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Do you think Uri Geller is......

  • Absolutely genuine

    Votes: 1 1.5%
  • An entertainer with no special powers

    Votes: 21 31.8%
  • Not sure

    Votes: 15 22.7%
  • Conman

    Votes: 29 43.9%

  • Total voters
    66

Min Bannister

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GNC

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I don't think that counts as one hour's essential exercise, Uri. (Unless he has a stock of landmark photos for just such an occasion).
 

Tempest63

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I don’t know - the podcast, episode 15 this week, did a rather splendid hatchet job on UG.
 

sherbetbizarre

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No biggie...

Uri Geller reckons he'll find Ark of the Covenant and cause a 'historical tsunami'

The psychic, who made his name by bending spoons with his mind on telly, says he has had a vision of the ancient religious relic and hopes to start digging for it later in the year. The mystic, 75, told followers on Twitter: “I know where the Ark of the Covenant is I will find it mark my words.

“It will be an earth shattering historical tsunami and an archeological and a theological earthquake.”

“People have been looking for this for centuries. Nobody knows where it is.

“But I know where it is. I have seen it via remote viewing. It has four golden rings on its corners. I can see it clearly.”

Uri said he cannot reveal where it is - but hinted it may still be in Israel.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/uri-geller-reckons-hell-find-25890680

 

GNC

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He's not going off the rails again, is he?
 

Lord Lucan

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No biggie...

Uri Geller reckons he'll find Ark of the Covenant and cause a 'historical tsunami'

The psychic, who made his name by bending spoons with his mind on telly, says he has had a vision of the ancient religious relic and hopes to start digging for it later in the year. The mystic, 75, told followers on Twitter: “I know where the Ark of the Covenant is I will find it mark my words.



https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/uri-geller-reckons-hell-find-25890680


I had lunch at Uri Geller's house the other day...​


It was terrible. I ended up with soup all down my front.
 

EnolaGaia

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Uri Geller reckons he'll find Ark of the Covenant and cause a 'historical tsunami'
The psychic, who made his name by bending spoons with his mind on telly, says he has had a vision of the ancient religious relic and hopes to start digging for it later in the year. The mystic, 75, told followers on Twitter: “I know where the Ark of the Covenant is I will find it mark my words.

Follow-on comments regarding the Ark of the Covenant per se have been moved to the appropriate thread on that subject:

The Lost Ark Of The Covenant
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/the-lost-ark-of-the-covenant.11432/
 

Stillill

Abominable Snowman
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Isn't every professional psychic/illusionist/magician/conjuror a con artist?

The fun is in guessing how they can apparently do the impossible.
I think there’s a difference because Uri Geller pretends to have special powers. A magician/illusionist/conjuror doesn’t do that. The audience knows it’s only a trick and the magician knows they know.
Uri Geller is a wanker,he’s a conman because he pretends to have special powers. Any competent magician can do what he does.
 

Endlessly Amazed

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Uri Geller certainly faked many of his effects. I think he did not fake at least some of the spoon bending.

To quote myself (ye Gods!): “Metallurgic analysis of bent cutlery revealed distinct structural differences between the ones bent by psychic means and cheating conventional means. Many other people (thousands) also bent cutlery in spoon-bending parties. The metallurgical differences between the psychic and conventional cutlery remained consistent. The metallurgical changes from a psychic spoon could not be replicated through mechanical means. (Hasted, John. “The Metal Benders.” London, Routledge & Kegan Paul ltd, 1981.)”

When Scepticism Goes Belly Up | Page 2 | The Forteana Forums

So, to claim that Mr. Geller is a fraud based on the belief that metal-bending by unorthodox means is impossible, is not valid.

To claim that he is a fraud because he knowingly lied to the public about his abilities has more credence, although I vaguely think he was or is somewhat delusional about his abilities.

To claim that he is a fraud because his effects can be replicated by orthodox magician tricks is not valid.

To claim that he cheated all the time because he cheated some times is not provable. (By analogy, if anyone has lied at least once, we can assume that person lies every time. Hmmm. That is everyone!)

The truth about him will be unknowable. I think he had some actual psychic abilities, but relied on conventional magic tricks for almost all of his performances. If one thinks that psychic abilities do not exist, then of course my opinion will seem ridiculous. Those pesky, unspoken assumptions which cause us all such problems.... The bigger fraud, to my mind, was James Randi. Talk about conman!
 

Min Bannister

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Other magicians can bend spoons too. Banachek once bent a teaspoon in my very own hand in Blackpool a few years ago. I have also seen Geller sprout a seed in a persons hand. He is actually an excellent mentalist. It is a shame he is also a mentalist..

He really did go a bit crazy in the late 1970s, though, when he claimed he was a UFO contactee or something. Money doesn't buy you sanity - just ask Kanye West.
He still does claim that. He says it is where he got his psychic powers.
 

Endlessly Amazed

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Other magicians can bend spoons too. Banachek once bent a teaspoon in my very own hand in Blackpool a few years ago. I have also seen Geller sprout a seed in a persons hand. He is actually an excellent mentalist. It is a shame he is also a mentalist..


He still does claim that. He says it is where he got his psychic powers.

Yes. I have personally experienced or witnessed effects which are impossible by current conventional thinking and assumptions; so what I think is impossible is different than what people who have not had these experiences think. I conclude it is impossible to convince them based on evidence. In our current belief (assumption set) system, some things must be experienced to be accepted.

I think James Randi did much serious harm to science by his stage-rigging the experimental set ups, manipulating results and evidence, and by publicly ridiculing so many who disagreed with him. He made a very comfortable living through his debunking, pro-science "charity." What a miserable person.

How lucky you were to witness and experience those events!
 

maximus otter

Recovering policeman
Joined
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Messages
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He still does claim that. He says it is where he got his psychic powers.

“I'm reminded of an anecdote I heard on the telly many years ago, source unremembered:

The infant Uri Geller is seated in his back garden in Israel, playing.

He looks up to see a glowing, mile-wide spacecraft descending towards him on iridescent force beams.

A hatch in its side opens, and two 50' high godlike creatures descend on a stream of radiance to stand before him. They speak:


Alien: "Uri Geller! We have travelled for ten million of your Earth years from the planet Zznurf in the Fhtaaagn Galaxy to give you - Uri Geller! - the power to bend spoons without touching them!"

Young Uri, after a pause to consider: "Err...cheers?"

Later, aboard the spacecraft on the return journey:

Alien 1 to Alien 2; "Well, he seemed pleased..." ‘

https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...ghost-photos-videos.1328/page-55#post-1991202

maximus otter
 

blessmycottonsocks

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I think there’s a difference because Uri Geller pretends to have special powers. A magician/illusionist/conjuror doesn’t do that. The audience knows it’s only a trick and the magician knows they know.
Uri Geller is a wanker,he’s a conman because he pretends to have special powers. Any competent magician can do what he does.

David Blaine wants us to believe he can levitate. Dynamo that he can pass through solid matter. David Copperfield that he can render the Statue of Liberty invisible .... and this guy can exercise complete mind control over Alan Partridge:

 

Floyd1

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I think there’s a difference because Uri Geller pretends to have special powers. A magician/illusionist/conjuror doesn’t do that. The audience knows it’s only a trick and the magician knows they know.
Uri Geller is a wanker,he’s a conman because he pretends to have special powers. Any competent magician can do what he does.
He did do a load of tests for the CIA back in the 70s, that were considered genuine by them.
 

Endlessly Amazed

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Mind you, the CIA was paying people to stare at goats and all sorts of other wacky BS at the time.

Yes. It was the job of the CIA, DIA, DARPA, and similar, unnamed agencies to spend a part of their budget on wacky, unproven and likely erroneous processes and materials. If it didn't work, then it is retrospectively BS. If it did work, we may or may not ever find out about it.
 

Tunn11

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I remember watching a documentary on Randi once where he duplicated a lot of Geller's feats and then demonstrated how he did them. A fair percentage of his audience didn't believe him and said that it was now up to Randi to prove that he didn't have psychic powers!
 
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