Earlier this year I arranged to interview the renowned Israeli psychic Uri Geller. I didn't believe he could bend metal with ESP and was going to challenge him wilh my car keys. Fortunately for Geller, I fell ill. The appointment was cancelled. Thus the flower of the parapsychology field was saved from certain embarrassment.
But no longer. The community of magicians has ganged up on Geller to smash his claims of other-worldly. power Any good magician, they insist, can bend spoons with his "mind" or start broken watches "miraculously."
How do magicians do it? The tradition of secrecy keeps most conjurers quiet, but Martin Gardner, among others, feels lhal Geller must be stopped at any cost. Gardner, "Scientific American's" "Mathematical Games" columnist and veteran critic of "paranonsense," dares to expose Geller in Ihe following interview
Q. "Why are you people picking on Uri Geller. Why don't you let him make a living in peace?"
A. Nobody would bother him if he hadn't done such damage to people who believe in him. He pretends to have genuine psychic powers at all times. As a r e s u l t , many very sincere parapsychologists have been fooled. But actually I'm happy to see Geller give parapsychology a bad name. Most parapsychologisls are completely incompetent.
Q. What have you got against parapsychologists?
A. They haven't produced any strong scientific evidence for anything in the field. You get the impression that parapsychology is a burgeoning profession. In fact, it would be hard to name more than 25 full-time professional parapsychologists in the entire United States. Most psychologists consider the whole thing hogwash.
Q. Therefore, you do not believe in the phenomenon of extra-sensory perception?
A. Personally I do not. And when people discover my disbelief, they suddenly accuse me of being an atheist as if there were some connection. I'm definitely not an atheist. As William James said, there are undoubtedly truths about the universe that are as far beyond our minds as our world is beyond the mind of a dog or cat. But this doesn't mean I have to believe Uri Geller can bend spoons.
Q. If Geller doesn't have supernatural powers, then he must be a terrific magician.
A. Not necessarily. He can't do dexterous sleights with his fingers, but he is very clever at psychological misdirection. He can distract attention quite well while he's "preparing" an object. For example, he'll borrow a key and pretend to be disappointed when it won't bend at his strokes. Then he'll say that sometimes a key bends better when it's near metal. "Is that filing cabinet metal?" he asks a small group in an office. Naturally, all heads turned toward the filing cabinet across the room. But in that instant, he puts the key against the edge of the table and bends it.
Q. Geller also fixes broken watches. That's much harder than "bending" a key.
A. The average person doesn't realize that a watch stops running when there's a little dirt inside. So you may put it away in a drawer and figure it's broken. Actually, if you give a "broken" watch a little shake and the stem a slight wind, it will probably start again. That's the whole secret behind Geller's fixing watches.
Q. Geller is most renowned for bending spoons. Where's the sleight-of-hand in this trick?
A. There are about a dozen ways of doing it, depending on the circumstances. When Geller was on the Barbara Walters show, for instance, he simply arrived early and pre-bent one of the spoons. If you bend any ordinary spoon back and forth, the spot just above the bowl becomes very weak. Although it looks perfectly normal, the slightest stroke can bend it. Therefore if Geller or one cf his assistants can get his hands on the spoon before the performance, the bend is guaranteed.
Q. These so-called feats, as you explain them, are childishly simple. How can Geller continue to fool almost all of the people all of the time?
A. The point is that most people know nothing about magic—including, scientists and parapsychologists. These experts don't know what to look for. The reason Geller is more successful as a psychic than Dunninger and Kreskin is because the latter are known as magicians. They act like magicians. But Uri plays the role of a non-magician to perfection. He is a very convincing liar. Although he began as a magician in Israel, he denies knowing anything about magic. So his simplest trick makes people fall out of their chairs.
Q. Geller has a great racket—using entertainment skills for psychic ends. Is he the first "psychic" to take advantage of the confusion?
A. Hardly. During the nineteenth century the United States was rife with professional mediums who were just magicians levitating tables and getting in touch with the dead. But Ihe compulsion to believe was so great that no matter how many times mediums were exposed for trickery, the believers in spiritualism would shrug and say. "Okay, they cheat sometimes."
Q. And only you and your magician friends say the same of Geller?
A. Almost every parapsychologist who believes Uri is genuine now admits he does magic tricks on TV. but they also insist he can perform authentic ESP experiments. This is Ihe same attitude that spiritualists had toward cheating mediums.
Q. I take it that any half-decent conjurer could pretend to be psychic and duplicate Geiler's act?
A. Absolutely. More and more magicians are putting mental effects into their repertoire. Consequently, there is a controversy in magic circles on whether or not a performer should make a disclaimer before the show. That is, should a magician announce before hand that he actually has no psychic powers? Some do. some don't.
Q. Despite your strong suspicions, you can't really prove Geller does his tricks the old way and not through ESP.
A. That's right. Unless you set an elaborate trap, you couldn't prove it. Uri is so cagey that he wouldn't let himself in for it. Why do you suppose he refuses to perform in front of magicians?
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