Uri Geller was a famous “psychic” from the 1970s (I think he now admits he is just a magician/trickster).
One of his tricks was to have someone draw a picture (out of his sight, I guess) and then put it in an envelope. He would somehow divine the picture and draw his own picture.
There’s a famous youtube video of him doing it with barbara walters (who was totally convinced). The amazing Randi debunked him but he never explained how Geller did it.
Does anyone know?
He also bent spoons, but that isn’t that hard apparently.
He or an associate would get a glimpse of the picture, either by watching the person draw it or opening the envelope - maybe by switching it temporary for a lookalike.
Too bad his biggest trick bombed: he invited investors to fund a gold exploration company during the 1980s gold boom. Exploration method to be employed was, you guessed it, guessing. Few takers, I heard.
Geller was the epitome of a charlatan. Apparently all his tricks were immediately recognizable to magicians as standard magic tricks, but he managed to find credulous people like Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ to help promote him as a psychic.
Johnny Carson, a former magician, saw right through him. He famously debunked him with the help of the Amazing Randi on the Tonight Show.
OK, this is going to be a complete mis-remembering but wasn’t there a psychic on the Johnny Carson show that had a celebrity (Liza Minnelli?) think of a name while he ground chalk between 2 sheets of slate and a name appeared. Easily staged I know but it was well acted.
Just at the OP I am fairly sure Geller has not admitted he is a charlatan. Certainly when I last saw him on something a year or so ago he stilled claims to have real magic powers.
He even claimed to have stopped Big Ben in London when it broke down a few years back. He said he contacted the UK government to have them confirm that how Big Ben had broken down was not normal but whoever he spoke to, if he actually really did, said they would not comment which of course equated to a cover up of Gellar’s powers in the way he presented it.
I know a couple of people into the whole psychic thing and they still very much believe Gellar is a real whatever it is you would call one of him.
I haven’t keep up with Geller over the years, but I too, am not aware of Geller admitting to anything other than supposedly being genuine. Here’s the original video with Randi commenting on it years later. Randi doesn’t give away the secret, but only says if you watch very carefully, magicians should be able to pick up on it. GIGObuster gives the various ways in which it is often done. Randi had more pressue on him when he did it, and had to come through under more difficult conditions, but he did. Perhaps Randi’s finest moment on TV. Watch the video.
Randi was right, if you’re a magician and watch the video carefully, you might be able to pick up on how he did it. I didn’t the first time. The second time I did, but only after Randi said to go back and watch him carefully, and I’m not a magician, but have read a lot of magic and a few mentalist books that show a popular method of how to do this.
Geller’s method could have easily been done with the pad that GIGObuster talks about. I’m convinced Randi’s method didn’t use any of the 8 outlined in GIGObuster’s post. Since Randi didn’t reveal it, I won’t, and I’d appreciate others not doing so either if they pick up on it. If you turn up your volume and listen carefully, you’ll actually even hear what appears to be Randi’s pen scribing on the paper. Notice I said “appears” and that’s the only hint you’ll get. Keep your eyes on Randi, and if you’ve had any interest in magic at one time, you have a good chance of picking up on it.
Randi has got a hell of a lot of guts and nerves to do what he just did in front of that many people and to perform under those circumstances. He sold this beautifully.
It’s not relevant to to the OP’s question of how Uri Geller did his tricks, but I’ve read that Randi broke off the end of his ball point pen’s cartridge and lodged it in his belt. He then --while looking at Walter’s revealed drawing-- moved the paper around his belly and drew the picture.
THe youtube video that I saw with Randi repeating Gellers’ tricks to walters (on her show)…they had the original show with Geller on Walters…they showed Geller actually drawing the picture and it matched Walters. So he didn’t use subterfuge in drawing it…maybe in knowing what to draw.
All magic is a little anti-climatic when you see how it’s done though. Youtube has a lot of videos on “secrets of magic” or some such, which was a show on TV. Kind of fascinating.
The funny thing is though, this parallels the religion argument. No matter how obvious it is that this guy is a fraud, some people will still say it’s true. They can’t be reasoned with.
Randi didn’t say that he was necessarily going to use the same technique as Geller did, just that someone could do it without claiming psychic powers. Gigobuster’s post lists several other possible techniques that Geller might have used.
I watched it a few times and couldn’t figure it out - I thought maybe there was an envelope swap but that would have to be done ahead of time and wouldn’t be shown on the video like Randi implied.
But after your comment I watched it again, and DAMN, that’s some good work… she’s busy describing her picture while looking at it/the camera and doesn’t even see him moving his paper around in his lap.
It’s obviously not how Geller did it, but there are so many easy ways to pull this off.
