IT 9OK, SAID UgI. This is what I do.

He took the small coffee spoon I had brought with me

and held the tip of the bowl between the thumb and forefinger

of his right hand, with the underside of the bowl facing upwards,

and began to stroke the stem lightly with the forefinger of his

left hand. I looked, as instructed.

I looked as carefully as I have ever looked at anything. I had

been waiting more than ten years for my first private audience

with this controversial Israeli, who had divided much of the

world into two bitterly opposed camps, one of which claimed

him to be the greatest demonstrator of paranormal or psychic

power in history, the other insisting he was just an unusually

smart magician. I had never managed to decide which was right,

and felt it was time that I did.

It was undoubtedly my spoon. I had received it, together with

an identical one, as a free offer from a Dutch coffee company a

few weeks previously, and I did not take my eyes off it from

the moment I handed it to him until he gave it back to me

three or four minutes later. He was not wearing a watch, I

noticed, or a ring, or a belt, and the copper bracelet on his right

arm was well beyond the reach of the end of the spoon. The

more obvious ways of spoon-bending by sleight-of-hand were

thus ruled out. There were others, and I was ready for them.

Did you bring a camera~ he asked, after some more rubbing

of my spoon with his left forefinger.

Aha, I said to myself. Misdirection. While I am fumbling m

my bag for my camera and adjusting the speed and shutter

opening, he is going to make some very quick movements and

bend the spoon by muscle power, not psychic power. This is

what sceptical friends had assured me he would do if given the

chance.