The Independent
August 16, 2000
You
ask the questions (Such as: so, Uri Geller, I've got a bent spoon at home,
can you straighten it?)
Uri
Geller was born in Israel in 1946. After spending his teenage years in
Cyprus, Geller returned to Israel where he served as a paratrooper in
the Israeli army and fought in the Six Day War of 1967. In 1969 he began
demonstrating his powers of telepathy and psychokinesis to small audiences
around the country. By 1971 he had become a household name, touring Europe
and the States giving demonstrations of his powers such as bending spoons
and stopping a cable car in mid-air. Geller is a vegetarian who cycles
27 miles every day. He lives with his wife, two teenage children and five
dogs in Berkshire.
I have
written my question and placed it in an envelope which is being kept in
Glossop in Derbyshire. What is the answer to that question? Is it
true you advised the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad? When did
you get the first inkling of your psychic power? How did it manifest itself?
And how did you cultivate it? What were
you like as a child? Were you popular at school? If I hold
a spoon while I read your answer to this question, can you make it bend?
Have you
ever bent the truth? Why on
earth were you offended by having a Pokémon character named after you
in Japan? I've got
a bent spoon. Can you make it straight? What did
you do with your first wage packet? My first
spoon-bending demonstration was in 1969 at a party in a small apartment
owned by an Israeli general. The then-prime minister Golda Meir was there,
and she recognised my ability. The next morning she was doing an interview
on Israeli radio and she was asked to predict the future of Israel. She
simply said: "Don't ask me, ask Uri Geller." That launched me to stardom
and then came the big salaries. Managers started to call me and I was
booked to do two performances a day for between 3-5,000 people. Although
at the time I was being ripped off by managers, I was quite content with
the leftovers.
Liberty
Mountain or Elvis Presley: who's the better singer? I believe
in reincarnation – that a spirit survives and can enter another
body. When I hear Liberty Mountain "impersonate" Elvis I get goose bumps
all over my body. I truly believe that somehow he connects spiritually
and physically to Elvis. So the answer to which one is better is "neither"
I would say they are one and the same.
You must
get through an awful lot of cutlery. Have you ever tried using chopsticks?
If you
could do one feat , anything at all - what would it be? I saw
you on QVC recently selling magic power stones that claimed to "turn lives
around". Do you ever feel you've had your moment?
Richard Fair, Glossop
Why do people constantly want to test my powers? Even walking down the
street I am mobbed by ordinary people asking to have their mind read or
their spoon bent. I constantly have to prove myself and I'm sick of it.
I've been tested and studied in dozens of laboratories around the world:
the University of London, Stanford University, the Max Planc Institute
the list goes on and on. It would be a huge task for me to know what's
in the envelope. I would like to throw the question back. If it came from
someone who is, say, a singer, would I ask them to start singing down
the telephone? Of course not.
Trudie Harding, Sunbury
This is a question I always dodge because I cannot confirm or deny it.
I can openly tell you, though, that I worked for the CIA. I have done
some incredible tasks for them, mainly in Mexico. I sat next to two KGB
agents on a plane and erased their floppy disks (which were contained
in attaché cases chained to their wrists) with the power of my mind.
K Beeton, by e-mail
I was four years old, eating soup. As I was lifting the spoon to mouth
it started bending; it actually snapped in half. That was the very first
time. Then at school I discovered I could read minds. Not a whole thought,
but whenever I had difficulties with an answer I would look at the back
of the head of a good student and be able to pluck out the answer, particularly
in arithmetic. I could move the hands of a clock as well. A few times
we got let out an hour earlier because I moved the hands. By demonstrating
my power in school I was exercising it – it's like a muscle, you
have to exercise it every day.
Josie Potter, London N1
I was bullied at school because other children thought that I was a freak.
I was beaten up and went home bleeding. I had a very tough childhood,
because of my parents divorcing and because of my powers, but I guess
it was a learning process that I had to go through.
Isabel Fowler, London W12
Now that you've reached this question, why don't you put this newspaper
down for a minute, and go and get a broken watch or clock, and a spoon.
Firstly wind up the watch and place the two objects on my picture. I know
to many of you this will sound ridiculous but you have nothing to lose,
try it. On the count of three I want you to shout out the word "work!"
and the word "bend!". If your watch or clock starts ticking or the spoon
moves or bends please let us know. If nothing happened, don't be disappointed
it doesn't happen all the time and it doesn't happen to everyone.
K Singh, Luton
I have a weekly column in the Jewish Telegraph called "Uri Geller
Not Bending the Truth". I try not to bend the truth although I am sure
there have been times in my life when I have given a compliment to someone,
especially women, which may have dented the truth slightly telling them
perhaps that their dress was pretty when really it wasn't. But that's
as far as it goes.
Francis Webb, Taunton
It's not fair for someone to steal your name and place it on a business
venture without your permission. But aside from it being legally and ethically
wrong, the other thing that bothered me about the card is that it is an
evil character that induces headaches in people. I'm the exact opposite
of that: I teach people to heal themselves. I don't want a whole generation
of kids growing up believing that spoon-bending is bad or that I induce
headaches. Also, I'm the only character out of 151 that has a star on
its forehead. And although it's not a Star of David, it does evoke terrible
emotions because I'm Jewish and part of my family were destroyed by the
Nazis.
P Smitherson, by e-mail
This is the most asked question. Physically I can, but mentally I can't.
Usually most of the spoons I bend continue bending and stop at 90 degrees.
I have absolutely no explanation for it, I've tried many a time to straighten
them, but it never works.
Martha Sawyer, Reading
Before I was famous, I worked as a construction worker in Tel Aviv. I
participated in the building of the El Al building, hauling cement in
big pots and pouring them into the ground. The salary from that was OK,
and the first thing I bought was a pair of working boots with fortified
metal protectors on them. When I was 17, I joined the Israeli army, where
the wages were next to nothing; but after that I became a male model.
I was very successful and modelled everything from watches to shirts and
underpants. That was very good pay and I managed to buy my mother a black-and-white
TV, which was a luxury in Israel back then.
Miles Key, by e-mail
I have an Elvis statue in my living room, which actually saved a woman's
life. It belonged to a friend of mine; one day two thieves broke into
her house, tied her up and were about to slash her throat. One of the
men caught sight of the statue in the corner; because he was a huge fan,
he spared the woman's life. Her husband gave me the statue when she died
years later.
P Dallanegra, Swindon
Because my wife suffered so many bent spoons and forks throughout our
marriage, we had to get a set of cutlery, which is almost unbendable,
specially made for us in Switzerland. Waiters often come up to me in restaurants
and say, "Mr Geller, we can't afford you using our cutlery – would
you mind using chopsticks?" I've even been given chopsticks in Italian
restaurants.
Angie Dent, Coventry
It would have to be levitation, which I have tried a million times but
never achieve. That is why I wrote Ella, my second novel, about
a 14-year-old girl who levitates. I could only create it in fiction.
Elliot Saunders, Cambridge
Not at all. If I can create a beautiful, sparkling line of jewellery,
is there a law that forbids me to do so? My crystal rock jewellery is
a tremendous hit, it sold out in 40 minutes. The presenter of QVC only
asked me to tap dance for the remaining time because we had nothing to
talk about once all the jewellery had gone.