The first appearance of the British-Israeli illusionist Uri Geller on television in Spain was in 1975 in the José María Íñigo Directísimo program. Geller wowed viewers of the show with what he claimed to be psychokinesis, dowsing, and telepathy.
He became known around the world for his performances that included bending spoons, describing hidden pictures, and making clocks stop or run faster. Geller defended that in our brain there are spaces that remain asleep, but, if activated, they could allow us to read the minds of others if they are trained. He said that he could read minds, but he limited himself to destroying household items, moving the hands of a clock or guessing pictures.
The truth is that only two years before landing his illusionism in Spain, he already had an experience that made him put his career as an illusionist aside. In 1973, Geller appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and was a complete disaster. On that occasion, fellow illusionist James Randi was asked to take care to prevent any deception by Geller, and the show prepared its own set without informing the guest illusionist's team.
The result was a legendary immolation, in which Geller made nervous excuses to his host as his skills failed him over and over again, as reported in the 2014 New York Times. "I sat there for 22 minutes, humiliated," Geller later recounted. "I went back to my hotel, devastated. I was about to pack up the next day and go back to Tel Aviv. I thought: that's it, I've been destroyed," he added.
"I became famous using spoons, but I can also heal, find gold and oil," he said on TVE about his abilities. Geller's powers were always in question, but that was not a problem to carve out a television career in half the world. As in Spain, many local chains around the world invited the illusionist for entertainment programs in which Geller even went so far as to ensure that his powers came from extraterrestrial forces.
The spectacularity of his performances even earned him being a television presenter or jury of several programs around the world in which he was looking for a successor worthy of his powers. Realities of this caliber were on the air in the United States, Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary and Greece. For all these jobs and more, since there was a time when even mining companies required his dowsing services, Geller has been described by various sources as a multi-millionaire.
For some time now, Geller has not worked on television and has opened a museum room where he keeps some of the feats he has achieved with his supposed powers. He also maintains an updated Instagram profile where he reports conspiracy theories and UFO sightings. "Enigmatic, disconcerting and extraordinary" are the adjectives with which he describes some of the supposed events that he explains in his networks.
One of the latest issues that the illusionist has publicized on his social networks connects with the leitmotifs of his career: spoons and aliens. Geller lately seems very interested in the spoon that will be used to anoint King Charles III at his coronation on May 6 at Westminster Abbey. He not only recounts that this utensil was "hidden from the whole world" at the coronation of Elizabeth II, but he also shares with his followers a supposed image of the spoon in which he appreciates the head of an alien.
