Hi Uri,

Many moons ago you gave me advice on following my dream. It happened! I launched my solo show in the heart of Belfast last night. 

Thank you!

Dear Uri

Years ago we shared a little bit of correspondence, and I’ll always be grateful for your prompt and courteous personal reply.

This evening I posted another short article about you to my 13,000 member newsletter group and put it on my Facebook page as well.

I hope you continue to be well, and thank you again for your efforts to raise the consciousness of the human race- and god knows, we need all the help we can get!

Sincerely Neil Slade

*****************************************

“THE NOT SO AMAZING RANDI”
Greetings Brain Explorers!

Years ago I had personal contact with both “The Amazing” Randi- the famous de-bunker, as well as the famous psychic Uri Geller. One impressed me, one did not. I figure you already know which was which.

This evening I came upon a Randi video online showing Geller’s famous “failure” on The Tonight Show in 1973. Reading all of the accolades on the video’s comment section- I added my own, reproduced here for you.

I’ve also reformatted my own page on Geller (along with Swami Rama, and Jack Swartz)- three remarkable human beings.

http://www.neilslade.com/Papers/Rama.html

Yes, I have seen the recent documentary “An Honest Liar”- and found it to be largely a whitewash of the man’s work and reputation, I was less than impressed.

Please enjoy all!
Neil
www.BrainRadar.com

***
COMMENT ON an “AMAZING” RANDI Youtube video.

Randi was as big a fake as anyone, with an marked ability for self-promotion and a displaced opinion of matters he didn’t fully comprehend. He was neither a scientist nor a respectable skeptic- but rather someone who already had drawn conclusions and was filled was prejudices- -mainly because it provided him a good livelihood. Good homework will reveal this to anyone taking the time to investigate the guy. Are their frauds out there? Sure. Duh. But anyone thinking Randi was the last word on investigative reporting , and that he was infallible are making as big a mistake as believing in Peter Popoff.
Youtube video comments are not known for rigorous analysis, but rather for snap judgements based on insufficient data and conventional wisdom. So, I have found and fully expect his loyal fans to immediately reject such a notion (that Randi was not so AMAZING after all). I just happened upon this video online, and put in my two cents and only wish that this comment lead some to look deeper into the subject matter. I’ve studied both him and Geller at length, and he doesn’t impress me in the least- and quite the contrary-and comes across as much as a con artist as many of the people he claims to expose. So be it- he entertained- just hope people don’t take him any more seriously than Popoff. However, fat chance, yes Randi was right about one thing- people don’t really think carefully.
As for Geller failing on Carson, it means little. Einstein didn’t have a perfect record either. (Not that Geller was Einstein). Geller may have well taken advantage of some situations, and failed in some situations and tests, but to those who have delved honestly and deeply into the subject of “is Geller a fake or not”, you will already know the difference between fooling a scientist, and providing real scientific evidence- and what it means in this particular case. Geller has shown the ability to manipulate objects in unplanned spontaneous demonstrations, which were absolutely impossible to fake. Don’t be so sure of yourself, y’all-
A credible witness to the Geller ‘phenomena was Metallurgist and US Naval scientist, Eldon Byrd. I found this report in a truly scientific book about Geller, and it is reproduced on Geller’s own site as follows : Byrd: “I first became interested in “paranormal” (in quotes because the phenomena will be “normal” once we understand the mechanisms) phenomena in general after seeing Ted Serios on the Alan Burke TV show (many years ago).

The host was a skeptic, but changed his mind after Serios imprinted images on a sealed and guarded video tape. I first became interested in metal bending after meeting with Uri Geller in the Washington, DC area when he came to do a demo at George Washington University. I first got involved in studying metal bending after Geller altered the memory of a new shape memory alloy of nickel and titanium called NITINOL, invented at the US Navy Government Lab I where I was working at the time… There were analytical tests run on NITINOL that Geller had altered, including electron micrographs, density, photographic, and microscopic. Other tests on Geller material I did not conduct included electron microscope photos of broken keys, cracked gold rings, broken needles, and water imprinted with energy. I have made many direct observations of Geller performing telepathy, mending broken watches and clocks, and sprouting seeds. Some of these I have experienced myself, as a recipient.”
Source: “The Geller Papers”, Charles Panati.

In 1973 Eldon Byrd, a physicist at the U.S. Naval Surface Weapons Center, Silver Spring Maryland designed a unique test on several occassions for Uri Geller involving a unique metal alloy called nitinol. This material actually “remembers” the shape in which it is manufactured. Byrd thoroughly tested the nitinol wire samples before presenting them to Geller, unannounced. Upon lightly touching the wire, within seconds the wire became permanently deformed. An original straight example of the wire is shown in the top of #1 then after Geller touched it below, with a high magnification of the bend in #2. Other permanently deformed examples are shown in #3 and #4. The only possible way of deforming the wire in the manner demonstrated by Geller would be by heating the wire to at least 900 degrees F. and holding and simultaneously twisting with pliers. Byrd commented on a paper regarding his tests of Geller, “There is absolutely no explantaion as to how Geller bent the wire by gently touching it.”

I have found the NY Times account of the Carson appearance as the most interesting, and perhaps among the most revealing- the appearance gave Geller exactly what he wanted, if not as planned: “Soon afterward, when Geller was invited to appear on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” the producers approached Randi, who had been a frequent guest, to help them ensure that Geller could employ no tricks during his appearance. Randi gave Carson’s prop men advice on how to prepare for the taping, and the result was a legendary immolation, in which Geller offered up flustered excuses to his host as his abilities failed him again and again. “I sat there for 22 minutes, humiliated,” Geller told me, when I spoke to him in September. “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’m destroyed.” But to Geller’s astonishment, he was immediately booked on “The Merv Griffin Show.” He was on his way to becoming a paranormal superstar. “That Johnny Carson show made Uri Geller,” Geller said. To an enthusiastically trusting public, his failure only made his gifts seem more real: If he were performing magic tricks, they would surely work every time.”
And this revealing article is more than interesting: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11270453/James-Randi-debunking-the-king-of-the-debunkers.html

I’ve also had personal contact with both Randi and Geller. I found Randi to be a rude egotist, and Geller exactly the opposite. That says more to me than any test.

Many of those who rose to fame in the Seventies and early Eighties have since disappeared from public life, or, at any rate, fallen off the radar. But there are others who have kept going against all the odds. Uri Geller is a good example. 

Craig Brown For The Daily Mail

The Duke (Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) suggested many possible explanations for the miracle, including a Uri Geller type explanation, and he produced a spoon which Uri Geller had bent for him. To my rescue came that still small voice of calm from Her Majesty the Queen, saying: ‘Philip and his theories…’

Archbishop John Sentamu, during a speech in the House of Lords for the 90th Birthday of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.

I particularly want to thank Uri Geller for being so honest. Who would have thought that he started his career when drinking soup at the age of four? Who would have thought that he was once a male model? And to send a woman Prime Minister to the loo and to be commended by her. We had a woman Prime Minister who referred to me as “That perfectly dreadful man in Birmingham.” How different from Israel! What moved me most about this very interesting book was that when Uri Geller used his psi ability for self-aggrandisement, it nearly sent him around the bend. He spoke about his fear of committing suicide. This is a gift of God. Now he uses it to help others, including at a children’s hospital. That is surely the best use. I am very grateful to him for making that point and for explaining how the extraordinary powers that some people have, but most do not, can be used. We have all heard Uri Geller. No doubt we have all seen him on television. But to see him in the flesh and to hear him speak so honestly about his life has been an experience for all of us.

Sir David Frost OBE

I have watched Uri Geller spin the keys and things like that … I have seen that so I am a believer. It was my house key and the only way I would be able to use it is get a hammer and beat it out back flat again. So there are certain energy things that are outside of the norm

Clint Eastwood

Uri Geller did not just help break the ice with the skills that have made him famous – a considerable number of bent spoons line the road that led to this agreement. He has also played a pivotal role in helping everyone focus on the main objective and overcoming differences over secondary details at key junctures.

Micheline Calmy-Rey. President of Switzerland, discussing Uri’s role in helping to negotiate an amicable agreement between the Red Cross, Palestine’s Red Crescent and Israel’s Magen David Adom

Absolutely amazing

Mick Jagger

Other magicians, such as James Randi, claim that spoon bending isn’t a psychic phenomenon at all, just a trick. But I had bent a spoon, and I knew it wasn’t a trick. I looked around the room and saw little children, eight or nine years old, bending large metal bars. They weren’t trying to trick anybody. They were just little kids having a good time.

Michael Crichton

Uri’s motivational abilities are by far the most effective from all the inspirational and motivational gurus we have seen

Novartis, Switzerland – after a motivational lecture by Uri Geller.