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Uri Geller: Magician or Mystic?: Biography of the controversial mind-reader by [Jonathan Margolis]

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Jonathan Margolis

Uri Geller: Magician or Mystic?: Biography of the controversial mind-reader Kindle Edition

by Jonathan Margolis (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Jonathan Margolis's biography of Uri Geller, the controversial spoon-bending and mind-reading performer, was the first to examine dispassionately whether the former Israeli paratrooper is a talented magician or something altogether more mysterious – perhaps even an authentic paranormalist.

Reviews

"Superstitious atheists will find this book toxic. Jonathan Margolis clearly spooked himself writing it and I got an attack of the creeps one night just reading it." - Evening Standard

"Uri's ability to perform amazing feats of mental wizardry is known the world over...Uri is not a magician. He is using capabilities that we all have and can develop with exercise and practice." - Dr. Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut and sixth man to walk on the moon

"I think Uri is a magician, but I don't particularly believe that he is using trickery. I believe there are psychic abilities. They don't accord with any science we have at the moment, but maybe some future science will back them up with theories." - Brian Josephson, Professor of Physics, University of Cambridge, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, 1973

"Uri bent a spoon for me. The first time he did, I thought there must be a trick. The second time I was stunned - completely, completely stunned and amazed. It just bent in my hand. I've never seen anything like it. It takes a lot to impress me. Uri Geller is for real and anyone who doesn't recognise that is either deluding himself, or he is a very sad person." - David Blaine

"Geller has bent my ring in the palm of my hand without ever touching it. Personally, I have no scientific explanation for the phenomenon." - Werner Von Braun

"I came to this book a rationalist and a skeptic. Yet, open-mindedness requires me to report that Jonathan Margolis' carefully researched, scrupulously detailed and even-handed exploration of Uri Geller's paranormal capacities suggests some of our current scientific understandings will need radical revision in the next century." - The Jewish Chronicle

"A brilliant book - nine out of ten." - Channel 4

"A fascinating, unaided, open-minded account of a great modern puzzle." - Mail on Sunday

"An even-handed and assiduously researched work... something close to a definitive assessment." - New Statesman

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Apostrophe Books
Publication date

December 12, 2013
File size

3092 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Scoffing at the paranormal seemed perfectly normal," writes British journalist, biographer (Cleese Encounters, etc.) and one-time skeptic Margolis. But his own conversion experienceAa private demonstration of Geller's reputed spoon-bending and mind-reading powersAassuaged his doubts about Geller's psychic abilities and the paranormal in general. After compelling opening chapters on the Geller family's departure from Europe during WWII and Geller's Israeli childhood, Margolis becomes an advocate, even for some of the stranger claims made on Geller's behalf: of a high school knack for never missing a shot in basketball, of an ability to teleport metal objects and himself, of intelligence work and undocumented high-level meetings with diplomats and even President Carter. Margolis does raise some questions, particularly about long-time Geller associate Andrija Puharich, a scientist and paranormal researcher. But even after establishing Puharich's paranoia and occasional deceptions, he refuses to dismiss his theories of alien contact. Similarly, Margolis insists that occasional "cheating" (use of sleight-of-hand rather than of psychic power) to get through off-days does not undermine Geller's claims to authenticity. It may take a conversion experience on the order of Margolis's for die-hard skeptics to relent, but others will find Margolis's account one of the best yet to appear on Geller. Still, it is difficult to suspend disbelief when Margolis grows as grandiose (even if his tongue is a bit in his cheek) as the flamboyant Geller himself: "if it should turn out in the future that Uri was, indeed, a Jesus figure, I should be a little surprised, but delighted. It will have meant, for one thing, that I have accidentally written the New Testament." (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

A mostly credulous look at the famous Israeli who claims to be able to bend spoons with his mind. Margolis (Cleese Enconters, 1992) first met and befriended Uri Geller in 1996. Margolis decided that he would do a biography of the mentalist, with his cooperation but examining all viewpoints. The result reads somthing like an E! Television documentary: friends and schoolmates (including ``where are they now'' information) recollect Geller's childhood. These accounts are presented to refute the claim by his opponents that Geller created his show in his early 20s. The picture these accounts paint is that of a colorful and turbulent childhood, spent first in Tel Aviv, then Cyprus, and back to Israel for military service. It is in Tel Aviv as a child that Geller reports his first experience with the unknown. This takes the form of an encounter with ``a ball of light'' in a city garden. A short time after this, the spoons start bending. Gellers family moves to Cyprus when he is 11; there he is remembered for playing mischief by moving the hands of the clocks in the classrooms and always being able to make the difficult shots in basketball. This, Geller contends, is due to his psychokinetic abilities. During his military service, machine gun parts are mysteriously transported from one location to another (and back again), ostensibly via the same method. The author also credits Geller with numerous happenings during the writing of the book, including clocks that fall off the wall in strange ways, laptops that stop working, and, of course, distorted cutlery. There are even parties where anyone can learn how to bend spoons with their mind, with a little help from their hands. An obviously wowed author presents a mostly sympathetic view of the life and times of Uri Geller. (16 photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Jonathan Margolis is a well known journalist and author of five successful sh --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Library Journal

Geller has attracted considerable attentionAand inspired considerable skepticismAbecause of his evident abilities to bend metal, read minds, and find things. In his authorized biography of Geller, Margolis, a European contributor to Time and the author of biographies like Cleese Encounters, sets out to discover whether Geller is a magician performing through sleight of hand and misdirection or genuinely a man of mysticism and paranormal powers. He thoroughly traces Geller's lifeAfrom his birth in Budapest, through childhood in Israel, to his adulthood (all over the world)Aand draws on interviews with prominent magicians, illusionists, and skeptics to assess Geller's feats. In the final chapter, Margolis comes to some conclusions but offers nothing decisive about the source of Geller's powers. Engagingly written, this book will be a popular addition to public library collections. Geller's own Mind Medicine is another matter. According to Andrew Weil (who wrote the book's foreword), this is the work of a man who has moved beyond performing feats of psychic wonder to become a mature and thoughtful healer. In this compendium of history, psychology, exercises, and self-help advice, Geller argues that anyone can use the power of his or her mind to cure illnesses and psychoses. He provides many interesting and effective exercises to discipline the mind and harness its healing powers, but much of what he says about alternative therapies is dubious, if not mistaken. And while his suggested exercises are helpful, he breaks no new ground here. Other books, such as Rudolph Ballentine's Radical Healing (LJ 1/99), provide more challenging information and suggestions for combining alternative therapies with conventional medicine. Recommended with reservations for collections on meditation and alternative healing.AGail Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology Lib., Cortland
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0073U14F0
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Apostrophe Books (December 12, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 12, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3092 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #1,923,938 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,494 in Mysticism (Kindle Store)
- #2,635 in Biographies of the Rich & Famous
- #4,342 in Mysticism (Books)

Customer Reviews:
30 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Jason C

certainly an interesting life

Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2016

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another e book with a number of typos. I do find the lack of proofreading insulting. If I take the time to read a book, why can't it be proofed ? I start to wonder about the quality of the editing and fact checking. Anyway, we eventually find out that Geller does have some sort of power (I think) though no one seems to know what exactly what.

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Amazon Customer

Reads like a diary or autobiography with many punctuation and spelling ...

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2017

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Reads like a diary or autobiography with many punctuation and spelling errors. I doubt an editor reviewed this before publication. There may be good information in here, but would be difficult to verify.

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Amazon Customer

Mind Bending Book

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2016

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I read this books years ago and found it fascinating. I read it again recently, and it was every bit as intriguing as the first time around. Uri Geller is a most unusual man, and it would be easy to wonder if many parts of the book are even true. My sense is that the author, Jonathan Margolis, has a level of integrity that I can trust, which made the book that much more enjoyable. As I read about Uri's life and his unusual talents, I felt thrilled to consider the gifts and abilities available to all of us, if only we choose to develop them. Spoon bending may not be a "talent" that most people would actively pursue, but on the other hand, how might we feel if we suddenly developed the ability to bend metal with essentially no physical effort at all. The author describes spoon bending parties he attended where he observed "normal" people learning to bend spoons in the Uri Geller effortless way. The author, himself, learned to do the same. I have to say it...this is a MIND bending book!

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Susan

Good book.

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2017

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how did I ever miss hearing about this inspiration. Good book.

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KonaKathie

but these tales of Geller's childhood exploits are fascinating and fun. The description of experiments for the government is ...

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2016

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I'm a big skeptic, but these tales of Geller's childhood exploits are fascinating and fun. The description of experiments for the government is likewise interesting. It's clear he was sometimes able to confound the debunkers, like James Randi. At the same time, he had major flops, like his appearance on the Tonight show. I don't take much of this stuff very seriously, it's more to me like a magician on that show trying to fool Penn and Teller.

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Larry Moran

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2015

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Required reading!

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jimbo

not what i thought

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2017

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Writing just ok. read it through but just ok. shed a different light on Urigeller. Was not what I was looking for. Thought it may give answers to his tricks.

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M. Cowles

Deeply Flawed

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2013

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I bought this book thinking it would offer an objective examination of Uri Geller. Sadly, that's not at all what I got. The work is clearly biased in favor of Geller having paranormal abilities. Any subject who supports this view is treated with the upmost favorability, the wildest anecdotes given prominence with nary a trace of critical questioning. Any subject who doesn't support the favored view is subtlety made suspect through innuendo. For instance we're informed that James Randi's credibility has suffered because of certain rumors regarding his life long bachelor status. Of course the author won't go into all that. Which begs the question why mention such rumors in the first place?

I think what really bothers me about this work is that the author seems to have zero understanding of the art of magic yet continually makes the argument that Geller's feats are well beyond those of any magician. Early on the author sees Geller bend a spoon and, like so many others, is adamant that the spoon continued to bend when no one was touching it. Now, any magician who's actually done a trick successfully will tell you that the way a trick happens in reality and the way it's remembered are apt to be two vastly different things. Memory is nowhere near certain. It's sort of like the childhood game where you start with a simple message that's whispered person to person until at the end the finished message bears hardly any resemblance to the original. Any competent magician will tell you this is how tricks are remembered.

So what's more likely: That the spoon actually bent once it was out of Geller's hand, or that he said it was still bending and it was remembered that way? If Geller has the ability to make objects bend without touching them, why does no film exist of him doing this? A bit of common sense goes a long way.

The author also seems to be operating under the misapprehension that the smarter a subject is the less likely he is to be deceived by a conjuring trick. Actually, and again any competent magician will tell you, the opposite is true. The more intelligent you are the more you will associate things occurring by specific processes. When a different process is used to bring about an effect the result is often astonishment. Being a PHD is no safeguard against being fooled; actually children, without the burden of associations, are much harder to fool.

Psychics have a long history of using the crudest techniques to achieve their wonders. Thinking you're too smart to be taken in is a virtual invitation to be taken in.

On top of all I've mentioned add in the numerous grammatical errors and this book is annoying in the extreme. And please understand, this review is in no way against Uri Geller. I would still very much like to read an objective study of his exploits. Unlike many magicians, I am open minded on the subject of psychics and willing to look at the evidence. I must say, however, that to date I've seen no real evidence to convince me that anything paranormal has occurred in regards to Geller or anyone else.

10 people found this helpful

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Heather Smith

An Interesting Insight

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2018

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I began to read this book as a person who admittedly has always doubted there was anything truly magical or mystical about Uri Geller. My reason for reading it was because of a friend that recommended it; someone who is very much in the other court as it were, who said he would be interested to hear my thoughts on it. Well, here they are...
It took me perhaps a fortnight or more to read this, because it was quite heavy at times but also incredibly interesting to me. I found that I would keep breaking from reading to search the internet for facts, to learn more about some of the incidents quoted and the fascinating people that are written about as well as Uri and all in all, it has been a bit of an education for me by all accounts. It was certainly an interesting insight into the man himself, and contains some incredible stories of things people have witnessed him do. It also paints an altogether different picture of Uri Geller than the one I had in my head. So, I'm no ESP expert. That established, if you were to ask me after reading all of this, do I believe Uri has special powers, I am afraid I still would have to say it is something I would need to see in person to decide for myself. What I did get from the book was the image of a kind, generous and charitable man who has nothing but good intentions at his heart. There is no doubt that Uri Geller is a much underappreciated (these days) entertainer and a very clever man who has so much to give to us. He is a bright light, happy, and very motivational to listen to and read. And yes, he has a magical quality that I find myself wanting to believe is something of another world. Whether it is or not, we may one day know. With regards to other reviews I did not get a sense at all of this being any kind of a biaised account, I did feel a little creeped out during some sections - especially while reading late into the night as I often do and yes, the Kindle edition is, I'm afraid, littered with editing errors that were off-putting at times. Which was a shame, because all in all this was a fascinating and enjoyable read.

Jak Sanderson

So he was a mystic after all...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2017

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Thoroughly enjoyed this book. There was a lot of publicity around Uri Geller in the late 60s early 70s and it all seemed to be about spoon bending. Was he a magician or was he a mystic (psychic)? To be honest he was not someone I took too seriously. When I mentioned this book, prior to buying, to my partner, it was dismissed with the wave of a hand and so I hesitated again. After reading this book I realize the publicity at the time detracted from the man and his ability. The number of physicists that have worked with Geller for two or three decades answers the question he must be a psychic. The research Margolis carried out i.e. the number of people he spoke to that have known and worked with Geller was impressive to say the least..

A. B. Pearl

Compelling, insightful and unputdownable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 16, 2016

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Whatever your views of Mr Geller, and Margolis by his own admission is a sceptic, this incredibly well researched and engaging book makes for fascinating reading. As an investigative journalist, Margolis gives us a pretty comprehensive picture from both Geller's adherents and critics. And we get the author's own observations and experiences while writing the book. Once you get stuck into this one, you won't be able to put it down. Outstanding in every way. Would thoroughly recommend. Alex Pearl is author of 'Sleeping with the Blackbirds'

One person found this helpful

Madocks

Objective and fair.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2017

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I was a sceptic and went to see Uri live but left feeling most of his performance was real and not trickery. He is an accomplished stage performer, and a little paranoid about some of the critics and people who use his name without his permission,but I liked him and was convinced by the spoon bending. I watched him from three feet away when a random member of the audience went up to him as he came off the stage and asked him to bend a spoon. I am a doctor and a trained observer and there was no way he could have faked it.
I thought the book was a balanced account of a complicated man who is more than a conjuror.

BALEX

Interesting read but the jury is still out!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 21, 2015

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An interesting read and I learned a lot about this enigmatic person. By the end I was more or less convinced that he really can use the power of thought to achieve strange phenomena but less sure about his belief that he is under the influence of aliens. What amazed me more were the parts of the book relating to the CIA's involvement with both testing his abilities and utilising them. I feel very intrigued by Uri and he comes across in the book as a warm and fascinating person albeit with a rather colourful past.

One person found this helpful

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