Ostensibly a coffee table book on using the mind to promote better health , this naturallyalso provides Geller a fresh vehicle for promoting his public profile in the media.

Margolis, Jonathan Uri Geller: Magician or Mystic? (1999).
Margolis is a reputable British journalist whose previous books include biographies of Monty Python favorites Michael Palin and John Cleese. Who better to tackle the Keystone-cop-like career of international super-psychic Uri Geller?

Margolis does an admirable job of tracking down obscure witnesses and reporting on both sides of the Geller phenomenon. Among magicians, he spoke with David Berglas, Roger Crosthwaite, James Randi, Guy Bavli and — for this American edition — David Blaine. Margolis had Geller's complete cooperation as well, so in a sense this may be viewed as an "authorized" biography, which Geller was allowed to correct but not censor.

In addition to the expected anecdotes of his paranormal exploits, we learn of Geller's numerous sexual conquests (he denies an affair with then Mexican first lady Senora Lopez-Portillo, though he admits reports of this liaison forced him to leave that country precipitously), his testing by various laboratories, his encounters with celebrities, his bout with bulimia and his current status as a millionaire family man in England. Margolis does not shy away from the stranger aspects of Geller's career, particularly his long association with the Svengali-like Andrija Puharich, who ascribed Geller's powers to an extraterrestrial source, which Geller still does not discount. Ultimately, Margolis applies Occam's razor to argue for the likelihood that Geller is "merely paranormal" rather than "the most brilliant illusionist of all time." Probably few of our reader's would have applied Occam's razor in quite the same way.

Recommended to Geller-watchers as the latest installment in an ongoing saga.

Format: Hardbound with Dust Jacket
Publication Summary: 1999, 224 pp