Are Uri Gellers metal-bending performances real?
Trickily phrased question… His performances are “real”, but what he appears to do supernaturally has a much more mundane explanation. Uri Geller is a magician/illusionist who chooses to claim psychic ability as the source of his powers. He is the most insidious of celebrity performers. He, unlike the common magician or illusionist, purports to really do what his props and slight of hand make him appear to do: violate the laws of physics. Other illusionists call themselves just that – they don’t claim to _really_ do the impossible, but they make the impossible look real. James Randi, an illusionist, debunker, and a most vocal skeptic of Geller’s, can reproduce all of Geller’s “abilities” with simple slight of hand. He is most memorable to me for using a scanner to show a faith healing evangelist was not using devine powers to learn people’s names, doctor’s names, afflictions, and such. Indeed, Peter Popoff was using a radio receiver and transmitter, along with notecards filled with in
