Uri Geller, the man who astounded TV viewers last week with an amazing display of “mind-bending”, has struck in Croxley Green.

Uri, who claims the ability to bend metal by thought-transference, made a nationwide appeal in a Sunday newspaper for people to join him in an experiment. A couple in Croxley Green say they were amazed as a metal fork bent in half at Uri’s appointed time.

Mr John Launay said at his home in Owens Way this week: “It was an incredible experience. It really shocked me.”

Mr Launay, 60, said he read the article and joined the experiment “for a lark”.
He said: “The instructions in the newspaper were to hold a piece of metal and at exactly 12.30pm to concentrate on the object.”

His wife Queenie, 58, continued: “John closed his eyes but I was so sceptical, I just kept on reading my paper. But then it happened.” In a matter of seconds, the fork had bent at right-angles.

“I was so shocked I just dropped the fork. My hand was shaking like jelly,” said John, who works at John Dickinson’s in Croxley Green.

Queenie said: “We were both very doubtful before this happened, but now we can’t help but believe the man’s powers.”

Uri, who passed the TV test and a subsequent thorough investigation by a team of reporters, was in Paris at the time of the experiment. He had promised to transfer his thoughts at 12.30pm and predicted in the Sunday publication.

“This may be effective with only 200 or 300 of your readers.”

[From the Watford Observer of November 30, 1973]