Customer Reviews

The Psychic and the Rabbi: A Remarkable Correspondence

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I'm not exactly sure why I got this book. I assumed it would be a dry philosophical exchange, but hoped Uri Geller might share a bit about his life as the world's most gifted psychic. I wish I could convey my transformation as I realized I held a book not only to be read, but cherished. The Psychic and The Rabbi is a heartfelt exchange between two of the most exceptional men of our time. I found their honesty breath-taking, their humor refreshing, and their dedication to humanity humbling.

The litmus test of an especially good book is one in which you do not want to put the book down; you want keep reading to conclusion or to exhaustion. This book falls into that category but in a rather unusual way, because normally you are seeking the answer of the plot with a fiction book, or wanting to come to the overall prognosis of the subject. But in this case the book is rather unique in the fact that the subject matter is very changeable with no definite conclusions. The book consistiing of an exchange of letters between two men at the top of their chosen professions as the Rabbi and the Psychic. The reason I found the book to be so engrossing is based on various levels. Firstly the interaction between the two extremely successful men of widely different professions stimulates wonderful engrossing thought in the subject areas of, Is there a god ? and if so why, what's the meaning of life?, why love is so important, what the usual drive for celebrity status is, also where true celebrity status can useful, and so on through many subjects. The two highly intelligent individuals realise from their wisdom that no one human being is an island, we all have our faults and the two men are helping each other with their own personal questions and thoughts about life. Both being honest enough to explain in the process their various and dramatic childhood struggles moving full spectrum to their present high-profile existences. Discussing with refreshing brutal frankness their true inner thoughts, failings, and feelings throughout their lives Both Rabbi Boteach and Uri Geller are apparently vastly different characters but share strong similarities in the respect they are both Jewish, both religious, highly questionable of every aspect of the living experience, and of course both experiencing the intensity, difficulties and opportunities of living at the height of profession and celebrity status. My overall prognosis of the book is that it is a not quick easy book to read, because you want to be able to able to apply your own judgments to their thought patterns, but in the process it is all one could ask from a book, not just superbly entertaining but also extremely thought expanding for the reader in subjects of most importance, like why is humanity existing? They come to their conclusions along with the reader, mind expanding stuff.

This is a deeply moving book. I picked it up expecting a light and amusing read, and yet several times I was actually brought to tears. Uri's voice aches with sympathy for humanity - he comes across as a deeply loving man. Shmuley is a firebrand ... I bet he's a heck of a preacher! You really should read this book. It's outstanding.

This peek into the lives of two remarkable figures. For anyone who enjoys Shmuelly and Uri, this book is a must. It adresses some core issues within the heart and soul of each and every one of us.

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This is a book about two souls struggling through a series of letters to make sense of their lives. Uri Geller I have known for over 25 years. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is someone I had never heard of until I picked up this book. Both are sincere family men, yet each has a contradictory aspect, for instance, both are humble yet both have enormous egos. Both feel an incessant aching in their souls. Both are in awe of fame and actively seek to partake of it, in part to verify/justify their existence, and both have rubbed elbows with society's elite.
Uri's cousin, psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, realized that a true purging of the soul, what Catholics call Confession, and what Jews do on Yom Kippur, serves to heal old wounds thus allowing for future growth. This reader has been brought to tears from some of the deeply personal passages which outpoured from Uri's soul. Wounded in battle, with his friends dying around him, and forced to kill the enemy during the 1967 Israeli/Arab war, it is Uri's firm wish that there be Peace between Palestinians and their brethren, the Jews. At his core, Uri is a man who identifies with all religions.
Rabbi Shmuley has also had his traumas, growing up in a divorced family, trying, like Uri, to come to grips with a complicated and distant father. Wise beyond his years, the Rabbi has a lot to say. God is accessible if we open up our hearts. Only the righteous can truly lead a happy life. The Garden of Eden still exists, and is accessed daily by our innocent children.
The duo, at times appear superficial. The Rabbi actually invited Jerry Springer to speak at his classes at Oxford University, and admitted this in print! Uri sees the Pop Idol Elvis as a God. Both Uri and the Rabbi are overly concerned about their fame. However, it is here with the reach of time, that comparisons cease. Ten generations from now, Uri Geller's name will still be known. He asks himself, is it God himself or UFO's who have given him the power to bend metal by mind power alone? This is the quintessential question, which our society is unable to really process. The ramifications are too monumental.
Uri Geller has demonstrated his spoon-bending ability not only to tens of thousands all over the globe, but also to top flight physicists, Heads of State and world figures. For those who understand esotericism (see Ouspensky's text on Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous), this is no small feat. What do these great people think of the world they live in because of Uri Geller? And how has this change in thought impacted their influence on history?
Geller's very eruption onto the world scene in the early 1970's caused a revolution in the fields of cosmology and the quantum physics of consciousness. His impact on art and literature is also consequential. Such movies as The Fury, Dreamscape, Powder, Phenomenon, Matrix, X-Files and X-Men, and on a personal note, my own upcoming novel STARETZ ENCOUNTER, all owe their debt in great measure to Uri Geller. His flame has ignited directly or indirectly, literally tens of millions of minds.
There is much talk in the book about the coming of the Messiah. Perhaps Martin Luther King has already fulfilled that role in our time. Nevertheless, in ancient times, without any doubt, a person, with Uri's abilities would have been seen as a God, a role Uri has successfully eschewed. Having earned a king's ransom finding diamond mines and oil reserves, Uri's door has always been open to his friends, rich and poor.
Uri's very existence creates the supreme metaphysical conundrum, not only for he, himself, but for anyone else who has eyes to see. Struck by a strange light onto his forehead when he was four, Uri has had Egyptian and Tibetan apports fly into his room, he has photographed UFO's, and has said on many occasions that he suspects that his abilities come from extraterrestrials. Well, if that is so, what role does a Supreme Being play in all this? If what has happened to Uri Geller has happened to Moses, Jesus and other historical religious figures from other religions, clearly a monkey-wrench of gargantuan proportions has been thrown into the Biblical mix.

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If our Creator has a conscious component, then stop and consider, the vast realm this supreme entity has to take care of. Our galaxy alone as 100 billion stars, and there are hundreds of billions of galaxies. I have enough trouble finding my keys when I leave the house! Clearly, a hierarchy of intelligences, which the Rabbi suggests may be angels, makes more sense. Thus, Andrija Puharich, the man who introduced Geller to the West, may have been right all along. An extraterrestrial cabal far in advance of our civilization takes care of our planet. For the most part, they leave us alone. And thus, the ET's do not step in during the Holocaust, because we have been given us free will. But occasionally, through His liaisons, They sprinkle the earth with a few avatars, a list of commandments, a monotheistic paradigm, an ancient savior who give humans the promise of everlasting life, and a modern day superpsychic who can electrify our spirit. I highly recommend this sincere book for opening up a new dialogue on the age old question about the nature of civilization and the source of our being.