Spoon-bender extraordinaire Uri Geller received an award last week which James Randi might not be too happy about (although he could take it both ways I guess): the Berglas Foundation – Services to Magic Award. Personally accepting the award at the 37th International Magic Convention in London, Geller once again gave indications during a post-award Q&A that he’s moving away from his claims to paranormal abilities, although he did add some caveats:
If I was to start my career now, my career would be destroyed, the speed of the internet, the technology allowing events to be reported, I’d not be able to start my career in the way I did those years ago.
…I thrive on controversy, looking back on my career, I called myself a psychic, I constantly need to re-invent myself, you will not get a straight answer… Lets say I wasn’t real, lets say for the last years I’ve fooled the journalists, the scientists, my family, my friends.. You.. If I managed to fool them, I must be the greatest..?
I have seen things in my life that I cannot understand or explain, I cannot bend spoons like some of the magicians, you can, it blows my mind when I see that, I have no idea. I had the idea and cheekiness to call it psychic, in fact all I wanted was to be rich and famous, I wanted to buy my mother a TV.
I dont think I am gifted, I think all of you are gifted, you must have encountered things that you couldn’t understand. I never made money from bending spoons, I made money from finding oil and gold, I don’t know how I did that, maybe it was luck.
So, is that a confession that the spoon-bending is sleight-of-hand, but with the addition of some separate ‘mysterious powers’ to retain some of his aura? (And, if anyone thinks that Uri’s a bit full of himself when he says “the greatest?”, remember that Jim Steinmeyer told me he thinks Geller is “one of the greatest magicians of all time”…)
Previously on TDG:
