r/WatchPeopleDieInside • u/CakeDayOrDeath • 16h ago
Uri Geller got popular in the 1970s by claiming to have supernatural powers. Johnny Carson invited Geller on his show and worked with James Randi to set up conditions where he couldn't use any trickery to fake his "powers." [Reposted to comply with sub rules]
1
u/Kingpopetheturd 8m ago
To say that only average Citizens would be Victim to such a Fraud is would be short sighted. The Israeli Military Send him out in a Helicopter to show them where valuable Ressources Could be Found!
10
18
u/tafinucane 22m ago
The only convincing thing about Uri Geller is his name used as a filler in crossword puzzles.
32
-2
u/witty_username89 52m ago
I’ve heard that James Randi would move the goal posts a lot if anyone came close to winning the prize. Not guys like this but some people with alternative medical cures and things like that, one guy spent 500k and laid out everything and was approved and when they saw it would work they changed the rules to it had be done in their approved lab which would have made him repeat everything and spend another 500k so he just said no.
11
16
u/spidedd 26m ago
"They'd have to repeat the results". Yes... that's how science works? Lol
3
u/ClearOptics 18m ago
Science isn’t supposed to be paid and done only by one guy just in different places
11
13
u/Fearless_Parking_436 33m ago
God damn, they expected the medicine alternatives to produce repeated results? What is it, science or something?
17
0
24
31
u/drezz23jj32ka55 1h ago
According to Wikipedia this appearance made Geller even more famous. Which is crazy if true. There's a lot of suckers out there.
To Geller's astonishment, he was immediately booked on The Merv Griffin Show. He was on his way to becoming a paranormal superstar. "That Johnny Carson show made Uri Geller", Geller said. To an enthusiastically trusting public, his failure only made his gifts seem more real: If he were performing magic tricks, they would surely work every time.
8
u/Scrunge1576 15m ago
It is true. Geller is also extremely litigious, and will sue at the drop of a hat. He even sued Pokemon over the original art work for Kadabra over copyright because it was holding a spoon, and stole his likeness. So Pokemon stopped printing that card and if you have one it's worth a ton of money because they are extremely rare.
40
45
u/RandomExcess 1h ago
Uri Geller tapped in to natural but fragile positive energy fields, often called auras, that are easily destabilized by the ubiquitous negativity of the conceit of skeptics such as the self named Amazing Randi.
Or so my Aunt Gertie told us.
30
u/CindersOfMusic 1h ago
Kadabra not getting TCG Cards for 20 years was his fault.
3
u/SgvSth 59m ago
To be fair, in Japanese there was a card that read Evil Yungerer.
1
u/VaultiusMaximus 49m ago
Which was the name of Kadabra in Japanese….
1
u/SgvSth 29m ago
And Yungerer is a corruption of Uri Geller's name. He didn't like the "Evil Uri Geller" part.
1
u/KnightSolair240 2m ago
That's a stretch bud Nintendo had a better argument for palworld being copywrite than that being close to evil uri geller
77
u/riptaway 1h ago
Every other time : immediately does the thing
When controls are introduced : I need time, I'm tired, the lights are too bright, the chi isn't right, etc
-8
6
6
u/Murky_Specialist992 1h ago
the force was not with Uri on this night....
If I'm not mistaken there were protracted lawsuits between Uri and James. I know there was at least one.
23
4
u/itualisticSeppukA0S 1h ago
sometimes when Im playing poker it seems like Im playing psychics that can read my minds or magicians that somehow ALWAYS GET THERE ON THE RIVER. It like they are pulling a rabbit outta thin air. Pulling the specific cards they needs to bad beat me runner-runner!
3
u/ImCaffeinated_Chris 1h ago
Poker is 87% playing the other players psychology and 12% the actual cards.
1
2
-24
u/tm0g 1h ago
Just an Israeli being shady lol
-6
u/LaughLong994 1h ago
Bet the percentage of shady Palestinians is way bigger than Israelis. Not that I care.
7
u/CakeDayOrDeath 1h ago
Every country has shady people and grifters. Him being Israeli is irrelevant to this.
-14
u/Solid_Guess_7154 1h ago
that's pretty much typical, the shady is guaranteed by just saying israeli
4
u/Velicenda 1h ago
Y'all really need to learn the difference between "Israeli citizen" and "Israeli government/IDF".
Not every Israeli citizen is a piece of shit.
3
3
u/Solid_Guess_7154 1h ago
oh boy you haven't seen the israeli polls lmao
1
u/FalconTurbo 5m ago
And two thirds of Americans statistically wanted trump voted in a second time. Does that mean I can call all Americans fascists and bootlickers?
-2
u/chronomagnus 1h ago
The Israel government being sacks of shit has apparently given internet Nazis a reason to slither out of the bog and give their views a try to a more mainstream group.
21
25
u/ofConstantSorrowwwww 2h ago
guy just had a bit of whiskey dick of the mind xD couldnt get it up when Carson told him to LOL
8
58
u/No-Scale6521 2h ago
So many gullible people in the world easy to con allow people like this to exist. It's sad really.
2
u/Responsible-Rip8793 1h ago
People still believe in fairy tale stories about humans doing miracles and stuff. People are just as dumb as ever if not more dumb now. We have all sorts of answers at our fingertips (thanks to the internet), no testable or verifiable evidence of anything supernatural, and yet people still believe in sky daddy.
1
64
35
71
u/GhostDoggoes 2h ago
I remember a lot of these psychics and fortune tellers were being put on blast during the mid 90's as well. The ones that were promoting them were mainly talk show hosts that touched on womens and mothers health. It was sad watching someone fall for it every time.
3
u/Murky_Specialist992 1h ago
This is still happening today in unseen ways... lots of ppl confuse correction with causation.
"Yes, you were sitting on the toilet when the S&P500 set an all time high. "
2
u/JungleSnacker 1h ago
Correlation is often confused with causation. Please don't confuse this correction with causation.
9
8
u/vowelqueue 1h ago
There's a pretty popular variant popular in the mainstream today in the form of the "mentalist" subcategory of magic. They've evolved a bit. They don't fundamentally claim that they can read minds or have supernatural powers, but the assertion is they've honed the ability to read people through subtle tics, micro-expressions, etc. They're still just doing magic tricks though. And like most magic it's a really entertaining form of live performance that is fine as long as they don't try to take advantage of people, e.g. charge money to someone to speak to their dead relative or something.
27
u/Intrepid-Progress228 2h ago
Inside Edition was schlock "journalism", but I get a warm feeling inside every time I watch this 'psychic' get exposed and flee the interview.
11
u/Tiny_Micro_Pencil 2h ago
My god it was gold when the reporter revealed that the girl the psychic claimed was killed was actually her as a child.
"You didn't disappear?"
"I'm right here."
"That's interesting isn't it?"
I can't with these people.
21
u/Loose_Leg_2918 2h ago
Well it’s not dissimilar to religion, which the majority of humans subscribe to. It’s all sad.
53
u/robaato72 3h ago
One of the several reasons I didn't like Jay Leno and his "Tonight Show" was that he let Geller come back on and get away with stuff.
71
u/GeneralViciniti 3h ago
Yuri went totally off the rails when he started telling sick people he could cure cancer. The Amazing Randi went on a mission to out him as a fraud.
52
u/CraftsBoy2Craftsman 3h ago
James Randi would be a great 70's pornstar name.
10
4
79
u/MyCatLaughsAtMe 3h ago
Oh he's still around! Woo communities act like he wasn't exposed as the fraud he is now, too.
21
u/BagBegBigBogBug 3h ago
Man, 'woo communities' is a new term for me but it's so apt. Like the commenter below you said, "people invested in woo woo don't abandon it. They simply trade one kind of woo woo for another" so true.
1
u/whatsbobgonnado 59m ago
1
u/BagBegBigBogBug 31m ago
Cool - interesting that it was 'invented' during my childhood. I'll be using this for sure
13
u/Mo_Steins_Ghost 3h ago
One of the things you learn about people invested in woo woo is that they don't abandon it. They simply trade one kind of woo woo for another. Case in point: People who supposedly leave religion then become attached to ufology.
One of the reasons I can't get into groups based purely on shared interests like atheist groups or evolutionary science groups is that a lot of them tune in for the wrong reasons, and they don't actually care to understand what they have subscribed and sworn themselves to. And it's naïve to say it's benign/harmless. These people are the same kind of folks who opened the door to anti-vax beliefs which led ultimately to the clusterfuck that was COVID and now the measles outbreaks.
0
u/MyCatLaughsAtMe 46m ago
I apologize for whatever I said that made you think I wanted to listen to you download your neuroses on me...We are discussing Uri Geller.
1
u/johnnyslick 1h ago
Yeah, I used to be in the skeptics' community before it completely fell apart over #metoo (like literally, one year one big convention in particular was like 60/40 male-female, an insanely high number for women at that point, then one of the big guys in the community was outed as a serial broken stair, then a whole bunch of people pretended that this guy raping someone wasn't that big of a deal because she was like drunk and stuff, then the women kind of all left the next year and took a lot of us men with them, and boom, the movement more or less died), and even before that, there was this fucking weeeeeeeeird schism where the old man "we got in here to oppose Bigfoot and UFOs, what the fuck" wing concluded that they didn't like the actual science of global warming and so decided that they were going to be "climate change skeptics", or, more accurately "people credulous towards fossil fuel companies". Ironically, the main target of the skeptics metoo situation was out on the forefront of the "climate change makes us sad so isn't the real" group too. It could have been so, so easy just to boot both factions out. Instead the community decided to off itself.
2
u/happy_bluebird 2h ago
And they just keep absorbing more woo. Some people are so susceptible.
My coworker who has told me about chemtrails sent a video from some "doctor" saying that menstruation is toxic, it's healthy when women stop menstruating, and it's even possible for women who stop menstruating to be so pure that they can give virgin birth.
Yep
1
u/Pavotine 2h ago
And they just keep absorbing more woo.
There are crystals for preventing that.
to be so pure that they can give virgin birth.
And that.
1
u/Mo_Steins_Ghost 2h ago
It should be disturbing and shocking to me, but I've seen so much of this stupidity in the world I'm desensitized to it.
8
u/KingGorilla 3h ago
Anyone know what qanon is up to now that the child trafficking ring was discovered
7
u/JoeDubayew 3h ago
Denying Trump's involvement and insisting it is fine to keep all the evidence concealed. Typical "dog that caught the car" behavior.
3
u/DuncanYoudaho 2h ago
“It goes all the way to the almost top. Maybe the Attorney General or Vice President.”
2
u/JoeDubayew 2h ago
The whole "ooops it wasn't all Democrats" thing really knocked them off their game
1
76
u/photoshy 4h ago
I remember his feud with Pokémon believing kadabra and alakazam were based on him
13
u/Healthy-Amoeba2296 4h ago
ghod what a loser. I read victorian magic books in 5th grade so when I saw him on TV I was stunned at how low quality his work was.
1
u/Just_Roll_Already 1h ago
"[god] what a loser." followed unironically by "I read victorian magic books in 5th grade" hit me with some Mach III whiplash. I need some time to recover.
21
u/Murky_Specialist992 4h ago edited 1h ago
4
u/m8_is_me 3h ago
Not an Honest Liar?
1
u/Murky_Specialist992 1h ago edited 1h ago
It might have been both! Thank you for pointing out this option.
I was in first year uni when I saw Secrets of Psychics... it changed my thinking patterns and critical thinking skills forever in such a healthy way.
They shut down the $1,000,000 challenge because they ran out of contestants.
edit: added $1M challenge
22
161
u/Pschobbert 4h ago
Geller had a kind of pre-Internet bot farming going on, too. When he appeared on TV, the broadcasters would get calls from "viewers" telling them how their stopped watches started working, or how their spoons started bending at home. Then of course the astonished broadcasters would relay this information live on air and the viral meme was born.
It was quite a grift.
-1
35
u/thebrownhaze 4h ago
I used to get my hair cut in the same barber as him
1
11
u/DulceEtDecorumEst 4h ago
I got a random fact too!
My 3rd grade teacher used to be Earnest Hemmingway’s Gardner
2
u/Shoddydiscord 2h ago
While not nearly as cool as being Hemmingway’s gardener-
Bob Dorough- The schoolhouse rock guy- played at a little weekend movie release celebration thing they had at the video store (not blockbuster).
I didn’t know the “I’m just a bill” song I remember him playing pieces of it playing at a stand up electric piano.
2
u/Frangipani_25 2h ago
My next door neighbour (kind elderly American man, I used to walk their dog) when I was a child growing up - in NZ - was friends with Ronald Reagan when he was an actor.
God sorry such a long sentence without enough structure but there it is.
4
u/IndependentType6711 3h ago
I need in on this! When I was in college they gave out scholarships for people studying in math and science degrees. It was a financial help for sure. The only caveat was you had to volunteer at a scientific event throughout the semester. Try as I might, I couldn’t find anyone who needed help.
As the weeks closed in the professor in charge of the scholarship pulled me to the side. She said “I noticed you haven’t completed your required event. You only have 3 weeks left. Something sudden has come up and we need help but nobody has volunteered that evening since it’s a Saturday, would you like to come help and that’ll be your event?”
I said “sure, what is it?”
She said “I can’t give you the details but you’ll need to wear nice clothes and a tie and be ready to serve food and drinks.”
I said “no problem I’ll be there.”
The event comes up and I pull up the venue, and there are cars everywhere. Also LOTS of security vehicles. I don an apron and begin to help prep tables.
Then I can hear someone authoritative speaking at the entrance.
“Yes, most of them will sit around at the tables with their families. They’ll take pictures afterward and then speak shortly about their time in space.”
I was intrigued.
As it turns out, the event was a 40th anniversary event of one of the major space programs of NASA. There were over 40 astronauts in attendance, and the surprise guest was Neil fucking Armstrong himself, who I was able to serve water to.
You can meet celebrities and it’s always so wild and fun, or crazy. But meeting the first living organism to consciously step onto a different planetary body in the history of Earth was so surreal I can’t even begin to describe how it felt.
That’s my fun story. And one last neat tidbit: when the dinner was over every one of the astronauts helped clean up the plates. We tried to get them to stop and one said “my momma didn’t raise me like that” while the rest smiled and continued to help.
2
u/DulceEtDecorumEst 3h ago
You know, I have no proof that this is a true, but I also have no doubts that this happened. Good for you!
2
u/IndependentType6711 2h ago
Thanks! One of the defining moments of my life. Most of the astronauts from Apollo 11 were there too.
2
3
u/mrthomani 3h ago
Wow! Any relation to Ernest Hemmingway?
1
u/backupbitches 3h ago
My ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence.
1
3
2
u/neilaoboho 4h ago
What!? My gardener used to be Earnest Hemmingway!
3
u/Emotional-Ad9701 3h ago
Thought I remembered you. I’m actually earnest Hemingway’a bastard son unearnest hemmingway.
6
u/dkwinsea 4h ago
I met Shirley jones, long after she was done with the partridge family and she asked me “ how do I look?” I told her “fine”
1
30
u/Pschobbert 4h ago
I'm triggered by that uncensored cigarette haha
17
u/crosstherubicon 4h ago
Carson was a dedicated chain smoker (as you can deduce from his voice) and he died from emphysema.
6
u/CakeDayOrDeath 3h ago
Dedicated is an interesting choice of word. He hated that he had a smoking habit and spent a long time trying to quit.
2
u/Murky_Specialist992 1h ago
there is at least one recorded convo w/ Carson where he cursed out tobacco companies and said something along the lines of "you know, they get you hooked on these dam things and you can't quit"
4
u/crosstherubicon 3h ago
Sure, he did hate it and did try to quit but he died as a smoker.
3
u/Andergaff 2h ago
No joke, I quit cold turkey after 20+ years of smoking ( at the end I was smoking 2 packs of camels a day) on the day I went to the hospital for heart surgery. The surgery was not smoking related, I had a genetic heart defect. The crazy part is that the day I walked into the hospital for surgery, I took my last drag, and put it out in the can outside the hospital. I knew that it was the last ime I would ever smoke a cigarette. I had tried to quit before, but failed. I succeeded then. I knew I would. Fun fact, I ended up marrying a physician I met during the whole diagnoses, surgery and recovery ordeal.
2
u/crosstherubicon 57m ago
I've heard similar stories of smoking cessation with conviction. A friends father vomited while suffering from a hangover but had forgotten he'd drunk a brightly colored cordial. The shock of bright red stomach contents frightened him so much he stopped smoking immediately. Unfortunately the drinking continued.
1
u/Andergaff 47m ago
Hard to say which is worse, nicotine or alcohol. I’d say nicotine, as i still enjoy a cocktail now n then. My wife would say they both are bad.
2
2
u/GoneOffWorld 1h ago
Wow, maybe destiny truly does exist?
Happy for you!
2
u/Andergaff 1h ago
Thanks. And you may be on to something with destiny… just celebrated our 22 anniversary.
4
u/sonofasonofason 4h ago
Is this the guillotine reference? I think I spent too much time on Reddit today. Going outside now
3
7
u/Fake_Account_69420 4h ago
what country censors cigarettes?
2
u/microthrower 3h ago
Taiwan. Any music video you see that has one, will have it censored when shown off of YouTube, and sometimes even on YouTube
7
5
u/boosesb 4h ago
Triggered?
2
u/Pschobbert 3h ago
It was a reference to a post today (removed now b/c it was fake) in which a cigarette was blurred out during a guillotine execution vid.
1
u/Yingletofthecorn 4h ago
Probably “I’m trying to quit and now I really want a smoke”
1
u/agfitzp 4h ago
Or it's just a "joke", the bar seems pretty low for that these days.
-1
u/SunDownSav 3h ago
OR… No. That’s definitely what the PP meant by triggered. If one applies their brain to stimulation, one can explore further meaning… I think that’s called ‘thinking.
in this case, the comment meant ‘Addiction’ to me. With this frame of mind came past experiences, personal or otherwise; then “triggered” became a small ‘giggle’, a ‘smirk’, OR… that stimulation our brain is seeking. Like, shit man, you ain’t never heard of addiction?
PP could be nicotine-free for the past 20 years… seeing this old Carson clip, how relaxed and present he is… all while smoking that cig- I think the kids call it ‘aura’; could have caused PP to feel some type of way (triggered).
I mean, all 3 of those guys seem way more nuanced compared the folks I see on tv now and I’m younger than those jn the clip.
I think the problem lies in you and another large portion of bad-faith actors relate to the rest of us.
You are missing an ENTIRE world by not ‘empathizing’ with your common man.
No bs, just good faith, life is interesting. PS- empathizing is when you ‘put’ yourself in another’s ‘shoes’s’ and experience life thru that lens.
3
u/Yingletofthecorn 4h ago
Man I dunno, I try to do the opposite of redditor behavior and assume good faith.
44
u/combine__ 5h ago
And then this scammer still defrauded German national TV in the 2000s somehow
7
1
11
u/mikeymikeymikey1968 4h ago
It's more fun to be fooled than educated. And it brings more viewers, thus more ad revenue.
42
u/danedeasy 5h ago edited 4h ago
The modern media should do more to expose hucksters and fraudsters today.
15
u/SailTales 4h ago
Check out the Decoding the Gurus podcast. It's two psychologists taking down grifters in the media by analysing their behaviour. It's depressing how many people in the media are complete charlatans.
2
u/CakeDayOrDeath 3h ago
I'm curious do they talk about "body language experts" at all? It's puzzled me endlessly that the amount of people who have called out JCS Criminal Psychology for their bullshit is pretty minimal.
1
4
u/McSkillz21 4h ago
The modern media is in cahoots with fraudsters and hucksters these days, have been since the late 90s and the Y2K sensation. They realized that there is no limit to falsehood as long as there is the right level of sensation.
2
u/data-atreides 2h ago
The moon landing conspiracy hoax got its huge boost from a FOX special in 2000 or so, and belief in it hasn't really come down since. My 9th grade science teacher was duped by that airing.
5
u/Gibonius 3h ago
Let's all thank Oprah for a career full of promoting fraudsters and hucksters. Some of them are even in the Cabinet now!
3
u/Precarious3145 4h ago
Yup. Fox constantly made headlines for bullshit like "Alien Autopsy". Discovery Channel and Animal Planet saw their biggest ratings at the time by having shows like "Tracking Bigfood" and "Finding Lochness Monster".
People love the fake bullshit and disproving it doesn't gain the same views as broadcasting it.
1
u/CakeDayOrDeath 3h ago
There's also so-called body language experts. JCS Criminal Psychology had/has an absolutely massive following and inspired a bunch of copycat channels even though a ton of their claims are bullshit.
3
3
u/ExileEden 4h ago
Exposing frauds only brings money one time. Playing along with them continues to bring money for a very long time.
21
u/CatsPlusTats 5h ago
James Randi was an icon.
9
u/kkeut 4h ago edited 4h ago
his dowsing special for Australia public tv is hilarious, saw it on youtube
edit-
1
u/Murky_Specialist992 1h ago
I'm so glad you mentioned this!!! I forgot about this...
I think dowsing still exists today in various parts of the world to various extents..2
1
3
u/Zahliamischa 4h ago
Ay yes, Australia famous birthplace of Arnold Schwarzenegger. You might need another edit :)
1
11
u/RenegadeMoose 5h ago
I couldn't help but notice Ricardo Montalban on the left.
The one and only "Khaaaaaaaannnnn!" from Star Trek II
2
u/CakeDayOrDeath 3h ago
Oh my god, I didn't recognize him! I wonder if the chair he was sitting in was corinthian leather.
2
24
22
u/SeachingBadge 5h ago
Uri was a creep then, and he’s still a creep. Dishonest. He tries to shift blame Here saying he’s been put under pressure.
And Uri is still lying and manipulative today, shifting blame to others.
1
14
1
u/NickFerg 7m ago
Ooo, post the one of him putting styrofoam packing peanuts around the phonebook pages so the guy couldn’t blow on them next. I love videos of Randi making charlatans die inside.