Uri Geller: Magician or Mystic? Book

Margolis's biography of the alleged psychokineticist Uri Geller is that of a reluctant believer; Margolis stresses his credentials as a sceptic before admitting that he has become convinced that Geller is something more than a clever fake. We get a fairly standard account of Geller's troubled childhood and terrifying war experiences; there seem to be witnesses to there having been something odd about him when he was young, though nothing as specific as the bending of school spoons. Margolis stresses the areas which others have found problematic--the friend and manager whom many have seen as his accomplice, the testing of his skills by a scientist with psychic obsessions of his own--and argues that they are less fishy than they seem. He is unimpressed by the usual sceptics; their impatience with his interest in Geller does seem in the circumstances tactless and ill mannered. What Margolis never quite answers, though, is the question of what point Geller's entire career has had; if he is a Messiah, or a delegate of powerful aliens, or the next step in evolution, none of it has mattered very much. This is a superior piece of journalism, which attractively conveys the author's entire perplexity. --Roz KaveneyRead More