John Taylor, professor of Mathematics at King's College, London, was the one person most responsible for bringing Uri Geller -- the spoon-bender -- to the attention of the British public. Taylor was a guest on a popular UK TV show, and saw Geller bend a piece of cutlery. He was immediately converted to belief in psychokinesis -- PK -- and quickly began collecting stories of children who could also bend spoons. His book, "Superminds," (1975) was a best-seller and he became the darling of the paranormal underworld.

Then another book, "Science and the Supernatural," emerged in 1980, after Taylor had the opportunity to reflect further on his infatuation with parapsychology. It cautiously re-stated his previous observations and added many caveats for the reader. It was evident that his brief romance was at an end.

In 1975, while I was in the UK and Taylor was rhapsodizing mightily over metal-benders, having discovered that a French magician, Jean-Pierre Girard, could also produce these effects, he agreed to subject some French schoolchildren to a simple test that he was sure they could perform. He said they could bend metal samples sealed from physical contact, and I was willing to see if they could. Acting on his instructions, I prepared a set of five sealed acrylic plastic tubes containing various lengths of soft aluminum rods. Since the parapsychological wisdom of the day said that different wavelengths of paranormal "vibrations" would be put out by each child, and that varied lengths of metal would aid the success of a test, I gladly provided this element. I was eager to be co- operative, of course. Since Taylor told me that there would have to be access to the outer air provided so that the magic might take place, I drilled two small holes into each tube that met at a right-angle, so that air could get in, but a tool might not be inserted. I created these devices at the workshop of the University of London, King's College department of Biophysics, courtesy of Nobel Laureate, Maurice Wilkins. Someday on this page I'll tell you about the time I did "a Geller" at that lab just to prove a point.

As you might expect, I incorporated security measures into my samples. There was always the possibility that duplicate acrylic tubes might be substituted. To safeguard against that, I placed the prepared tubes between two sheets of similarly-orientated polarizing film, and photographed them in color by transmitted light. This way, the specific stress patterns of each tube showed up as a "signature" that could not be duplicated. In addition, I sealed the ends of each tube with two short plugs, and in between each pair of plugs I placed a portion of a one-pound note that bore the serial number of the note, keeping a record of that number. And, if you will examine the accompanying photograph (not one of the polarized photos) you will see a small slip of paper with a rubber-stamped identification mark, inside each tube. That paper was pure nitrocellulose (magicians call it "flash paper"). A tiny metallic thread was glued to each slip.

Why? How would that paper and metal thread increase security? I reasoned that if I had been presented with such a well-designed test, I might just try to zap a tube in a microwave oven to see if the aluminum rod inside would show any effects, because in parapsychology almost any anomaly is taken to be significant. But if it were subjected to such treatment, the scrap of metallic thread would heat up and set the nitrocellulose ablaze releasing a tiny explosion that would expand the tube rather dramatically.

Professor Taylor accepted the tubes and presented them to the French children. We sat back to await the results. I'll bet you're panting to hear what happened, right? Well, so am I. The tubes were never seen again. For unknown reasons, the kids took them away and that was that. I wrote to Taylor several times, and finally gave up. As happens with so many of these tests, the performers simply aborted the matter, and did not have to provide excuses. No discussion about this test ever took place.

Clear evidence of Professor Taylor's acceptance of Geller's performance as a genuine example of magical forces, was his declaration in "Superminds" that said, "One clear observation of Geller in action had an overpowering effect on me. I felt as if the whole framework with which I viewed the world had suddenly been destroyed. I seemed very naked and vulnerable, surrounded by a hostile, incomprehensible universe. It was many days before I was able to come to terms with this sensation."

In this very supportive book, he described a stunning success for Geller: "The essential apparatus for one [of the experiments] was, a balance of the type used to weigh letters and parcels, sensitive enough to measure weights to a quarter of an ounce. A brass strip about 20 centimetres long was taped horizontally to the platform of the balance. The major portion of the strip extended out from the platform, and Geller stroked the top surface of it while I measured, both directly by reading the scale, and using an automatic recording device, the pressure he was applying. At the end of the test the strip had acquired a bend of IO degrees, although Geller had at no time applied more than half an ounce (20 grammes) of pressure. It was out of the question that such a small pressure could have produced that deflection. What is more, the actual bending occurred upwards -- against the pressure of the finger. . . . While Geller was doing this experiment, it was a little disconcerting, to say the least, to have the needle indicating the amount of pressure on the letter balance, also bending as it did through 70 degress."

This would appear to be a very great success, since such feats could only have been done by one of two means: supernatural ability, or simple trickery. Yet only five years later, in his much more sober book, "Science and the Supernatural," referring specifically to this same letter-scale experiment, Taylor says, "The first to be put under our scrutiny was Uri Geller himself . . . he did not succeed at all during that period." And there is no reference whatsoever to the scale needle bending! This was the one single aspect of this test that got the most attention from the press and from every book that recounted it, often featuring a color photo of the bent needle!

Designing and implementing proper tests of paranormal claims is not difficult, though it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to do it, to avoid fraud. Then why have these claims not been tested under these conditions? They have been. And they have always failed, or have been aborted, as in this case.

Hey, we're standing ready at the JREF.....