Geller is one of those rare celebrities who transcends generations. My father recalls
seeing one of his early shows on an Israeli navy base in Haifa in the 1970s and now, in 2007, I am standing beside a monument of a bent fork in Geller’s garden, while he phones my
dad to talk about the old days.
Over the last three decades, Geller has been a spoon-bender and a motivational
guru and, in his most recent incarnation, the Simon Cowell of Israel, hunting for a prodigy in reality show The Successor. With all this going on, the 60-year-old relishes coming home to
his Berkshire pad in Sonning-on-Thames to relax far from the public eye.
“My house is private,” Geller explains. “I don’t give parties. Once I am here, it is privacy I look for. In Israel after The Successor I couldn’t walk in the street. Last Purim most children wanted to be Uri Geller.”
The Israeli-born entertainer has lived in Japan, New York, London and, for the last 23 years, in Berkshire with his wife Hanna and his two children until they flew the nest to follow their own
careers last year.
careers last year.
“We looked at around 30 houses. We almost gave up and stayed in London until we saw this last one. What impressed me about the house is the privacy, once you are through the gates
no one one can see you. When we were decorating we found mezuzah nails in the doors. It turned out that the Arab man we purchased the house from had obtained the property from a Jew. He had removed the mezuzahs but kept the nails on the panels.”
no one one can see you. When we were decorating we found mezuzah nails in the doors. It turned out that the Arab man we purchased the house from had obtained the property from a Jew. He had removed the mezuzahs but kept the nails on the panels.”
Geller opens his home up once a year to terminally-ill children including those from Jewish groups such as Camp Simcha. “We built a pyramid in the garden as part of psychological
aspects of health. I am not a healer but I talk to them about positive thinking and motivate them to think positively about their ailments so they can try to overcome it. Most doctors say a positive frame of mind can really help someone to heal faster.
“This village was a healing centre 1,000 years ago. It is registered in the Domesday Book. I only found this out after I moved here. That is synchronicity.”
Geller’s home is a tribute to his eccentricity. A giant crystal has been left by the door, a gift too heavy for anyone to move, and inside he displays his collection of art, thousands of
crystals and a shrine to John Lennon.
He explains that most of the items in his house are gifts while picking up a tiny golden egg and dropping it in my hand. “This was a gift from John Lennon. It is heavier than it looks,” he
says as the item weighs down on my palm. “John told me that he was lying
in bed in New York and he was woken by a light in his bedroom. A force made him go towards the light, then a hand stretched out and this was dropped into the palm of his hand.
“Of course, I suggested he must have been using some sort of substance at the time, but he insisted it really did happen. He described it as an extraterrestrial encounter. I have built him
a John Lennon corner in my house, a shrine, I really want to believe this is an object not from our earth.” Geller admits to having had a paranormal experience as a child which led him onto his chosen career path. “I was in a garden as a little boy in Israel when I saw a light which
knocked me over like a laser beam. Of course, no one believed me but while I was in Israel filming The Successor I had the most extraordinary validation.
I told this story on television and then got an email from a man who said he once saw a little boy in a white shirt, which my mother always dressed me in, running from a white light. I was so
amazed that I’d found someone to validate a story for which I was ridiculed for decades.”
From that early experience, he launched a career based on the power of the mind.
He went from stopping Big Ben to bending countless spoons, thousands of which are displayed on a 1976 Cadillac, “I have bent spoons belonging to David Ben Gurion, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein, John Lennon and Elvis Presley. I was offered a million dollars for the car by a Japanese collector but I couldn’t part with it.
“My mother wanted me to be a piano tuner out of all professions and trades, but she believed in me and knew I was special just like any Jewish mother would think about their child.”
While he still obliges when asked to bend a spoon, Geller has also moved into motivational coaching for businesses and football teams including the Israeli national side.
He claims credit for helping the development of midfielder Tal Ben Haim who moved from Bolton to Chelsea this year,
“I predicted he would end up at Chelsea, he is a great player, a fantastic positive thinker and that is so important for a footballer.”
But Geller says his main focus now is The Successor. “I am amazed how many
countries want to buy it, I will be presenting versions in America and Germany and it will be made in Russia, Holland, Hungary and Japan.
“There has been mass hysteria on buying the format. I never thought that at this age, after 40 years, that suddenly I would have a hit show.”
With so many strings to his bow, it seems Uri Geller has plenty on his plate – which is already covered in bent cutlery – to keep him busy for another few decades at least.
