Psychic spoon-bender Uri Geller 'convinced' CIA

Self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller's telepathic abilities were tested by the CIA, according to newly published documents.

Famed for his spoon bending skills, Geller underwent a week of experiments at Stanford Research Institute in 1973.

Details of the top secret tests form part of the 800,000 declassified CIA documents put online.

Totalling around 13 million pages, the Geller tests form part of the Stargate programme which investigated psychic powers and looked into how any such abilities could be weaponised by the CIA.

Over the course of eight days, Geller was subjected to various experiments conducted by scientists including image and word tests.

During the experiment a scientist would pick a word at random from the dictionary, before drawing a picture of that word and sticking it on the door of the sealed room in which Geller was placed.

He would then be asked to draw the same image using his paranormal powers to sense the picture created by the examiner.

Successful tests included felt tip pen sketches of the solar system, a bunch of grapes and a swan.

Despite other less successful results, the CIA concluded: "As a result of Geller's success in this experimental period, we consider that he has demonstrated his paranormal perception ability in a convincing and unambiguous manner."

The cache of documents were declassified after a two-year campaign by freedom-of-information activists and a lawsuit against the CIA.

Others released papers include the recipe for invisible ink and information about UFOs.

Cancelled in 1998 due to negligible results, the Stargate Project "never provided an adequate basis for actionable intelligence operations".

While the information was previously available for public viewing, it could only be viewed on one of four computers in a library at the National Archives in Maryland.

The full declassified CREST archive (the CIA Records Search Tool) is now available on the CIA Library website.