I met Uri Geller in 1973 or 1974 while I was attending Suffolk County Community College in Selden, NY. He gave one of his demonstrations of mental ability, and then said he would drive someone's car while blindfolded. He insisted that it be a large, six-passenger car. While we waited for the car to arrive, Uri asked if anyone had an old key with them. The guy standing to my left produced an old, brass or bronze key about two inches long. It was very thick as well. Mr. Geller took it between his palms and rubbed it back and forth. I was standing with my right shoulder up against his left shoulder, and asked him to put the key down flat on my outstreched palm; which he did. He placed his index finger on the middle of the key, saying it would take longer this way. There were several of us students grouped around staring at his finger pushing the key down on my palm. It began to bend, slowly at first, then it got to about a 45 degreee bend and he removed his finger. I took the key and tried to straighten it. I pulled on it as hard as I could, making indentations in my fingers. I then gave it back to the guy who owned it. He also tried to straighten it, unsuccessfully. It continued to bend as he held it until it was bent more than 90 degrees. The guy with the Grand Prix showed up, and another friend of mine jumped in the back seat, sliding over to sit behind the driver seat. Uri Geller got behind the wheel and the car's owner and his friends got in. There were six people in the car, including Uri Geller and my friend sitting behind him. It was winter; everyone had on heavy coats. My friend had a detachable hood on his coat; which he took off and tied backwards on Uri Geller's face. It was thick wool material lined with faux fur. They slowly drove through the parking lot, to the exit. They turned onto the highway and disappeared from our view. They returned 10 or 15 minutes later, and my friend told what happened. He said there was complete silence in the car as they drove. Mr. Geller made several lane changes, passing a couple of cars before returning to his lane. Then he made a u-turn, waited for several cars to go by, then got back on the highway and returned to the campus. He stopped by the entrance and pulled over to take off the hood covering his face. He said he could "feel" when to slow or speed up or turn by what the occupants of the car were feeling. He said it wasn't like he was seeing through their eyes; he was experiencing their emotions and intentions. That's why he wanted a big car to hold more people.
So, could one of the people in the car have been helping him by touching his leg or some other way? Possibly. We were all aquainted with one another as students at the college. I knew two of them more as friends, as well. We all said we never met Uri Geller before. There was nothing unusual about the key other than it was thicker than most I had seen before. I don't why Uri Geller had trouble demonstrating his ability on the Johnny Carson show or elsewhere. Maybe there is some form of electrical energy we all radiate. The so-called "vibes" people speak about. I'm agnostic about the whole thing. This story of mine is a one-time thing with no scientific controlls or protocols. My opinion is that Uri Geller has some kind of power he cannot always control that the average human does not posess.
I used to be a member of a group called The Georgia Skeptics, a bunch of wet blankets who went around debunking things. One night about half a dozen of us had dinner with Claude Benski, a well-known French magician. I was sitting right next to him and I could swear I saw him push a beer bottle through a solid table. He performed a number of other such tricks and assured us that they were all performed by trickery. Here is one a colleague of mine, not a professional magician, pulled on me, and I still have not the slightest idea how it was done: He handed me an article clipped from a newspaper and asked me to select a single word from the article. I selected a word and he asked me to say what it was.
As soon as I did he told me to look under my chair where there was a sealed envelope. I retrieved the envelope, opened it, and there was a slip of paper with the word I selected. All done by stage magician trickery. So, I will believe in psychic powers when they are exercised in the presence of a skeptical magician!
I have heard of the word in the envelope trick from Penn and Teller, and I also have been agnostically sceptical most of my life. However, I would have liked to see James Randi drive that old Grand Prix blindfolded!
Thanks for the plug! A second, more recent edition, of that book exists: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo28300772.html
I met Uri Geller in 1973 or 1974 while I was attending Suffolk County Community College in Selden, NY. He gave one of his demonstrations of mental ability, and then said he would drive someone's car while blindfolded. He insisted that it be a large, six-passenger car. While we waited for the car to arrive, Uri asked if anyone had an old key with them. The guy standing to my left produced an old, brass or bronze key about two inches long. It was very thick as well. Mr. Geller took it between his palms and rubbed it back and forth. I was standing with my right shoulder up against his left shoulder, and asked him to put the key down flat on my outstreched palm; which he did. He placed his index finger on the middle of the key, saying it would take longer this way. There were several of us students grouped around staring at his finger pushing the key down on my palm. It began to bend, slowly at first, then it got to about a 45 degreee bend and he removed his finger. I took the key and tried to straighten it. I pulled on it as hard as I could, making indentations in my fingers. I then gave it back to the guy who owned it. He also tried to straighten it, unsuccessfully. It continued to bend as he held it until it was bent more than 90 degrees. The guy with the Grand Prix showed up, and another friend of mine jumped in the back seat, sliding over to sit behind the driver seat. Uri Geller got behind the wheel and the car's owner and his friends got in. There were six people in the car, including Uri Geller and my friend sitting behind him. It was winter; everyone had on heavy coats. My friend had a detachable hood on his coat; which he took off and tied backwards on Uri Geller's face. It was thick wool material lined with faux fur. They slowly drove through the parking lot, to the exit. They turned onto the highway and disappeared from our view. They returned 10 or 15 minutes later, and my friend told what happened. He said there was complete silence in the car as they drove. Mr. Geller made several lane changes, passing a couple of cars before returning to his lane. Then he made a u-turn, waited for several cars to go by, then got back on the highway and returned to the campus. He stopped by the entrance and pulled over to take off the hood covering his face. He said he could "feel" when to slow or speed up or turn by what the occupants of the car were feeling. He said it wasn't like he was seeing through their eyes; he was experiencing their emotions and intentions. That's why he wanted a big car to hold more people.
So, could one of the people in the car have been helping him by touching his leg or some other way? Possibly. We were all aquainted with one another as students at the college. I knew two of them more as friends, as well. We all said we never met Uri Geller before. There was nothing unusual about the key other than it was thicker than most I had seen before. I don't why Uri Geller had trouble demonstrating his ability on the Johnny Carson show or elsewhere. Maybe there is some form of electrical energy we all radiate. The so-called "vibes" people speak about. I'm agnostic about the whole thing. This story of mine is a one-time thing with no scientific controlls or protocols. My opinion is that Uri Geller has some kind of power he cannot always control that the average human does not posess.
I used to be a member of a group called The Georgia Skeptics, a bunch of wet blankets who went around debunking things. One night about half a dozen of us had dinner with Claude Benski, a well-known French magician. I was sitting right next to him and I could swear I saw him push a beer bottle through a solid table. He performed a number of other such tricks and assured us that they were all performed by trickery. Here is one a colleague of mine, not a professional magician, pulled on me, and I still have not the slightest idea how it was done: He handed me an article clipped from a newspaper and asked me to select a single word from the article. I selected a word and he asked me to say what it was.
As soon as I did he told me to look under my chair where there was a sealed envelope. I retrieved the envelope, opened it, and there was a slip of paper with the word I selected. All done by stage magician trickery. So, I will believe in psychic powers when they are exercised in the presence of a skeptical magician!
I have heard of the word in the envelope trick from Penn and Teller, and I also have been agnostically sceptical most of my life. However, I would have liked to see James Randi drive that old Grand Prix blindfolded!
The most remarkable thing to me is that a number of your friends would ride with him!
Yes, and please note that I was not one of them.
Hello Ed, I’m new on here and I’m trying to connect with interesting people.
We seem to have similar interests so I thought I’d introduce myself with an article.
This is my most recent piece, and it’s about Giants:
https://open.substack.com/pub/jordannuttall/p/giants-in-history?r=4f55i2&utm_medium=ios