..... From Geller's own book and from Puharich's it is clear that he is only partly able to control his own powers. When I first went to meet Uri in London, in June 1974, a Spanish coin jumped out of the ashtray on the desk and fell on the other side of the room; Geller and a Secretary were both on the opposite side of the room when it happened. And Jesse Lasky, a Hollywood film writer, tells of an occasion when Geller came to dinner in his apartment in October 1975. The front door of the apartment building he lives in has an iron grille decorated with two winged dragons. Uri arrived at 8.00 PM in the evening. At 9.00 PM, another guest observed the dragons as she came in. When she left, later on, the wings of both dragons had been bent outward. Uri had been in the apartment all the time, and was suitably apologetic about the damage. The caretaker tried to hammer the wings back but gave up when they began to crack.
Anyone who turns to Puharich's book on Uri after reading about poltergeist cases will immediately be struck by the similar "feel" of the Geller manifestations. Objects are always appearing and disappearing in an erratic manner. There is something oddly trivial about most the phenomena the car engine stopping and starting, a briefcase "teleported" from America to Israel, a dog mysteriously "dematerialized" and transferred to the other end of the garden. (the same dog later bit Geller, suggesting it recognized he was the guilty party.) The voice seems to promise important events, but nothing happens. The Space Beings explain that they have come to warn about an Arab attack on Israel, which could become a world war. Puharich did nothing about the warning, and when the next Arab attack occurred, there was, of course, no world war. The Beings explain that they intend to land on earth in the next year or so (this was four years ago), then change their minds and declare that the landing will be "invisible." Yet another communication they intimate that they are the UFOs that have been reported so frequently, and that have if we are to believe Ufologists landed many times. So why make such a fuss about another landing? They explain that their spaceship Spectra is "53,069 light ages away," but do not explain why it is necessary to be so far away to help the inhabitants of the earth. After all, the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is a mere 4.5 light years away. Nor do they explain how they communicate with a spaceship at such a distance, unless they have some form of energy that can travel millions of times faster than light. The contradictions are endless, but are strikingly typical of the "spirit communications" that have occurred so frequently in the history of psychical research. Communicators have often promised both through automatic writing and through mediums tremendous philosophical revelations. It would probably be fair to say that most of these revelations never rise above the level of semiliterate double talk.
Randi, Hanlon, and the rest have no doubt that Geller is cheating, and the Puharich is probably an accomplice. This is simply not consistent with the facts. There before Puharich published " Uri", the no one had cast slightest doubt on his honesty or credentials as a scientific investigator of the paranormal. It might be argued that the Puharich became insane when he met Geller; but again, none of the many people who have interviewed him and talked with him subsequently has expressed any doubts about his sanity. (since mid 1975, the former close relationship between Geller and Puharich seems to have been subjected to severe strains; but this would appear to be due to Geller's desire to go his own way rather than to any change of attitude on the part of Puharich.)
On the other hand, it is clear the when Puharich met Geller he was already in the frame of mind of a believer not so much in Geller had in their mysterious "Nine." He went to Israel expecting and hoping for miracles. We have already noted that Uri performs badly in the presence of sceptics. So it would hardly be surprising if Puharich's frame of mind help to produce some of the extraordinary results of those first weeks in Tel Aviv. In fact, if Uri's powers are derived from his own subconscious mind, is it not perfectly conceivable that these results were due to some kind of collusion between the subconscious minds of the two men? Puharich expected incredible results; he was eagerly awaiting further communication from the Nine. (it would be interesting to know how much he told Geller about the Nine before the metallic voice sounded from the air.) He was a well known scientist, capable of launching Uri on a worldwide career. What would have been more natural than that Uri's subconscious should have gone into top gear to produce spectacular results?
All this suggests that the Randi and Hanlon were right and that Uri was indeed cheating, if only on a subconscious level. This is my own opinion, and it is, to some extent, backed by Uri himself, who tells me (on a tape recorded on December 12, 1975): " first of all you must know that I have never agreed to Dr. Puharich's theory, the book he wrote called " Uri", where he says that might powers come from outer space and UFOs and Beings and so on. To be quite honest I don't know where this power is coming from...." Yet he has also told me, and many others, that everything Puharich describes in his book really happened. When he first met Mitchell, Targ, and Puthoff in 1972, Geller told them he believed his powers came from Space Beings. It seems incomprehensible that anyone who lived through that year with Puharich, hearing voices speaking from tape recorders and seeing mysterious objects such as UFOs, should completely dismiss the theory that these beings are responsible for his powers. Yet Geller's present attitude is consistent with someone who is aware that Puharich himself was putting much of the " space men" theory into his head, and that his own subconscious powers were acting up to it. It is interesting to compare various accounts of the incident in the Tel Aviv Garden when Uri was zapped by the "space man." In Puharich's account, " suddenly between himself and the bowl in the sky there was the shadow of a huge figure like the shadow of a man with a long cape.... Eight blinding ray of light came from its head and struck Uri so forcibly that he fell over backward and into a deep sleep." In Uri's own account in "My Story," there is only "a silvery mass of light" (not a " bowl like object") in the sky. " then it came down lower... I felt as if I had been knocked over backward...." No spaceman emitting a blinding flash of light. In an interview with a "Psychic" magazine in 1973, Geller's account is even simpler: " this was the afternoon when I can remember experiencing this flash inside my head as well as outside of it there which was very vivid to me and which seem to come from up above. I ran to tell my mother about it but she said it was nothing...." This time, apart from the lightning like flash, the experience sounds much more subjective. It is indeed possible that something happened that afternoon that awakened Uri's powers. But it could well have been something that happened inside his head, some brain discharge, possibly resembling an epileptic attack.
This is, perhaps, the point at which we should discuss the question of the allegations of cheating. Geller himself insists, understandably, that he has never cheated. And his claim is supported by the fact that no one has ever been able to produce evidence that he has cheated, although he is now demonstrated his spoon bending and mind reading many thousands of times. Randi tries hard to imply that Geller was caught cheating, yet fails to produce a shred of evidence in his book. There is, the evidence of people who claimed to have seen him bending spoons manually such as the TV technician and Randi. However, Hanlon himself admits in his "New Scientist" articles that hearsay evidence of cheating is is as doubtful as hearsay evidence of miracles. If the technician had filmed Geller bending the spoon by hand, that would have been a different matter. If Randi and Charles Reynolds had instantly challenge Geller when as they allege they saw him press the key against the table top, this, too, would have been worth taking seriously. But even allowing that Randi and Reynolds were totally honest, we still have to acknowledge that they were hoping to catch Geller cheating, and that their perception could have been influenced by wishful thinking.
So there is no hard evidence that Geller has ever cheated; and if his powers are as unusual as they seem to be, it is difficult to see why he should endanger his reputation by cheating. His supporters have occasion he pointed out that many genuine mediums have been known to cheat, in order to provide "value for money" when their powers are weak an admission that has drawn predictable boos and catcalls from the opposition. If Targ's remark that he believes Uri would cheat if he got the chance is authentic, then he clearly takes the view that Uri is both genuine and capable of trickery. This possibility has to be frankly acknowledged was still bearing in mind that there is no real evidence that Uri has even helped out his powers by sleight of hand.
This is not to suggest that the sceptics are wrong to look for trickery only that their skepticism is based on a naive and simple minded attitude. There basic belief is that such powers cannot exist, according to their preconceived ideas about the universe. They are committed to the view that all mediums and psychics of frauds; consequently, if one of them is caught cheating, this is a clear and logical proof of their contention. It is never as simple as that...
.... The perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the recent publicity given to Uri Geller's psychic abilities is that so many people have become aware that they to possess such powers. John Taylor's spoon Bending children have made him the target of a great deal of skepticism and even derision. It is possible, and indeed probable, that some of them bent spoons in the normal way by hand when Taylor's back was turned. Yet no one who has read with an open mind Taylor's account of some of the test conditions can doubt that some of the phenomena must have been genuine. Moreover, the "Geller effect" has been observed in almost every country where his abilities have been demonstrated on television....
