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Woman nearly drowns on Geller TV show

Illusionist nearly drowns attempting to escape water tank on Uri Geller show
A female illusionist nearly drowned on Uri Geller's live TV show attempting to escape from a tank filled with water

telegraph.co.uk
By Chris Irvine
Last Updated: 7:50PM GMT 22 Jan 2009

The contestant, identified only as Amila, 26, was sealed in a tank which filled with water.
...
Unable to escape, the tank filled up with water and she was completely under for around 25 seconds.

A show assistant then had to break open the lock with bolt cutters and pull her out of the tank.

Viewers of the show, which is screen on German television channel ProSieben, are invited to phone in to vote for one of the evening's contestants to continue through to the next round.

Amila managed to get voted through despite her failure to perform the trick.

A show insider told The Sun: "This was a nightmare. She had four numbers to guess through her powers and she only got two. She was on the way to a watery grave."

Amila has not commented on the incident.
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Source

She got voted through anyway? I guess the psychic ability on the show is pretty bad.


This recent headline, I guess, speaks to that:

There's no magic with psychics
MISLED: Worried? You're better off watching a magician than consulting someone with supernatural powers
Herald.ie, Ireland
By Sinead Ryan
Saturday January 24 2009
...
Indeed, Randi has publicly called on celebrity psychics like James Van Praagh and John Edward, who have popular TV shows where people speak from the afterlife, to come forward. None have. Neither has spoon-bending Uri Geller.

You might think that it's all a bit of a laugh, and you'd be right -- it should be.

But for many people, paying someone they believe is in touch with their dead husband, or worse, child, and can pass on messages is both dangerous and unforgivable.
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Source
 
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While ma translation isn't the best, i'd like to point a few things.

First, there is quite some confusion about what the combination is. There is 1933, 1963, 1923. But no matter what the real combination was always known. Who of you knows a stage artist who doesn't have it's props checked an working, hmm?

Next are the definitely sexual hints given away. "getting wet", "us two in a hotel", "sweetheart". Again, be aware that that this TV station isn't known for news, factual reports, etc. Even their so-called science series is full of BS.

Surely i can't translate the full meanings of the words spoken, but i'm sure that even the almost literal translation conveys enough of the real meaning.

In fact, it's all just a show, I'm pretty sure that the whole thing was just staged to get more viewers and higher rating. It's all a fake, imho.

If something is unclear in my translations, don't bother to ask. I'm sure that i made some mistakes. Maybe someone else with German language background can also clarify and/or verify what i have written.

Greetings,

Chris
 
I would like to point out that the show is not meant to be a test of psychic powers. Although they are introduced as "mentalists", the candidates are merely conjurers. In their "normal" life most of them don't claim to have any special powers.
This particular trick failed, that's all. When Simon closes the lock, you can actually see Amila looking at it. If that's it, it was a very poor trick. But maybe she was supposed to get the number earlier, failed, and had to try to peek at the lock. Well she got 3 out of 4 numbers right... :D
 
I remember reading about a girl who claimed that she could live without food and when she was put into an area for scientific observation she died.
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Sounds totally bogus. Starving to death can take weeks. It's a slow and agonizing way to go. For at least the last few days, the person would be too weak to move. What kind of observer would stand there and watch the person die?
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Here is a Wiki link. Scroll down to Sarah Jacob.
 
0m3g4 said:
I would like to point out that the show is not meant to be a test of psychic powers. Although they are introduced as "mentalists", the candidates are merely conjurers. In their "normal" life most of them don't claim to have any special powers.
This particular trick failed, that's all. When Simon closes the lock, you can actually see Amila looking at it. If that's it, it was a very poor trick. But maybe she was supposed to get the number earlier, failed, and had to try to peek at the lock. Well she got 3 out of 4 numbers right... :D
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I would say that there was no number to "divine" to start with. It was all pretty clear right from the beginning.

Greetings,

Chris

Edit: Darn, i actually forgot most of the posting that i wanted to make. So here it comes.

Not to discredit Randi, but at the same time also not to give him too much credit. However, he managed to make an escape performance, escaping out of a milk-can. That is, he couldn't obviously look to the outside, couldn't give any hints, nor take any. He was under water way longer. He had no number-locks using a number that all the people around knew. But still he managed to escape. All that of course as far as the performance goes, not the reality.

Now, compare to this woman. A transparent container, where she can see clues as well as give some. She had seen the lock more than one time. She obviously knew the male participant before her "performance". The persons outside of the tank knew the combination at every time. Heck, they even got it wrong after the lock was "broken" by cutting it by an "external" guy. So all that there ever was to get some kind of "performance" was the artificial drama.

Now compare Randi, or other good escape artists, with this stunt. Randi et.al. can use their performance and knowledge. This woman failed in every respect, so there was only the drama part left.

Really, it is so obvious, at least to me ....
 
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Christian Klippel said:
Hello all,

here is the translation, up to 9:34 in the video, because the rest is really uninteresting. If there is need, i can translate the remainder as well.
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Okay, I'm managed to figure out most of it despite not knowing the language at all. The transcript does make one thing clear for future reference by mentalists. Don't let the success of your act depend in any way on an idiot like Simon.
 
Hitch said:
Okay, I'm managed to figure out most of it despite not knowing the language at all. The transcript does make one thing clear for future reference by mentalists. Don't let the success of your act depend in any way on an idiot like Simon.
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While you are right (Simon stars in the German - toned down - version of Kenny vs. Spenny, so you are right on the idiot part.) I don't see what he did wrong?

He reset the code of the lock, wrote down the number and concentrated hard on the number. I don't see why it should have been his responsibility to let the fraudster in the tank know the real numbers.

(And this does make the big assumption that this wasn't meant to play out the way it did.)
 
Luckily

My favorite quote from the news article is:
"Luckily somehow I had this instinct to shout out: 'Get her out of there quickly'," Geller told The Sun.
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Only one with his mystical powers could have such bold instincts...:wackynotworthy:
 
TheSkepticCanuck said:
I wonder if we can convince Sylvia Browne to try this, minus the bolt cutters? :D

(If Sylvia or any of Sylvia's people are reading this, it is a JOKE!! It is in no way a veiled threat of any sort.)
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Disclaimer unnecessary: presumably Sylvia already knew this, well in advance. :)
 
Rasmus said:
While you are right (Simon stars in the German - toned down - version of Kenny vs. Spenny, so you are right on the idiot part.) I don't see what he did wrong?

He reset the code of the lock, wrote down the number and concentrated hard on the number. I don't see why it should have been his responsibility to let the fraudster in the tank know the real numbers.

(And this does make the big assumption that this wasn't meant to play out the way it did.)
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His clowning around flirting and trying cheesy pick-up lines on the mentalist while he was supposed to be making sure he set the lock right and concentrating on the number. Not that I buy into the psychic part, but he made no show at all of even thinking about the number let alone concentrating on it. Of course, as some have pointed out it made have been set up for the trick to fail. Given the audience reaction to her taking off part of her clothes, she seemed pretty much a shoe-in to get voted to the next round.

What I find most telling about this clip is apparent Uri Geller praised her failed performance. He certainly likes sub-mediocre psychics lately. (Maybe because they make him look good?)
 
Hitch said:
His clowning around flirting and trying cheesy pick-up lines on the mentalist while he was supposed to be making sure he set the lock right and concentrating on the number.
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I find that a bit harsh.

First, if you invite a clown you can hardly blame him for clowning around - but in the end he did set the lock, he did hold his hand to the tank and for all I know he did concentrate on the number, too. The number was also written down on the sheet of paper correctly, so he didn't prevent anyone else from doing their part, either.
 
As far as I know, Amila is going to try her water tank show again this evening. Let's see if she does the same lame trick (a.k.a. peek at the lock) once more.
 
Just FYI, the way it is shown as "advertising" to the show in the last few day on pro-7 (small clip on the pro-7 TV channel trying to attract people to the show , are displaying that exact scene) my best guess is that it [the fake drowning] was all prepared and agreed upon in advance.
 
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Note. The above link does not produce the video. Click on the link and then do a search for ntm.escape.gone.wrong.cnn. That will produce the link.

Please note it is a real escape artist at work.
 
rjh01 said:
Note. The above link does not produce the video. Click on the link and then do a search for ntm.escape.gone.wrong.cnn. That will produce the link.

Please note it is a real escape artist at work.
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The link I posted above does work, and am repeating here:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/02/02/ntm.escape.gone.wrong.cnn

The CNN Video is titled "Houdini stunt horror" and is 3:36 in duration.

You might be subjected to a 15-30 second commercial which you can't bypass, but the video should start by itself without having to search for it. Just click the link, and it should work.
 
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