Psychic spoon-bender Uri Geller says record company Sony Music removed religious words and symbols from a picture he drew for Michael Jackson’s new album.
Geller, a former Israeli paratrooper famous for using mysterious mental powers to bend spoons, told Reuters that Sony Music had taken out the words “God,” “Jerusalem,” “USA” and “Angel 2000” and had replaced a Star of David with a pentagram.
Jackson’s long-awaited album, “Invincible,” was released by Sony Monday and is his first album containing all-new material since “Dangerous” in 1991.
“The sensitivity of not wanting any religious symbols in my drawing I found quite extraordinary because God is universal,” said Geller.
“I went along with it because I understood that one of the removed items is a very Jewish symbol and Michael is an international pop star.”
“But I never did understand why the creator’s name was eliminated.
Sony Music could not be immediately reached for comment.
Geller drew the detailed black-and-white illustration on a napkin in Jackson’s New York hotel room last year.
The two are close friends and Jackson was best man at Geller’s wedding near London in March – although he arrived two hours late.
The picture, the only illustration other than Jackson’s picture in the booklet accompanying the CD, remains packed with imagery.
It features the heads of a man and woman, the pyramids, a UFO and other symbols representing love, peace, and hope.
Geller said Sony technicians in Los Angeles had spent two days using a computer to scan the picture for hidden words in case he had written anything obscene.
However, the Hebrew letter Shin, used to symbolize God, was left in the picture. “They didn’t know what that was,” he said.