LONDON — Uri Geller, a young man who has a way of making spoons curl up at his touch and broken watches tick again, is about to submit him self to scientific investigation once more.
Either Geller is the greatest illusionist since Houdini or he is the champion the world of para-psychology has been seeking all these years.
Geller, a 27-year-old Israeli, has taken Britain by storm in recent weeks, starting with an appearance on a radio talk show.
Claiming that an energy force of unspecified nature is somehow being channeled through him, he demonstrated how he could bend a teaspoon simply by concentrating his thoughts and gently stroking it.
Within minutes, the telephones were abuzz at the BBC from people reporting their spoons had bent as well.
A motorist listening to the program said he had watched his key bend in the ignition. A police constable complained that the blades of half a dozen table knives had just twisted. Other callers reported seeing bracelets, cake tins and even a bird cage buckle and bend as Geller was doing his thing.
During a television appearance the next day, Geller worked his powers on a collection of old watches which hadn't ticked for years. Again, the public reported their own broken timepieces worked again.
Bryan Silcock, science correspondent of the Sunday Times, and photographer Bryan Wharton accompanied Geller to London airport by taxi and took the opportunity to test his powers.
Geller took the steel key to Silcock's office desk and passed it to Wharton, who held it in his hands. Wharton said he could feel a sensation of warmth and a kind of slow pulsing as the key bent at an angle of about 10 degrees.
News of the World reporter Roy Stockdill and photographer Michael Brennan swear that Geller took pictures of himself using Brennan's camera — without removing the lens cap.
Silcock wrote: "If people really can bend metal by mind power it will mean a revolution in science and our whole way of thinking about the world more profound than anything since Newton turned the universe into a piece of clockwork three centuries ago."
Nature magazine printed an editorial urging thorough scientific examination of Geller because "there are too many loose ends lying around for comfort."
The New Scientist has persuaded Geller, now back in the United States, to return to Britain for scrutiny by a special team of investigators. That will be one of the main purposes of his visit here early in the new year.
The team will comprise a member of the Society of Psychical Research, a research psychologist, the editor of New Scientist, a physicist, a professional magician and a journalist.
Last year the Stanford Research institute in California tested not only Geller's ' claimed psycho-kinetic (mind over matter) ability but also his telepathic powers. They are reported to have found they could not dismiss either as trickery.
However, other U.S. experts, including psychologist Dr. Ray Hyman, claim to have spotted loopholes or outright deceptions in every Geller feat.
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