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Who2 Biography:

Uri Geller

, Paranormalist
Uri Geller
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  • Born: 20 December 1946
  • Birthplace: Israel
  • Best Known As: Paranormal celebrity famous for bending spoons

Since the late 1960s, Geller has been known for his claims that he can bend spoons or fix broken watches using the power of his mind. Geller's own web site lists many other "scientifically unexplained" powers which he says he possesses, including telepathy, dowsing, and causing seeds to sprout with the power of his mind. While he has many doubters, Geller has turned his claims into a successful career as a spooky and entertaining media figure.

Geller's first name is pronounced "oori" rather than "yuri"... Geller has a long-running public feud with James Randi, a magician who specializes in debunking the paranormal... Michael Jackson was the best man at Geller's 2001 wedding... A former paratrooper in the Israeli army, Geller fought in the Six Day War of 1967... Like Chuck Barris, Geller says he once was in the secret employ of the CIA.

 
 
Artist: Uri Geller
  • Genre: New Age
  • Active: '70s - 2000s
  • Instrument: Main Performer, Liner Notes, Illustrations

Biography

Paranormalist Uri Geller was born in in Israel on December 20, 1946; at the age of four, an encounter with a mysterious sphere of light seemingly granted him telekinetic powers, and in the years to follow he honed his otherworldly skills by performing tricks for his schoolfriends. From the ages of 11 to 17, Geller lived in Cyprus, returning to Israel in 1964 to serve as an army paratrooper; wounded in battle during the Six-Day War of 1967, he later worked as a fashion model as well. As the decade drew to a close, Geller began performing publicly, and soon his telepathic and psychokinetic feats made him a national sensation; upon travelling to Germany in 1972, he made headlines for stopping a cable car in mid-air, and later that year was invited to the U.S. by astronaut Edgar Mitchell and scientist Andrija Puharich, participating in a series of laboratory tests documented in his 1975 book The Geller Papers. By telekinetically bending spoons and keys on television variety programs including The Tonight Show and The Mike Douglas Show, Geller also emerged as an international celebrity, and in 1977 even recorded a self-titled LP. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

Representative Albums:

Uri Geller, Words of Wise People, Words of Courage & Inspiration

Similar Artists:

Anthony Moore, Anthony Phillips, John Wetton

Influences:

Michael Jackson

Followers:

Michael Jackson
 
Discography: Uri Geller

Uri Geller

Buy this CD 		       
 
Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: Uri Geller
(1946-)

One of the most famous exponents of claimed ESP and paranormal phenomena in the 1970s. Geller was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, December 20, 1946. As a boy he performed feats of stopping the hands of watches through paranormal means. In 1969 he demonstrated telepathy and became a full-time professional performer. In August 1971 his feats were witnessed in Tel Aviv by parapsychologist Andrija Puharich, who then became closely associated with Geller, assisted him in traveling to America, and conducted scientific investigations of his phenomena.

At the Stanford Research Institute, California, during November 1972 Geller demonstrated metal bending, guessing contents of metal cans and numbers on dice (shaken in a closed box), and telepathy. Some of the tests were supervised by former astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, who had become actively involved in the study of paranormal phenomena. The most publicized talent demonstrated by Geller was the ability to cause metal objects to bend or break without direct physical pressure—the so-called Geller effect, a form of telekinesis. This deformation of metals (particularly the bending of forks, spoons, nails, or keys) was demonstrated on television programs in the United States and Britain. During such television shows in Britain many viewers reported that they shared the same ability. Geller also involved viewers in the starting of clocks and watches that had not functioned for some time.

In his book Uri, a biography published in 1974, Puharich claims that Geller's powers came from outer space intelligences on a planet millions of light-years distant, and also claims that Geller dematerialized objects. Geller's autobiography, published soon afterward, claims additional phenomena such as teleportation. While some American and British scientists reported favorably on Geller phenomena, some commentators (notably stage magicians Milbourne Christopher of the Occult Investigation Committee of the Society of American Magicians and James Randi of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal [CSICOP]) alleged sleight of hand and other conjuring tricks as the probable explanation. In 1983 it was revealed that James Randi had organized fake metal-bending accomplices in an undercover operation to discredit parapsychologists investigating the phenomenon. In 1991, in response to a remark by Randi accusing Geller of fakery, Geller filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit claiming defamation. After a four-year legal battle the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., ruled in favor of CSICOP and ordered Geller to pay the not-for-profit scientific and educational organization at least $70,000.

The strongest scientific support for the reality of Geller's phenomena came from British mathematician John Taylor, who tested Geller during 1974 and also investigated children and adults who manifested similar paranormal ability after seeing Geller's appearances on British television programs. However, Taylor, a distinguished scientist, largely retracted his support of Geller's phenomena in his book Science and the Supernatural (1980). Another British scientist, John Hasted, was more sympathetic to the genuineness of the "Geller effect."

After Geller's visit to Tokyo in 1973, thousands of Japanese children apparently manifested similar paranormal powers. Eight of these children were investigated in 1974 by Shigemi Sasaki, professor of psychology at Denki Tsushin University, Tokyo, with a team of 15 researchers. Laboratory tests were devised to test PK (psychokinetic ability) and metal bending. One 12-year-old, Jun Sekiguchi, demonstrated an amazing ability to bend spoons paranormally and also recharged dead electric batteries by merely holding them. J. B. Rhine of Durham, North Carolina, commented: "The tests in Tokyo have shown that PK power exists among many of their children. The research is of great significance."

In the mid-1970s, at the height of his fame, Geller was earning approximately $5,000 a session for his media performances involving spoon bending, telepathy, and clock or watch restarting, generating intense public enthusiasm and also hostile criticism from stage magicians and other critics who claimed that his apparently paranormal feats were ingenious trickery. At the height of worldwide interest in his claimed powers, Geller suddenly disappeared from the public scene for ten years. There were various rumors—that he had lost his powers, that he had been finally exposed in fraud and silenced, or even that he had been recruited for secret psychic warfare.

In 1986 the newspaper Financial Times (a British equivalent of the Wall Street Journal) published a report by Margaret van Hatten revealing that in 1974 Geller had been persuaded to put his psychic talents at the disposal of industrialists by dowsing for oil and minerals. The report stated that Geller had met the late Sir Val Duncan, then head of the prestigious Rio Tinto-Zinc Corporation and himself an amateur dowser, who suggested that Geller try psychic prospecting. At Duncan's homes in Britain and Majorca, Geller experimented successfully with dowsing for bottles of olive oil and mineral objects that had been buried in gardens. From this Geller progressed to experimenting with dowsing over scale maps (teleradiesthesia) and distinguishing the various types of valuable mineral deposits in different parts of the world.

When Geller developed accuracy in dowsing Duncan eventually told him, "You're on your own—go out and make some money." Geller's first attempts at dowsing for a South African mining group were given free of charge although they apparently resulted in a large-scale discovery of coal deposits near Zimbabwe. In time Geller had sufficient confidence to ask for a standard fee of one million pounds sterling as an advance against royalties. Geller says he has always found something, even if not a mineral deposit of commercial viability. Of 11 projects over ten years, he maintains that four were highly successful, resulting in royalties way beyond the original one million pound advance. He also advised companies where drilling would be ineffective, so they could save money.

In general, oil and mining companies have been reluctant to substantiate these remarkable claims. Understandably, directors and shareholders might feel that this expensive and unconventional method of prospecting sounds bizarre. Peter Sterling, chairman of Zanex, an Australian mineral exploration company, did confirm, however, that Geller was flown to the Solomon Islands to help pinpoint gold deposits, at Geller's standard fee, and that the company was successful in finding alluvial gold in the Solomons. In addition the company sent Geller some topographical maps and received the response that the company should look for diamonds on Malaita. Although the company had never considered that area to be geologically appropriate for diamonds, Geller insisted, and samples taken there were "very encouraging," according to Sterling. Diamond-like kimberlite rock was located, as were all the minerals usually associated with diamond deposits.

The Financial Times report quoted Peter Sterling as stating that it was not easy to explain the employment of Geller to his board of directors and shareholders. He said: "Most mining people are pretty down to earth and materialistic, and the sort of work Uri does doesn't fit current scientific knowledge. I'm an engineer—I have no idea how it works, though I think that in 20 to 30 years time science will know, and will be building machines to do the same thing. But now—well the reaction is a bit like witch hunters in the dark ages, or flat earthers. There are a lot of flat earthers around."

In October 1986 Geller launched a new book, cowritten with parapsychologist Guy Lyon Playfair, titled The Geller Effect. The book tells Geller's story from 1976 to 1986, recounting jet-set friendships, approaches by the CIA, FBI, customs, and narcotics agents, and Geller's activities in prospecting for mining companies. To publicize the book Geller appeared on television talk shows where he presented exactly the same phenomena he had ten years earlier—spoon bending, telepathy, and starting clocks and watches that had been inactive for a long time. Many of these performances were quite impressive, although staged informally without rigid controls. Coming in the same breath as the revelations about million-pound fees, these familiar activities were something of an anticlimax. Stage magicians can and do duplicate such effects under similar circumstances by conjuring.

From time to time, sensational reports are circulated that Geller significantly changed the course of world events, such as mentally influencing Gorbachev's top aide so that the Soviet leader made an offer of dramatic cuts in nuclear weapons. It seems more credible that the Soviets would be influenced by traditional diplomacy or the enlightened efforts of such private negotiators as the late Armand Hammer.

Geller's book itself offers little new material to resolve the fierce controversies over the genuineness of his talents beyond his anecdotal claims and the reputed faith of wealthy and highly placed friends or officials of mining companies. In it he tries to distance himself from (without denying) some of the more sensational claims Puharich makes in his 1974 biography, for instance, that Geller was an instrument of extraterrestrial intelligences. Geller writes: "Although much of his [Puharich's] book was accurate factual reporting, many people were put off by the space-fantasy passages, and I admit that they caused me some embarrassment…. You must remember that all of this fantasy material was obtained while I was under hypnosis. One reason I wrote My Story was to give my own version of events, though I must emphasize that there is a slight possibility that some of my energies do have extraterrestrial connection. Andrija and I are still the closest of friends and I have never forgotten how much of my success is due to him." Geller continues to write and appear on radio and TV, exploring subjects as varied as ESP and UFOs to self-help topics and using his psychic powers to aid teams in World Cup soccer competitions.

Sources:

Christopher, Milbourne. Mediums, Mystics & the Occult. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1975.

Geller, Uri. My Story. New York: Praeger, 1975.

Geller, Uri, and Guy Lyon Playfair. The Geller Effect. London: Jonathan Cape, 1986.

Hasted, John. The Metal-Benders. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981.

Panati, Charles, ed. The Geller Papers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.

Randi, James. The Truth about Uri Geller. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1982.

Taylor, John. Science & the Supernatural. London: Temple Smith, 1980.

——. Superminds: An Investigation into the Paranormal. New York: Warner Books, 1975.

 
Wikipedia: Uri Geller
Uri Geller
Uri_Geller.jpg
Uri Geller, circa 2005.
Born December 20 1946 (1946--) (age 60)
Tel Aviv, Israel
Residence Great Britain
Spouse Hannah Geller

Uri Geller (Hebrew: אורי גלר‎, born Gellér György[1] December 20, 1946 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli-British performer and celebrity famous for claiming to have psychic powers.

Geller rose to fame after performing a series of televised performances which he said were paranormal demonstrations of psychokinesis, dowsing, and telepathy. His performance included bending spoons, describing hidden drawings, and making watches appear to stop or run faster. Geller says he performs these feats through willpower and the strength of his mind. Critics have demonstrated that his performances can be duplicated using stage magic tricks.

Biography

Born to Jewish parents from Hungary and Austria, Geller was named after a cousin who had been killed in a bus accident. Geller says he is a distant relative of Sigmund Freud on his mother's side.[2] According to Geller, he first became aware of his paranormal abilities when he was four, claiming that after a light from the sky knocked him to the ground, his spoon bent and broke.[citation needed]

He served as a paratrooper in the Israeli Army,[3] and was wounded in action during the 1967 Six-Day War.[4] He worked as a photographic model in 1968 and 1969, and in the same year, he began to perform for small audiences as a nightclub entertainer,[5] becoming well-known in Israel[citation needed].

Geller also became popular in the early 1970s in the United States. He also received attention from the scientific community who were interested in examining his claims of psychic abilities. At the peak of his career in the 1970s he worked full-time, performing for television audiences worldwide. He claims that he has accumulated wealth in part by performing dowsing services to find commodities such as oil, gold, and minerals, but that the companies he has worked for are reluctant to admit it.[citation needed]

He owns a 1976 Cadillac adorned with thousands of pieces of bent tableware given to him by celebrities or otherwise having historical or other significance. It includes spoons from celebrities such as John Lennon and the Spice Girls, and those with which Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy ate. Geller designed the logo for popular music group N*SYNC [6] and contributed artwork to Michael Jackson's CD, "Invincible."

Jackson was best man when Geller renewed his wedding vows in 2001.[7] He also negotiated the famous TV interview between Jackson with the journalist Martin Bashir: "Living with Michael Jackson".[8] In BBC television interviews, Geller has since admitted that he has not been in contact with Jackson since this time. Geller says that he has split with Jackson because of anti-Semitic statements he had purportedly made.[9]

In an appearance on Esther Rantzen's 1996 television talk show Esther, Geller claimed to have suffered from anorexia nervosa for several years.[citation needed]

Geller is the president of International Friends of Magen David Adom, a group that lobbied the International Committee of the Red Cross to recognise Magen David Adom ("Red Star of David") as a humanitarian relief organisation.[citation needed] The Red Cross acknowledged the organisation as such in June, 2006.

In 2002, he became honorary co-chairman of the English Nationwide Conference football club Exeter City, who were relegated to the Nationwide Conference in May 2003. He has since severed formal ties with the club. The same year, he appeared as a contestant on the first series of the British reality TV show, I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here!.

In 2007 Geller hosted a reality show in Israel called "The Successor" ("היורש"), where the contestants performed magic tricks and Geller was accused of "trickery".[10] With the success of that show, in July 2007 NBC signed Geller and Criss Angel for Phenomenon. The show, airing on October 25[1] that searches for the next great mentalist.[11]

Geller currently lives in Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire, England. He makes various personal appearances, is involved with art and design projects, and contributes articles to newspapers, magazines, and an Internet web column. In recent years, he has performed demonstrations such as spoon-bending much less frequently in public.[citation needed] He is a vegan and speaks four languages: English, Hebrew, Hungarian, and German. In addition he has written sixteen fiction and nonfiction books.

Paranormal claims

Geller's claims of paranormal powers have been challenged by the Atheist Foundation of Australia [12] and his critics see him as a very successful con artist.[13]

In the 1970s, some scientists were persuaded that Geller's demonstrations were genuine.[14] Since that time various magicians and skeptics, who deny that he has paranormal abilities, have suggested possible ways in which Geller could have tricked the scientists using misdirection techniques.[13][15] These critics, who include Richard Feynman, James Randi and Martin Gardner, have accused him of using his demonstrations fraudulently outside of the entertainment business.[16][17]

Geller is well-known for his sports predictions. Skeptic James Randi and British tabloid The Sun (among others), have demonstrated the teams and players he chooses to win most often lose.[18] John Atkinson explored "predictions" Geller made over thirty years and concluded "Uri more often than not scuppered the chances of sportsmen and teams he was trying to help."[18] This was pointed out by one of James Randi's readers, who called it "The Curse of Uri Geller".[19]

Parallels to stage magic

Geller admits "Sure, there are magicians who can duplicate it [his performances] through trickery."[20] He claims that even though his demonstrations could have been done using trickery, he happens to use psychic powers to achieve his results.[20] Skeptic James Randi, star of Secrets of the Psychics, has stated that if Geller is truly using his mind to perform these feats, "he is doing it the hard way".[21] Stage magicians note several methods of creating the illusion of a spoon spontaneously bending. Most common is the practice of misdirection, an underlying principle of many stage magic tricks.[22]

According to Randi, there are many ways in which a bent spoon can be presented to an audience as to give the appearance it was done with supernatural powers. One way is through one or several brief moments of distraction in which a magician can physically bend a spoon unseen by the audience.[23] Then the bend is gradually revealed creating the illusion that the spoon is bending before the viewers' eyes.[24] Another way, if a performer does not bend the spoon with force during the performance is by pre-bending them and thus reducing the amount of force later needed to be applied.[25]

Geller claims in "telepathic drawing" demonstrations that he is able to read subjects' minds as they draw a picture. Although in these demonstrations he cannot see the picture being drawn, he is sometimes present in the room and on those occasions can see the subjects as they draw. Critics argue this may allow Geller to infer common shapes from pencil movement and sound, with the power of suggestion doing the rest.[26] James Randi has also suggested that Geller uses tiny mirrors held in his palm in order to see the drawings.

Disagreements over measuring success

Critics note Geller's demonstrations are not always successful. For example, he is not always able during his "telepathic" drawing demonstrations to define the shape or image drawn. [2] Geller has also at times canceled performances or failed to produce the expected results, sometimes blaming his apparent lack of psychic power on some interference, exhaustion, or lack of cooperation by the subjects. He was paid to investigate the kidnapping of Hungarian model Helga Farkas, and, although he predicted she would be found alive and in good health, she was murdered by her kidnappers [3]. He was reportedly unable to bend a spoon for Nobel-prize winning physicist Richard Feynman, as mentioned in Feynman's book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!.

1993 TV show Secrets of the Psychics.
Enlarge
1993 TV show Secrets of the Psychics.

Geller's critics often disagree with him about the degree of success actually achieved during demonstrations. For instance, his television appearances have frequently involved viewer interaction, and among the viewers there are very often callers who claim to have located bent spoons or restarted clocks after Geller appeared on TV. Skeptics maintain this does not necessarily indicate paranormal success, and speculate that about half of all stopped mechanical clocks can be at least temporarily restarted simply by moving them around.[27]

In his telepathy demonstrations, Geller sometimes, but not always, reveals his answer slowly while asking whether he is on the right track. This approach is consistent with a stage magic technique known as cold reading, in which a magician tricks a subject into revealing information by suggesting that he already knows it. Geller's approach is apparent in an interview on the Gerry Ryan radio show on February 20, 2002:

Ryan: "Are you getting the image that I'm sending to you? I'm concentrating very hard on it at the moment."
Geller: "It's very, very hard for me because, you know..."
Ryan: "Just say what comes into your head, what's in your head?"
Geller: "Well the first thing that I drew was a ... it had a triangular shape at the top. Am I very wrong?"
Ryan: "I have sent you an image of the Pyramids. That's it! Are you really? You're not pulling my leg? No!"
Geller: "Gerry, I swear to you I drew a pyramid, and I also drew the stones in the pyramid, but I was not sure, so the first image that came into my mind was a triangle and then I drew the lines in it as the stones."

Testing

Geller's performances of drawing duplication and cutlery bending usually take place under informal conditions such as television interviews. During his early career he did allow some scientists to investigate his claims. A study by Stanford Research Institute researchers Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ concluded that he had clearly performed successfully enough to warrant further serious study, and the "Geller-effect", was coined to refer to the particular type of abilities they felt had been demonstrated.[28]

Geller's "watch fixing" abilities do not impress watch makers who note "many supposedly broken watches had merely been stopped by gummy oil, and simply holding them in the hand would warm the oil enough to soften it and allow watches to resume ticking."[29]

In An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural Randi wrote "Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ, who studied Mr. Geller at the Stanford Research Institute (now known as Stanford Research International) were aware, in one instance at least, that they were being shown a magician's trick by Geller."[30] Moreover, Randi explained, "Their protocols for this 'serious' investigation of the powers claimed by Geller were described by Dr. Ray Hyman, who investigated the project on behalf of a U.S. funding agency, as 'sloppy and inadequate'."[31]

Other critics of this testing include Dr David Marks and the late Dr Richard Kammann. They published a description of how Geller could have cheated in an informal test of his ESP powers in 1977 [32]. Their 1978 article in Nature and 1980 book, The Psychology of the Psychic (2nd ed. 2000) described how a perfectly normal explanation was possible for Geller's alleged powers of telepathy. Marks and Kammann found strong evidence that while at SRI Geller was allowed to peek through a hole in the laboratory wall separating Geller from the drawings he was being invited to reproduce. The drawings he was asked to reproduce were placed on a wall opposite the peep hole which the investigators Targ and Puthoff had stuffed with cotton gauze. In addition to this error, the investigators had also allowed Geller access to a two-way intercom enabling Geller to listen to the investigators' conversation during the time when they were choosing and/or displaying the target drawings. These basic errors indicate the high importance of ensuring that psychologists, magicians or other people with an in-depth knowledge of perception, who are trained in methods for blocking sensory cues, be present during the testing of self-proclaimed psychics.

In addition to speculating how Uri Geller may have fooled the scientists at SRI, among many others, David Marks recorded Uri Geller bending a key on film. This event occurred during Geller's visit to New Zealand in the 1970s. This film actually shows how Geller cleverly misdirected onlookers while gripping the key in both hands and bending it.

Notable performances

Geller was unable to bend any tableware during a 1973 appearance on The Tonight Show in which the spoons he was to bend had been preselected by Johnny Carson. Earlier in his career, Carson had been an amateur stage magician, as had James Randi, who advised Carson on how to thwart potential trickery. Randi explained in a 1993 Secrets of the Psychics for the NOVA television series: "I was asked to prevent any trickery. I told them to provide their own props and not to let Geller or his people anywhere near them."

Noel Edmonds was a television prankster who often used hidden cameras to record celebrities in Candid Camera-like situations for his television programme, Noel's House Party. In 1996, Edmonds planned a stunt in which shelves would fall from the walls of a room while Geller was in it. The cameras recorded footage of Geller from angles he wasn't expecting, and they showed Geller grasping a spoon firmly with both hands as he stood up to display a bend in it.[4] Geller later claimed that he knew that Edmonds' crew had been filming, and that he made the shelves fall off the wall with his psychic powers.

In late 2006 and early 2007 Geller starred in an Israeli television show to find a "successor." During one segment, Geller tried to move a compass with paranormal abilities. However, video cameras caught Geller with magnet-on-thumb (magnets cause compasses to move in the direction of the magnet).[33][34] Geller then forced YouTube to remove the clips that showed the fake thumb.[33]

This trick was also done by Geller in 2000 on ABC TV's The View, which was then duplicated by Randi on the same show the following week.[35]

Litigation

Geller has litigated or threatened legal action against some of his critics with mixed success.[36] These included libel allegations against Randi and illusionist Gérard Majax.

Notably, three lawsuits Geller filed against Prometheus Books, a publisher of sceptical books, which had falsely asserted that Geller had been arrested and convicted in Israel for misrepresenting himself as a psychic, were dismissed in the U.S. as they were filed after the statute of limitations had expired, and Geller was obliged to pay more than $20,000 in costs to the defendant.[37] Upon the final resolution of the Prometheus suit, the chairman of the publishing house, Paul Kurtz, stated, "It seems Mr. Geller's alleged psychic powers weren't working correctly when he decided to file this suit." Kurtz did, however, provide Geller with a written apology and acknowledgment of error on behalf of Prometheus Books after Geller agreed to drop an identical suit filed in London.[38]

In a 1989 interview with a Japanese newspaper, Randi was quoted as saying that Uri Geller had driven a scientist to "shoot himself in the head" after finding out that Geller had fooled him. Randi afterwards claimed was a metaphor lost in translation. linkHowever, in previous interview with a Canadian newspaper, Randi said essentially the same thing; "One scientist, a metallurgist, wrote a paper backing Geller's claims that he could bend metal. The scientist shot himself after I showed him how the key bending trick was done."[39] In 1990, Geller sued Randi in a Japanese court over the statements Randi had made in the Japanese newspaper. In March 1993, the court ruled in favor of Geller, declaring Randi's statement an "insult" and awarded a judgment against Randi for 500,000 yen. link

In 1998, the Broadcasting Standards Commission in the United Kingdom rejected a complaint made by Geller, saying that it "wasn't unfair to have magicians showing how they duplicate those "psychic feats'" on the NOVA episode Secrets of the Psychics.[40]

In November of 2000 Geller sued video game company Nintendo over the Pokémon "Yungerer", localized in English as "Kadabra", which he claimed was an unauthorised appropriation of his identity.[41][42] The Pokémon in question has psychic abilities and carries bent spoons. Geller also claimed that the star on Kadabra's forehead, and the lightning patterns on its abdomen, are symbolisms popular with the Waffen SS of Nazi Germany, and was outraged at the connotations that Nintendo had supposedly made.[42] Although the symbols are derived from Zener cards, the name is a pun; the katakana n (ン) resembles the kana ri (リ) (the transliteration of Mr. Geller's name into Katakana would be ユリゲラー Yurigerā). Geller sued for £60 million, the equivalent of US $100 million, but lost.

He also considered a suit against IKEA over a furniture line featuring bent legs that was called the "Uri" line.[43]

Geller sued the Timex Watch Company for millions, and lost.[5]

Copyright claims

In March 2007, videos showing Geller cheating were removed from YouTube due to copyright claims by Explorologist Limited.[44] Explorologist Limited is operated by Geller who owns 75% of the company and his long time manager/brother in law Shimshon [Shipi] Shtrang who owns 25%.[44] James Randi noted Geller does not own the copyright to these clips, which includes Geller's appearance on The Tonight Show.[44]

On May 8, 2007 the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued Geller on behalf of Brian Sapient for making false claims to force YouTube to remove a video.[45] YouTube eventually reversed their decision to remove the video. The EFF posted the documents pertaining to Sapient v. Geller online.[46]

The removals have caused a backlash against Geller.[47]

See also

Bibliography

Books about Geller

  • Colin, Jim The Strange Story of Uri Geller. Raintree, 1975 ISBN 0817210377 (48 pages)
  • Ebon, Martin The Amazing Uri Geller Signet 1975. ISBN 0451064755
  • Ben Harris Gellerism Revealed. Micky Hades International 1985 ISBN 0-919230-92-X
  • Margolis, Jonathan. Uri Geller Magician or Mystic?. Welcome Rain / Orion ISBN 0752810065
  • Marks, David. The Psychology of the Psychic (2nd Ed.) New York: Prometheus Books, 2000. ISBN 1573927988
  • Gardner, Martin, Confessions of a Psychic. (under the pseudonym "Uriah Fuller" (an allusion to Geller) that purport to explain "how fake psychics perform seemingly incredible paranormal feats".) Karl Fulves, 1975.
  • Gardner, Martin. Further Confessions of a Psychic. (under the pseudonym "Uriah Fuller") 1980.
  • Gardner, Martin. Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus. Prometheus Books. (March 1990) ISBN 0879755733
  • Panati, Charles, The Geller Papers. Houghton Mifflin
  • Puharich, Andrija, Uri: A Journal of the Mystery of Uri Geller. Anchor Press / Doubleday
  • Randi, James, The Magic of Uri Geller. (Later editions are titled The Truth About Uri Geller). New York: Prometheus Books, Ballintine, 1982. ISBN 0-87975-199-1
  • Taylor, John G.. Superminds. Macmillian/Picador
  • Wilhelm, John. In Search of Superman. Pocket Books, 1976. ISBN 0671805908
  • Wilson, Colin. The Geller Phenomenon. Aldus Books, 1976. ISBN 0717281051

Non-fiction books By Geller

  • My Story. Henry Holt & Company, Inc. (April 1975) ISBN 0030301963
  • Uri Geller and Guy Lyon Playfair. The Geller Effect. Grafton, Jonathan Cape, Hunter Publishing, (1988) ISBN 0586074309 ISBN 978-0586074305
  • Uri Geller and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Confessions of a Psychic and a Rabbi. (Foreword by Deepak Chopra) Element Books Ltd (March 2000) ISBN 1862047243
  • Uri Geller and Lulu Appleton. Mind Medicine. Element Books Ltd (October 1999) ISBN 1862044775
  • Uri Geller's Little Book of Mind Power. Robson Books (August 1999) ISBN 186105193X
  • Uri Geller's Mind Power Kit. Penguin USA (1996) ISBN 0670871389
  • Uri Geller's Fortune Secrets. (Edited with Simon Turnbull) Psychic Hotline Pty Limited (May 21, 1987) ISBN 0722138121
  • Unorthodox Encounters. Chrysalis Books (2001) ISBN 1861053665

Fiction books By Geller

  • Ella. Martinez Roca, (March 1999) ISBN 0747259208
  • Shawn. Goodyer Associates Ltd, ISBN 1871406099
  • Pampini. World Authors (1980, ISBN 0899750001
  • Dead Cold. ISBN 0747259216

References

  1. ^ "Hot News" Randi, James; www.jref.org; July 27, 2007.
  2. ^ Westbrook, Caroline. ""Something Jewish" interview", somethingjewish.com, 12 Feb 2003. 
  3. ^ Margolis, Jonathan. "Nintendo faces £60m writ from Uri Geller", Guardian Unlimited, Guardian News and Media Limited, 1999-12-29. Retrieved on 2006-12-09. “... the 53-year-old former Israeli paratrooper has always guarded unlicensed use of his name.” 
  4. ^ Friedman, Matti. "For his next trick, illusionist Uri Geller turns into a TV star", Pueblo Chieftan, AP (via Star-Journal Publishing Corp.). Retrieved on 2006-12-09. “He served in the Israeli paratroops, was wounded in 1967’s Six-Day War...” 
  5. ^ The Magician And the Think Tank, Time (magazine) Mar. 12, 1973
  6. ^ "anecdote of meeting", cainer.com, 20 September, 2001. Retrieved on 2007-10-05. 
  7. ^ "Jackson fans await Geller wedding", BBC, 7 March, 2001. Retrieved on 2007-03-30. 
  8. ^ "Jackson interview seen by 14m", BBC, 4 February, 2003. Retrieved on 2007-03-30. 
  9. ^ "anecdote of meeting", cainer.com, 20 September, 2001. 
  10. ^ "Uri Geller accused of TV trickery", BBC, 21 January 2007. Retrieved on 2007-03-30. 
  11. ^ "NBC Offers Reality Show For Wanna-Be Mentalists With Uri Geller, Criss Angel", Tampa Tribune, Jul 17, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-07. 
  12. ^ Atheist Foundation of Australia Inc. "As there is no scientific evidence for supernatural phenomena"
  13. ^ a b
  14. ^ Boyce Rensberger, "Magicians Term Israeli 'Psychic' a Fraud," New York Times. Dec. 13, 1975 page 59. Several of the scientists have publicity criticized Geller. Other scientists convinced by Geller include Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff at the Stanford Research Institute.
  15. ^ Richard Feynman on Uri Geller
  16. ^ Geller v. Randi, US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, 1994.
  17. ^ Gardner, Martin [1981] (1989). Science: Good, Bad & Bogus. ISBN 0879755733. 
  18. ^ a b "The Curse of Uri Geller", The Sun, April 1, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-01. 
  19. ^ "The Curse of Uri Geller", James Randi Educational Foundation, June 27, 2003. Retrieved on 2007-04-01. 
  20. ^ a b "Uri Geller - A Sceptical Perspective", Wordsmith, October 1996. Retrieved on 2006-10-12. 
  21. ^ Interview with James Randi in NOVA episode, "Secrets of the Psychics".
  22. ^ Ben Harris,The Second Coming Psychics: All the Bast from Skeptic 1986-1990, page 8
  23. ^ Interview with James Randi in NOVA episode, "Secrets of the Psychics".
  24. ^ Interview with James Randi in NOVA episode, Secrets of the Psychics.
  25. ^ Interview with James Randi in NOVA episode, [Secrets of the Psychics.
  26. ^ Ben Harris,The Second Coming Psychics: All the Bast from Sceptic 1986-1990, page 8
  27. ^ Boyce Rensberger, "Magicians Term Israeli 'Psychic' a Fraud," New York Times. Dec. 13, 1975 page 59.
  28. ^ "The Geller Papers", UriGeller.com, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-03-28. 
  29. ^ Boyce Rensberger, "Magicians Term Israeli 'Psychic' a Fraud," New York Times. Dec. 13, 1975 page 59.
  30. ^ Randi, James. "An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural", St. Martin's Press, 1995. Retrieved on 2007-03-28. 
  31. ^ Randi, James. "An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural", St. Martin's Press, 1995. Retrieved on 2007-03-28. 
  32. ^ David Marks & Richard Kammann. - "The Non-Psychic Powers of Uri Geller" - Skeptical Inquirer, Summer 1977 - Vol. 1 No. 2 - p. 9-17
  33. ^ a b Randi, James. "Geller Redux", James Randi Educational Foundation, January 19, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-03-30. 
  34. ^ "Uri Geller accused of TV trickery", BBC, 21 January 2007. Retrieved on 2007-03-30. 
  35. ^ Randi, James. "The Moving Compass Trick", James Randi Educational Foundation, January 26, 2000. Retrieved on 2007-03-30. 
  36. ^ Truzzi, M (1996) from the Parapsychological Association newsletter http://66.221.71.68/psir.htm
  37. ^ Geller, Uri. Uri Geller Libel Suit Dismissed. Committee for Sceptical Inquiry. Retrieved on 2006-12-08. “Self proclaimed "psychic" Uri Geller had to dismiss a multi-million dollar libel suit and has to pay over $20,000 in sanctions in an action he brought against sceptical book publisher Prometheus Books of Amherst, New York.”
  38. ^ Truzzi, M (1996) from the Parapsychological Association newsletter http://66.221.71.68/psir.htm
  39. ^ Patricia Orwen, James Randi August 23, 1986, Toronto Star.
  40. ^ Blackmore, Susan. "U.K. broadcast commission rejects Geller's 'Secrets of the Psychics' complaint", Sceptical Inquirer, Nov-Dec, 1998. Retrieved on 2007-03-11. 
  41. ^ {{cite web | url = http://news.zdnet.co.uk/emergingtech/0,1000000183,2076058,00.htm | title = Uri Geller sues Pokemon | accessdate = 2007-05-30
  42. ^ a b {{cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1003454.stm | title = Geller sues Nintendo over Pokémon | accessdate = 2007-05-30
  43. ^ Margolis, Jonathan. "Nintendo faces £60m writ from Uri Geller", Guardian Unlimited, 1999-12-29. Retrieved on 2007-07-10. 
  44. ^ a b c Randi, James. "Geller on the Ropes", James Randi Educational Foundation, March 30, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-03-30. 
  45. ^ "Spoon-Bending 'Paranormalist' Illegally Twists Copyright Law", Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 8, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-06-01. 
  46. ^ "Sapient v. Geller Documents", Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 8, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-06-01. 
  47. ^ "Magician Uri Geller Accused of Bending Copyright Law", Fox News, July 9, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-07-10. 

External links


Persondata
NAME Geller, Uri
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION performer and author
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Tel Aviv, Israel
DATE OF DEATH living
PLACE OF DEATH

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Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Uri Geller biography from Who2.  Read more
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Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Copyright © 2001 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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