Published: Thursday, 11th March, 2010 7:00am

Uri's mindbending Lamb visit

by Sam Berkeley

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"I am going to help Scotland win the World Cup!" declared Uri Geller on Saturday, hours before his maiden trip to The Lamb, the small, rocky island he sensationally bought for £30,000 last February.

Mr Geller clearly knows his audience. He has been a marked man in Scotland since his psychic meddling at Euro 1996 attracted 11,000 messages of hate mail from a disgruntled Tartan Army.

With Scotland a goal down against fierce rivals England in the European Football Championships, Geller claimed to have telepathically nudged the ball at the precise moment Scots midfielder Gary McAllister stepped up to take, what would have been, an equalising penalty. It was duly saved. Post-match TV replays showed the ball had inched to the left.

"What I did against Scotland was unethical and I have learned from that," the 61-year-old told an ensemble of fans and journalists at his lecture at the Scottish Seabird Centre, North Berwick.

"I should not have used my powers like that."

Uri's offer to boost Scotland's forthcoming World Cup fortunes - an impossible feat even for a celebrity spoon bender as the nation's failed to qualify for this summer's tournament in South Africa - marked his only verbal slip in awhirlwind two-day visit to North Berwick. No-one corrected the error. All was forgiven. We wanted to see him bother some cutlery.

The fact Uri has shied away from performing his "skills" in recent years, following a rash of copy cat acts and press "exposures", was a worry. But the county's most famous new landlord seemed happy to wow an eager audience with three mindbending feats including the physics-defying act that catapulted him into the spotlight.

Breathless 11-year-old Sam Heney, who was plucked from the crowd to assist with the spoon-bending, gasped: "It was amazing. I didn't feel anything strange, there was no pressure at all but the spoon started bending in my hand!"

Indeed, where the handle and bowl joined, the spoon appeared to melt.

Uri then successfully germinated a handful of radish seeds, and made a compass needle flicker using only mind-power before closing the photocall with a Q&A session.

Waiting in the wings was Geller's small entourage - including close friend and North Berwick 'mentalist' Drew McAdam, as well as outdoors expert Andrew Strangeway - eager to get the island sleepover underway.

Geller's boundless enthusiasm for The Lamb, and the secrets it may hold, reflects his hope of unearthing artefacts relating to the legend of the exiled Egyptian princess Scota, the sister of Tutankhamun. Her boat, however unbelievable, is said by some to have anchored at Lamb island thousands of years ago.

Geller further believes the geography of three neighbouring island in the Firth of Forth - Lamb, Fidra and Craigleith - exactly mirror the layout of the Great Pyramids at Giza and suggests connections with Robert the Bruce, King Arthur and the Knights Templar.

"The more I have delved into the history and archaeological lore that surrounds the island, the more certain I am that this could be one of the most significant discoveries in Britain," he has said.

On his first visit to North Berwick, he remarked: "There really is a powerful energy here. There is something about the ambience, the atmosphere.

"And I am not just talking about the uniqueness of the buildings, the houses, the churches. It is something else. It could be because of the geological forces. It could be because there is something mysterious here. I don't know. I just feel it."

And no sooner had the self-styled 'mystifier' arrived than he was scrambling up The Law to catch first glimpse of the 100m by 50m island. Geller paid less than half the £75,000 asking price, a discount he swears was achieved without the aid of his psychic prowess.

"I cannot believe the Scottish Government should want to let such an important island out of their hands, it should belong to Scottish heritage" he said, before adding in a mock-sinister tone, "but it's my island now!"

On Sunday afternoon, hours after returning from his inaugural visit to The Lamb, Geller told me he had enjoyed an "amazing and astonishing experience" despite a "treacherous" landing.

Although failing to uncover any ancient gems using his dowsing skills (Uri claims he can pinpoint buried metals through telepathy), he believes there is cause to investigate further and, possibly, bring in the diggers.

"I definitely felt something on the island," he said. "I didn't really sleep because I wanted to experience all I could.

"I did not go there to excavate but to explore and I will have to go through the official channels to see if the local council will allow me to excavate."

But he instantly added: "Of course if the authorities will not allow me to do anything on the island I will respect their decision."

Geller, who left behind a piece of quartz and a crystal sphere once belonging to Albert Einstein, said he could return to the island within six months and spoke of "being mesmerised by Scotland and North Berwick".

Taking these kind words as an invitation to clarify his earlier World Cup faux pas, I asked if his new-found interest in Scotland meant he would back the Tartan Army at future tournaments after failing to qualify for South Africa this year.

"Ah what I said at the lecture was a Freudian slip," said Uri, who claims to be a distant relation to Sigmund Freud.

"But I will say this, whoever is first - either the England or Scotland manager - to approach me, will get my help. Whoever is going to be the cleverer, will have a motivational boost from me and they will have a much better chance to win."

"Let's hope we aren't lambs to the slaughter," I mused. Uri didn't laugh.