Rockport, Texas - In 1972 an 18-year old mentalist stirred up headlines by demonstrating psychic powers that enabled him to bend spoons, bend coins in half, and read the thoughts of others.

Jeffrey Sturgis announced he planned to follow in the footsteps of mentalist Uri Geller and become the greatest psychic power in the world.

Sturgis claimed he became aware of his strange powers at the age of six, but kept it hidden from everyone except his family and close friends.

He said he discovered his power to manipulate objects by accident when he mother allowed him to wear his new watch to church one Sunday.

In an interview, Sturgis described the incident: “I had the watch on and my mother noticed that the hands had moved ahead. She asked me why I changed the time, and when I told her I hadn’t, she didn’t believe me. Then, as I sat in church, I saw the hands on the watch keep jumping ahead. At the time, I thought the watch was broken.”

Sturgis became the center of many other strange occurences, for which there were no explanations. Then, in later years, he read about Uri Geller and other psychic manipulators.

It slowly dawned on him that he too possessed supernatural powers.

In a later interview Sturgis said, “I practiced strengthening my power and I got to the point where I could bend spoons. Then, at my eight grade graduation, a classmate dared me to bend an old key he had. He held the key in his hand and I concentrated as hard as I could. Suddenly I could see the key bending in my mind. When he opened his hand, everyone was amazed to see the key was bent.”

In a controlled demonstration which took place in 1973, Sturgis sat at a table and concentrated on a page of an open telephone book. Then, as witnesses watched, the page slowly raised and turned over.

Sponsors of the event attempted to locate some source of trickery, or a rational explanation for the movement of the page, but could find none.

Sturgis lived with his parents in Phoenix, Arizona at the time, and felt he had only just began to understand the extent of his psychic powers.

He felt that he could train himself to tap into abilities far beyond what other psychics had accomplished.

On the evening of November 23rd, 1973, Sturgis had plans to meet some friends to see a movie. He left his parent’s home at 7:30pm, but his friends say he never arrived at the cinema.

Jeffrey’s mother, who walked outside as the young psychic was about to leave on his bicycle, gave him some extra money for snacks at the movies. She was the last person to ever see him.

Friends say that shortly before his disappearance, Sturgis had spoken of attempts to escape the physical world and enter a higher plane of enlightenment. - Dean Terry