"Gates of the Unexplained" - Oh, no...

[El Greco]

This is the title of a new talk show on Greek TV. The culprit is a famous Greek journalist (Kostas Hardavellas) who's getting old and is looking desperately for good AGB numbers. The "paranormal" has always been a favorite subject of his, but at least last year he made a few serious airings with subjects like the relationship of pharmaceutical companies and doctors. It seems that he had major problems in digesting the pharmaceutical companies' reactions, so this year he will focus exclusively on his favorite subject, the paranormal.

Last Saturday he debuted with -who else- Uri Geller! Geller bent a spoon, guessed an image that the reporter was thinking of, and even gave instructions to viewers about how to bend their own spoons! The unspeakable host then reported that many people had called the station saying that they actually managed to bend the spoons!

That show I missed, but tomorrow we will have more of Uri Geller and I intend to tape it (as I may not be able to watch it live without breaking the TV set).

FYI, the usual composition of the Hardavellas show panel is: 2 woo-woo psychologists, 2 orthodox priests, 1 skeptic, 1 "medium", 1 "psychic researcher", 2 or more appropriate "witnesses" who have experienced all sorts of phenomena depending on the show, etc. You get the idea... Since everybody has equal time and no testing of any claims ever happens, the skeptic is always in an awful position. Usually most of the debate is between the priests and the "researchers": Are those "powers" the work of God, or maybe Satan ? That is the question...

A show for idiots, from idiots. And it seems we have a lot of them here...

[El Greco]

I finally found the courage to watch the show on video. It was a 3 hour show, even Geller admitted that he hadn't ever done such a lengthy show. I haven't regained my usual serenity yet, so I can't describe what happened in detail. Geller bent spoons, fixed broken wrist watches and hair dryers, made radish seeds sprout, moved the needle of a compass, etc. He also defied gravity when he lifted the show host off a chair, albeit with the help of 3 young athletic men... *sigh*

A few idiots came on the stage claiming they, too, had managed to bend spoons and that their old watches started working all of a sudden. A major idiot came forth and said that Geller actually made him quit smoking. He said that since he saw Geller (2 hours ago, that is) he doesn't feel the urge to smoke anymore (of course during these two hours he was in the no-smoking studio). I mention this just to give you an idea of the quality of the "testimonies"...

A couple of days after the show, Geller was in a gallery selling some of the fixed watches and bent spoons, signed by him. The money allegedly goes to African kids suffering from AIDS.

During the next few days there were a lot of heated discussions in the news on whether Geller is a fake or not. I almost broke the TV twice. It is unbelievable but this f*cking channel is airing right now 1-hour "highlights" of the show, AGAIN, for nth time in the last 10 days. The host of the show has prepared a short video where he claims that Geller has been tested from universities all over the world and that he managed to baffle scientists! Unbelievable!

Next Saturday, the show will focus on UFOs... I predict it is going to be a dark, dark winter in Greece :(