My own powers revealed

I sometimes say to myself: 'Uri, if only you were born a woman, most of the professional problems emanating from your special powers would be solved.' Let me explain. First of all, I believe excluding women from membership by virtue of their sex. One such organisation is the Magic Circle, a society of magicians who will not admit women to their ranks. Certain of their members who on the one hand will not recognise talented female magicians, insist that I, being a man, must therefore be a talented magician because by trickery, they can appear to do some of the things which I do naturally. Now, however flattering their chauvinistic thought process might seem, it does not impress me in the slightest. The logical conclusion one has to draw from their anti-woman stand is that had I been born a woman they would probably have insisted I was not a magician and confirmed my powers as a psychic. But as I am a man, they keep wanting me to say I am one of them. Such are the jealousies of life. And, to be fair, there are some magicians I know who tend to believe in PSI forces after some of their own experiences. However, as for the hostile sceptics, we will not waste further time with those but instead I will, in the course of this book, teach you how to deal with small and irritating pains as they arise.
My powers were evident when I was very small. The first manifestation came soon after an event that could have resulted in my death. Again, I must strictly advise everyone against trying to do the same thing as I did. Because I can assure you that the near disaster which almost befell me will not give you psychic powers but is more likely to relieve you of them for good!
My mother worked as a seamstress from our small flat in Israel. Each time she switched on the sewing machine, you could see a blue spark through a hole which was just big enough for me to insert my little finger. As a child of about five I had no idea of the dangers of electricity and poked my finger right inside the machine to see if I could feel the pretty blue spark. The results could have been devastating. As it was, I was lucky enough only to receive a tremendous electric shock which threw me on to my back. A short time after this incident, but not necessarily as a result of it, some 'strange' things began to happen.
My mother's favourite relaxation was to go out and play cards with her friends. Suddenly, I found that when she returned home I began to get printouts from her mind. I was able to read her mind. I could tell her exactly how many card games she had won or lost and if she had been gambling with friends, I was able to predict exactly how much money she had gained or lost. But that was not all. I found I was beginning to say things seconds before she came out with them. This used to exasperate her considerably but at the time she did not know I was psychic. Then, when I was about six years old, my father gave me a watch as a present and that is when more people started becoming aware that some very odd events were taking place.
At first, my school mates were totally perplexed the way I could mentally manipulate not only my own watch but theirs as well. I could advance them, speed them up and then slow them down or make them go completely haywire. This provoked laughs against me, but very soon they acquired a respect for my talent and regarded what I did as very entertaining. I was too young at the time to know the real effect this was having on my parents but I don't think they really took too much notice. Their marriage was coming to an end and other things seemed to preoccupy them more than broken watches. It was only when spoons and other cutlery began bending or were destroyed that my father thought of inquiring into the matter by seeking professional help. He tried to find a psychiatrist for me but then thought better of it.
I can recall two 'odd' incidents from an early age. One involved a very bright light descending in my back garden when I was only about three or four years old. I do remember telling my mother about this but I don't think she believed me. As far as she was concerned it was childhood fantasy. No child, as far as she was concerned, was capable of seeing or identifying an unidentified flying object. That image, however, of the bright light, circular in shape, and so close to me, will remain with me to the end of my life. The second incident happened when I was four months old. My mother put me in a pram and placed me under a window. A British soldier across the road by the railway fired two bullets into the window. The glass shattered into millions of fragments falling all over me. I remember it vividly. I believe it may have been a 'trigger'.
I was born on 20 December, 1946, in Tel Aviv. My father, Itzhak Geller had fled Hungary six years earlier with my mother Margaret. They took different routes to reach Palestine, as Israel was then called. They were reunited in 1940 and set up home in Kerem Hateimanim, Jaffa. My mother's side of the family was from Vienna although she was born in Berlin. She was a distant relative of and shared the same surname as the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. My father, unlike my mother, came from a very religious and traditional family. His grandfather was the chief Rabbi of Budapest and our family had a strict Jewish upbringing.
As a child, I was relatively happy. Obviously I had upsetting periods, especially when my parents were divorced, although from about the age of eight I knew they were not getting along well and there were times when my father was not at home. After they were divorced I was sent to a kibbutz and then later my mother remarried a pianist called Ladislas Gero, a widower. He had also escaped from Hungary and had formed a caberet dance team in Nicosia with his first wife. Later he took us all to Cyprus where my mother and he bought a small hotel catering to showbusiness artistes who were booked for acts.
My natural father was in the Israeli army and I visited him frequently, so I certainly did not feel deprived of paternal love. The only other thing worth mentioning is the fact that, despite being born in the so-called post war period, I was very aware of armed conflict throughout my growing years. Both in Israel, where I also had to serve time in the army, and in Cyprus where there was fighting between the Turks, Greeks, and the British. I give you this brief background of my history to help you understand my own PSI make-up. Case histories are always useful to study and you should do this continually when attempting to assess others. It can be very advantageous to you to build up a picture of the background influences affecting the thinking and minds of people with whom you will be associated in business or who will play an important role in your life.
I began using my powers positively in Cyprus. My stepfather had locked up a bike which was to be my Bar Mitzvah present. Like most impatient young boys, I could not wait to start cycling so I willed a combination lock immobilising it to open, which, after several attempts, it did. I also began making greater use of my mental telepathy, especially at exam time when I was able to read the answers other boys had given. Eventually my stepfather died and my mother and I returned to Tel Aviv where I was trained as a paratrooper in the Israeli army and was slightly injured in the Six Day War in 1967. I was then offered a job in a children's camp where I met Shipi Shtrang, one of the children I had to supervise. I ran into Shipi again later on because he lived next door to my father and we re-established our friendship. I am now married to Hanna, Shipi's sister, who gave me two wonderful children, Daniel and Natalie. It was Shipi who suggested I should demonstrate my powers in public and my first performance was at his school.
Mind over matter
In my lifelong career as a psychic I have flown to most countries in the world and have at times been concerned about my safety in the air. One particular incident in which I was not involved nevertheless captured my interest and attention because of the spectacular survival of the jumbo jet and its passengers while they were flying above Indonesia in 1982.
The British Airways jet called the City of Edinburgh was piloted by Captain Eric Moody. Eric is a matter-of-fact man who is happily married and lives in Camberley, Surrey, a beautiful suburb thirty miles from London. He gets easily agitated and impatient if little things go wrong but is totally cool and collected at times of grave crisis. At such moments, he has the doggedness of the British bulldog; he will not let go. There are two hundred and forty-seven grateful witnesses who would swear to that. They are the survivors of what could have been a tragic disaster when all four engines of Captain Moody's jumbo stopped working after his jet flew through a cloud of volcanic ash near Java.
For thirteen minutes, Eric and his crew tried in vain to restart the jumbo's engines. Can you imagine being in a jumbo gliding to earth with absolutely no power? How would you have felt after the jet had fallen more than seven kilometers and smoke had filled the cabin? I believe two things saved the aeroplane. The crew were positive, and Captain Moody's inner strength took on supernatural proportions, even if he did not realise it or admit to it himself. Gently and memorably he conveyed his incredible calmness to the passengers: 'This is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.'
He would not give up. He and the crew were finally and just in the nick of time - able to restart the engines at a low level. The passengers had been convinced they were going to die. But they did not panic. They prayed in unison. There was so much psychic energy within the aircraft that I believe PSI-FORCE was as much responsible for their salvation as the redeeming qualities of the Boeing 747 and its superb pilot. Curiously, one of the passengers had a vision of three figures working on the outside of the falling aircraft, mending the engines. Other passengers spoke afterwards about 'mystic feelings.' Their survival was described as a miracle. In psychic terms, it was an excellent and happy example of mind over matter.
No matter what I have done with my psychic powers in the past, I can never forget nor cease to admire the psychic forces in others, especially as in the jet airliner case I have outlined where so many lives were at stake. To me, it somehow pales my own achievements while at the same time giving positive proof that PSI power is there for anyone to use and that it can be used to benefit others.
While I may not consider my powers to be extraordinary, there are a number of reputed scientists who have thought otherwise after testing me for PSI. I think it is worthwhile knowing their views, if only to give you extra confidence in the existence of PSI FORCE
Professor John Hasted, head of the Experimental Physics department at Birkbeck College, University of London, made a scientific study of aspects of psychic phenomena in the 1970s. He then published a book called The Metal Benders in 1981 (Routledge & Kegan Paul), and said of metal-bending: 'The essential phenomenon is this: a very few people appear to be able to deform and fracture pieces of metal, and occasionally other materials, just by stroking them between their thumb and fingers, or even without actually touching them.'
'At first the household cutlery becomes deformed, no one knows how; perhaps a spoon or fork is seen to bend on its own. Usually the phenomena are first noticed after a television appearance by Uri Geller, the best known, first and "strongest" of all metal- benders . . . It is apparent that metal-bending should be classed as a psychic phenomenon, to be grouped together with such things as water-divining, telepathy, faith-healing, mediumship.'
Professor Hasted personally supervised various tests on me and reported on them. One involved bending two keys while he watched me closely. He reports: 'Geller was quite happy with the keys, and at once took one in each hand, holding it lightly between the forefinger and thumb; I did not take my eyes off them once, not even for a moment. I can affirm that I did not see Geller's other fingers touch the keys (except at pick-up) and that he did not move them more than about an inch from the table surface; they were in my field of vision the whole time. Nothing happened for about forty seconds, and then Geller put the keys flat on the table about two inches apart and stroked them gently, one with each forefinger. All the time Geller was talking, but I never took my eyes off the two keys and I am certain they never left the table for a surreptitious bend to be performed. After one more minute's stroking, the end of each key started to bend slightly upwards, one (the one stroked by his right forefinger) distinctly more than the other. The angles were eleven degrees and eight degrees, as measured afterwards.'
Professor Hasted also draws the attention of his readers to the fact that the famous psychologist Carl Jung 'had organised spiritualistic seances in his youth, and in one of these a breadknife in a drawer inexplicably snapped into four parts, with a sound like a pistol shot. The four pieces of the knife are still in the possession of the Jung family.' He also says he had personally experienced psychokinesis or teleportation. 'I have had to live with poltergeist phenomena on several occasions, and the experiences are not easily forgotten. I have kept notebook records of nearly a hundred "movements" of objects which I witnessed. I have records of many more reported to me by other observers of English cases.' He then describes how he observed an object being transported in my presence. 'Lynn (his wife) had started to tell Geller that she was entirely sceptical about metal- bending, and I was just entering the kitchen. I saw clearly a small object appear a few feet in the air and fall to the floor in front of the back door. It was about the size of the lid of our vacuum coffee pot, at first I thought that this was what it was, and that the pressure had blown it out. Geller turned round to face it, and we saw that what had appeared in the air and had fallen was a small Japanese marine ivory statuette of an old peasant. This had been in its normal place on the bookshelf in the lounge...' Professor Hasted's wife was shocked. But she was to receive an even bigger fright when a second object took flight. The professor wrote: 'Lynn's reaction was shock; she also believed it to be an inexplicable event and was frightened.'
'We did not touch the statuette until it had been photographed. Lynn used her Polaroid camera, and obtained nothing but black pictures, which in itself could possibly have been a paranormal effect since she operated the camera perfectly well the same evening; but other explanations might also fit.'
'While we were all standing around looking at the statuette, a second object appeared in the air and dropped. This time we all observed it, and it was clear to us all that it had not been thrown. It was the key of a Buhl clock which stands next to the statuette on the bookshelf in the lounge.' Levitation, another example of PSI-FORCE is also discussed by this scientist. He says: 'In British schools "levitation games" are sometimes played by children. A ritual is occasionally followed (e.g. running round and round a seated or lying child and chanting, "He is ill; he is dead" etc.); after the ritual, a number of children attempt to raise the body, each placing one or two fingers underneath it. The game starts with many children, who find the task easy, using only normal forces. The number is reduced one by one, and the continuing ease might suggest a paranormal contribution. The unexpected success has sometimes caused worried teachers to forbid the continuance of the game. I have found many children who insist that the body suddenly seems to lose weight,' wrote Professor Hasted.
I have met many other scientists who have tested me and observed my psychic powers. Wernher von Braun, the famous NASA rocket scientist was convinced of my PSI-FORCE. He tested me by holding his wedding ring in the palm of his hand and without me touching it the ring bent into an oval shape. I also made his electronic calculator work after it had stopped functioning.
Two laser physicists, Dr Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ, from the Stanford Research Institute tested me in laboratory conditions over several weeks in 1972 and 1973. Their results have been published in a book called The Geller Papers: Scientific Observations on the Paranormal Powers of Uri Geller (Houghton Mifflin Company 1976). In the introduction to that book, those scientists are quoted for the 'startling statement' they made about me: 'As a result of Geller's success in this experimental period, we consider that he has demonstrated his paranormal perceptual ability in a convincing and unambiguous manner.' Why were they convinced? The reason was that I had been sitting in a room which had been visually, acoustically and electrically shut off from the outside world. The book describes how 'In another room down the hall, one scientist opened a dictionary at random, selected a word, and drew a picture of what it suggested. Geller's task was to "see" telepathically, and draw on paper each target picture. When, for example, the word chosen was grape, the scientist drew a bunch of grapes. Minutes later, Geller said over a one-way intercom that he "saw... drops of water coming out of the picture," and he spoke of "purple circles." Finally, when he was quite sure he "had it," he drew a bunch of grapes. The target and Geller's rendition of it both contained exactly twenty-four grapes.' In August 1973 the two physicists wrote in their paper The Record, of how they tried to make the tests even more difficult by not doing the drawings themselves but letting a computer draw the pictures: 'In one test a computer drew a picture of a kite on the face of a cathode-ray tube (a device similar to a TV screen); Geller drew a kite. Next a picture of a church was drawn and stored in a computer's memory bank; Geller drew a picture vaguely resembling the target. In the third test a picture of a heart pierced by an arrow was drawn on the screen of the cathode-ray tube and then the device was turned off. Geller perceived it correctly. From a total of thirteen such perceptual experiments the SRI scientists concluded that the odds for Geller's success being due merely to chance were more than a million to one . . .'
In another experiment: 'An ordinary die was placed in a small steel box; the box was opened after Geller wrote down his impression of the uppermost face of the die. This is called a "double-blind" experiment because neither the subject nor the researchers know the number until the box is opened. The test was performed ten times, with Geller "passing" twice because he received no psychic impressions. But the eight times he did record a number, he was right every time. The odds: about a million to one. In another test, also under double-blind conditions, Geller located a hidden object placed in one of ten aluminium cans. He did this correctly twelve times in a row, with odds of over a trillion to one. He also mentally altered the reading of an electrical (weighing) scale and disrupted the workings of a magnetometer, (and a Geiger counter) a device that generates an electric current from radioactive source.'
At about the same time I was also tested by scientists from the Naval Surface Weapons Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. I bent a metal alloy wire made from nitinol. This wire springs back into its original shape when heated but after I had bent it, the wire refused to do this. The scientists came to the conclusion that I had used paranormal means to deform the wire. What particularly interested one of the institutions testing me was my apparent ability to interfere with computers. Scientists from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, one of the top physical research centres in America, watched me successfully stop two computer cards from working after I rubbed my fingers across them.
My way
I could relate many more experiments where I have been tried and tested and successfully puzzled even the most sceptical scientists with my powers. But that is the subject of other books. I have given you this background information in the hope that it will already partly explain some of my techniques and at the same time show you what you could do.
So how do I do it? Basically the method is much the same whenever I use my PSI-FORCE but even so, I will explain my methodology by taking you through various situations which could arise.
Telepathy: This involves the communication by extra sensory perception (ESP) of one mind with another mind or a telepathic source like a computer. One person sends a message to another person using only the mind.
First of all it would help if you trained yourself to think visually. The best way of doing this is to close your eyes and imagine you are looking at a television set in your mind. Draw an imaginary screen in your mind, ready to tune in to a picture of your making. Take your time, and as discussed earlier, do a few exercises to relax yourself. Relax your mind and your body and just concentrate on your mental television screen which at this point of time should be blank. Now turn on that imaginary TV. Actually imagine yourself pushing a button or turning a knob and let that screen flicker to life. Now start putting images on that screen. The face of someone close to you, the house or flat you live in, your favourite pet.
Now go back over some of the day's events as if they had been recorded on your personal video and play those images back to yourself. With practise, this becomes quite easy to set up and to 'replay' your own home movies on your mental TV screen.
The next part of the exercise may take a little time and effort. Imagine you are a receiving station. You are waiting for the video film to be transmitted to you although you do not yet know what is on that video. Imagine you are a few hours ahead of time and see what images you receive on your screen. Practise this constantly.
When you can virtually command the TV screen to appear in your mind at will, ask a friend to draw a simple picture on a piece of paper without showing you and see if you can draw the same picture. Try and make that image materialise on the TV screen in your mind. With practise it should do so. I am a stout believer that telepathy is within most people's ambit and that with enough practise, you can do it.
If your friend has not been able to project the picture, keep practising. Do not give up straight away. Ask your friend to trace over the picture he or she has drawn several times. Then, if all else fails, try another friend who has a more positive approach to PSI or telepathy. If you don't feel confident that you can be telepathic, just think of the number of times that you have come out with the same sentence as someone else in your company or the number of times you knew who was on the telephone as soon as you heard it ring. These are all indications of telepathy.
If you are able to successfully read minds, try sending messages to another receiver. Draw a picture on a piece of paper and ask your friend to replicate it. Be relaxed about it. If you find you are tense and irritable or under pressure while doing it, stop and try again later. You have to feel confident. Telepathy can also be practised with the following useful 'props.'
Cut out a series of numbers on cards. Take one of these card numbers and concentrate wholly on it. Put it into your mental TV screen and then see if your friend can correctly say what number it is. Try the same with a pack of cards and see if your friend can guess either the number, the colour, or the suit. Another series of images to send could be simple shapes like circles, triangles, squares, and crosses or choose simple capital cities or six famous people and see if you can send their facial images to your friend. Keep it easy at first and then you can progress to more difficult images and concepts.
When I receive information I can see a line appearing in my imaginary screen and it actually draws the image or letter from the right to the left. If the drawing stays in the screen for six seconds or more I know I am right.
Sceptics believe there MUST be some trick. Many times my brother-in-law Shipi is accused of being my plant, of sending me signals, even smoke signals. And there have been stories about transmitters secreted in my teeth, about 'hearing' pens draw, about peeping through my fingers, even seeing through envelopes with a powerful light. But the many scientists who tested my powers know this is absurd - whatever some magicians continue to claim about me. There are NO technical tricks. Otherwise I would have been found out countless times and exposed years ago.
Now here's a fun thought. Why not invite friends around for PSI parties? Metal bending was even written up in the prestigious Washington Post, and now metal bending parties are already very popular throughout the States, why not extend it to telepathy and other fun PSI skills. Why not begin a new craze!
How I start watches: Many people have been able to start watches moving again after seeing me on television. Somehow, I have given them the confidence to be able to do it themselves. I was quite happily shocked once to receive a telephone call from a scientist called Dr Thelma Moss who told me that she fixed broken watches in her classes just by letting some students see me on a video. It then dawned on me that my powers had stimulated the dormant powers in others. If someone brings me a broken watch I do the following things: first I wind it up, whether or not it is broken. I hold it in my hand, it does not matter whether it is the right or left hand, and then I talk to it. Yes! Talk to it. I also visualise it working. I tell it to 'mend' and to 'work.' I put all my mental concentration into making it tick. I tell myself - I virtually psych myself and let myself know that I can feel heat coming from my hand. 'tick,' I command, 'tick!' and in most cases it begins to tick. Naturally some sceptics claim that if you shake or warm a watch, that will start it going. But what about the thousands returned from watchmakers that could not be fixed? Watchmakers say to me that they have given up on watches which I have started up again. You have to concentrate all your efforts on what you are doing. The same may apply to household objects which no longer work. Televisions, hairdryers, even a car has been known to start working again using this method. Remember that a strong element of this is believing you can make the object work again.
Spoon bending: Here I switch from words like 'work' or 'mend' to the words: 'bend' or 'melt' and 'break.' I relax my other senses and then put all my concentration and energy into making that spoon obey my commands. I like to let that energy run through my body into my hand which then transfers it to the spoon although I have been able to bend metal without even touching it. But obviously it is much easier for me to transmit energy to the spoon by touching it. Sometimes it seems to change its molecular structure and the spoon becomes soft and bends or breaks. Of course, I am often debunked as having prepared the spoon beforehand. This is ridiculous. I would have been caught cheating many times over. Equally outrageous is the notion that I use chemicals on the end of my fingers to bend metal and cutlery. My fingers would have dropped off. And what, too, of those thousands of children and adults who have also experienced this phenomena? Are they and their witnesses inventing their stories?
Sprouting a seed: Seed sprouting is an act I perform as few times as possible because it actually scares me. It interferes with life. And, as yet, no sceptic or magician has been able to explain this. I make something grow, like radish seeds for example. I close my hand on them and will them to sprout. The phenomenon is fantastic and the bud usually sprouts. The process of time has been condensed. Usually it could take up to a week to happen naturally but with me it happens in a few moments. I really concentrate deeply and focus my mind on exactly what I want to happen. I can really visualise seeing that seed growing on my imaginary TV screen. It's fantastic when the bud comes out!
Deflecting a compass: I can feel the PSI-FORCE energy coming out of my eyes and my forehead and so I bring my forehead close to the compass which should be lying untouched on the table in front of you. Sceptics think I have hidden magnets in my teeth, hair, or neck, or even swallowed one, but of course I do not. It is proof to me that we have so much energy in the mind because I can always make the compass needle deflect when I put all my PSI effort into moving the needle.
Dowsing: This is a very touchy subject because multi-national companies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars paying me to dowse for precious minerals. However, although the directors have every faith in my powers, they are wary about making public my findings in case they are criticised by unbelieving members of the public who are their shareholders and who might consider them cranks. Even so, I have gone on record already by naming mining companies, with their permission, who have successfully sought and received my services. Dowsing in its most familiar form, employs a divining rod, originally a Y-shaped twig which is held by the diviner until it begins bending, sometimes with a violent action, in the direction of water or whatever the person dowsing has sought to find. I do not use a twig but dowse with my hands, usually with both hands fully outstretched until the palms of both my hands begin to feel the vibrations of what I am searching for. I get a feeling in my hands as though two magnets were drawing the palms of my hands towards my goal. It certainly does not matter if I am looking for gold, oil, diamonds, or water, although I personally have an affinity for metals.
Professional dowsing has happened to me in the following way. A company contacts me and I ask it to send maps of the area they want searched. I examine these maps very carefully, sometimes spending hours or days, thinking about it and feeling the area with my palms outstretched above the map. If I get a feeling that something is there I will continue with my research, if not, I suggest to the company that I am not the person for this job. If I feel there is something there I ask for geological reports and more information on the general area. Then I will fly over the area and ask the pilot to circle when I feel sure I have the right spot. It is not a fast process and I feel a great responsibility to the company concerned because of the millions it can cost them to invest in drilling and research. Consider this: if my detractors were able to duplicate these successful mining explorations, they too would be multimillionaires!
You could start off in a smaller way. Draw a layout of your room and get your friend to hide an object. Then see if you can find that object, first by placing your palms above the drawing and then by walking around the room with outstretched hands until you feel the vibrations or force in your hands telling you that you are in the vicinity of the object you are seeking.
I successfully performed such an exercise on the David Frost breakfast TV show in Britain towards the end of 1986 when a valuable ring was hidden in one of fifteen identical matchboxes. They were all together on a dish. I moved the palm of my hand carefully above each matchbox 'feeling' for the right sensation. That was not easy. Eventually I was sure I had narrowed it to just two of the matchboxes. The ring would be in one of these two, I said. I was certain. And it was. Millions of viewers, and the studio personnel were amazed. I had scored. You should try the same thing with say five or six matchboxes and progress from there.
Premonitions: If you have a premonition, especially one where by acting on it you feel you can avoid a disaster, I suggest you do so. I have heard so many stories where people were going to get on aeroplanes or jump into a motorcar before a crash and did not listen to their premonitions. Well, that is wrong. You must listen to them if they are that positive. There may never be another chance otherwise.
Use your premonition, which is a type of precognition - prediction of the future - in business and social dealings as well although this will be more fully dealt with in a later chapter, when I will also tell you about the premonitions scientists and famous stars have experienced.
Gambling: I feel this exercise can be an abuse of powers and will investigate aspects of it more thoroughly in a later chapter on numerology and cosmic forces. I once predicted correctly the numbers of a die eight times out of ten, 'passing' twice when I received no impression. This test was conducted at the Stanford Research Institute under laboratory controlled conditions. I have won vast amounts of money at casinos, though not without a certain amount of suffering afterwards. But I have also lost money in casinos and I do not recommend gambling for high stakes although it can be fun to have small bets with friends.