And this makes me doubt all the claims about quija boards working:
Uri Geller can perform it pretty much on demand?
Uri Geller is just like David Copperfield with the difference that Copperfield is better and not lying in implying that he has supernatural powers.
The funny thing about Uri Geller performing on demand is that there is one condition, which immidieately and completely block all his PK skills - the presence of another magician/mentalists, who knows the tricks of the trade.
Sorry, but Geller just fools his audience. If the standard of evidence, which leads to the conclusion that quija boards work, leads also to the conclusion that Uri Geller can perform PK, then that standard of evidence is faulty and the truth of the conclusion about quija boards cannot be determined using it.
Unfortunately, you write from complete ignorance and mindless belief, having derived both your opinions and your beliefs from the words of others.
It is true that Geller failed to attempt a metal bending experiment set up carefully by Randi, which would have required more force than he normally executes, under the pressure of a live tv show and Randi’s personal intimidation, at which Randi, as a professional fraud, is proficient. Could you have successfully solved a long-division problem involving a pair of six-digit numbers under the same circumstances?
Unlike yourself and others who rely upon others for their opinions, I have personally put Geller to the test in front of witnesses, two of whom were extremely skeptical engineers. Geller bent a sturdy, stainless-steel spoon which one of our group had purloined from the Avanti Restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona only a few hours beforehand. While he bent the spoon, I watched him from behind, out of his sight, my eyes a foot away. Seven others watched from a position in front of him. He did this in the lobby of the Phoenix Convention Center, not on stage where lighting and access could be controlled. When finished he returned the spoon, which our most skeptical engineer immediately examined for signs of heating at the bend, or an acid, or signs of metal fatigue.
The spoon bent only about 20 degrees,
upward. Geller promised to do a better job later, if we could wait, claiming that it was difficult to work in the Convention Center, He went off to meet with some people. Our skeptical engineer controlled the spoon in Geller’s absence.
When Mr. Geller returned we all went outside, about 50 feet from the building. He stopped beneath a light pole, clearly illuminated by the bright light of a 5000w sodium vapor lamp.
By the way, Geller is an informal sort. He was wearing tight Levi jeans (I read the label while behind him) and a tightly fitting yellow polo shirt which could not have concealed a cigarette. No capes, no shirt-sleeves, no big pockets, no stage, no props, and no restrictions on his audience. He did not object when again I moved behind him to watch his hands from a foot way, at eye level, under very bright illumination. Only then did our skeptic return the spoon to Geller.
Geller simply took it without engaging in any conversation, flourishes, or unnecessary body movements of the sort that magicians employ for distraction. He did not rub it against his clothing or body. When I parked myself behind him he did not reposition himself so as to block my view.
Geller’s technique was to hold the spoon inverted with the thumb and two fingers of his left hand, and gently rub the back of the handle with the index finger of his right hand at the point where he wanted it to bend. This time, he chose a point about a half inch higher on the handle, past the first bend. The bending began sooner than before, and occurred more rapidly, moving (again, contrary to the force of gravity) to a nearly vertical position in about 15 seconds.
Geller immediately returned the spoon for inspection. No heat, no acid residue, no signs of metal fatigue.
I subsequently purchased some spoons of the exact same manufacture and found that I could not easily bend them barehanded. At the time I outweighed Geller by 20 pounds and could bench press 180, but like him, I have small hands. To bend these spoons “easily” I clamped one end in a vise and used upper body strength on the free end. The vise marks showed in the metal afterward. The resulting bend point was warmish (unlike Geller’s bent spoon) and showed clear signs of having been forcibly bent— stretching and compression at opposite sides of the bend point— which Geller’s spoon did not. (I returned to its repository on a friend’s living-room wall to re-check.)
Uri Geller is not a fraud.
I find it curious that you and others accept the words of a known fraud, the “Amazing” Randi, who makes his living at deception, over Geller, who has submitted to many scientific experiments. (Unfortunately the experimenters, mostly nitwit psychologists with no knowledge of physics, were incompetent.) But then, you and most people are accustomed to accepting the spoken and written words of authority figures by way of belief validation, ignoring the evidence of the only bible which is certain to have been written by the Creator— the physical universe.
I have long suspected that ill-considered opinions such as yours are a function of incompetence and laziness, unwillingness to get out in the real world and perform experiments. It is so much easier for a person to believe a fool who is telling you what you want to believe anyway, than to challenge his beliefs as well as your own. That would require honest thought and investigation.
The difference is similar to that between growing your own food or going to a supermarket and buying advertised, brand-name processed junk.
