Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[SkeptInq@aol.com]

  Geller Rebottled

  He's ba-a-a-ck. "Psychic" Uri Geller debuted for a new generation of TV
viewers on January 5, 2000, when he appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay
Leno." The Israeli entertainer has had other, short-lived comebacks since he
burst on the scene in 1973, convincing media personalities and even some
scientists that he had special powers of telepathy and psychokinesis,
especially using his brainwaves to bend metal objects such as keys and spoons.

  At one time or another Geller has claimed to locate gold and oil by map
dowsing, to perform an eyeless-vision demonstration with an automobile (a
feat magicians call "the blindfold drive"), even to be in contact with
super-beings from a distant planet.

 Over the years Geller has launched numerous lawsuits, one a $15 million
action against CSICOP and Randi. CSICOP maintained the suit lacked merit and
was intended to harass critics and silence debate. The court's judgment was
to brand Geller's complaint "frivolous" and to award CSICOP sanctions against
him (covering a portion of CSICOP's considerable legal fees). Geller has
launched other suits against Randi and his publisher, Prometheus Books, as
well as others outside the skeptical community.

  In introducing Geller, Jay Leno appeared somewhat embarrassed, and
distanced himself by stating that he was neither a skeptic nor "naive." The
talkative "psychic," boasting of his self-claimed prowess, told a story about
one television viewer who had blamed him for her pregnancy: Supposedly his
broadcast metal-bending power had distorted her IUD. Geller seemed anxious to
exhibit the contraceptive device, mentioning that it was in his pocket, but
Leno discouraged him while wondering aloud how Geller might have gotten it.

  Geller proceeded to perform. He noted that actor Tim Robbins, seated beside
him, had earlier made a drawing, witnessed by others and sealed in an
envelope in Robbins's pocket. Geller asked the actor to project his thoughts.
The entertainer then began drawing a spiral and adding a few more strokes. He
claimed not to know what the sketch meant, but when the target drawing was
produced his rendering was a good match with Robbins's pictorial of a snail.

  As if divining the thoughts of skeptics everywhere, the wonderworker
hastily acknowledged that magicians could produce the same effect, while
insisting his performance was "Kosher." Indeed, magic catalogs and conjuring
textbooks reveal multitudinous ways of divining someone's supposedly secret
sketch, a "psychic magic" feat called "Telepathic Drawing." Apparently Geller
wants his audience to assume that what looks just like a magic trick is not,
if the performer casually says it is not.

  Interestingly, Geller did not perform his classic feat of bending a key or
spoon in a spectator's hand -- an effect magicians accomplish by trickery. (A
magician's catalog even sells a book on metal-bending tricks with "keys and
silverware.")

  Geller did perform another old favorite. Exhibiting a tray of supposedly
"broken" watches, Geller placed a few of these between his palms while
encouraging viewers at home to do likewise -- even to place a spoon atop the
television! Soon Geller had Leno verify that a watch was ticking, and he
invited viewers to call in with their own anticipated successes.

  Actually, remote "psychokinesis" is simplicity itself. Watches may start
running again when they are handled; previously unnoticed bends in spoons or
keys may be revealed -- or imagined -- on inspection; an unrelated occurrence
(such as an appliance malfunction) may be attributed to the alleged psychic
stimulus; and false claims may be made, either out of the respondent's desire
to promote mystical beliefs or a need for attention. Magicians like Milbourne
Christopher discovered that the metal-bending stunt worked as well for
skeptics as it did for the reputed marvel.

  If Geller is not -- as he insists -- doing magic tricks, he is being
underappreciated, since his effects are indistinguishable from those
accomplished by magicians with more verve and entertainment. His "Tonight
Show" appearance promoted his new book, "Mind Medicine: The Power of Positive
Healing." It thus appears that Geller has climbed aboard yet another dubious
bandwagon.

 Joe Nickell
 CSICOP Senior Research Fellow