THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2001

THE HOME FORUM

A. SOSA OF PROVIDENCE, R.I., ASKS,

Whatever happened to "Paranormalist" Uri Geller?

By Lane Hartill
Uri Geller, who claims to bend keys and restart watches using mental energy alone, is still on the world stage.

PASADENA, CALIF., 1988: Uri Geller displays a fork he allegedly bent whole holding it in only one hand. ALAN GERTH/AP

Mr. Geller's spoon-bending fame started in his native Israel in the early 1970s. In 1972, amid skepticism about his abilities, Geller participated in controlled studies at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, Calif. Researcher Harold Puthoff reported that Geller could not bend metal under lab conditions, but was able to demonstrate "remote viewing," a form of clairvoyance. (Geller admits he cannot always bend spoons on command.)

Today, Geller writes a weekly newspaper column published in Israel and the United Kingdom. His most recent book is "The Psychic and the Rabbi," which came out this year. His radio show, "ParaScience and Beyond," airs on stations across the United States four nights a week.

Geller says he's not upset by criticism. "The real magic is in the mind," Geller told the Monitor. "I'm pretty cool about the skeptics; there's a mass of incontrovertible lab evidence that proves I'm for real, if people want to look it up."