A BRIEF REPORT ON A VISIT BY URI GELLER TO KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON,
JUNE 20, 1974
by John G. Taylor, Ph.D., Department of Mathematics
King's College, University of London.
John G. Taylor is Professor of Mathematics at King's College.
He has held Chairs of Physics at the University of Southampton
and at Rutgers University, New Jersey. His present research interests
include the problem of matter in extreme states, such as in black
holes, and the development of a suitable theoretical framework
for paranormal phenomena. He is the author of three books on popular
science, a physics textbook, several science fiction plays, the
book Black Holes, and his most recent book on paranormal phenomena,
Superminds, in which he presents his research with Uri Geller
and expounds on the Geller Effect.
In his first paper, "A brief report," Dr. Taylor
recounts the sequence of events that took place the first time
Uri Geller visited King's College. Taylor's second paper, "Analyzing
the Geller Effect," is based on more work with Geller and
on observations and reports of individuals who appear to be able
to duplicate many of Geller's psychokinetic feats. (A more detailed
presentation of Taylor's psychical investigations can be found
in Superminds: A Scientist Looks at the Paranormal [New
York: Viking Press, 1975].)
Both papers by Dr. Taylor are published here for the first
time.
IN AN OFFICE at King's College I had set up several experiments
designed to measure the pressure applied by Geller during metal
bending. The two main ones were very simple. The essential apparatus
for one of them was a balance of the type used to weigh letters
and parcels; it was sensitive enough to measure weights to a quarter
of an ounce. A brass strip about 20 cm long was taped horizontally
to the platform of the balance. The major portion of the strip
extended out from the platform, and Geller stroked the top surface
of it while I measured, directly, by reading the scale, and by
using an automatic recording device, the pressure he was applying.
At the end of the test the strip had acquired a bend of ten degrees
although Geller had at no time applied more than half an ounce
(20 gm) of pressure. It was out of the question that such a small
pressure could have produced that deflection. What is more, the
actual bending occurred upward-against the pressure of the finger.
Earlier, another subject gave a similar result, producing, with
less than an ounce of downward pressure, a smaller upward deflection
(two degrees) on a strip of copper.
While Geller was doing this experiment, we found it a little
disconcerting, to say the least, to have the needle, which indicated
the amount of pressure on the letter balance, also bending, as
it moved, through seventy degrees.
The apparatus for the other test was a small cylinder imbedded
in a strip of aluminum in such a way that one end of the cylinder,
covered by a pressure-sensitive diaphragm, was flush with the
surface of the strip. When pressure was applied to the diaphragm
by a person's rubbing the strip gently with a finger, an electric
current proportional to this pressure was generated by a device
installed inside the cylinder. This pressure-measuring device
had been used with various subjects, but no bending was achieved.
In Geller's case the consequences were drastic. Holding the
strip in one hand, he made it bend in the appropriate region so
that the pressure could be measured. But as the bending occurred
the mechanism in the cylinder suddenly stopped functioning. I
took the apparatus from Geller and observed, to my horror, the
pressure sensitive diaphragm begin to crumble. A small hole appeared
in its center and spread across its whole surface till the diaphragm
had completely disintegrated, the entire process taking about
ten seconds. After another three minutes the strip in which the
cylinder was imbedded had bent a further thirty degrees.
Attempts to influence objects without contact yielded more information.
Geller held his hands over a plastic container in which had been
placed a small crystal of lithium fluoride; within ten seconds
the crystal broke into a number of pieces. There was absolutely
no chance of Geller's having touched the crystal. Throughout
the experiment I could see a gap between his hands and the container
holding the crystal. He also buckled a small disc of aluminum,
which again was inside a plastic container. I held my hands between
Geller's and the container in order to prevent any possibility
of his directly manipulating the disc.
Geller was then led into another room to work with other pieces
of apparatus. One of these was a standard strip of copper on
which was glued a very thin wire. Distortion of the strip would
cause a change in the electrical properties of the thin wire,
which could be measured very accurately. Geller tried to bend
the copper strip without direct contact, but had not done so after
several minutes; there was no significant change in the properties
of the thin wire. We broke off in order to start measuring his
electrical output, but, turning around a few moments later, I
saw that the strip had been bent and the thin wire was broken.
Almost simultaneously I noticed that a strip of brass on the
other side of the laboratory had become bent. I had placed that
strip there a few minutes before, making sure at that time that
it was quite straight. I pointed out to Geller what had happened,
only to hear a metallic crash from the far end of the laboratory,
twenty feet away. There, on the floor by the far door, was the
bent piece of brass. Again I turned back, whereupon there was
another crash. A small piece of copper, which had earlier been
lying near the bent brass strip on the table, had followed its
companion to the far door. Before I knew what had happened I
was struck on the back of the legs by a perspex tube in which
had been sealed an iron rod. The tube had also been lying on
the table. It was now lying at my feet, with the rod bent as
much as the container would allow.
None of the flying objects could have actually been thrown Geller
as he was some distance away from them and would not have been
able to get close to them without being spotted. I was not wholly
surprised because an earlier occurrence in the corridor had led
me to expect something of the sort might happen. I was walking
along with Geller after the first batch of tests when a strip
of metal, which had been left on the desk in my office, suddenly
fell at feet. We were at least seventy feet from the office when
this occurred. I have to admit Geller could have brought the
thing of the room with him.
Later, I set a compass on a stable surface and asked Geller to
to cause the needle to rotate without touching it. This he did
by passing his hands over it, achieving a rotation of up to forty
degrees. Then I tried to do the same, keeping 10 cm away from
the compass, as Geller had. It proved impossible. Even rocking
or rotating the compass directly had little effect except when
obvious violence was used. Nor could Geller have been using a
magnet unless he could "palm" it with consummate skill
at particular moments, for he appeared to be able to "switch"
his magnetic effect on and off at will in spite of the fact that
he might have been making similar hand movements. Nor could my
two companion observers detect any such deceit.
The next step was to make further tests and especially to see
if nonmagnetic material could be moved. But unfortunately Geller's
timetable did not allow this. Right at the end of the session
comparatively loud click was heard at the far end of the laboratory.
Looking toward its source, we discovered that the small piece
of metal that had flown to the far end of the laboratory was no
longe lying on the floor. We searched the laboratory, but it
was nowhere in sight. Geller remarked that this was not the first
time things around him had disappeared; the piece of metal had
most likely vanished from the laboratory, he reckoned. After
he left I made a more thorough search of the room, and finally
found the piece of metal under a radiator at the end of the room
opposite where it had been. How it had got there I do not know,
but it clearly had not dematerialized, as Geller had suggested.
This left me in a state of even greater mystification than before.
The bending of metal by known means had been shown to occur,
as had the distortion of other materials. But objects had apparently
been made to "fly" through the air, and a compass needle
had been caused to rotate without the intervention of a visible
mechanism. These events seemed impossible to comprehend; I should
certainly have dismissed reports of them as nonsense if I myself
had not seen them happen. I could always try taking the safe
line that Geller must have been cheating, possibly by putting
me in a trance. I had no video tape to support my own direct
observations, though other people had seen the rotation of the
compass needle. Yet I was sufficiently compos mentis at
the time to monitor various pieces of scientific equipment while
these objects were "in flight." I certainly did not
feel as if I were in an altered state of consciousness.
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