Behold the entertainment (from 1973):
July 8, 2023
"Unlike a lot of self-help gurus, yogis and crackpot messiahs who rose to prominence in the early-1970s age of weird, Mr. Geller endured..."
"... and his cultural impact proved both singular and lasting. Ikea produced a Geller stool, which had bent, wavy legs. Nintendo made a spoon-wielding Pokémon character, Kadabra, who could cause clocks to run backward. References to Mr. Geller, or mangled silverware, have appeared in songs by R.E.M., Toad the Wet Sprocket and Incubus, and made a memorable cameo in 'The Matrix.' 'It’s not the spoon that bends,' a bald tyke in a robe tells Neo, Keanu Reeves’s character. 'It is only yourself.'..."
"If Mr. Geller can’t actually bend metal with his brain — and civility and fairness demands this 'if' — he is the author of a benign charade, which is a pretty good definition of a magic trick. Small wonder that the anti-Geller brigade has laid down its arms and led a rapprochement with the working professionals of magic. He is a reminder that people thrill at the sense that they are either watching a miracle or getting bamboozled."
"[W]atching the Geller haters now is like watching people run into nursery schools shouting that there is no Santa Claus."
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39 comments:
Keeping bent cafeteria spoons around in your office is fun if your boss is into telekinesis.
"If Mr. Geller can’t actually bend metal with his brain — and civility and fairness demands this 'if'"
FFS. This crook was the biggest charlatan who ever lived. If he had not claimed his "psychic " powers were real (unlike Kreskin), no one would've taken him on and - contrary to these lies in the NYT - he would've been left alone.
When Geller says "I can't work that way" it means in reality that neither he nor his accompanying stooge had access to the objects he supposed to work his powers on.
Next NYT feature: Astrology is real!
"[W]atching the Geller haters now is like watching people run into nursery schools shouting that there is no Santa Claus."
Coincidentally, watching the Uri Geller believers is like watching people with the critical thinking skills of nursery school children.
Heller is resident in Jaffa, Israel and has a shop with all things inspired by his activities. He has endured but that’s not the same as being proven authentic.
I think I am pretty historically/culturally aware and I was born in 1970, but I am ignorant on this chap.
Well I was a fan of The Amazing Randi, the Canadian crank what made a killing challenging all the Gellers of the time...and what a time it was for the unusual and paranormal types. I don't know if the peak was Nimoy scaring the poo out of us on In Search of... or Big Foot earning two-parters on The Bionic Woman...
Now we have the Democrats to fool us. It's nowhere near as fun...
"Coincidentally, watching the Uri Geller believers is like watching people with the critical thinking skills of nursery school children."
I wonder what a Venn diagram of those two groups plus climate change advocates would look like. I expect it would be quite circular.
I recall the first skeptic that Geller faced, a sceptical engineer with an interest in stage magic called "The Amazing Randi" or some such. He not only showed how Geller bent spoons (weakening them before a show), Randi showed that Geller could NOT bend spoons unless Geller could mishandle them privately before an attempt.
Gallery was a one trick magic act, and a poor one at that.
I don't see any difference between Geller's supporters and christians, except that there are a lot more charlatans in the ranks of the jesus cultists. Both groups(and all other religious groups) prey on the simple minded and gullible.
One of my high school teachers back around 1973 proposed tests for both christians and Geller's crowd. Geller would be locked into a cell with an intact spoon that he couldn't physically touch, and told that if he was able to bend it, he would be released. If not, well, he'd die.
Some devout jesus fans/clergy would be locked into separate cells and told that if jesus was real, he'd open their cell doors. If not, they'd go to meet him when they died of either thirst or hunger.
Needless to say, I'm disappointed with the NYT, but I stopped reading it after Robert Byrne retired as the NYT's chess columnist in 2006.
Johnny's enjoying a lung dart.
He's a fraud. The brain can't generate the power needed to bend a spoon, let alone transmit that power to bend the spoon.
He went to the DR around mid 70s. He was performing for pay at one of the biggest theaters there. He teased his show at the locally renowned TV “Show Del Medio Día” which included a sketch lampooning the act. I remember being struck by another example of adults contradicting themselves. How something was presented as true and lampooned after a comercial break.
Maybe Geller used this Tonight Show appearance to make his magic tricks seem more real by not being able to do the spectacular thing on demand which would tend to make the spectacular seem routine.
Or maybe he couldn't do the tricks because he wasn't in control of the props.
Or maybe it was both.
It's even easier for Geller to perform his feats today than it was in the 70's because of Climate Change. The spoons are warmer.
The skeptics beat him every time, but Geller’s criminal lawyers (criminals with credentials) tried to bankrupt the skeptics with absurd lawsuits.
Perfect, Mary Beth.
This is an NYT post-op, designed to make readers comfortable with the firehose of gaslighting that emanates from the WH, the DOJ and, of course, the NYT.
"Lie back and enjoy it!" say the Times' editors, channeling Bobby Knight.
I had no recollection he was so good looking as a young man...kind of a combination of Steve Jobs, Ashton Kutcher and Ted Danson. It was fascinating that Johnny Carson gave him so much time and there wasn't a particularly frantic vibe from anyone on the stage with him.
Can I put in a request for a sentence diagramming?
"Oft evil will shall evil mar."
I mean, WTF?!
Imagine spending your time nursing your hatred for religious groups who have never done you any harm.
Having a weird, mysterious persona has been part of the magician's act from Houdini to David Blaine. The exception that proves the rule is Penn & Teller. They probably would have been more successful if they had announced that their tricks were part of a deal they had made with the devil.
I don't believe professional magicians approve of Geller. As noted above his claims that what he did was real rather than an illusion separated him from magicians. See Tim Ferris's interview with Simon Coronel. Real magicians hate frauds. They don't hate wonderment they hate claims that what happens is supernatural rather than skill.
It is interesting that Johnny was so amazed considering that he was a pretty good magician. We could send Geller on to Penn and Teller's Fool Us.
People believe what they want to believe.
Mary Beth said...
"[W]atching the Geller haters now is like watching people run into nursery schools shouting that there is no Santa Claus."
"Coincidentally, watching the Uri Geller believers is like watching people with the critical thinking skills of nursery school children."
It used to be entertaining until I realized that those people make up half the people you deal with every day. Even more on college campuses.
Kind of silly to claim that the gurus and other healers of the 70s had no influence on our culture today. Yoga is fully established. You can find yoga studios everywhere, the whole health food industry, organic foods, juicing, purifying your diet, meditation, all were introduced in the 70s.
"Skeptics couldn't beat him" ... what an odd thing to say.
"Some devout jesus fans/clergy would be locked into separate cells and told that if jesus was real, he'd open their cell doors."
Christianity doesn't claim that God will do this.
I saw that live, and it's seared--seared!--into my memory. I remember my long drawn out "HUHhnhnhnhn???" as if it was yesterday. I was probably under several influences.
He was an absolute fake. I forget the guy's name, but a man spent quite a bit of time debunking those "powers".
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
A magician who denies that he is a magician is not doing anyone a favor.
I don't see any difference between Geller's supporters and christians
You don't see ANY difference? ANY?
The lepers on Molokai, the poorest of the poor served by Mother Teresa and her sisters, the 1500 disadvantaged school children with whom my church sends home backpacks full of food every week might notice a thing or two.
No, the good Christians don't utterly negate the grifters. But surely, considering that they claim or claimed to be doing what God calls or called them to do, they can at least escape being tarred with the Geller believer brush.
Geller was a fraud who ripped people off. Geller sued The Amazing Randi, and Randi not only won, Geller was forced to pay court costs.
Such crackpoterry wastes the lives of those who pursue it instead of devoting time to pursuits that actually matter.
The 1970s were the golden age of pseudoscience.
UFOs, spoon-bending, population catastrophe, Russia, southeast Asia.
WTF? Am I being forced to relive my childhood? What's next, Pet Rocks and pyramid power and orgone machines?
Perhaps I can make a killing as a cultural consultant...
"I don't see any difference between Geller's supporters and christians, except that there are a lot more charlatans in the ranks of the jesus cultists. Both groups(and all other religious groups) prey on the simple minded and gullible."
Folks like you amaze me. We know less about the Universe than an ant farm ant in a middle school science fair in Omaha knows about quantum physics. And yet somehow, you have it all figured out. Such wisdom! Perhaps we should worship you. Something tells me you'd really like that.
This crook was the biggest charlatan who ever lived.
"What am I? Chopped liver?" - Paul Ehrlich
Only the gullible would believe Geller.
The spoon being in someone else's palm thing is an attempt to make you believe he wasn't manipulating. True, he wasn't touching the spoon when it bent - really just deformed down to the palm, but it was his spoon.
Gallium - color silver, melting point 29.7646 °C, 85.5763 °F.
Add add a bit of tin (silver) and you raise the melting point over 98F, so it doesn't melt at body temperature but only becomes soft, like hot steel (the reason the tower fell).
The spoon handle is covered with a finger but not the dish. After a bit, Geller covers the hand with his driving the temperature up a bit. Notice the spoon handle sticking very slightly as the finger is removed and Geller picking the spoon up by the dish which is still cool so as to avoid handle sag.
I don't know if this was how he did it, but this should work.
Geller was always a fraud. He just perfected an persona act similar to Jeff Goldblum's - the bumbling, earnest and honest young man.
The 70s were an era of pseudoscience. I used to read the magazine "Skeptical Inquirer" which documented many of the pseudo-scientific frauds such as Gellar. Unfortunately, I had to give up my subscription when SI jumped wholeheartedly on the Global Warming scam. It turned out their skepticism got turned off when it was a question of liberal dogma.
"The Amazing Randy (real name James Zwinge) was a tireless debunker of pseudoscience and deserves applause from every rational skeptic. TAR could not only duplicate Geller's spoon bending trick; he did better and under more controlled circumstances.
And Geller failed on the Carson show because Johnny had some experience as a magician, and took some elementary precautions so Geller couldn't cheat.
The Amazing Randy (real name James Zwinge) was a tireless debunker of pseudoscience
He was good until he caved to the backlash after he pointed out that Global Warming had the traits of a scam.
This is the New York Times and this is a lie
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