Yeah, but does Geller have invisible thread?
Thought not.
Tried to edit my post but timed out.
For those of you who still cannot see how this is done, watch Randi when he first picks up the pen and pad of paper. He twists the pen like he is sharpening it up or cleaning the end. He is removing the ball point and ink cartridge.
So he makes loud scraping sounds with an empty pen on the paper. When he slaps the pad of paper down on the table the pad is still blank and he declares that it can’t be altered.
Then he picks up the pad while Baba Wawa is opening the envelope and asks where the cameras are. You can see his hand go behind the pad, which he is using as a screen, and position the pen fragment.
He holds the pad close to his belly and moves his thumbs and the pad around against the ball point he had previously removed from the pen, and makes a rough sketch of what he sees on the camera monitors.
Man, he’s good.
Heck, I’m no magician, but I can think of another way: 9. Use an envelope that’s opaque when dry but fairly see-through when wet, and a small container/sponge of alcohol or other quickly evaporating solvent…
You can also extend 8, by making a bunch of drawings of common subjects and hiding them in various places around the set or pockets on your person. Then you just need to remember which hiding place has the hiding place and which place has the house, etc., then once their drawing is revealed, dramatically ask the person to pull out the drawing in your right shoe/left shoe/right sock/etc as appropriate. After all, they’ll never know about the hidden ones you didn’t ask them to pull out.
There is no question Geller knew what the image was before he had to draw it. Most likely from a confederate getting a glimpse somehow. There are many ways to do this, non of them depending on psychic ability, because there is no such thing. The big difference at issue between Geller and Randi is that Geller claims to have actual psychic powers, which means he is a fraud.
Randi likes to say that Geller could be using real psychic powers to do these stunts that are common magician/mentalist tricks, but if he is, he’s doing it the hard way!
With Geller, GIGObuster’s post # 5 and #2 on the list seems the apparent method Uri used on Barbara. Notice the pad. It’s edited to where we don’t have her drawing hers in this clip, but obviously she went first, and if so, that portion gets torn out. Now Geller has the pad, all be had to do was look at the slight impression left on the paper underneath, which was made with a ball point pen that Barbara used.
Randi wouldn’t have drew with the miniature ballpoint on his belt though, it would haved caused him to move the whole pad around too much where everybody could see it was moving. He knows better. stpauler gave the best clue.
How many remember Uri Geller on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson? That link will show it at the 5:45 mark, along with some more of Geller, and Peter Popoff.
Geller’s drawing trick with Walters was to create a picture that incorporated several of the most-likely-drawn drawings: It could be mountains; it could be a sun and moon; it could be an M (a common letter for people to pick to draw) or a W for Walters; it could be people; it could be house. For pete’s sake, when Walters drew a second secret picture, she drew a house!
The easy part of being a psychic is that the charlatans have convinced people that ‘misses’ are a normal part of being psychic. Thus, if they fail, it doesn’t rule out that they’re a fraud.
Nope. He was just in my hometown recently and still pushes the psychic bit, but now he’s more about the power of collective thought or some other horse hockey… :smack:
There is a very good upcoming film to be shown on the BBC in the next couple of months called The Secret Life of Uri Geller. Fascinating stuff, look out for it. Talks to the heads of various CIA and government organizations that did research into Remote Viewing as a result of experiments with URI.
Also, anyone who hasn’t seen this should check it out for curiosity alone:
It looks like Baba’s picture for Uri was done with a pretty fat pen, wouldn’t leave much of an impression on a pad. Either he guessed from pen top movement (which would explain the “It’s an M, some mountains or churches, circles”), or someone told him - “two stick figures holding hands”. He of course missed the key element - “it’s me and my daughter”.
cite?
cite?
Okay, folks, amateur magician speaking here.
Uri Geller is a conjurer. Not a fraud, not a charlatan, a conjurer. The tricks he performs are no different from any other magician. It’s just a piece of entertainment. Roll with it.
He doesn’t claim to assist the police in solving crimes. He doesn’t attempt to locate missing children. He doesn’t claim to bring messages from beyond the grave. He doesn’t offer psychic healing. People who do this are lowlifes, bur Geller isn’t one of them.
And he’s very good at it. He’s held in high regard by most magicians. He can perform in front of an audience consisting of professional magicians, amateurs, and magic fans , to great acclaim, and been given a prestigious award for it. It’s sort of like a lifetime achievement Oscar. Most magicians will see his act, will be impressed, and they won’t call him a fraud. Neither will most well-informed sceptics. He’s got many friends who are magicians, sceptics, and sceptical magicians, including The Straight Dope’s own Ianzin.
Just enjoy itfor what it is, a very clever and entertaining magic act.
Uri Gellar was, is, and always will be a con artist/fraud who uses 3rd rate magic tricks to convince the gullible that he has psychic abilities. James Randi has proven this time and time again, most famously on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.
So far as I can tell, Uri Geller claims to have psychic powers. He does not admit to being a regular-old entertainer at all. And, as James Randi has pointed out, Geller only knows about five tricks, which is rather paltry for a professional magician.
I’ve never heard of any professional magician calling Geller anything but a fraud. Maybe some don’t mind his ‘psychic’ gimmick, but most are disgusted by the use of a strategy employed by con artists whose business is stealing and not entertainment. And I consider Geller a fraud in that regard, his popularity was primarily among those who believed in the woo, and others who take advantage of them.
Here is one of him claiming he stopped Big Ben. A youtube clip of him recapping how he stopped Big Ben, but not done in English. And another cite that comments briefly on it, and also Geller’s law offices threatening to sue the Skeptic’s Dictionary for putting him under a heading they didn’t prefer, and were putting them on notice. He sued Randi plenty too, but never once won.
Uri doing mineral exploration and using his psychic powers to look for it. Various googling gives plenty of hits on this. What exactly are you disputing?
In the very first 10 seconds of your video, Uri claims he is not a magician. I didn’t need to watch much more after this admission.
Do you have a cite where Uri Geller ever says he is a magician, a conjurer, etc?
I was curious about that sort of thing at one time too. Randi looked into all of this over 30 years ago. Read his book Flim Flam or his other book, The Truth about Uri Geller to learn more about what Uri is really about.
I watched the first five minutes of your video. Notice again the pad. Also note what the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) consists of that Randi’s explains at the 2:00 mark from the link I gave in post # 9. Notice how he bombed with Carson starting at the 5:45 mark in post # 26 with the link provided.
When Geller has control, he’ll get his success. Put him in front of others that are magicians or others familiar with deceit, and his powers go away every time. If he would just admit already he’s just a magician, conjuror, etc, instead of exploiting it for something more, he wouldn’t be getting himself into as much trouble.
You have the right to your opinion.
It would seem, however, that the president of the Magic Circle, and the majority of it’s members disagree with you.
Not at all.
There is a story, well known to magicians. A young magician approached David Devantat a magic club. “Mr Devant” he said “I know over 200 tricks. How many do you know?” David Devant thought for a moment, then replied “I should say that I know eight.”
The fact is, that there are many magicians with a small repertoire of tricks that they perform really well.
And the fact is that those few tricks that Geller does have made him rich and famous. He regularly gets booking to go on TV around the world and perform those tricks. 99.9% of magicians would be jealous of his career.
Follow the link in my earlier post.
As in fact do lots of magicians.
Try watching the whole thing, and you might get a different opinion. I think it’s obvious that he doesn’t expect anyone to believe the trick is real.
Here’s a hint, by the way. That clip was taken from a magic show. The performer before Geller was a magician. Everyone watching would recognise it as a magic act.
And your response to the links you ask for and were promptly provided?