Uri Geller - Full Biography - Part 1

Uri Geller was born in Israel on December 20, 1946. His parents are of Hungarian and Austrian descent and he is distantly related on his mother's side to Sigmund Freud. At the age of four he had a mysterious encounter with a sphere of light while in a garden near his house.

He first became aware of his unusual powers when he was five. One day, during a meal, his spoon curled up in his hand and broke, although he had applied no physical pressure to it. His parents were somewhat shocked and Uri did not mention the incident to anyone else at that time. He developed these powers in school by demonstrating them to pupils. His mother thought he inherited them from Sigmund Freud.

When he was eleven, he went to live in Cyprus, where he remained until he was seventeen. He then returned to Israel, served as a paratrooper in the Israel army and fought in the Six-Day War of 1967 during which he was wounded in action.

From 1968 to 1969 Uri worked as a model, he was photographed for many different advertisements.

In 1969 he began to demonstrate his powers of telepathy and psychokinesis to small audiences. By the end of 1971, however, his was a household name throughout Israel thanks to his numerous stage appearances. He was given a plug by the then Prime Minister, Golda Meir. When asked on a national radio programme what she predicted for the future of Israel, she replied, "Don't ask me - ask Uri Geller!"

Science

In 1998 Uri met Brian Josephson, Professor of Physics, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, 1973.

He also took part in various controlled laboratory experiments. These are described, with full documentation and astonishing illustrations, in a book, available on this web-site, entitled The Geller Papers, (1975) Houghton Mifflin Co. edited by Newsweek science writer Charles Panati. They include:

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Tests at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in California, where carefully witnessed Geller Effects included the creation of "loss" and "gain"; in a gram weight measured on a high-precision balance, Uri's correctly calling of eight out of ten die-throws, against odds of a million to one and he also guessed correctly the location of some hidden targets at odds of a trillion to one! These tests are documented in the official SRI film, on this website. These important controlled experiments were published as a scientific paper in the prestigious British journal Nature.

Experiments at Birkbeck College, University of London, with a team of research physicists headed by Professor J. B. Hasted, Professor of Experimental Physics and Head of the Physics Department, and the eminent theoretical physicist Professor David Bohm, who has worked with Albert Einstein and has been honoured in the naming of the Aharonov-Bohm effect in quantum mechanics after him. Here, Uri caused a Geiger counter to register 500 times its normal count, deformed a molybdenum crystal 1cm in diameter and caused part of another crystal inside a pill capsule to dematerialise. Witnesses at the Birkbeck experiments included the writer Arthur C. Clarke (Click here for Sunday Times article)and the late Arthur Koestler (sponsor of Great Britain's first University chair in Parapsychology), A. V. Cleaver Director of the Rockets Division of Rolls Royce, and Professor Arthur Ellison head of the electrical engineering department of City University. See the scientific pictures which show Uri Geller with leading scientists.

WHAT THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL SAYS ABOUT

THE STANFORD RESEARCH INSTITUTE PAPER

"The scientific community has been put on notice that there is something worthy of their attention and scrutiny in the possibilities of extra-sensory perception. With those words the respected British journal Nature called on scientists to join - or refute - millions of non-scientists who believe human consciousness has more capabilities for real perception than the five senses."

Other leading institutions where the "Geller Effect" has been documented and reported include:

US Naval Surface Weapons Center (Silver Spring, Maryland), where Uri caused the recently invented alloy, Nitinol, to become deformed in a manner contrary to its inbuilt characteristics.

Kent State University, University of Los Angeles, Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (Munich), INSERM Telemetry Laboratories (Suresnes, France), Western Kentucky University, Department of Mathematics, Kings College, University of London, Tokai University and Tokyo Denki University and many more.

Uri continues to demonstrate his abilities to scientists and highly specialised technicians in addition to the general public and TV viewers. In 1984, he erased a computer tape at Tokai University, Tokyo, in the presence of a team of scientists which included one of Japan's leading computer experts.

In the same year, he rendered a computer non-operational in Switzerland by garbling a floppy disc. In 1985, he performed a similar feat before a dozen witnesses, at the headquarters of Wang computer company near London. Uri continued these experimental demonstrations in 1986 and 1987, when he totally erased some computer tapes belonging to Germany's biggest newspaper publishing group, Axel Springer Verlag.

In 1991, he again hit world headlines when he stopped Britain's most famous clock, Big Ben, he has repeated this unbelievable feat twice more; three years later when it was reported by the world's media and again in May 1997. The clock stopped at 12:11 which is 11:11 GMT. 11:11 is Uri's mystical number.

Inventions

Their latest invention is a small earthquake sensor, which is affordable enough for every home. They have also developed an earthquake shock absorber which should go into the foundations of new buildings such as skyscrapers.
For users of hand held Cellular Telephones there is a shield which prevents the harmful effects of long term exposure to the shortwaves penetrating your head.

URI GELLER AND THE WORLD MEDIA

Cover stories

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Most of the world's leading newspapers and magazines have carried prominent articles about Uri. These include cover stories in such publications as Bookseller; Der Spiegel; New Scientist; Paris Match; Physics Today; Popular Photography; Psychology Today; Science Digest; The Reader's Digest; Science News; The Observer Magazine; Time, Life and many others around the world. Extensive articles on Uri have appeared in Forbes; Business Week; International Mining; Rydges; The Business Journal; Stern; Physics Today; US News and World Report; Newsweek; Time; Today's Health (published by the American Medical Association); Omni; Discover; Jerusalem Report; New Idea Magazine; OK! Magazine; Hello Magazine; People; Focus Magazine; Sports Illustrated and many more leading papers and publications.

Columns and articles by Uri Geller.

Uri also writes regular columns in Israel's leading daily newspaper MAARIV, Jewish Telegraph, Computer Active Magazine, Daily Mirror, The Face, GQ, The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times Magazine, Beyond Electronics Magazine, GQ Active magazine, Quest Magazine and Beyond Magazine. Uri Geller's Weird Web weekly column is to be found in The Times' Interface. His short stories have appeared in Tatler and Interzone (A science fiction magazine funded by England's Arts Council). T3 Magazine carried Uri's wierd science article. Uri Geller's Countdown to the millennium appears weekly in regional papers. Also see Goal Magazine, Total Football, Football world, Match of the Day and Tomorrow's World (Both the latter are monthly BBC publications).

Lead and feature stories

Among the numerous prominent newspapers which have carried stories on Uri are The Times (UK); The Sunday Times (UK); The New York Times; The Washington Post; The Los Angeles Times; The Chicago Tribune; The Boston Globe; The San Francisco Chronicle; The National Observer (USA); The Atlanta Constitution; Japan Times; France Soir; Die Welt; Tribune de Geneve; Corriere della Sera; International Herald Tribune; The Wall Street Journal; The Financial Times; The Sunday Telegraph and countless others.

Uri Geller's name has also appeared numerous times in the crossword puzzles around the world, including The New York Times, New York Magazine, TV Guide (USA), People, New Yorker Magazine, International Herald Tribune and even in the general knowledge game of Trivial Pursuit. Marvel Comics' DAREDEVIL (Vol 1, No 133 May, 1976 featured Uri as "The most shocking guest star of all: The imcomparable Uri Geller!") many sitcoms and movies, for example Woody Allen's Annie Hall, Roseanne, Friends, The New adventures of Superman and many others mention his name. Uri himself had cameo roles in feature films.