Spoon bending is the deformation of objects, especially metal cutlery, purportedly by paranormal means. It is a common theme for magic tricks, which use a variety of methods to produce the effect. Performers commonly use misdirection to draw their audience's attention away while the spoon is manually bent. Another method uses a metal spoon that has been prepared by repeatedly bending the spoon back and forth, weakening the material. Applying light pressure will then cause it to bend or break. Spoon bending attracted considerable media attention in the 1970s when a number of individuals claimed to have the ability to cause such effects by psychic means. The most famous was Uri Geller, who performed on television bending metal spoons, keys, and other objects. Geller's performances were revealed to be tricks due to the work of magician and investigator James Randi and others. Despite hundreds of experiments by parapsychologists to determine whether spoon bending is a genuine psychic phenomenon, spoon bending by psychic powers has not been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the scientific community. History Spoon bending was popularized in the 1970s by magician and self-described psychic Uri Geller, who claimed to have paranormal powers and appeared on television performing purportedly psychokinetic feats such as causing spoons, nails, and keys to bend using the power of his mind. Geller's actual methods were revealed to be trickery largely due to the work of magician and investigator James Randi. While many individuals have claimed the paranormal or psychokinetic ability to bend spoons or manipulate other objects, spoon bending by psychic powers has not been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the scientific community. Randi offered a prize of one million dollars to any person who was able to demonstrate paranormal abilities such as spoon bending. Scientific testing Parapsychologists have conducted hundreds of experiments to determine whether spoon bending is a genuine psychic phenomenon. Physicist John Hasted believed that children could paranormally bend paper clips inside a glass sphere, provided the sphere had a hole in it and they were allowed to take the sphere into a room unobserved. Science writer and skeptic Martin Gardner wrote that Hasted was incapable of devising simple controls such as videotaping the children secretly. Stephen North, a British psychic, was tested by Hasted in the late 1970s. Hasted claimed North had the psychokinetic ability to bend spoons and teleport objects in and out of sealed containers. According to