Britain has not been the same since it was "invaded" by Uri Geller. Words to
describe his feats are now part of the English language. Scientific dogma has
has been badly buckled by his proven gifts. Dozens of other Uris have been
found. Above all, he made people think about the paranormal. The psychic did not
twist the country to believe in him: it literally twisted with him. First
mention of him came in a scientific journal which referred to a "strange
demonstration" in a London hotel. A journalist saw Uri deform four of a watch
strap's links. When the Israeli took a spoon to stir his tea, "it appeared to
snap in two." The British weekly Psychic News reported this event under
the headline, "He should be worth watching." Geller was then still an unknown
quantity. But within weeks he was featured in a hurricane of press
reports.
News of Geller's feats in the U.S. were at first erratic. But
in November 1973, the position radically changed. His name was on everybody's
lips. Uri's first official visit to Britain started with a BBC press conference.
My Psychic News report began, "I watched in astonishment when a
journalist's household key bent like plasticine as Geller gently stroked it." By
publicly demonstrating his gift the psychic made paranormal history. It had
never before been seen. At this unforgettable impromptu psychokinetic spectacle
came a spontaeneous demonstration of Uri's metal-bending gift. A young woman
journalist, returning from the cloakroom, was amazed when her bracelet broke and
dropped to the floor. There was no normal explanation. I examined the bangle and
found nothing unusual.
Returning to the office I had my own unexpected
eveidence of Geller's gift. During the conference, the table on which he
demonstrated was inches from me. Working late, I took from my case a second pair
of stronger glasses. These metal framed spectacles were in a normal cover. I was
shattered to find that both sidepieces were deformed. I took them to a local
optician for examination. The sidepieces were extended to a perfect 135-degree
angle, fifty percent beyond their normal fixed-hinge range.
Next
morning Uri was interviewed on radio. It was then the full effect of this
psychic superstar was realized. During this demonstration, housewives were
startled to find their own PK (psychokinesis) exhibits. The BBC switchboard was
jammed with complaints. Nothing metallic seemed safe from Uri. In the studio,
Uri succeded when asked by the disc jockey to bend a key and paper opener. The
broadcaster said it was the most fantastic demonstration he had seen in
twenty-four years' radio work.
Police in three counties rang the BBC to
report "Unnatural happenings." An officer forty miles from the studio was
preparing a fire in his lounge. "I went into the kitchen and found two spoons on
the draining board curled up," he testified. "Since then I've had six
stainless-steel knives go a bit funny on me." A woman saw an enameled soup ladle
"twist and curl in front of her eyes." Another listener, having coffee and
"laughing at the program, looked down at a bracelet and saw a large kink in it."
In the radio studio an engineer found his metal pipe stem twisted. A motorist
saw one of his keys bend as he tuned his car radio. Uri Geller had truly
arrived.
Later that week Uri demonstrated on TV. He excelled by
severing one fork, bending a second, restarting a broken watch, and deforming
into a right angle the minute hand of another. Before Uri began, author Lyall
Watson told viewers: "There are no tricks involved. The first time I saw him I
was looking for a catch. There is none." The objects given to Uri were from the
BBC. Cameras showed close-up shots of Uri's hand during the program. The
highlight came when Uri held up a fork - and the top section flew off. A clean
break was seen. The program ended with an announcement that during it six
viewers had phoned to say metal objects had bent in their homes. They were the
first of hundreds of such reports.
How did the press react? To say uri
put it on its mettle sums up the situation. Overnight new words were coined.
Objects were "Urified" or "Gellerized." Headlines were lighthearted, such as,
"Uri puts Britain in a twist," "Uri makes a key point," "It's all in the mind as
Uri goes on a bender." The journalists, many skeptical at the initial press
conference, were intrigued. Some were baffled. Others testified to uri's gift. A
BBC spokesman was quoted as saying: "We are assessing the situation. Obviously
we don't want to cause wholesale damage to people's homes." A point worrying
them was whether Uri could accidenatlly bend or break gas or water pipes. When
uri made another appearance the corporation said, "We can only suggest that
everybody lock their valuables away." The situation was without
precedent.
One paper, the Sunday People, with a fifteen-million
readership, invited the nation "to take part in the biggest experiment of
extrasensory perception ever staged." At 12:30 P.M. readers were asked to hold a
spoon or fork in their hands and concentrate. Thousands of letters and calls
flooded the paper. The staggering results were 293 bent forks and spoons, 51
various metal objects deformed, and an astonishing 1,031 restarted broken clocks
and watches. The position was not without humor. Even the grim economic news was
angled to Uri. "If only Uri could turn our green sheild stamps onto petrol
coupons," joked one editorial in reference to the petrol shortage. and for the
cartoonist it was a field day. One showed a bent-in-half airplane taking the
psychic to America. It's caption read, "... so I said to this guy Uri back
there, 'OK, smarty-pants, what else can you do apart from bending
spoons?'"
By now everybody knew Uri. On a train journey I saw a woman
stir her coffee with a plastic spoon. When it began to melt due to the heat she
quipped, "It's done a Uri!" All in the buffet understood her joke. It came as no
surprise when magicians tried to discredit Uri by suggesting sleight-of-hand or
chemicals. But as still more press reports appeared with reader's experiences of
metal-bending, their smear campaign foundered. Then came a new phenomenon.
Children and adults throughout the country described their own PK gift. One
seven-year-old boy made front-page news in a national paper, the Daily
Mirror. "I decided to have a go after seeing that man on TV," he said. "I
just think about the fork bending and it does. It was a bit frightening at first
- but there's nothing to it." The child's mother commented: "It has to be seen
to be believed. It's just as well my husband runs two cafes, or we would be out
of cutlery within days." Her husband admitted he was skeptical, "Until I saw him
perform the feat. Now I've seen him bend half-a-dozen forks without any
failures." One of the paper's journalists saw the boy demonstrate. After twenty
minutes a fork "was virtually bent double," he wrote. And still more evidence to
back Uri flowed in.
A Sunday paper - Sunday Mirror - dealt with
the theory that Uri wrenched cutlery between his fingers. It submitted a key,
which the Israeli bent, to a firm specializing in metal fatigue. An expert
reported: "There are no tricks, no fake key. Nothing suspicious at all." Uri had
not touched the key. He only stared at it. In similar vein, another paper gave
to a "top scientist" some jewelers srewdrivers which uri snapped. The report
was: "There are no signs of cutting, burning, or the use of acid. There is no
normal explanation, no trickery."
The Daily Mail referred to Uri
in two editorials. In the first it said his demonstrations had produced "the
great debate of the moment. It won't turn water into oil. It won't magic away
our economic problems. But it does give us something cheerful to puzzle over for
a change." In the second one, the day after the 10 Downing Steet meeting with
the miners' union executive - strike action was pending - the editorial said:
"The miners won't bend an inch. The oil sheiks, purring through London in their
petrol-gobbling cadillacs, didn't bend much either. Where are you, Uri Geller,
now that we need you?" But these amusing comments did not mask the
ever-increasing evidence to support Uri's gifts. Journalists continued to
testify. One saw "a steel plate, impossible to bend by hand, suddenly curl up on
a table. I have seen a key shatter without anyone going near it." Even the
Church entered the controversy.
A cleric made news with his statement
that uri, instead of wasting his talents on metal-bending, should use his gift
to heal the sick. Another asked the Church of Scotland General Assembly to form
a working party and study Geller. He had made "everyone think again about things
undreamed of in materialistic philosophy." This trend had "deep implications"
for christians.
Then came a dramatic development. A popular daily
paper, the Daily Mirror, gathered fourteen people for "an astonishing
experiment" at London's Hilton Hotel. ten claimed metal-bending ability,
triggered off by Uri. After two minutes came results. A silver-plated coffee
spoon "curled itself round a saucer." No one had touched it. The spoon bent of
its own accord. A wristwatch, loaned by a reporter, had not worked for two
years. It was handed to the two youngest guests, aged twelve and thirteen. They
successfully started it. At the time Uri was 3,000 miles away in Florida. "Our
experiments seemed to show uri is not at all unique," concluded the paper.
"Others have the same gift, but till now none of them has tried it." One woman
was a Roman Catholic and not "brought up to believe in this sort of thing." At
her home six metal objects twisted.
Then came another astonishing
development. Uri caused astounding supernormal phenomena in TV viewers homes,
even though he was in New York when the program was screened. Even more
incredible, the documentary had been filmed five months previously. For the
woman who already had six twisted objects, and had taken part in the Hilton
test, it was an extrsordinary encore. As she watched, a spoon bent, and three
prongs of one fork twisted. Another viewer admitted she was a skeptic - until "a
steel spoon in my hand became like putty." A silver fork was also deformed. Her
copper poker became U-shaped. over 200 people jammed the station's switchboard
telling of twisted articles.
And, of course, the press again went wild.
One paper, the Birmingham Evening Mail, offered £100 "and the chance of
fame and fortune, to any reader who can bend spoons, stop or start clocks,
control dice, or obtain any other physical effect using the power of the mind
and not the body." Letters' columns were flooded with letters about the
remarkable psychic. Naturally, one of the papers, the Daily Express,
perhaps seeking a new angle, tried to "expose" Geller as a fraud. People phoned
the paper to defend Uri. After three consecutive features trying to explain away
Uri's gifts, the reporter flew to Copenhagen to see Geller. The psychic agreed
to be searched. He was given one of the reporter's keys. After twenty seconds it
began twisting. Hours later the journalist "could feel the key bending further,
even through the thickness of two protective envelopes." The pressman ate his
words. What he had witnessed was "a most impressive and baffling
experience."
But there was still more drama to come. About to start a
major British tour, Uri's life was suddenly threatened. First reports said he
got a police escort to London's Heathrow Airport and flew to a secret
destination. A senior police officer said: "Scotland Yard took these threats
very seriously. They are anxious that no risks should be taken in front of a
very large audience." The death threat was announced on the BBC's national news.
In part his tour went ahead. At a Liverpool theater club Uri demonstrated to
raise money for a charity. A security net was thrown around the theater. Special
Branch detectives mixed with the audience. All entrances and exits were guarded
by security staff.
In just twelve weeks Uri was a national figure, a
VIP.
Was the public still behind Uri? The answer was a massive "yes" in
a poll conducted by the Daily Mail. Thousands of readers' voting slips
showed 95.5 percent thought his gifts psychic. But what of science? Uri has
convinced several scientists. One, Professor John Taylor of London University's
King's College, began as a skeptic. Now he backs Uri after conducting controlled
tests. Taylor has proclaimed his belief that Geller is genuine on TV. One
problem is "to convince my scientific colleagues." This mathematician has tested
others who claim to have Geller's metal-bending gift. Some are children. In
trials they deformed objects which they had not the physical force to do. With
them, on at least 100 occasions, "I have seen things bend."
Professor
Taylor told me: "As far as I am concerned, Uri has come up with the goods. He
can bend things and make them rotate. I am quite certain the phenomena are
there." Yet, the arguments surrounding Geller are not over. The tests go on. But
Uri has been accepted by the British public en masse. He is patently genuine. In
under twelve months he has earned a respect and admiration that normally takes
years to achieve.
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