Discovery Lab Answers

Uri Geller

Uri Geller is an Israeli claimant of psychokinetic (PK) abilities, most notably metal-bending. His work in the 1970s became a focal point for experimental parapsychology research and remains a significant case in discussions of macro-PK and experimental controls.

The Stanford Research Institute experiments

In the early 1970s, physicists Harold E. Puthoff, PhD and Russell Targ at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) conducted systematic tests of Geller’s abilities under controlled conditions. Their work appeared in a 1974 Nature letter and became one of the most widely cited experimental engagements with macro-PK claims.

Picture-reproduction experiments. Geller participated in thirteen drawing experiments over seven days while visually, acoustically, and electrically shielded in an isolated room. Targets were drawn only after his isolation, selected by three methods: arbitrary dictionary entry, independent preparation by SRI scientists after his seclusion, and advance target pools. In ten trials where he chose to respond, two independent blind judges matched each of his submitted sketches to the correct targets without error, with each judge’s probability of success by chance approximately 1 in 3 million.

Die-in-a-steel-box trials. In a separate series, Geller was correct on all eight of his responses when asked to predict the outcome of a die sealed in a steel box—a result with odds of roughly 1 in a million by chance.

Envelope protocol (null result). When targets were sealed in envelopes unknown to any person on the research team, Geller declined to respond and did not depart from chance. The SRI authors stated plainly that they could not obtain adequately controlled results under that condition.

Faraday cage. Several sessions were conducted from inside a copper-screen Faraday cage without apparent loss of quality in the reported effects.

Remote viewing with other subjects. Puthoff and Targ also tested other individuals, including a photographer named Hella Hammid who had no prior psi testing. These sessions were conducted under shielded conditions and are reported by Targ to have produced results he regards as compelling.

Context and interpretation

Geller’s public profile peaked in the late 1960s and 1970s. He became the public face of a brief revival in macro-PK research driven also by Soviet studies of the claimant Nina Kulagina. The SRI work attracted significant scientific and media attention. However, since the 1980s the research mainstream has strongly favored micro-PK (statistical studies of small random effects) over macro-PK, partly because laboratory methods for micro-PK are easier to standardize and control.

For deeper technical analysis of the SRI protocols, their controls, and the broader context of remote-viewing research in that era, see Remote Viewing and the detailed pages on Harold E. Puthoff, PhD and Russell Targ.