Geller's gold for fools, say Australian Skeptics

An Australian-based mining Company is in turmoil after recent revelations by the Australian Skeptics that it paid the magician, Uri Geller, to search for gold.

The Skeptics' founding president, Mr Mark Plummer, said in Christchurch this week that Shareholders in the company and the public were told of the payment to Mr Geller after investigations by the Skeptics.

Mr Plummer, a Melbourne lawyer, cited the revelations as an example of how the Skeptics, a non-aligned voluntary group, could protect the public interest.

He was in New Zealand at the week-end for the first annual convention of the newly formed New Zealand Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, or New Zealand Skeptics.

Mr Plummer believes the Skeptics have a role to play in society by questioning the claims of psychics and others who Say they have extra-normal powers, and who often demand payment for their "services."

Targets for the Skeptics were people "who have no expertise and base their advice on mumbo-jumbo," he said.

In Australia, shareholders of the mining company, Zanex, are upset that the company sought the advice of Mr Geller, a magician and mentalist who gained acclaim for his "spoon-bending" tricks.

The Skeptics revealed in June that Mr Geller was asked by the company to look for gold in the Solomon Islands and near Maldon in Victoria.

They assert that for his advice Mr Geller was paid more than $Aust350,000 and was given an option to take up 1.250.000 Zanex shares at 20c each by June, 1987.

Shareholders were told that the Company was using "innovative methods" to find gold.

A senior Zanex executive confirmed to the "Sydney Morning Herald" newspaper in July that the company had hired Mr Geller. However, he Said that was for a much smaller fee than claimed by the Skeptics.

Mr Plummer said that Mr Geller had no qualifications as a geologist, but was "a talented magician with a reputation for being able to convince people he has psychic powers."

"Geller came to the Solomon Islands after Zanex had already located a potential goldmining area downstream from Gold Ridge on Guadalcanal Island," said Mr Plummer.

"At the opening of Zanex's mine, Geller entertained the guests with magic tricks and even bent a spoon held by the Prime Minister of the Solomons, Sir Peter Kenilorea."

The hiring of Mr Geller incensed a number of Zanex shareholders, and at least one director, and moves are afoot to have two of the present directors replaced and another three elected.

"One wonders if Geller foresaw these developments," said Mr Plummer. who gave numerous examples of how confidence tricksters tried to make money by Claiming to have extra powers.

In Melbourne, the Skeptics investigated claims by a meditation group that it could teach people to levitate, at a cost of $5000.

The group had photographs to "prove" its pupils could levitate. The Photographs showed persons sitting cross-legged in the air above a mattress.

"The people were jumping up and down on the mattress and having their photograph taken while they were in the air," said Mr Plummer.

Then there was the alchemist who claimed to be able to turn the fillings in people's teeth to gold.

The man made almost $40,000 before he was arrested and charged with fraud, said Mr Plummer.

He also urged New Zealanders to beware of self-styled psychics who come from overseas and make extravagant claims such as helping to solve murder inquiries.

Mr Plummer said that these claims were easily checked, often by making a telephone call. The claims were invariably debunked.