Uri Geller: Magician or Mystic?

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