ve put a spin on idealism that does not negate materialism, but rather expands it to become more inclusive and comprehensive.”

Radin maintains that there are many examples of distortions and flat-out errors in how psi research is portrayed, including in college textbooks.

These biases have had a cumulative effect among academics for many generations. It has even influenced some journal editors to the point where they reject articles reporting positive psi experiments because they insist that such effects are literally impossible.

According to Radin, despite the persistent skepticism, many scientists have endorsed his work, including two Nobel Laureates (Brian Josephson, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate in physics, and Kary Mullis, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate in chemistry), a program director from the National Science Foundation, president of the American Statistical Association, recipients of major awards from the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences.

Uri Geller: Should We Have Paid More Attention?

It’s not difficult to see why Uri Geller has been resoundly doubted during his lifetime. The terms psychic and showman aren’t particularly compatible – and let’s face it, Geller was a master at creating buzz. But then again, it was Geller the CIA turned to and not Amazing Randi, Geller’s most ardent debunker.

So who was Uri Geller? Really. Was he:

1. Just a slick showman as the magicians claim
2. Someone with serious and important paranormal abilities
3. A combination of A and B

I can only speak from my short personal encounter with Geller. After his energy expenditure performance at MCC so many years ago, I came away believing this was not just an act. He was genuinely exhausted and spent of energy, a Pikachu that had used up his electrical powers in order to demonstrate what the human mind and body were capable of.

Besides that, I liked Geller and his friend Shipi. After more than 35 years as a journalist, I think I’ve developed a pretty good sense of people. And, in my opinion, Geller was the real deal.

There’s also another thing. Geller has never been just a psychic or stage performer. He was (and still is) a compassionate human being. I’m guessing this is a characteristic absent in tricksters just in it for the cash.

Take this posting a few years ago that Geller left for his friends on Facebook. It’s in remembrance of the June 1967 Arab – Israeli Six-Day War that Geller, who was wounded, participated in at the age of 20. Geller wrote:

“As you may know, today is the 50 year anniversary of the 6 day war.

It’s hard for me to believe that it was 50 years ago that I fought in this war! Like all wars, it was horrible, and I will never forget the things that happened.

I very much regret the fact that I killed a man, it still haunts me to this day. I regret the fact that so many other people on both sides of the conflict died so young, including my friend Avram Stedler.

I regret the fact that these young people who could have learned so much from each other and could have been such good friends, were killing one another due to circumstances under which they had no control.

I also regret that tragically in many countries we are still fighting in the name of religion!

One thing that I certainly will never regret though, is being injured.

Thanks to my injury, I was invited to work as an instructor at a youth camp, where I met a young man called Shimshon (Shipi) Shtrang, my brother-in-law and manager, and my best friend for the past 50 years! If it wasn’t for this injury, I would never have met Shipi, and then of course his sister Hanna, my wife, the mother of my Children and the love of my life!

Isn’t this universe incredible??!!”

Indeed.

You can learn more about Uri Geller and what he’s up to these days by visiting his official website.