Me and Uri Geller – at a distance!Telepathy (iii)

Home, Glasgow, Scotland, 1980s: a fishy business….

Any memoir concerning the paranormal would surely not be complete without mentioning that great Israeli showman,Uri Geller! (i) I am pleased to conclude by offering my own Uri Geller story, albeit very second hand….

Uri Geller - 2009 pic

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Geller)

We were having a quiet Saturday night at home, telly-watching. I can’t remember the year; it was probably the late 1980s, when Uri Geller the Israeli spoon-bender was frequently in the media. On this occasion, Geller was on the TV, doing a mass telepathy experiment.

In a studio with a member of the public, Geller gave him a pen, paper and an envelope. He then asked his subject to draw a simple image on it – the first thing that came into his mind – put it in the envelope, seal it and hand it to Uri. It was not possible for the audience at home to see what was being drawn.

Uri Geller then held the sealed envelope up with a flourish, inviting the nation to guess what the image was.
“It’s a fish” I said to Ian.

Geller opened the envelope – it was a simple drawing of a fish.

“Good heavens, I’m married to a seer!” exclaimed Ian.
“Pass me another chocolate”, I replied.

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(i) ….from Wikipedia

Uri Geller (born 20 December 1946) is an Israeli paranormalist living in England; he is well known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other supposed physical effects. Throughout the years, Geller has used simple magic tricks to achieve the effects of psychokinesis and telepathy. Geller’s career as an entertainer has spanned almost four decades, with television shows and appearances in many countries.^[1] Geller used to call his abilities “psychic,” but now prefers to refer to himself as a “mystifier” and entertainer.^[2]

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With Telepathy( iii), this account of my personal paranormal experiences concludes. However, don’t go away! The next stage of this memoir consists of a long-ish, and I hope stimulating, reflection on what causes such experiences, where they come from, why we have them, and what value they might have.

Do keep reading – and commenting!

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400 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2010
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page

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Who needs an advert? Telepathy (ii)

Glasgow, Scotland, Autumn 1999

After sixteen years of building up work experience in the public sector as a higher education teacher, then social worker, I became self-employed in 1985 and spent the next sixteen years running a private counselling and supervision practice. I also worked as an astrologer and astrology teacher.

During this latter period, it often used to happen that I would think about a client or a student from whom I hadn’t heard for a while, and they would contact me that or the next day. This happened intermittently, several times a year. I arrived at the point where someone would float into my mind, and I’d think “Ah yes, they’ll be contacting me shortly.” They usually did.

The most vivid example of this type occurred just before the start of one of my Beginners’ Astrology classes, in the autumn of 1999.

Basis of Astrology : the Ecliptic

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac)

On the morning that the class was due to start, I went to photocopy the handouts for that night. There were eight students. However, I was so convinced that someone was going to call at the last minute and ask to join the class, that I did an extra set.

The class was due to start at 4.30 pm. Just after noon, I had a call from a young American woman whose husband was in Scotland doing some studying. She was looking for astrology classes, having seen my details in a magazine. Was I running any?
“Yes, the first one starts today at 4.30 pm.”
“I’ll be there!” she replied.

In this way I acquired my ninth student.

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300 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2010
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page

Who needs a telephone? Telepathy (i)

Part Eleven : Telepathy

“transmission of thought independently of the recognised channels of sense”

Frederick W H Myers

Definition of telepathy: “the supposed communication of thoughts or ideas otherwise than by the known senses.” (p 1482, The Oxford English Reference Dictionary, Oxford University Press 1996)

As Stuart Holroyd observes in concluding his entry on telepathy,   “….research….has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that telepathic communication or interaction is a reality. What kind of reality it is, how it relates to other realities, what it implies in the context of  our understanding of nature and human nature, and what it implies for science, which on the whole continues to reject it as an unaccountable anomaly, remain contentious questions.”

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‘The Arkana Dictionary of New Perspectives’ published by Arkana (Penguin Books Ltd) 1989, p 172

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Karpathos, Dodecanese, Greece:17th September to 1st October 1980

Mesohori, Karpathos

(http://www.ewallpapers.eu/World/Greece/Mesohori-Karpathos.html)

The incident described here either slightly preceded, occurred simultaneously with, or happened just after an event which took place in the UK. Since I know the day of the incident and the event, but approximate times only for both, I cannot say exactly.

Karpathos in the early 1980s was a beautiful island, barely touched by tourism, accessible then only by boat – or small, scary planes, where I always seemed to find myself seated behind a nervous black clad old Greek lady, loudly clattering her rosary beads throughout the short flight from Rhodes.

We always stayed in a rickety local hotel where a Scottish friend of Ian’s, a fluent Greek speaker, was the joint proprietor. The Greek equivalent of Fawlty Towers, it was located in an ideal spot right beside a sandy beach displaying a rusting sign declaring ‘No nakem bathing’.

This establishment was run erratically by a Greek hotelier short on English and even shorter on charm and hotel hygiene standards, who cooked like a dream and occasionally managed to lay on evenings when both the water and the electricity worked at the same time. We liked it there. Our first trip in September 1980 was a wonderfully romantic time, despite the unpredictable nature of the hotel’s facilities.

A few days before we were due to return home, we went for a favourite walk. Taking a taxi up to Piles, the highest village above the bay where nestled the small town of Karpathos which gave the island its name, we strolled at a leisurely pace downhill for several miles, passing through the sleepy villages of  Othos and Aperi as we went. It was early afternoon.

The road, winding through dry scrubland, parched before the late September rains came, was narrow, tarmacked and easy to walk. The views out to sea were spectacular, the air clear and fragrant with herbs. There was very little traffic; the only sound the distant melody of goat bells tinkling. Although the weather was still pretty hot, our altitude kept the air comfortable for leisurely walking.

Ian was a few yards ahead of me, and we were keeping a quiet rhythm, each lost in our own thoughts. It was idyllic. Suddenly, I felt really cold all over, and rather dizzy. An unpleasant feeling of there being something wrong came over me. I had a very strong urge to contact my sister, back home in Scotland. I felt so dizzy I had to sit down at the side of the road. Ian turned round, alerted by my footsteps stopping.

“ What’s wrong?”
“ Oh nothing, I’m just a bit dizzy. Must be the heat….”
Our relationship was still new, and he hadn’t encountered my ‘other’ side, which I preferred to keep to myself. He was looking at me quizzically, as though dissatisfied with my explanation.
“Come on, there’s something wrong. Just tell me what it is.”
I hesitated, then told him. “You’re not going to believe this, but someone in my family has just died.” He was silent.

Greek Island Church

(http://www.skyros.gr/churches-skyros.html)

Slowly standing up and looking around, I noticed a small chapel, perched on a hillside nearby – a fairly common sight in the Greek Islands, where part of the countryside’s charm was provided by those simple whitewashed little churches dotted about the landscape. I had a sudden urge to go into the chapel and say a prayer – for whom, I did not yet know.

As I walked towards the church, I had a strange, strong yet diffuse feeling which was impossible to describe even immediately after the event: it felt to me as though someone’s spirit was departing this world. A phrase started repeating in my mind, in a silent voice which didn’t feel as though it had anything to do with me  :

‘….this spirit I return to the mighty Void, this spirit I return to the mighty Void…’.

I got to the church, but to my great frustration the door was locked. Mission thwarted, I returned to Ian who had been standing in the middle of the road watching me. I felt quite exposed, rather foolish, and very shaken. Ian looked at me gravely, gave me a hug, took my hand, and we walked on down the road in silence.

By the time we got back to our hotel a couple of hours later, the experience had faded, and my rational side put it down to the powerfully opening effect that being in such a beautiful and peaceful natural environment had had upon my imagination. However, the urge to phone my sister remained. By this time my feeling was that if there was anything untoward, it was connected to her and not any other close family member.

These were the days long before mobile phones, when international calls were expensive and lines from the Greek Isles to the UK were often not very clear. In any case, this was not the sort of thing about which I wished to have a long-distance conversation. So I did my best to put the incident out of my mind, and enjoy what was left of our holiday.

As soon as I got home, I called my sister. She informed me that her father-in-law had died just before noon, UK time, on the day that I had had my strong intimation of someone’s demise in the early afternoon. Greek time in September was two hours ahead of UK time – so my experience must have occurred around the same time as my brother-in-law’s father’s death.

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TO BE CONTINUED….

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1000 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2010
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page