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In his book "My Story" on page 197, Uri Geller declares to all and sundry "There is no doubt about it. I have a very healthy ego". Describing how he "got a kick" out of seeing himself as a handsome subject for beer advertising, even though it was something that new never personally drank and this declaration of having a healthy ego is made with pride as though it was a good thing to have. This leads us to the conclusion that Uri has no inkling of the fact that ego is the lower self and that it is the greatest stumbling block to unification with the higher self, that is to say-the Divinity living within each one of us.
This comes a great surprise, because in his book "Uri", Doctor Andrea Puharich tells us of the unearthly voices that were recorded each night on his tape recorder with messages for and about Uri. Also on page 8, Puharich describes Uri in a nutshell-recounting certain difficulties he encountered when working with Uri on certain experiments, Uri told him, "I would not want to do any police work, no matter how much I like to be on a motor cycle because there would be no publicity-no one would know who I was. I feel happy when people show me they like me. When the called me a genius; when they applauded me, I felt even happier than when I did my beer adverts for the papers. I am happy when people tell me I am fantastic."
"I feel the compulsion to show everyone my powers. Life is now what I needed. I have money-I bought a car, my mother doesn't have to work any more. People recognise me on the street-I'm finally somebody, and I like it. I want to be known, I want to be successful. If you want to work with me-you will have to deal with my need for fame and fortune-that's it."
Puharich at this point looks at Itzkhak and calls Uri "an unabashed ego-maniac" and goes on to say .. "we both felt saddened by his small minded approach to life and his desperate hunger for security and recognition."
At this point it might be a good idea to quote Puharich's answer to Uri. He says, "we feel Uri, that you have more potentialities for evolution than anyone we know-but you have become so brain-washed by the ugly side of poverty that you have lost perspective. Just remember that you are handsome, attractive, intelligent and gifted. With these four advantages you must learn to know yourself by looking at your soul."
Reuven, working with Puharich at the time considered Uri to be "absolutely insufferable" and called him a Punk, saying it was an impossible mission to work with him or convert him to any proper sense of values.
All this happened many years ago. But if we follow Uri's evolution since then by looking at things he says in his books, articles, interviews and public appearances, a pattern emerges which shows that over the years, Uri has evolved to the point where such descriptions no longer fit him. Sure, he is a human like the rest of us who are in the grip of ego which pushes some of us incessantly to strive for wealth and fame and success that would engender praise and the adulation of the masses. He wouldn't be human if he turned his back on the fortune and celebrity that he has acquired. But unlike the rest of us, he has that extra something which most individuals lack and that is the active fire awake within him ever since he was a child.
The Holy Scriptures of all religions give clear instructions emphasizing the absolute necessity of breaking free from the grip of ego if anyone aims enlightenment. Self-realization or God realization.
Ego is so transparent that it goes undetected. Ego is that smaller "I" that grasps at material possessions, is competitive, craves recognition, demands constant attention, is ruthless in its striving to reach the top of the social ladder and achieve power over others on order to remain on top. Ego is manipulative, ignorant of the truth, has no compassion or regard for anyone but itself.
So when Uri declared "I have a very healthy ego", we must assume that he was unaware at the time, of the Psycho-Philosophical definition of the word.
To state here that Uri has completely shed the trappings of the smaller self and is completely integrated with the Higher Divine Self that resides within every human being would be to paint him un an unrealistic light. A spiritual portrait of him to be authentic would have to include warts, wrinkles and all. As long as he resides in a physical body-ego will continue to be in a state of combat with the higher Self-fighting for supremacy. Ego will still attempt to hog the limelight, seek admiration, delight in possessions and self-glorification. But as can be seen from a glimpse at the last three chapters of this book, Uri is well in control. Yes, he still has the capacity to generate colossal sums of money-but much of it goes to charity-Yes he still basks in the limelight but he helps people to think positively and achieve a better quality of life-yes he enjoys being successful and famous-but he has hoards of sick children come to his home for healing and comfort.
Of course, there are those whose envy knows no bounds and of course like any other famous man in history he will have his detractors-but there's no way of getting away from the fact that he has got special powers-not given to many. The joyful news is that he has become aware at long last, of the responsibility that these powers invested in him by the Powers that be, carry with them, and has gradually and imperceptibly adapted the format and content of his lecture tours to include a spiritually uplifting note added to the original message that urged his audiences to positive thinking.
Judging from his utterances during the third and last interview in the last chapter of this book, ever since he started the practice of mantra meditation, Uri is well on the way to joining that elite throng of highly evolved beings that have achieved integration with the Higher Self and have thereby fulfilled the highest human potential possible.
In "Uri" by Andreja Puharich, the recorded voices of "the Nine" (page 260), state that "to achieve God-realization ego must dissolve into the Higher Self." through..."Peaceful action-action without passion-this is not self-expression as some of your modern educationalists have thought it to be, because the so called self-expression is a process of manifesting the dormant needs or instinct (ego) in a MASTERLY CONDUCT, there is no self-expression unless you capitalize the S and make it into infinite Self....when we act, let us act in terms of not our self-expressing urges or ideals even, but in terms of infinite peace......where our actions are not limited to our own personal aspirations or (ego) fulfilments. The process (of Self Realization) is emphatically not through reasoning but through the process of silencing you (ego) self the exact opposite of endless thirst for articulation to which we are vulgarly bound-and practice withdrawal. We must practice this masterly way of life. What matters most is to liberate the consciousness of mankind. Make this the one law of your life. All other successes are hidden failures, it is urgently necessary...to simplify your ways-eliminating the non-essentials.
"Success means nothing if it comes by a great amount of fighting, because the attention itself which we give during the fight build up a vast attachment to the things we seem to have conquered..."
The above-mentioned book was published by Doubleday and Company in 1974, while Dr. Puharich was conducting his scientific experiments with Uri Geller, who was thirty years old at the time. That is over a quarter of a century ago, Uri has known the message, has read and re-read it over and over since then. As a matter of fact the book is currently in hi possession, and I have just copied these quotations almost verbatim out of the copy that he lent me. So we can be sure that he is aware of the "message of the nine".
By living according to that message Uri's powers are increasing rather than diminishing and he is graduating from "spoon bending" to real "mind-bending" - though it is wasy to think of Uri as "that man who bends spoons" let us not forget the fact that even more mind boggling is that he reproduces drawn images through mind transference, finds objects hidden in oceans, locates mineral ore and precious metals, makes seeds sprout in the palm of his hand-among other achievements.
He seems to be heading to where all the powers of the fully realized yogis would be his, and he would be living in a state of unadulterated bliss and transforming world consciousness by virtue of his fame and fortune and would never again need, or use or proclaim about his "very healthy ego".
So if Uri wants to evolve and wants his powers to increase rather than decrease with age, he needs to take stock of himself and re-iterate his goal in life; He has obviously been chosen especially for a certain role in the world and is one of the lucky few who have been endowed with special powers. But whereas they were aware from the start of the facts surrounding the awakened Kundalini by the time he was only four years old-without knowing anything about the philosophical, psychological or spiritual prerequisites demanded of anyone with God-realization as a goal.
Some, as history has shown on numerous occasions, have succumbed to the lure of fame and lucre, and misused the powers that come with the Kundalini's attainment to certain chakras or junctions of consciousness.
The fact that Uri has used his powers consciously and willingly cannot be held against him because there was no one near him to explain his awakened life fire to him-and so he just drifted with the current one day at a time and took each opportunity that presented itself to him to haul himself and his loved ones out of poverty into affluence.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being affluent-being spiritual doesn't mean having to live in misery. What is cause for concern though is the use of Siddhis or supernatural powers for persona; gain and a sense of self-gratification rather than as a spring board that would catapult him into the Highest State of Consciousness known to Man.
Once his eyes have been opened to these facts he might feel the urge or ???lan vital towards the completion of the process that was begun without his knowledge or co-operation but that stopped short in its tracts because it needs to be fuelled by meditation, contemplation and deeper knowledge of the status quo, and this only Uri himself can bring about.
How is one to fight such an unseen enemy? Ego is very subtle and can disguise itself so as to be quite unrecognisable. It can be as transparent as glass. Who has not at some time or other watched a honey bee trapped behind a window pane, trying repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get back to the garden and its nectar filled flowers which it can still see through the glass. The poor bee cannot comprehend this awful barrier that has cropped up from nowhere and prevents him from returning to his erstwhile garden of Eden. It keeps on trying to fly through the glass-bashing its head against the hard surface until it falls dead on the window sill from sheer exhaustion. The real tragedy is that the next window panel through which it flew in is still open-and has been open all along without the poor little creature having been aware of it.
Yes, we wandered away from paradise, yes we are barred from getting back to our original blissful state of consciousness where we had fellowship with God because we allowed ego to come between us, and yes, the open window is there. Unlike the bee we know that there is a way back to the blissful Godhead, and we know that ego is the big barrier-and we can exercise free choice and wend our way back like the prodigal son returning to His Father-of course this is easier said than done. It is a lifetime's effort, but we know that every little step in the right direction brings us nearer to the target. But great and constant vigilance is needed-because even if we keep all the commandments to the letter-and live by the complete set of moral and ethical laws, and are absolutely kind, generous and loving, we can find ourselves still refused entry into heaven just by thinking "I'm now so good" - and surveying with pleasure all our good deeds and basking in other people's praise and admiration. But to be simple, childlike, innocent, non-manipulative, undemanding and full of love towards God and all he has created-steeps us un unadulterated joy and allows us entry into heaven. In Christ's words "unless ye become as little children ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.
These are the things that Uri has to consider When he can take back his assertion about having a "healthy ego" and is able to declare instead "I don't want a healthy ego-I have no need for an ego-I'm asking God to help me eliminate my ego-this deadly enemy from within", then he'll suddenly find himself veering towards the light again and experience Kundalini soaring freely towards her waiting spouse in the Shekhinah or Sahasrar-where the indwelling God of each person chooses to make his abode at the crown chakra.
Kirlian photographs taken of people while meditating show brilliant white light emanating from the crown of the head-sometimes this is referred to as an aura and sometimes it is depicted by artists as a golden halo surrounding the heads of saints (see photographic illustrations of auras on page 161)