Uri Geller is a well-known magician who has been around the magic scene for decades. His blend of magic is not only unbelievable, it is –as some people term it- supernatural and downright out of this world. He is a great magician and entertainer who has appeared on many TV shows where he has dazzled fans all around the world. Uri is a self-proclaimed psychic and he has also previously stated that he has supernatural abilities which he inherited after an encounter with aliens. For many years, his acts have incorporated conjuring tricks which have helped him pull of telepathy and psychokinesis illusions. He has traveled to the far reaches of the world entertaining fans with his incredible brand of magic and illusions.
Early life
Uri Geller was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. He was born in late December 1946 on 20th December to be precise. At that time, Tel Aviv was still being administered by the British under Palestine. His mother was Hungarian-Jewish while his father was Austrian-Jewish. Uri Geller was born during this politically turbulent period in Israel’s history to Itzhak Geller- who was his father- and Margaret Freud, his mother. Both of his parents had had Steller careers in their respective jobs with his father enjoying a particularly successful career as an army man. He retired as a Sergeant Major which is a very high rank in the Israeli army.
There are some reports that Uri Geller was a very distant relative of the legendary scientist Sigmund Freud. It is claimed that they are related on his mother’s side. When Geller was about 11 years, his family moved to Cyprus, to a small town known as Nicosia. Here, he was able to attend High School. He later attended college afterward – the Terra Santa college. Here, he was able to perfect his English skills. These skills would later prove to be very invaluable for his craft.
Uri Geller in Army and his starting Fame as a Magician.
When he was 18 years old he went back to Israel and joined the Israeli Army. Specifically the Paratroopers. In 1967, he tasted combat and got wounded in a six-day war. Uri has also previously worked as a model where between 1968 and 1969, he stood before cameras and posed. It is during this time, that Uri realized he was a performer. He would perform small acts for small audiences and he gained quite a reputation.
As his fame grew all over Israel, Uri started performing in front of bigger audiences like halls, universities, and theaters. His acts were so famous, that by the 1970’s, Uri was a well-known name in magical spheres –even as far as in the United States. Geller’s performances also made him the subject of interest in the scientific world. Many Scientists wanted to examine his unbelievable powers that defied logic and science. Many other wanted to examine his Psychic abilities which he claimed were real. He rose to prominence in the 70’s where he would perform in numerous TV shows that would be watched worldwide.
Career
Uri made a career out of claiming that he had Psychic and telepathy powers. Audiences were instantly hooked to this magician who could not only read your thoughts, he could also perform supernatural acts that were reserved only for motion pictures. Geller had the ability to bend spoons, make watches stop and run and a host of many illusions that left people in complete disbelief. What’s strange about Geller’s acts is that he claims not to use any trickery or stunts but by sheer mind strength and will power. Some other magicians have however come out in the past to say that all his acts are only tricks and illusions that can be replicated by anyone. James Randi was his fiercest critic and he claimed once that Geller was a fraud who took advantage of helpless people. This seemed to be true according to Uri’s first autobiography where he stated that sometimes he would dupe the audience to thinking that he knew their vehicles plates when it was his manager who had earlier provided them to him. Randi even made a habit of performing Geller’s so called paranormal displays on stage to prove that they were all an illusion.
Uri also claimed to have dowsing capabilities and in the mid 1980’s he made quite a tidy sum offering mineral dowsing services for interested parties. He would charge a cool $1 million for his services. He was even described by a famous magazine as a “multi-millionaire” as a result of the earnings he made from his services. Geller has also had a rather successful acting career. He has been involved in a couple of projects that have been fairly successful. He appeared in the 2001 horror, Sanitarium and has also been on a TV reality show, “I’m a celebrity..Get me out of here”. He also played roles in “cursed” and ‘Uri’s Haunted Cities’.
Uri Geller was also the host to Israeli-based reality show ‘Successor’ where contestants’ showcased supernatural powers to the TV audiences. The show received heavy criticism from magicians all around Israel terming the show a fraud because all those tricks could be performed on a magic stage. Geller would also make appearances on NBC’s Phenomenon show where the biggest mentalist was to be revealed. Both he and Criss Angel were beaten by the eventual winner, Mike Super.
In early 2008, Uri Geller started hosting a show titled the next Uri Geller and his audience was mainly based in Germany. In the same year, he started sister productions of the same show in Holland, Greece, and Hungary. His ultimate aim for all these shows was to find another great mentalist of the future. In the show, Geller can be seen speaking both English and Hungarian and he is also seen performing his signature illusions on the shows. In the same year, he also helped to produce a show known as ‘The book of Knowledge’. Uri surely knew what it meant to reach everyone with his act.
Family and Residence
Geller currently resides in the UK in Sonning-on-Thames Berkshire. He has the unique ability to speak three different languages i.e. Hungarian, English, and Hebrew. Geller married his longtime manager in 1979- who was once accused of helping him out with his tricks. He married Hans Geller and together they had two children, Daniel and Natalie Geller. He has previously stated that he once suffered from Bulimia and Anorexia complications.
Uri Geller is a very accomplished author with over 15 books that are of fictional and non-fictional nature credited to his name. He had very close ties with the late legendary pop sensation, Michael Jackson and the latter was even best man in his wedding vows renewal back in 2001. Gellar is also the man who made the famous Michael Jackson interview, ‘living with Michael Jackson’ possible because it is said that he is the one who negotiated the interview. Geller is also president of a group known as the International Friends of Magen David Adom which lobbied to the International Committee of Red Cross to recognize this organization a relief organization.
Uri Geller has also tried using his magic in football where in 1997 he placed ‘energy crystals’ behind the posts of Exeter City’s posts in an attempt to ensure no goals were scored. Exeter lost heavily in that game bringing in to focus his supernatural abilities. Although he was appointed Chairman of the club in 2002, his appointment did not prevent the relegation of the same team in 2003 and after that, he was relieved of his duties to the club. He has also claimed in the past that he was the reason why Reading Football Clubs were not relegated in the 2002 season. He proclaimed emphatically that he hypnotized the fans and asked them to chant ‘win Reading win’ which brought the win. This was vehemently refuted by the then club manager who insisted that Read the club did not even win on the final day. A draw was enough for them to survive the cut, and on the final game, they did just that, draw.After the death of Jackson, many media outlets tried to get Uri to do an interview regarding his close relationship with the former icon.
Famous acts and Supernatural Claims
Geller has from time to time always maintained that he has supernatural powers which he inherited from aliens. These proclamations have sometimes landed him in lots of trouble as when one time a court ordered him to refund ticket money to a man whom Geller had claimed he would communicate with in a telepathic way. There was also clear evidence that showed that Geller would sometimes enlist the services of hos manager to aid him in fooling and tricking folks. However, in 1971 a parapsychologist backed the claims that indeed Uri was Psychic. Uri Geller was put under hypnosis and in this state, he claimed that he got his powers from Extraterrestrials who visited earth from a distant galaxy -52000 light years away. He would subsequently deny these claims in later interviews but maintain the fact that some of his powers have an alien connection.
In a sensational claim Puharich- who was the parapsychologist that claimed Uri was psychic –would release a statement saying that Uri once teleported a dog to another room. Scientists have over the years claimed that these claims are baseless and lack credibility. Puharich also claimed that Geller had the ability to talk to supercomputers from another distant galaxy and that the beings warned humans to mend their ways or a terrible disaster would strike the earth. These claims have been highly discredited by leading scientists and magicians like Randi.
Geller’s best-known act is where he appears to look at spoons and they magically bend. Geller has claimed on several occasions that he is able to do this thanks to the Supernatural powers that he possesses. These claim been fiercely opposed by magicians who go ahead and perform the tricks live on stage just to prove that no supernatural powers are involved. Magicians and distinguished Scientists have said repeatedly said that what Geller does is that he uses misdirection techniques and even magnets to full the public. What angers his critics is the fact that Geller uses his fraud to fleece people of their money which the critics say is unacceptable.
Some people have even said that Uri has on several occasions been unable to bend spoons and metallic objects in front of people’s eyes. Geller has also received a lot of criticism when he tries to predict football match results. James Randi Uri only knows how to predict wrongly because most of his predictions are usually wrong. Geller had controversy always following him. In one football match, he claimed that he had hovered around the stadium in a chopper and moved the ball with his powers just as a penalty was about to be hit.
In another bizarre occurrence, Uri Geller was asked to solve a case of a girl who had disappeared. He claimed that the girl would be found as fit as a fiddle but unfortunately, the girl was never found. Geller also claimed that he was the one who helped Bruce Bursford to be able control harness his mental strength during his cycling career. Geller when questioned about his immense wealth, has always said that his wealth was acquired not from his spoon bending stunts, but from mineral dowsing services which he used to offer. In late 2007. Geller appeared to tone down his sentiments on supernatural powers. He started claiming that he did not have supernatural powers and that instead, he was more of an entertainer.He however still maintained that he was no magician and instead opted to use the word mystifier to describe himself. He also appeared to adopt a stance of not encouraging kids to follow his footsteps and instead advised people to focus on school, and being the best they could ever be at anything. It looked like Uri was trying to show people that the paranormal or supernatural does not exist and that people should instead concentrate on making their lives better by using the normal things around them.
Uri Geller Pokemon and other Controversies
In November of 2000, Geller sued giant gaming company Nintendo for what he termed as illegal use of his identity. He was suing for over $60 million in damages. The genesis of the suit was a character known as “Kadabra” that was in the game. Uri claimed that the character represented him and that no one had come to ask for permission for use of his likeness. The character in the game was portrayed as having spoon bending and psychic abilities. The name of the character in Japanese corresponded to how one would write Geller’s name in the same Japanese which made Uri’s claim even more substantial. He also accused the company of portraying terrible signs that had previously been associated with the Nazi regime. He was later heard saying that Nintendo stole his identity and character and turned it into an evil that he would not sit around and watch.The case reached a point where the founder of Nintendo had to pull down the character from the game until when the case would be determined.
Geller had other feuds as well and in 2007, he had to ask Youtube to pull down a video where an excerpt showed that he had failed to perform in a show. After various legal battles with the uploader, including suits and counter suits, the video was eventually placed under Noncommercial creative commons license and the whole case was settled out of court.
Geller has also had feuds with his longtime critic James Randi and he once sued him when Randi went on television and claimed that Uri had caused someone to commit suicide as a result of being duped by his ‘supernatural fetes’. However, the case was dismissed because under Japanese law this amounted to an insult and insults were not punishable under their laws.
Uri was embroiled in yet another case with Randi in 1992 where he was seeking a $15million payment for statements that Randi had made. Again, the action proved futile because the court ruled that the action had been time barred and was thus restricted by the statute of limitation act. Randi again walked free. Uri has been involved in many legal tussles with private individuals and even corporations all in an effort to try and justify his act.
Net worth and Conclusion
It has been estimated that Uri Geller is worth $10 million dollars. This is very impressive for a man who started his career bending spoons, mind reading and stopping watches. Although Uri Geller has been shrouded in controversy for the better part of his career, he has contributed greatly in the magical world by providing out of the box illusions that have served to capture the minds of audiences all around the world. It is safe to say therefore that even though Uri is not your average magician, he has still done his part for the magical community.
