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DECEMBER 7 1973
Approved For Release 29ft0/O8/tO
: CIA-RDP96-00787R0002002^29-9
itain
has
recently
been
experiencing
the
strange
upenings
that
seem
to
accompany Mr
Uri
Geller
erever he takes his one-man show.
Knives and forks
tc been
bent, broken watches
restarted and
feats
of
uarent
telepathy
performed.
No
generally
accepted
jlanation
is yet forthcoming.
Mthough
the phenomenon
of Mr
Geller
is new
to
itain, he
is well known both
in
Israel and the United
.res
tor
his
performances.
It
is
important
that
he
ims to be doing these strange things not as an illusionist
ng sleight of hand or deceptive material but as some-
c invested with a previously unappreciated power.
He
prepared
to back up
this claim very convincingly by
rforming in such inauspicious surroundings as the back
a
taxi
in
the company of the Science Correspondent
the Sunday Times.
If he
is an
illusionist he runs the
k of being detected every time he shows off his skills,
rticularly when
his performance goes on
to videotape,
irther, any stagehand knows how an
illusionist works,
:t none has yet revealed Mr Geller’s secrets.
It needs to be said, however, that not everyone
is con-
aced
that Mr
Geller
is
other
than a
great
illusionist
d
that
there seems
to
be somewhat more
scepticism
Israel and
the United
States than has
yet developed
Britain.
For a
fairly cool assessment Time of March
1,
1973, should
be
read.
Nevertheless
he
has
clearly
eated a prima facie case for further investigation and
is to be hoped that the proposal by the New Scientist
at he submit to examination by
its panel will be taken
), even though he has already been examined extensively
y a team
at
Stanford Research
Institute.
What does
all
this mean
for
the
scientist—and
not
tcessarily
only
the
scientist
interested
in
psychic
;search?
There
are two
distinct challenges
to
him.
The
first
is that analysis of this phenomenon must be
bsolutely neutral and above board.
One of the remark-
ble things about
this whole affair has been the way the
ublic has asked that
it be
investigated by scientists.
It
as been common to hear phrases such as “I will not be
appy until a panel of scientists have pronounced on
it”.
1 mediaeval times
it was priests, later
it was noblemen,
1 Victorian times businessmen and now
scientists who
re the
arbiters
of acceptability and
correctness.
It
is
ot possible to believe that
this situation will
last much
mger though
it
is
difficult
to decide who will eventually
upplant the scientist in this role—trade
unionist, profes-
ional
footballer or television announcer.
Nevertheless,
vhile
this duty
still
falls
to
the scientist he has a
great
esponsibility
to be
utterly objective and
entirely open.
There have been some doubts cast on the Stanford investi-
gation because of the lack
of publication of
the
results
ipart from a report at a conference.
On the other hand
t
is undesirable that Mr Geller should be used either by
iomeone delighting
in the occult or exceedingly sceptical
'it.
The second challenge
to scientists
will arise
if investi-
scicntific community
to come
to terms with something
totally beyond
its powers of explanation—indeed some-
thing which
in
a
religious
context would be
called
a
miracle.
Just as the public wants
scientists
to
validate
Mr Geller,
it would also want them to explain him and,
however awkward
this
question may
be,
it should not
be avoided.
If Mr Geller indeed possesses extraordinary
abilities
it
is immaterial
whether he
is an
isolated
un-
repeatable phenomenon
or whether a
large number
of
people can be taught the skills, and
it
is immaterial that
he manifests the abilities in ways up to now better known
to music-hall
illusionists than
to
scientific investigators.
The
challenge
would
still
exist—that
well
established
scientific laws as apparent to laymen as to scientists are
not
inviolate
under
the
influence
of
some
presumed
mental process.
It
is
difficult
to
see how research
into
the causes of
such
extraordinary
happenings
could
proceed.
One
suspects
that
any
approach
which
involved
extensive
instrumentation would end
unsuccessfully.
Technology
has an unerring ability to suppress human
skills.
Never-
theless
a
boost
for
psychical
research
would
be
very
welcome.
There are too many loose ends lying around
for comfort, 'and psychical research has not yet been able
to shake off
its mildly eccentric character and
its ability
to attract fierce criticism.
The viewing
public, shown
a
chest
operation under
acupuncture one week and an exhibition of knife bending
the next,
is bound to ask searching questions about con-
ventional
scientific wisdom.
108 Years Ago
The London Association
of Correctors of the
Press
held a
conversazione on
Saturday last under
the presidency of Mr. B.
H. Cowper, editor of the Queen.
We
are glad
to
notice
that
the principal items
of the programme were of a
scientific cha-
racter.
Mr. E. R. Johnson, Chairman
of the Association, read
a paper on' the past work
of the Association, enumerating some
of the papers and discussions on
philological
topics which had
engaged its attention, and while commending the study of phito-
logy,
the
advantage of an acquaintance with one
or
other
of
the exact sciences was set forth.
Mr. G. Chaioner, late Secretary
of the Association, and lecturer on Chemistry
at the
Birkbeck
Institution, enlightened the meeting as to some of the properties
of hydrogen, accompanying his remarks with appropriate experi-
ments.
Mr.
J. T. Young discoursed on the
glacial
period, and
exhibited some fossils illustrative thereof.
The wonders
of the
microscope and stereoscope also contributed
to the enjoyment of
: CIA^BP96H)0787R000200200029-9
From Nature, 9, 114, December 11, 1873.
jations continue
*
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and
with
the present evidence
this
ccrTainly cannol
ruled out.
It would then be urgently necessary for
the