Wednesday October 31 9:28 PM ET

Uri Geller Says Sony Censored Jackson CD Picture

LONDON(Reuters) - Psychic spoon-bender Uri Geller says record company Sony Music removed religious words and symbols from a picture he drew for Michael Jackson's new album.

Geller, a former Israeli paratrooper famous for using mysterious mental powers to bend spoons, told Reuters that Sony Music had taken out the words ``God,'' ``Jerusalem,'' ``USA'' and ''Angel 2000'' and had replaced a Star of David with a pentagram.

Jackson's long-awaited album, ``Invincible,'' was released by Sony Monday and is his first album containing all-new material since ``Dangerous'' in 1991.

``The sensitivity of not wanting any religious symbols in my drawing I found quite extraordinary because God is universal,'' said Geller.

``I went along with it because I understood that one of the removed items is a very Jewish symbol and Michael is an international pop star.''

``But I never did understand why the creator's name was eliminated.

Sony Music could not be immediately reached for comment.

Geller drew the detailed black-and-white illustration on a napkin in Jackson's New York hotel room last year.

The two are close friends and Jackson was best man at Geller's wedding near London in March -- although he arrived two hours late.

The picture, the only illustration other than Jackson's picture in the booklet accompanying the CD, remains packed with imagery.

It features the heads of a man and woman, the pyramids, a UFO and other symbols representing love, peace, and hope.

Geller said Sony technicians in Los Angeles had spent two days using a computer to scan the picture for hidden words in case he had written anything obscene.

However, the Hebrew letter Shin, used to symboise God, was left in the picture. ``They didn't know what that was,'' he said.