Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier

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Geller successfully worked most of his repertoire of miracles. In a film made by S.R.I., Geller picks the can containing an object from a group of identical empty cans, influences laboratory scales, reproduces drawings sealed in opaque envelopes, deflects a magnetometer and correctly calls the upper face of a die in a closed box—eight times in eight tries. If Geller's prowess with dice is indeed paranormal, it raises serious and disturbing questions for all of modern science. But if S.R.I.'s tests were indeed conducted with what University of Oregon Professor Ray Hyman calls "incredible sloppiness," then other disturbing questions may be raised. Assigned by the Department of Defense to report on the wondrous happenings at S.R.I., Hyman, accompanied by George Lawrence, DOD projects manager for the Advanced Research Projects Agency, caught Geller in some outright deceptions.

Unhappily for Geller, his powers have a tendency to vanish in the presence of sleight-of-hand men. On the Tonight Show, where Johnny Carson instituted airtight controls at Randi's suggestion, nothing that Geller attempted (during an embarrassing 20 minutes) seemed to work. After a group of English magicians made plans to catch him in the act during a British tour, Geller abruptly canceled out, citing mysterious "death threats."

In the long run, however, Geller's friends may well be more damaging to his cause than are his detractors. This spring the reputable old firm of Doubleday will publish a book entitled Uri by Dr. Andrija Puharich, who brought Geller to the U.S. from Israel. In a crude mishmash of Mission: Impossible, 2001 and the James Bond series, Puharich (author of a previous volume on the psychedelic effects of mushrooms) soberly describes his adventures with Geller.

From outer space, highly intelligent computers called SPECTRA communicate through taped messages, which disappear. "We can only talk to you through Uri's power," says the mystical voice. "It is a shame that for such a brilliant mind we cannot contact you directly." When Uri finally meets the investigators from S.R.I., he confesses that outer-space intelligence directs his work. But the S.R.I, scientists are not taken aback. One, Russell Targ, placidly remarks, "The things you are telling us agree very well with things that Hal [S.R.I. Colleague Harold Puthoff] and I believe but we can't prove." Adds Astronaut Ed Mitchell: "Uri, you're not saying anything to us we don't in some way already sense or understand." The text raises some troubling questions. Is Puharich indeed in touch with what he calls "my editor in the sky"? Is his account of the S.R.I, meeting as true as his reasonably accurate report of Uri's meeting a year ago with the editors of TIME? If it is, why have the S.R.I, scientists failed to mention Uri Geller's contacts with outer space? Are they properly fearful of that most irrefutable antidote to nonsense: laughter? Or were they, as they now claim, merely "humoring" their subject?

Almost as impressive as Geller's rise to fame is the phenomenal success of The Secret Life of Plants (Harper & Row; $8.95), a volume that is unaccountably placed on the nonfiction shelves of bookstores. The work of two occult journalists, Secret Life is an anthology of the absurd, costumed