22
Epilogue
Mind Over Missile?
I was as surprised as anybody else to open the 4 May 1987 issue
of US News & World Report and read the following on
the 'Washington Whispers' page:
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Claiborne Pell last week
reserved a vault in the attic of the Capitol - a room often used
to examine top-secret documents. Purpose: Assemble government
officials to hear Israeli psychic Uri Geller reveal what he has
divined of Soviet strategic intentions. Geller, who claims to
be able to bend spoons with mental force, once briefed former
President Jimmy Carter.
I was not surprised by yet one more untrue story about me in the
press. This one was true. What surprised me was seeing it in print.
I do not know who leaked the story. I only know that it was not
me. As many eminent people in all walks of life could testify,
when I am asked to keep quiet on a sensitive matter, I keep quiet.
There was no indication in the brief item of why anybody would
have thought I had anything useful to say about Soviet strategic
intentions. Not surprisingly, the world's media decided to find
out for themselves. First off the mark was Newsweek, which
sent a reporter to my home in England, where I had only just returned
after a very tiring three-week promotion tour for the hardcover
edition of this book in the US, and where I was hoping for some
days of recuperation in the spring sunshine.
I had no such luck. By the time the 11 May issue of Newsweek
was on the stands (several days before the cover date) there
had also been a full-page feature in the News of the World
(3 May) and even a fifteen-column-inch story on the front
page of Britain's leading Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Times.
Again, all three of these major stories were substantially
accurate, though again most of the information they contained
did not come from me.
The truth was gradually emerging: that I had met the head of the
Soviet arms negotiating team in Geneva and also his US counterpart,
Ambassador Max Kampelman, in addition to the highly respected
five-term US Senator Claiborne Pell, plus quite a distinguished
cast of supporting characters.
I was even given the honour of an item in the weekly BBC radio
satirical programme 'Week Ending' (1 May) in which I was supposedly
introduced to President Reagan as the fellow who was going to
use 'his awesome psychic powers against the Soviets'. Sample dialogue:
Reagan: Baloney! I bet you can't tell what I'm
thinking right now.
Me: You're thinking, 'Bet you can't tell what
I'm thinking right now'.
Reagan: That's good. This guy's genuine. OK,
Geller - you're on!
It was all good fun, although the actor playing my part did not
sound like me. (I also never met President Reagan and I never
use my 'awesome powers' against anybody or anything except maybe
spoons.)
The New York Post published the cartoon reproduced opposite,
with its row of contorted Soviet missiles.
I enjoy a good joke, including those made at my expense. World
peace and nuclear disarmament, however, are serious matters, and
now that a good deal of the story of my brief involvement in this
area has been made public by others, let me tell you what really
happened. I particularly want to set the record straight in order
to avoid speculation that might harm the careers of some of the
finest public servants of the United States - and maybe also of
the Soviet Union.
I do not know how it all started. I do not know who said what
to whom, when or where, so I cannot tell you the whole story.
I can only put on record what I know.
With the first publication of this book in Britain in October
1986, I soon learned that there was a sudden revival of interest
in me. Scraps of information coming my way from friends, and from
friends of friends, led me to believe that some of my former colleagues
in the US defence and intelligence communities were asking themselves
why they had let me go, and why they no longer asked me to do
anything for them.
'COMRADE GORBACHEV, I THINK URI GELLER HAS MADE AN ARMS DEAL WITH
THE AMERICANS'
8 Cartoon from the New York Post, May 1987.
Then, late in December 1986, I received a most unusual telephone
call. The dialogue, to the best of my recollection, went like
this.
'Mr Geller? My name is Casey. You may have read about me in the
papers lately. I've known about you for many years.'
Somebody had to be kidding me. The only Casey I had been reading
about was the newly appointed director of the Central Intelligence
Agency, the late William Casey. I forget what I replied, but my
voice must have betrayed my suspicions.
'If you're psychic you'll know this isn't a joke,' said the caller.
He sounded to me like an elderly man of some authority. He could
well have been the CIA chief, so I decided to go along with him
and see what developed.
'OK,' I replied. 'I believe you. How can I help you? I'm quite
astonished and flattered that you're calling me out of the blue
like this. Did anybody tell you to get in touch with me?'
'No, no, Mr Geller. I just wanted to ask if you could do something
for me over the 'phone, just for my personal satisfaction?'
'Well, I've done it in the past, but I don't know if it'll work.'
I gathered he wanted to do some kind of telepathy test, and I
remembered that my first contact with the CIA had been very similar
to this one.
'I'm looking at something,' he went on. 'Can you describe it for
me?'
I closed my eyes and went through my usual visualization method.
Then I drew what I had picked up and described it to my caller.
I told him I had seen a dagger with an ornamental tortoise-shell
or ivory handle.
There was a long silence. I wondered if we had been disconnected.
Then came the reply.
'I'll - be - darned! You got it. OK, OK, that was enough for me.
It was nice talking with you, Mr Geller.' And that was that.
I had already met Senator Claiborne Pell socially. He and I turned
out to have close friends in common, so there was nothing unusual
about our initial meeting. It came about when an old friend of
mine, Princess Luciana Pignatelli, introduced me to a member of
the British Royal Family, the German-born Princess Michael of
Kent.
During my conversation with the Princess (which was private and
as far as I am concerned will remain so) she mentioned the Senator
as an old friend who not only had a very distinguished public
career - he was now chairman of the US Foreign Relations Committee
- but was also very open-minded towards psychic and spiritual
matters. Although I did not know it at the time, the Senator's
interests were on the record back in 1984, when an article in
the New York Times (10 January) quoted him as having 'discussed
the parapsychology field with Soviet researchers during a visit
to the Soviet Union in August . . .'
We got along very well from the start. I found Senator Pell to
be a man of great dignity and wisdom, and although he could be
described as a member of the old school of politics, he also struck
me as one of the most forward-looking and open-minded statesmen
I had ever met. What especially impressed me was that he wanted
above all to know if I thought psychic power could be used for
peaceful purposes.
We had a very pleasant meeting. I bent a spoon for him and reproduced
a drawing he had made out of my sight, of a smiling face. Nothing
specific was arranged, and I never imagined that we would meet
again so soon or in such sensitive circumstances.
Not long after that mysterious telephone conversation with a man
who claimed to be the head of the CIA, another call came out of
the blue into my home. The caller was secretary to Ambassador
Kampelman, who told me very formally that the ambassador would
like to meet me, and could I suggest a suitable venue?
I assumed he would not want our meeting to be too public, to put
it mildly, so I hastily arranged to borrow the boardroom of a
London company owned by a friend I could trust to keep quiet,
and that was where we duly met - just the two of us.
Max Kampelman was one of the few people who have asked to see
me and then not asked me to bend a spoon or read his mind.
He struck me as a man not fond of wasting time, and I believe
he had been well briefed on what I could do. He was particularly
keen to know if I thought that a human mind could influence others
at a distance in a positive way, and as with Senator Pell I found
him to be a person of great warmth and constructive intentions.
Our talk lasted about an hour, during which we also touched on
the question of Soviet Jews, which was naturally of interest to
us, and when we shook hands out on the pavement nothing was said
about any further meeting.
By February 1987, the German-language edition of this book had
been published by Ariston, a publisher with its headquarters in
Geneva. They arranged an extensive promotion tour for me in Germany,
Austria and the German-speaking areas of Switzerland, and it was
while I was in Zurich that I received yet another of those out-of-the-blue
'phone calls inviting me to come at once to Geneva.
The US/Soviet disarmament talks were already under way, and I
was to attend a function at the US Mission. The date was 27 February,
and the invitation came from Ambassador Kampelman's aide. (Whether
the invitation originated with the ambassador, I do not know:)
It was agreed that if the press spotted me I was to be described
as an entertainer, although whoever heard of entertainers at disarmament
talks?!
So, almost as soon as I stepped from the plane at Geneva, I found
myself on centre-stage in a real-life drama that could have had
immense international consequences.
The formal business of the day was over (I had not been invited
to that) and a reception was held at the US Mission for American
and Soviet delegates and their wives. It may have been no more
than an informal social event on the surface, but as any diplomat
will know these affairs are not held just for fun. The serious
business continues at them, and I did not have to be psychic to
know that I had walked into a room where some very heavy stuff
was going on amid the social chatter and raising of glasses.
I was delighted to spot two familiar faces, those of Senator Pell
and Ambassador Kampelman, and to be introduced to no less than
five other senators: Ted Stevens, Richard Lugar, Arlen Spector,
Don Nickles and a man who could well be a future US president
- Albert Gore. I was even more honoured and pleased then to be
presented to the First Deputy Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union
and head of his mission, Yuli M. Vorontsov.
I had come a long way in a short time, for the man I was meeting
just a couple of months after that enigmatic telephone call from
somebody claiming to be William Casey (I still have no proof that
it was) was one of the three most influential men in Soviet foreign
affairs, together with his minister, Edward Shevardnadze, and
party secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
I liked Mr Vorontsov at once. I felt no trace of hostility from
him, and we soon began a pleasant and informal conversation, ranging
over world affairs in general and the abilities of individuals
to alter the course of events by no more than the state of their
minds and their real desire for peace.
I was sure he had such a desire. For all their history of wars,
revolutions and massacres, I feel that there is a peaceful side
to the Russian personality (though not perhaps to all nationalities
in the Soviet Union), together with an energy and enthusiasm for
life not often found in other peoples.
Vorontsov knew who I was, and since I had been brought along as
an entertainer, I thought I had better do some entertaining. I
began by making a seed sprout, and then picked up a spoon and
began to bend it in my usual way, handing it to Vorontsov and
telling him it would go on bending while he was holding it. To
his delight, and my great relief, it did.
His manner towards me after my little show became even more cordial.
He smiled, and said, 'I know these powers are real', then went
on to tell me about the Soviet healer Dzhuna Davitashvili, who
is thought to have treated the late Mr Brezhnev - though this
was not the time to ask about that alleged incident.
After the reception, I was invited to join a group for dinner
at Roberto's restaurant, where I was seated opposite Vorontsov
at the table that also included Kampelman, Pell and two other
senators.
Like the reception, the dinner was more than a purely social affair,
and I will not repeat any of the dialogue that buzzed around my
ears during the meal. It soon became clear to me - by perfectly
normal means - that both sides had come to Geneva to bargain,
negotiate and discuss, not to present previously established fixed
positions, as might have been the case under earlier Soviet administrations.
History was being made all around me, and the well-being of tens
of millions of people would depend on how well my fellow-diners
got along with each other.
Throughout the meal, I kept up a steady bombardment of my own
form of negotiation: intense images of peace. The previous year,
I had only had a few minutes with the first 'victim' of my peace
campaign, Adnan Khashoggi, and, as I have described, I am sure
he received the message. With Vorontsov I had three or four hours,
and I really let him have it. I am convinced that he too got the
message.
I signed a copy of my book for Vorontsov and his wife, telling
him he would have a good laugh when he read it, because he was
going to think, 'How come the US is still using him, because the
book is fairly derogatory about the CIA?'
Vorontsov laughed. 'Don't worry,' he said. 'They never read books!'
Three days later, on Monday 2 March 1987, the story hit the world's
headlines. 'West Welcomes Gorbachev Nuclear Weapons Proposal'
(Financial Times) and 'Urgent Missile Talks Today on Soviet
Offer' (The Times) were two typical ones from the British
press. In a front-page column headed 'Soviet Offer is Genuine
Article', The Guardian's Jonathan Steele summarized two
explanations of what he called 'Mr Gorbachev's dramatic U-turn'
in the form of a no-strings-attached offer to remove all medium-range
nuclear missiles from Europe, East and West.
The 'hard-line' version was that it was a clever Soviet ploy to
lure President Reagan into an unwise deal at a time when he faced
difficulties in other areas. The 'optimistic' theory was that
'Gorbachev is making an important concession', and Steele commented:
'I accept the second theory . . .'
I would love to claim all the credit for this, but I should point
out that Gorbachev's surprise offer was made the very day after
my dinner party at Geneva. It is true that when I said good-bye
to Vorontsov, I told him to tell Mr Gorbachev what had happened,
which he assured me he would and I have no doubt that he did.
However, there were many indications that the Soviet leader had
been planning a major initiative of this kind ever since the 1986
Reykjavik summit with Reagan - and I had nothing to do with that!
Even so, the Sunday Times' headline in its 3 May issue
was: 'Did Uri Bend the Will of Gorbachev?' Maybe I did? Who knows?
Only Vorontsov and Gorbachev, and they are not telling.
Back home after my brief plunge into international affairs, I
had plenty to do. The French edition of my book came out, calling
for more promotion, and I had little time to prepare myself physically
and psychically for my three-week tour of the US in April.
On 7 April, less than a week after the start of my US tour, I
found that the authorities had not finished with me. I received
a very high-powered invitation to a dinner party at the house
of a prominent and influential industrialist in the Washington
area, whose other guests included such prominent political figures
as Milton Friedman, House Speaker James Wright, Representative
Charlie Rose, and a handful of senators including Alan Cranston.
It was a private and informal affair, and I was sure I had not
been invited just to bend the spoons.
I took the opportunity to say my piece on world affairs and the
ability of individuals to influence them for the general good.
My little peace lecture was pretty well rehearsed by now, and
I already had reason to believe that it had opened quite a few
minds in recent weeks. I hope it opened one or two more that evening.
Perhaps it did, for towards the end of my coast-to-coast tour
I received yet another of those invitations of the kind you cannot
refuse. This was to the meeting at the Capitol at which, as US
News & World Report put it, I was asked to reveal to US
government officials what I had 'divined' of Soviet strategic
intentions.
I flew in from Minneapolis, and was met at the airport by Senator
Pell's aide, who drove me straight to the Capitol. As we rolled
into the parking lot, I realized I was still in my usual sports
clothes, and felt I ought to change into something more suitable
for a top-level meeting with some of the leaders of the world's
most powerful nation. Time was running short, so I stripped right
down there in the Capitol parking lot and managed to get my suit
and tie on, hoping a curious cop would not stop by and wonder
exactly what was going on!
The meeting was not an unqualified success for me. The audience,
according to Newsweek, consisted of 'forty government officials,
including Capitol Hill staffers and Pentagon and Defense Department
aides, gathered in a high-security room to hear Geller hold forth
on his abilities'. That was not quite correct - I did not hold
forth on my abilities, but on my usual theme of world peace and
the need to invest more in the development of mental abilities.
I reminded the officials that I now knew what I was talking about
from first-hand experience when I said that top Soviet officials
were aware of the psychic dimension. I had only recently spent
an evening with the Number Three man in the Soviet foreign affairs
hierarchy, and I had, I thought, left him with something to think
about.
So far, so good. Then, as Newsweek reported quite correctly,
'the psychic tried guessing - unsuccessfully - the shapes that
the assembled guests had drawn on bits of paper'. I just had a
bad day as far as telepathy was concerned. I was really worn out
after barnstorming around the country. I had been on the promotion
bandwagon since October, with very few rest breaks, and on top
of that I had suddenly been hauled into a major international
affair. All I could concentrate on by then was getting back to
my wife, my children and my home.
Shortly after the start of my April promotion tour in the United
States, I was contacted by an Israeli. He did not tell me who
he was, and I did not ask him.
He was very well informed about my recent activities in areas
other than those for which I am best known, and his message to
me was very brief. What it amounted to was this: I could be in
serious trouble, and I should watch my step.
Maybe he overstated his case, but knowing the people I assume
he was working for, I would not bet on it. I became paranoid.
Was somebody out to kidnap me, or to 'terminate' me, as they say
in intelligence circles? It seemed ridiculous, but . . .
These things do happen. My good friend John Lennon was gunned
down outside his own home by a mentally disturbed young man. That
great man of peace Terry Waite disappeared in the labyrinths of
Lebanese political intrigue after setting out on another of his
brave one-man peace missions. What really happened to those three
British scientists working in a sensitive defence-related industry
who were all found dead in most unusual circumstances? People
do get kidnapped. They do disappear. They do get terminated. There
are some really sick people out there. There are also some powerful
and well-financed individuals who have vested interests in preventing
world peace. The victims of these perverts and warmongers always
seem to be those most dedicated to peace, love and spiritiual
progress.
As soon as I got home, I wrote three short letters, put them in
an envelope and had this delivered to the Soviet Embassy in London.
I enclosed a covering letter to the ambassador asking him to pass
on the letters. One was to Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, one was
to Yuli Vorontsov, and the third was to the director-general of
the Soviet Committee for State Security, better known as the KGB.
The contents of the letters were identical, and this is what I
wrote:
After my demonstration at the US Mission in Geneva for the
US and Soviet delegations, I heard rumours that the KGB might
be planning to either kidnap me or kill me.
I am just a good showman and an entertainer, and I am harmless.
I do hope the rumours are false.
My best wishes,
Peace
Uri Geller
Was I over-reacting, or was that cryptic message from the nameless
Israeli genuine? Knowing how people in Israeli security circles
operate, I would doubt that he was wasting either his own time
or mine.
Had I written to the right people, though? Did somebody else want
me out of the way? I could not think of anybody, but all the same
I carried out a thorough check of my security and improved it
in a number of ways, making use of the best advice available anywhere.
I tried to visualize the scene when Vorontsov reported back to
his government after the Geneva talks. Maybe he really did believe
that the US had signed an arms deal with me? There must have been
some confusion in the Kremlin - entertainers do not normally show
up at disarmament talks. What was the US up to? Did they have
a secret weapon: me?
To add to their confusion, I had made it perfectly clear what
I was up to. I told Vorontsov more or less what I told all the
other people mentioned in this chapter - that the mind is mightier
than the missile, and instead of spending billions on missiles,
we should put some real money into minds.
It is already clear that I am not the only one to believe this,
for when the story of my visits to Geneva and the Capitol hit
the headlines, there was an interesting development: I received
official invitations from no less than four major countries. All
of them wanted me to visit them in order to discuss ways of achieving
peace with top government officials including heads of state.
When I received these invitations, I accepted them all and included
a selection of articles and items about my recent activities from
the press. I also included a fair selection of derogatory material
written by my detractors and other sceptics.
All four countries replied to the effect that after carefully
studying the material I sent them, they would still like me to
visit them. Previous 'peace conferences' have focused on ways
of reducing war. We are now putting the emphasis on ways of increasing
peace, which is not quite the same thing.
Looking through my file of anti-Geller articles, I cannot help
feeling once again that I have come a long way. For instance,
here is the 1977 issue of The Humanist with the cover story
entitled 'Psychics Debunked'. I was one of them. of course, And
here is the New Scientist (16 April 1987) admitting just
ten years later that 'despite CSICOP's attempts to discredit Uri
Geller, the spoon-bending psychic from Israel, Geller has earned
up to $250,000 a day telling mining companies where to look for
oil and gold.' In 1978, you may remember, the same magazine described
me as a 'fake'. Now, at least, I have been promoted to the status
of a 'psychic'!
The issue today is no longer whether Uri Geller is real or not.
It is one of much more importance: whether a wider understanding
of the real power of the human mind can make for a better world.
I am proud of what I did at Geneva, and I am grateful to those
courageous public figures who invited me there regardless of the
ridicule they knew they could expect from their own press (although
as it turned out, the episode was very objectively and fairly
reported). Two of them, incidentally, wrote to thank me for my
services after the story had become public.
I do not know who was ultimately responsible for getting me to
Geneva, and it will be some time before we can say what effect,
if any, I had on the minds of the Soviet officials I met.
My guess is that they went home with plenty to think about, and
that as soon as they were back at their desks quite a number of
urgent messages flew around the country, from Moscow and Leningrad
to Minsk, Kharkov, Kiev, Pushchino, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk, Alma-Ata,
Taganrog, Yerevan and Tbilisi - in fact, everywhere that 'bioelectronics'
(their word for psychic functioning) is already being studied.
A research budget would be increased here, a new laboratory added
there, more staff taken on somewhere else . . .
The next peace summit talks could be really interesting.
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