Uri Geller is an oddball magician and illusionist, TV personality and who believes himself to be a psychic. Perhaps he is most widely known for his tricks of seemingly bending spoons with his mind.
Featured Photo: By Dmitry Rozhkov from Wikimedia. License.
Geller was born in December 1946 in Tel Aviv, Israel. His father was a retired army sergeant major and Geller also claimed that he was a distant relative of Sigmund Freud. Geller would join the Paratroopers Brigade in the Israeli military and would fight in the Six-Day War where he was wounded in action. He also worked as a photographic model and would soon start performing for small audiences in Israel, entertaining nightclubs and he would start to pick up his reputation, becoming quite known in the country.
He also performed in many other places such as military bases, public halls, theatres and universities. By the 1970s Uri Geller would also start becoming known in the west for his performances and people from the scientific community would also become eager to study his alleged psychic abilities. Around this time, he would be performing for television audiences worldwide.
Such tricks and abilities he performed included telekinesis, also known as psychokinesis, the apparent ability to move objects using only the mind, and of which he most often used to bend spoons. He also appeared to display telepathy, the ability to communicate to another person using only the mind. Another of his famous abilities was known as dowsing, an ability that allegedly enabled him to find ores and minerals underground and he also claimed he got paid lots of money from mining companies to perform this feat, possibly even playing a large part in creating his wealthy lifestyle.
He has also been in numerous TV shows around the world, a number of which even sought to find paranormal powers from other people, which many skeptics claimed were just simple magic tricks and conjuring trickery, one of these particular shows was in Israel called The Successor, which the contestants claimed to have supernatural powers that they performed.
Uri Geller has made numerous claims or jokes that his powers were a result of the paranormal and that he even received them from extraterrestrials.
But his abilities have not been without its critics and skeptics, many of whom have claimed Uri Geller is nothing more than a trickster and conman who is very good with conjuring magic, sleight of hand and illusions. One of his most known skeptics and critics was James Randi who was a stage magician and a person who widely investigated and challenged many paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. He even wrote a book called The Truth About Uri Geller, which appeared to widely expose his trickery and sleight of hand and Randi would go on to also easily replicate Uri Geller’s tricks on stage.
Project Stargate
But were they all just jokes and trickery for fame? Most would say that is the case but if we look further into it there is a very interesting part of his story that was approved for release on 10th August 2000 by the CIA but wasn’t widely available to view until 2017 when millions of CIA files were published online. The world-famous US intelligence agency, which many conspiracy theorists have often accused of being a part of many big and mysterious events and incidents, had seemingly taken an interest in Uri’s apparent abilities.
The files showed that Uri Geller had agreed to do a number of paranormal experiments which was a part of Project Stargate, which was a project that sought to investigate psychic powers and extrasensory perception in military and domestic intelligence operations. The tests on Uri Geller took place at the Standford Research Institute. The tests were performed from August 4th-11th during 1973, the tests aimed for Geller to draw a “target material” that was hidden in an electrically isolated shielded room or having him in the room with the target pictures elsewhere and also by having the targets be long-distance.
On the first day, 4th August, Geller was challenged to two drawing experiments. In this Geller was in the enclosure which was an opaque, acoustically and electrically shielded room or a double-walled shielded room and an intercom was used to tell Uri when to start drawing. The targets were chosen randomly from a large college dictionary, where a word would be chosen and a picture related would then be drawn and stuck on the outside of Uri’s room, where they would then have him try and use his mind to draw it.
The first word was “fuse” and the experimenters had a picture of a firecracker drawn and stuck on the outside of Uri Geller’s room. The files say that Uri almost immediately said that he saw “a cylinder with noise coming out of it” and in response he drew a drum and other cylindrical objects such as a snake and pen that could make noise.
Although he was semi-close, the next drawing test would be more astounding, the next word chosen was “bunch” and in response the experimenters had a picture of a bunch of grapes drawn and stuck to his room, which in another immediate response he would say that he saw “drops of water coming out of the picture” followed by talking about purple circles and then eventually went on to say that he was quite sure he had the picture and he went on to draw a bunch of grapes, not only did he draw the same target picture, he also got the exact number of grapes down, with both pictures having 24 grapes on the bunch.
The file says that the experimenters would never talk anymore on the picture once it had been stuck up and that the intercom system was only one way unless a button was held down enabling Uri to hear them, which didn’t occur, they also extensively checked the room afterwards for any signs of sensory leakage, none of which was found.
On the 5th August the drawing experiment was changed up a bit, Geller was still locked in the room and there was an experimenter outside as a monitor, but the target picture was drawn in the other experimenter’s office, which was located about half-a-mile away. The picture was still based on random selection from a dictionary, an outline drawing of a man was selected and the experimenter morphed it into a Devil with a trident as the target picture, after this the experimenter who was with Geller would call Targ, who was the experimenter with the drawing. Geller would then begin drawing, but struggled this time to get the picture, with numerous tries over a half-hour period, he would eventually pass, saying he was unable to get the drawing.
His attempts included drawing Moses and then Tablets, such as the Ten Commandments in his first attempt, then 2nd attempt he drew an apple with a worm coming out of it, a snake and also the Tablets symbolism of the first drawing, his 3rd attempt was a composite picture with the Ten Commandments on top of the world and the trident on the outside and a neatly drawn leaf, among other similar attempts. The experimenters noted the Biblical association with the target drawing and also speculated that his inability to draw the Devil could be culturally induced. It was also noted that he did draw a Trident though without the figure holding it.
The second experiment on this day was also different, this time an experimenter was instead placed into the shielded room which Uri was removed from and stood outside with another experimenter. Inside the room the experimenter drew a target picture, which was a representation of the solar system. Geller’s immediate verbal reaction is that it was of “space” and he went on to draw a similar solar system-like picture.
The next experiment happened on 6th August and was purely focused on the ability of clairvoyance, which is an alleged supernatural extrasensory perception to get information from an object, person or environment. The experiment had a scientist outside of the usual experiment group draw a picture that was then locked into the shielded room before Uri’s arrival to the Institute. When he arrived, the experimenters led him to stand outside the shielded room and told him to draw the picture that was locked up inside of it. Uri drew numerous pictures which he rejected as not being applicable before he passed saying that he could not get a clear impression. The target picture was a rabbit and none of Uri’s pictures in anyway resembled it. But that wasn’t the end of it, it just so happens that Geller asked at the outset if the picture was drawn by a scientist that he wasn’t fond of. The experimenters, not knowing who drew the picture, said this wasn’t the case. Later on, Uri would find out that his initial guess of the scientist who drew the picture was in-fact correct, whoever this scientist was though that Uri Geller wasn’t fond of was not revealed though, but it was someone who was skeptical.
On the next day, 7th August, this would again become a problem. On this day there were two target pictures, one of a tree and another of an envelope. Geller was in the shielded room and also connected to an EEG apparatus to measure his brain waves while he attempted to perceive the hidden pictures. But he experienced difficulty and didn’t produce a drawing representing either target picture and passed. He also found it hard to stay still to get adequate EEG readings. It turns out also that the same skeptical scientist/experimenter from the previous day who drew the rabbit was the EEG operator.
The following day, 8th August, three target pictures were used. For the first picture the experimenters also closed the outer door of the laboratory of which the shielded room was also located with both its double-doors closed and the experimenters worked in an adjoining room. The target picture was a camel, Geller was again unsure and passed, although it is noted his first-choice drawing was a horse.
For the next picture the experimenters returned to the room outside the shielded room and drew the Golden Gate Bridge. In the shielded room Geller did draw some curved lines with boxes underneath but ultimately said he didn’t know what the target picture was and passed.
Finally, the third target picture was a flying sea gull and, on this Geller, almost immediately said he saw a flying swan over a hill. He drew several birds, which he said, sure that he was correct. The file goes on to state that he was.
In the file on this day it was also noted that “six days of work” had been completed and that good results were obtained “on the 4 days” when there was no openly skeptical observer, adding, except for the experimenters Geller had learned to accept.
On August 9th the next day, the experiments were moved to a new shielded room, moving from the Life Science building to the Engineering building, to make use of the computer facilities there. The new shielded room that Geller was placed in was located about 150 feet down the hall and around a corner from the computer room and was under continuous monitoring. The experimenters used a computer’s graphics program to draw a picture of a kite. Geller was notified that the picture had been drawn, which soon after he had the computer room called to determine if the target picture was geometric or an object.
An intermediary, who didn’t know the target picture, relayed that the picture was an object. Geller then drew a square with diagonals drawn in and then also drew some triangular airplanes before passing. It was noted that Geller’s first drawing was a good representation of the target picture.
Then on August 10th three more experiments were performed. Including two target pictures in the computer room and one that was drawn by an East Coast scientist at long distance.
The first picture in the computer room was a church which was drawn and stored in the memory of the computer. Geller made two attempts and it was noted that some elements were common with the target drawing, but that Geller had no idea what the target was and passed.
The second picture was stored on the face of a TV tube with the intensity turned off so that no picture was visible with the room lights on. The target picture in question was of an arrow through a heart. Geller immediately drew and arrow under a brick and then an arrow through a suitcase. The experimenters considered the arrow through a suitcase similar to the target picture.
In the file are noted two admitted hypotheses of the above two experiments, one was the perception of information stored on the computer and the other was the perception of mental contents as there were people in the computer room who all knew the nature of the target photos stored.
Finally, after this a long-distance telepathic experiment was performed where an East Coast scientist was called and asked to draw a simple representational image for Geller to copy. Geller would go on to draw two arches side by side with a circle in the upper right and a train-like object running through it. The East Coast scientist said after the experiment that his target picture was two peaked mountains with the sun in the upper right. The experimenters considered this to be suggestive of communication but not conclusive and it was also noted that the original East Coast target picture was not in their possession (and so is not in the file)
On the final day, August 11th, another long-distance telepathic experiment was conducted, again with an East-Coast scientist. The scientist drew a complex cross-sectional view of the brain, which the experimenters noted in the file was an exceptionally difficult target since Geller would not even recognise the target picture even if successful. Nonetheless Geller would begin writing down words such as “medical”, “organic” and “living” on the top of his paper. He later added the words “aviation” and “architecture”.
He then drew two pictures, one of which was complex and could not be understood by the experimenters and another which the experimenters said “somewhat” resembled an anatomical cross-section.
In the file it is stated that due to Geller’s success in the experimental period over 8 days, it was considered that he demonstrated his paranormal perceptual ability in a convincing and unambiguous manner.
So, what are we meant to make of this? Was Uri Geller skilled enough to even fool seasoned experimenters and scientists put to work by officials of Project Stargate? Did the experimenters not take enough precautions like some skeptics’ claim? Did the experimenters have biases that played into their work? Or is it a genuine demonstration of paranormal ability?
We will be left to wonder…
Most recently Uri Geller replied to a government job advert posted up by Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor. The advert asked specifically for the UK’s “super-talented weirdos” to apply for a number of jobs. The Telegraph has said that Uri’s application is 100% serious and that he wants to use his “special powers” to bring peace and stop wars. If this is the case, we can only hope that his powers really are the real deal.
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