66 Facts About Uri Geller

Uri Geller is an Israeli-British illusionist, magician, television personality, and self-proclaimed psychic.

Uri Geller is known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other illusions.

Uri Geller was born on 20 December 1946 in Tel Aviv, which was then part of the British Mandate of Palestine.

Uri Geller is the son of Itzhaak Uri Geller, a retired army sergeant major, and Margaret "Manzy" Freud.

Uri Geller claims that he is a distant relative of Sigmund Freud on his mother's side.

At the age of 11 Uri Geller moved with his family to Nicosia in what was then British-ruled Cyprus, where he attended high school, the Terra Santa College, and learned English.

Uri Geller worked as a photographic model in 1968 and 1969, during which time he began to perform for small audiences as a nightclub entertainer, becoming well known in Israel.

Uri Geller first started to perform in theatres, public halls, auditoriums, military bases and universities in Israel.

Uri Geller became famous demonstrating on television what he claimed to be psychokinesis, dowsing and telepathy.

Uri Geller's performance included spoon bending, describing hidden drawings and making watches stop or run faster.

Uri Geller said he performed those feats through willpower and the strength of his mind.

When Uri Geller joined Carson on stage, he appeared surprised that he was not going to be interviewed, but instead was expected to display his abilities using the provided articles.

Uri Geller was unable to display any paranormal abilities, saying, "I don't feel strong", and expressed his displeasure at feeling he was being "pressed" to perform by Carson.

The result was a legendary immolation, in which Uri Geller offered up flustered excuses to his host as his abilities failed him again and again.

Uri Geller was on his way to becoming a paranormal superstar.

In June 1986, the Australian Skeptic reported that Uri Geller had been paid $250,000 and granted an option of 1,250,000 Zanex shares at $0.20 each until 5 June 1987.

In 1996 Edmonds planned a stunt in which shelves would fall from the walls of a room while Uri Geller was in it.

Uri Geller starred in the horror film Sanitarium, directed by Johannes Roberts and James Eaves.

In early 2007, Uri Geller hosted a reality show in Israel called The Successor, where the contestants supposedly displayed supernatural powers; Israeli magicians criticised the program, saying that it was all magic tricks.

Uri Geller said he welcomed the "mystical aura" that the publicity gave him.

Uri Geller appeared on the Dutch television program De Nieuwe Uri Geller, which shares a similar TV format to its German counterpart.

Uri Geller co-produced the TV show Book of Knowledge, released in April 2008.

In October 2009, a similar show, called The Successor of Uri Geller, aired on Greek television.

The documentary claimed Uri Geller became a "psychic spy" for the CIA, was recruited by Mossad, and worked as an "official secret agent" in Mexico, being a frequent guest of President Jose Lopez Portillo.

Uri Geller has claimed his feats are the result of paranormal powers given to him by extraterrestrials.

Under hypnosis, Uri Geller claimed he was sent to Earth by extraterrestrials from a spaceship 53,000 light years away.

In 1992, Uri Geller was asked to investigate the kidnapping of Hungarian model Helga Farkas.

Uri Geller predicted she would be found in good health but she was never found and is widely believed to have been murdered.

In 1997, Uri Geller was involved with Second Division football club Exeter City by placing 'energy-infused' crystals behind the goals at Exeter's ground to help the club win a crucial end-of-season game.

Uri Geller had been involved with Reading FC and claimed in 2002 that he had helped them to avoid relegation by getting the club's supporters to look into his eyes and say "win, Reading, win".

In March 2019, The Guardian reported that Uri Geller wrote an open letter to the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, stating that he would telepathically prevent her from leading Britain out of the European Union.

Many scientists, magicians, and skeptics have suggested possible ways in which Uri Geller could have tricked his audience by using misdirection while bending objects such as keys and spoons manually.

Critics have accused Uri Geller of using his demonstrations fraudulently outside the entertainment business.

James Randi, one of Geller's most prominent critics, wrote The Truth About Uri Geller explaining how Geller's various alleged supernatural abilities, such as spoon bending and telekinesis, can be easily reproduced by any magician using sleight of hand.

Uri Geller's spoon-bending feats are discussed in The Uri Geller Papers, edited by Charles Panati.

In November 2008, Geller accepted an award during a convention of magicians, the Services to Promotion of Magic Award from the Berglas Foundation.

In October 2012, Uri Geller gave a lecture for magicians in the United States at the Genii Magazine 75th Birthday Bash.

When Uri Geller's supposed abilities were tested by the US Central Intelligence Agency in 1973, the experimenters concluded that Uri Geller had "demonstrated his paranormal perceptual ability in a convincing and unambiguous manner".

Uri Geller was isolated and asked to reproduce simple drawings prepared in another room.

Critics of the experiments include psychologists David Marks and Richard Kammann, who published a description of how Uri Geller could have cheated in an informal test of his so-called psychic powers in 1977.

Marks and Kammann found evidence that while at SRI, Uri Geller was allowed to peek through a hole in the laboratory wall separating him from the drawings he was being invited to reproduce.

Uri Geller has litigated or threatened legal action against some of his critics with mixed results.

In 1971, mechanical engineering student Uri Goldstein attended one of Geller's shows, and subsequently sued the show's promoters for breach of contract.

Uri Geller complained that Geller had promised a demonstration of several psychic powers but had delivered only sleight-of-hand and stage tricks.

Uri Geller was not present as the summons had been sent to the office of the promoter Miki Peled, who had ignored it as being trivial.

Later in 1995, Uri Geller agreed not to pursue payment of the Japanese fine.

In 1992, Uri Geller filed a $15 million suit against Randi and CSICOP for statements made in an International Herald Tribune interview on 9 April 1991, but he was unsuccessful because the statute of limitations had expired.

In 1994, Uri Geller asked to dismiss without prejudice, and he was ordered to pay $50,000 for the publisher's attorney fees.

In 1991, Geller sued Timex Corporation and the advertising firm Fallon McElligott for millions in Geller v Fallon McElligott over an ad showing a person bending forks and other items, but failing to stop a Timex watch.

In 1998, the Broadcasting Standards Commission in the United Kingdom rejected a complaint made by Uri Geller, saying that it "wasn't unfair to have magicians showing how they duplicate those 'psychic feats'" on the UK Equinox episode "Secrets of the Super Psychics".

In 1999, Geller considered a suit against IKEA over a furniture line featuring bent legs that was called the "Uri" line.

Uri Geller claimed that the star on Kadabra's forehead and the lightning patterns on its abdomen are symbolisms popular with the Waffen SS of Nazi Germany.

In November 2020, Uri Geller issued an apology and agreed to allow cards depicting Kadabra to be printed.

In 2007, Uri Geller issued a DMCA notice to YouTube to remove a video uploaded by Brian Sapient of the "Rational Response Squad" which was excerpted from an episode of the Nova television series titled "Secrets of the Psychics".

Michael Jackson was best man when Uri Geller renewed his wedding vows in 2001.

Uri Geller negotiated the TV interview between Jackson with the journalist Martin Bashir, Living with Michael Jackson.

Later Jackson reportedly kept an "enemy list" on which Uri Geller appeared, along with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, attorney Gloria Allred, music executive Tommy Mottola, DA Tom Sneddon, and Janet Arvizo, mother of a Jackson accuser.

On 11 February 2009, Uri Geller purchased the uninhabited 100-metre-by-50-metre Lamb Island off the eastern coast of Scotland, previously known for its witch trials, and beaches that Robert Louis Stevenson is said to have described in his novel Treasure Island.

Uri Geller claimed that he will find the treasure through dowsing.

Uri Geller claimed to have strengthened the mystical powers of the island by burying there a crystal orb once belonging to Albert Einstein.

In 2022, Uri Geller sought to declare Lamb as Republic of Lamb, a micronation.

Uri Geller previously lived in the village of Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire, in England.

Uri Geller is trilingual, speaking fluent Hebrew, Hungarian and English.

Uri Geller is president of International Friends of Magen David Adom, a group that lobbied the International Committee of the Red Cross to recognise Magen David Adom as a humanitarian relief organisation.

In 2021 Geller opened the Uri Geller Museum located at 7 Mazal Arieh Street in Old Jaffa in Tel Aviv.

The museum exhibits the personal collection of art and objects that Uri Geller has collected throughout his career.