Classic Mysteries—Alternate Perceptions Magazine, November 2024
Another extraordinary Uri Geller account
by: Brent Raynes
Marie-Therese de Brosses, a French writer and journalist, and a major reporter at Paris-Match, shared with me this about herself: "After having passed a doctorate in philosophy, I chose to be an author (nine published books) and journalist. Since I was eight, I have been interested in UFOs and I have published the first book in French about abductions (1) with a very serious and 'respectable' publisher (Plon, which was the General de Gaulle's publisher) which had never published any book on the 'adulterated' UFO topic!"
In a recent Facebook post where I had provided a link to a recent interview with the controversial Israeli "psychic" Uri Geller, I was asked what I thought of him, and I gave the following response: "I've spoken to people who shared intriguing stories about Geller. I do think there's something to his alleged psychic talents. I recall walking into the office of Harry Belil, editor then of Beyond Reality and UFO Update magazines in NYC back in the 1970s and he told me how one day out of the blue Geller walked into his office and things started moving around, and he said it was quite puzzling, pointing out how he hadn't ever been in his office before and so couldn't have set things up for these events to have happened if it was simple magic tricks."
This prompted Marie to respond with the following:
I must admit that at first, I was quite skeptical about Uri Geller's "talents" but one evening while I was having dinner with him and Byron Janis (the wonderful classical pianist and composer who died this year in March) and his wife Maria Cooper in New York, he pulled a "trick" on us that, almost thirty years later, I can neither forget nor understand. Remote viewing + remote object movement - which means WITHOUT contact + 100% accurate prediction).
I will try to summarize very succinctly. During dinner, Byron's wife put her hand to his neck: "But ... I had a necklace when I arrived. It must have fallen off. It's horrible. I was very attached to it".
Uri smiled: "It's not lost, I know you'll find it."
She: "Where and when?"
Geller: "Don't worry, you can wear it from the day after tomorrow."
Maria: "Impossible, we're leaving tomorrow because Byron has a concert in London."
Geller: "Then you'll find it in London. When you're in a room where there are two perfectly identical tall vases. You'll find it in the vase on the right."
At the table, no one found this statement amusing (it was a very valuable necklace that Byron had given to his wife) but two days later I learned that when they arrived at their London hotel (the reservation had been made by Byron's impresario) and when they entered their suite, they had been very surprised to discover in the small hall of their suite ... two identical tall vases! Of course, Maria immediately plunged her hand into the vase on the right where ... she found her necklace!!!
Byron gave me his word of honor that this astonishing story was true and that he recorded it in his diary. I did the same.
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I was reminded of how a few years earlier Marie had written to me of how she was once in a bookstore in New York City and was looking at books by John Keel, who just happened to be nearby and approached her asking why she was interested in this man's writings. As I recall, she informed this man (who she eventually found out to be Keel, of course) that she considered him to be something of an extraordinary researcher. "I even had the pleasure of spending an entire afternoon with him! And this meeting that I dreamed of and that I thought impossible happened at Strand's."
Naturally, as the author of John A. Keel: The Man, The Myths, and the Ongoing Experiences (2019), I can certainly appreciate Marie's interest and admiration in Keel. "I’ve read you for a long while with a lot of interest as I start to get bored by the wind of madness that blows upon the self-proclaimed ufologists who are in reality only delusional ufomaniacs," Marie wrote.
That was good to read. I’ve acknowledged previously to being a Maniac, but only in the sense of having been born and raised in the fine state of Maine.
References:
1. Investigation into Alien Abductions, 1995.
