Uri Geller

Uri Geller is a famous Israeli-British illusionist, mentalist, and spoon bender. He was born on the winter solstice of 1946, in Tel Aviv, to Hungarian emigré parents. According to the Geller legend, at the age of four, he was visited by a strange luminous apparition, after which he began to manifest paranormal talents. Unlike Ingo Swann and Pat Price, he did not have out-of-body experiences or premonitions; instead, he claimed to be able to read minds, visualize hidden objects and drawings clairvoyantly, and bend small pieces of metal.¹

When Geller was ten, his parents separated, and he moved with his mother to Cyprus. At seventeen, he returned to Israel, joined the paratroops, and was wounded during the Six-Day War in 1967. After recuperating, he worked as a model. Encouraged by a friend, Shippi Strang, he began public performances of mind reading and metal-bending in 1969. His celebrity grew, and he performed for prestigious figures, including Prime Minister Golda Meir and General Moshe Dayan, who reportedly asked him, "Now, what can you do for Israel?"¹

Allegedly, Geller worked with Israeli military intelligence chief Aharon Yariv, Mossad, and Shin Bet, performing tasks such as clairvoyantly viewing intelligence targets in the Middle East, predicting troop deployments, and telepathically influencing Arab figures. However, he later chose to pursue a high-profile career as a stage performer rather than a psychic warrior.¹

In 1972, Geller was brought to America by Andrija Puharich, funded by a grant from the Institute of Noetic Science, run by former astronaut Edgar Mitchell. Geller visited Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in 1972 and 1973, where Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ tested his abilities. He performed feats such as blindfolded driving, bending or breaking spoons and rings, remotely reducing the weight of objects on electronic scales, describing sketches in briefcases, and scrambling electronic equipment. While some tests showed genuine psi abilities, his hyperkinetic and chaotic style often led Puthoff and Targ to suspect sleight of hand. The CIA was interested in determining if Geller was genuine and his potential as an intelligence asset, or if he was part of a disinformation project.¹

Despite the skepticism and his tricksterish demeanor, Geller produced remarkable results in some controlled tests, such as accurately reproducing a drawing of a bunch of grapes. However, his psychokinetic displays never occurred under fully controlled conditions, leading to suspicions of magician's tricks. Puthoff and Targ even brought in stage magician Milbourne Christopher to observe Geller. Geller's presence at SRI attracted significant attention and controversy, eventually leading Puthoff and Targ to conclude he was "not worth the trouble."¹

After leaving SRI, Geller continued his career as an entertainer and reportedly performed psychic detective work for the FBI in New York. He also claimed to have worked for the CIA's Mexico City station, spying on Soviet case officers and their dead-drop sites, and attempting to convince Mexican officials to reduce the KGB presence. He later settled in England, becoming a wealthy individual. He disavowed some of his earlier beliefs about extraterrestrial control, attributing them to regression hypnosis sessions by Puharich.¹

In the winter of 1975, Geller was tested by a group of nuclear physicists and engineers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The tests, which included attempts to interfere with laser beams and erase magnetic computer program cards, were conducted to assess the potential threat of psychokinesis to nuclear weapons systems. While the scientists concluded that Geller's abilities were not effective over long distances, they experienced a series of bizarre, hallucination-inducing phenomena after their involvement with him, which became known as the "Geller Effect."²