EXPERIMENTS - URI GELLER AT SRI, AUGUST 4-11, 1973

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• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 5, 2003
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EXPERIMENTS - Uri Geller at SRI, August 4-11, 1973
OBJECTIVE
The objective of. this group of experimental sessions is to
verify Geller's apparent paranormal perception under carefully
controlled conditions and to head toward an understanding of the
physical and psychological variables underlying his apparent
ability.
EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
In each of the eight days of this experimental period we conducted
picture drawing experiments. In these experiments Geller was separated
from the target material either by an electrically isolated shielded room
or by the isolation provided by having the targets drawn on the East Coast.
We have continued to work with picture drawing tasks in an effort to achieve
repeatability so that we could meaningfully vary the experimental conditions
to determine the effect of physical parameters on the phenomena. As a re-
sult of Geller's success in this experimental period, we consider that he
has demonstrated his aranorm
onvincing and
unambiguous manner.
Saturday, August 4. Two drawing experiments were conducted this day.
In both of these, Geller was closeted in an opaque, acoustically and
electrically shielded room. This room is the double-walled shielded room
used for EEG-research in the Life Sciences Division of SRI. It is locked
by means of an inner and outer door, each of Which is secured with a re-
frigerator-type locking mechanism. Figure 1.
The twodrawings used in this experiment were selected by randomly
opening a large college dictionary and selecting the first word which
could reasonably be drawn. The first word obtained in this. manner was
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August 13, 1973
R. Targ
Experiments - Uri Geller August 4-11, 1973
"fuse" and the object drawn was a firecracker. All target selection
and picture drawing was done with Geller already in the shielded room.
Geller was notified via intercom when the target picture was drawn and
tp,pori to tho wnll ontqido hig onolosuro.
His almost immediate response was that he saw "a cylinder with
noise coming out of it". (He was continuously monitored by a one-way
audio circuit.) His drawing to correspond to the target was a drum,
along with a number of other cylindrical-looking objects. Figs. 2 and 3.
The second word selected was "bunch," and the target was a bunch
of grapes. Geller's immediate response was that he saw "drops of water
coming out of the picture. He then talked about "purple circles".
Finally, he said that he was quite sure that he had the picture. His
drawing was indeed a bunch of grapes. Both the target picture and
Geller's rendition had 24 grapes in the bunch. Figs. 4 and 5.
In this work the target picture is never discussed by the experi-
menters after the picture is drawn or brought near the shielded room.
The intercom operates only from the inside of the room to the outside,
except when the push-to-talk switch is depressed on the outside of the
room. In our detailed examination of the shielded room and the protocol
used in these experiments no sensory leakage has been found, nor has any
defect in the protocol been brought to our attention.
Sunday, August 5. Geller is locked in the shielded room and the target
is drawn in the experimenter's office about a half mile away. The target
selected from the dictionary was an outline drawing of a man, which evolved
through the drawing process into a devil with a trident. To start the
experiment, Puthoff, who was with Geller, called Targ, who was with the
drawing. Geller spent almost a half hour working on the drawing before
producing the first of several responses.
His drawings were as follows. 1. "Moses'Tablets" i.e., Ten Com-
mandments, inside the world with a trident on the outside. 2. Apple
with a worm coming out of it. A snake was in the same picture. 3. Com-
posite picture with the Ten Commandments on top of the world, God inside
the world and the trident on the outside, along with a neatly drawn leaf.
One is led to speculate that the Garden of Eden representation in these
three drawings is perhaps associational material triggered by the target.
The inability on Geller's part to draw the devil may be culturally in-
duced.
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August 13, 1973
Experiments - Uri Geller August 4-11, 1973 R. Targ
With regard to the, pictures, Geller did draw the trident from the
target picture, but he did not draw the man Who was holding it. From
this it seems clear that Geller does not simply copy lines from the
target picture: but rather he does perform some -mental prneessinff on
them before drawing them himself. Fig. 6-9.
The second target picture was drawn by an experimenter while he
was inside the shielded room with Geller outside the room with another
experimenter. In this case the target was a representation of the solar
system, drawn without the orbit lines. His immediate verbal reaction
before drawing was one of "space". Fig. 10 and 11. Geller's drawn
response to the target while outside the room also omits the conventional
orbit lines and appears to have many similarities to the target drawing.
The block in the center of Geller's picture, according to his statement,
was his afterthought suggested by the movie 2001 and was drawn an an
addition just before comparing target with response.
Monday, August 6. The experiment to be done this day was a pure
clairvoyance task. A picture was drawn by a scientist outside of the
usual experimental group. The picture was locked in the shielded room
before Geller's arrival at SRI. Geller was then led by the experi-
menters to the shielded room, and asked to draw the picture inside the
room. He drew a number of pictures, all of which he rejected as not
being applicable. He said that he got no clear impression and passed.
The target was a rabbit, and nothing Geller drew in any way resembled
a rabbit. It should be added that the picture was drawn by a scientist
of whom Geller is not fond, and Geller asked at the outset if this was
the case. The experimenters said that this was not the case, since
they did not know who had drawn the picture. Geller felt vindicated
to some extent when he found out that his initial guess as to the artist
had been correct.
Tuesday, August.7. This day two target pictures were attempted with
Geller in the shielded room. He was connected to an EEG apparatus to
allow measurement of his brain waves at the time that he was attempting
to perceive a hidden picture. The two target pictures were a tree and
an envelope. He experienced difficulty, did not make a drawing that
corresponded to either drawing and passed. Also, he found it very
difficult to hold adequately still to make good EEG records. We will
repeat the EEG experiment another time to try and obtain better data.
The same skeptical experimenter who drew the rabbit was the EEG operator
on this second unsuccessful day.
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Expc4nWi1te0F.c4AeleMPR9G9uln:4C_II.A1-71763-00787R000700e;11:1.0T0a0Srg-2-3, 1973
Wednesday, August 8. Three targets were drawn during the course of
this day's work. In the first, the experimenters closed the outer
door of the laboratory in which the shielded room is located (in ad-
dition to the inner double doors) and worked in an adjoining room.
The target picture in this case was a camel. Geller felt unsure
and passed, but his first choice drawing was a horse. Figs. 12 and 13.
The experimenters then returned to the room outside the shielded
room _TA drew the second picture which was the Golden Gate Bridge. Geller
inside the shielded room drew some curved lines with some squares under-
neath. He said that he didn't know what the picture was and passed.
Fig. 14.
The third picture was a flying sea gull. Geller almost immedi-
ately said that he saw a flying swan over a hill. He drew several
birds and said that he was sure that his drawing was correct, which
it was. Figs. 15 and 16.
In these experiments conducted with this shielded room, six day's
work was done. Good results were obtained on the four days when there
was no openly skeptical observer (except the experimenters whom Geller
has learned to accept)..
Thursday, August 9. We moved the experiments to a new shielded room
from the Life Science to the Engineering building in order to make use
of the computer facilities available there.
After Geller was secured in a shielded room about 150 feet down
the hall and around a corner from the computer room, a picture was
drawn on the face of the TV screen driven by the computer's graphics
program. The picture drawn was a kite. Shortly after Geller was
notified he had the computer room
called was a geometric picture
or
an
that the picture had been drawn,
to determine if the target picture
object. We told him that it was an
object, by talking to
intermediary, who was ignorant of the target picture. Geller's
drawing in this case was a square with the diagonals drawn in.
then also drew some triangular airplanes and passed. His first
an
first
He
drawing
was a good representation of the actual target picture. Figs. 17 and 18.
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Augusl 13, 1973
Experiments - Uri Geller August 4-11, 1973 R. Targ
rriday, August 10. Two pictures were drawn and stored in the computer
?
memory so that no visible evidence was available in the computer room
after the picture was drawn.
The first picture was a church. The picture was drawn and stored
in the memory of the computer. Geller's responses are shown in the
attached collection of drawings. It is clear that both of his attempts
have some elements in common with the target drawing, but he had no idea
that it was a church and he passed. Figs. 19-21.
The second target picture was stored on the face of the TV tube
with the intensity turned off so that no picture Was visible with the
room lights turned on. Geller immediately drew an arrow under a rounded
brick and then drew another arrow inside a suitcase. We consider the
arrow in the suitcase similar to the target, which was an arrow through
a heart. Figs. 22-24.
These latter two experiments admit of at least two hypotheses
which will require further work to differentiate: (1) clairvoyant
perception of information stored in the computer, or (2) telepathy,
since there were several people in the computer room, all of whom
knew the nature of the target that was stored.
A long distance telepathy experiment was also done on Friday.
An East Coast scientist was called and asked to draw a simple repre-
sentational object for Geller to copy. Following the experiment he
indicated that he drew two peaked mountains with a sun in the upper
right. Geller drew two arches side by side with a circle in the
upper right. Geller's picture also had a train-like object running
through. it. We consider this to be suggestive of communication but
not conclusive. We do not have the East Coast original.
Saturday, August 11. A lengthy long distance experiment was performed
with another East Coast scientist. In this case the man chose to draw
a cross-sectional view of the brain. (In retrospect we consider this
to be an unsuitable target since Geller would not recognize the drawing
even if successful.) Geller began by writing down the words "medical,"
organic," and "living" on the top of his paper. Later he wrote the
words "aviation" and "architecture". He made two drawings, one of which
was complex and indescribable. The second did somewhat resemble an
anatomical cross-section. These responses are being sent to the
originator for comparison.
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