Welcome!
Stichting Skepsis is a Dutch organisation dedicated to the promotion and practice of scientific skepticism. Four times a year we publish our magazine Skepter and once a year we organise a congress. And we have a podcast. All articles can be read in machine-translated English (and French and German) by clicking on the flag in the menu bar.
But some of the articles on this website have been translated in English in the old fashioned way (or have been written in the magazines of other skeptical organisations). Below you can find a list.
If you have any questions about Stichting Skepsis, feel free to contact us. And if you would like to support our activities, consider a donation to Skepsis.
List of English articles
Most of these 30 articles are translations from original Dutch articles. Here are two lists: the first contains merely the titles with a short description, and the second supplies summaries of the articles as well. Also here: links to literature surveys.
Gerard Croiset by Piet Hein Hoebens
from Skeptical Inquirer , vol. VI no. 1 & 2, 1981.
About psychic Croiset and his mentor professor Tenhaeff.
Stage Hypnotism Demystified by Rob Nanninga
translated from de Volkskrant, December 3, 1994 and Skepter 7.1
On the conjuring tricks of Rasti Rostelli
Report of the Working Group Ritual Abuse
Report by the Ministry of Justice, 1994
The dark side of a psychotherapeutic cult: Video Gestalt in Holland by Rob Nanninga
Adapted from Skepter 8.1 (1995) and Intermediair, 3 March 1995; Trouw, 18 March 1995
About Wies Moget, a paranoid unlicensed psychotherapist.
The Astrotest: A tough match for astrologers by Rob Nanninga
Appeared in Correlation 15.2, 1996/97 as translation from Skepter 8.2 (1995)
44 astrologers performed no better than chance in a matching test.
Sons of Light by Bart Koene
Translated from Skepter 8.3 (1995). Report of the Sixth European Creationist Congress,August 16-19, 1995 in Soesterberg.
The Mars Effect in Retrospect by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Appeared in Skeptical Inquirer 21.6 (1997). A minuscule astrological ‘effect’ is an illusion caused by biased data gathering.
How macrobiotics killed my wife by Roel van Duijn
From Skepter 11.3, 1998. Listening to Adelbert Nelissen of the Kushi Institute ultimately was fatal.
Treat the leg or pull it? by Dick Zeilstra
Translation from Skepter 13.1 (2000). About the herniated disc treatments of Alfred Bonati
Spontaneous Human Confabulation: Requiem for Phyllis by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Appeared in Skeptical Inquirer 25.2 (March/April 2001), and in Dutch Skepter 13.1 (2000)
How tragic accidents become a horror stories about so-called Spontaneous Human Combustion.
The documents in the case of Phyllis Newcombe by Jan Willem Nienhuys
All newspaper and book sources related to the main case of the above article
ET in the Sorbonne: The creation of a doctor in astrology by Eric Hoogcarspel and Jan Willem Nienhuys
Translation from Skepter 14.2 (2001). The awarding of a PhD to Elizabeth Teissier on April 7, 2001.
Britain’s psychic challenge by John Jackson and others
Originally on the site of the UK Skeptics. On a tv-series in 2005-2006 consisting of a kind of competition between psychics.
Mrs. Sickesz is a [*bleep*] by Rob Nanninga
Translated from Skepter 20.1 (2007). On the struggle in courts between the Association against Quackery and Mrs. Sickesz over the use of the word ‘kwakzalver’ (=quack).
Was Hippocrates a homeopath? by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Translated and condensed from an article in Nederlands Tijdschrift tegen de Kwakzalverij 118.3, September 2007. Some homeopaths claim that their art goes back to Hippocrates; it is not true.
Letters from a clairvoyant by Hans van Maanen
Translated from Skepter 27.2 (2015). The true story behind a fictitious scam described by John Allen Paulos and earlier in the Hitchcock movie Mail Order Prophet (1957).
Even Air Bubbles Do Not Break the Laws of Nature by Martin Bier
Original blog, December 25, 2015
A perpetuum mobile of the rising air bubble type. The energy comes of course from the effort of blowing in the air at the bottom of a water column.
Critical considerations on homeopathy by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of April 16, 2016. On the 1943 dissertation of D.K. de Jongh (which has just been digitized). With De Jongh’s own summary.
The clairvoyant dog by Co Stolper
Blog of November 7, 2016. Reminiscence of math teacher A.S. van Dam, formerly a telepathic test person of Gerard Heymans. ‘Clairvoyance’ may be ‘able to perceive minimal cues’.
Dubious Resonances by Martin Bier
Blog of July 29, 2017
Extreme low frequency fields do not do anything. They do not cause cancer or cure illness. So-called bioresonance in nonsense.
The writings of Ruggero Santilli by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of July 14, 2018. Santilli sued two Skepsis board members for defamation. Long ago he was a serious scientist, but now he is confused about simple geometry. See also his reactions in the comments.
Lazzarini’s little sticks (pdf) by Hans van Maanen
Extended LaTeX version of an article in Skepter 31.3, 2018. In 1910, high school teacher Mario Lazzarini claimed to have approximated the value of pi as 355/113 with an ingenious automaton. He probably was a prankster.
Phyllis Newcombe and Fantasy by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of January 5, 2021. Fantastic stories are often just products of the fantasy of the person who tells them.
Countess Cornelia Bandi’s last day by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of January 26, 2021. A famous example (1731) of so-called spontaneous human combustion. With original Italian and English sources.
Spontaneous Human Combustion by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of April 5, 2021. Spontaneous Human Combustion doesn’t exist. The overheated imagination of sloppy writers does. Four cases (Newcombe, Comissiong, Seaton, Morley) described succinctly.
Documents in the case of Maud Comissiong by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Accompanies the blog of April 5, and Skepter 34.1.
Documents in the case of Peter Seaton by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Same.
Documents Re Sarah Morley by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Same.
Gauquelin’s Mars Effect by Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of March 9, 2022, translation of a blog of July 10, 2017. History of the Gauquelin 1955-2000. How a statistical fluke grew by biased data collection.
The Psychic Mafia by Jan Willem Nienhuys
This page about a famous out of print book has been on the Skepsis-site for a long time, but is now extended with numerous links.
Religious Cults: an extensive bibliography (August 2002)
Links to online articles about religious movements (August 2002)
Summaries
Gerard Croiset
Piet Hein Hoebens
This article consists of two parts. Part 1, titled ‘Gerard Croiset: Investigation of the Mozart of ‘Psychic Sleuths’ appeared in Skeptical Inquirer 6.1 (Fall 1981); Part II, titled ‘Croiset and Professor Tenhaeff: Discrepancies in Claims of Clairvoyance’, appeared in Skeptical Inquirer 6.2 (Winter 1981-82). A Dutch translation appeared in Skepter 1.3 and Skepter 1.4 (1988).
Gerard Croiset is pictured in a biography by Jack Pollack. Croiset was strongly recommended by professor Wilhelm Tenhaeff. Croiset’s fame was partly due to the professor vouching for him. And Tenhaeff was famous because he had a famous and real clairvoyant. But Hoebens showed that Croiset and Tenhaeff were partners in deceit.
Stage Hypnotism Demystified
Rob Nanninga
Translation of an article in Skepter 7.1 (1994). Ronald van den Berg, stage name Rasti Rostelli, has a show that is visited by an estimated 100,000 people each year. It starts with tawdry magic acts to demonstrate psychic power, and then the hypnosis part follows. The trick of stage hypnosis is that one selects the most suggestible people. Afterwards they have a good excuse for their silly behavior: ‘I was hypnotized’. The real miracle is that so many people pay 40 guilders for this.
Report of the Working Group Ritual Abuse
Translation by Jan Willem Nienhuys
In 1993 a ‘Working Group Ritual Abuse’ was formed by the Ministery of Justice to discuss a number of cases of suspected ‘ritual abuse’. The working group published their rather vague report in 1994. In other countries there also were investigators of the same subject. To enable them to know the Dutch viewpoints, this translation was made.
The final result was that on 1999 a ‘Landelijke Expertisegroep Bijzondere Zedenzaken’ was formed that had to review special cases of sexual offenses involving recovered memories or that were at least eight years old.
The dark side of a psychotherapeutic cult: Video Gestalt in Holland
Rob Nanninga
Translation of an article in Skepter 8.1 (1995). Wies Moget is a selfmade psychotherapist. Since the 1980s she runs the Institute for Video Gestalt (IVG), specializing in therapy for incest victims. She is a student of Barry Goodfield. Now the IVG has become a sect, led by a paranoid and ruthless woman. Because she is not licensed as psychotherapist, the health insurance doesn’t pay for the treatment she offers, and the Health Inspectorate cannot do anything about it. But the municipality of Groningen probably has paid her a six figure sum.
Moget sued the author for defamation and lost.
The Astrotest: A tough match for astrologers
Rob Nanninga
This article is an English version of one that appeared in Skepter 8.2 (1995). It appeared in Correlation, Journal of Research into Astrology, 15(2), 1996/97. Forty-four experienced astrologers tried to match seven extensive life descriptions to the birth data of these people. The descriptions were based on based on answers to questions from the astrologers themselves. The results were completely random. Half of the particpants scored zero correct. But before the results became known, half of the astrologers thought that they had everything correct. There also was no agreement between the astrologers themselves. The astrologers already have an excuse: astrology only works when a customer has a real question and freely selects an astrologer. The chairperson of the Dutch astrology association complained that the questionnaire hadn’t been vetted by an expert.
Sons of Light
Bart Koene
Translation by the author of his own report of the Sixth European Creationist Congress, August 16-19, 1995 in Soesterberg. The Dutch original appeared in Skepter 8.3 (1995). There are lectures about the Flood, geological dating, Ice Ages, and the possibility of aging like Methusalem. One professor of mathematics and computer science is a geocentrist who doesn’t believe in the rotation of the earth, and one speaker ‘proves’ that the evolutionary theory of the origin of life contradicts thermodynamics.
The Mars Effect in Retrospect
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Appeared in Skeptical Inquirer 21.6 (1997). The so-called Mars Effect is a minuscule deviation in the position of Mars at the birth of sports champions, discovered by Michel Gauquelin. A new Gauquelin bias is discovered, namely in the handling of ‘unreliable’ data.
Trefwoorden: Mars-effect, Gauquelin, Para Committee, Kurtz, Zelen, Abell, CFEPP, Ertel, Blondlot, Deryagin
How macrobiotics killed my wife
Roel van Duijn
From Skepter 11.3, 1998. The author describes how his wife (‘Flora’) was diagnosed with the initial stage of cervical cancer, easily treatable by so-called conization. Instead she choose macrobiotics as treatment. Far too late she ended up in hospital, when her right kidney was destroyed. Even then she refused chemotherapy and radiation, on the advice of her macrobiotic guru, called Adelbert Nelissen of the Kushi Instituut. Five years after the first diagnosis she was dying. Nelissen probably made more victims.
Treat the leg or pull it?
Dick Zeilstra
Translation of part of ‘Laseren of belazeren? De herniabehandelingen van wonderdokter Bonati’ in Skepter 13.1 (2000). Bonati is a neurosurgeon in Florida who treats people with herniated discs by means of lasers. He charges very high fees. At that time (2000) he was trying to get Dutch patients to his clinic. This English version mentions developments until 2002. In 2025 Bonati went bankrupt. This English version also describes how agents of Bonati tried, by means of a fake tv crew, to elicit statements from the author that might be used to sue him.
Spontaneous Human Confabulation: Requiem for Phyllis
Jan Willem Nienhuys
English version of ‘Spontane menselijke confabulatie: De zelfontbranding van Phyllis Newcombe’, Skepter 13.1 (2000), published in Skeptical Inquirer 25.2 (March/April 2001)
The long tulle dress of Phyllis Newcombe caught fire when she left a dance party (1938) in Chelmsford, probably by a burning match on the ground. Almost three weeks later she died of sepsis. Her death was changed step by step into an unrecognizable horror story, namely that of Maybelle Andrews bursting into flames in a crowded Soho nightclub in the 1950s. Several other unbelievable stories by the same horror mongerers (‘ghouls preying on the death and misery of other people’) are discussed. With a link to the Dutch version and also to verbatim quotes from ten newspapers and the various sensationalists.
The documents in the case of Phyllis Newcombe
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Here all the relevant newspaper sources of the above article, and all occurrences in the sensationalist literature, so the reader can follow the evolution of the story.
ET in the Sorbonne: The creation of a doctor in astrology
Eric Hoogcarspel and Jan Willem Nienhuys
Translation of article in Skepter 14.2 (2001). Noted astrologer Elizabeth Teissier (63) got a PhD in sociology in Paris on April 7, 2001. Her 900 page dissertation tried to prove that astrology is a science. Critics thought it was a pile of rubbish. It’s riddled with misspellings, typos and OCR-errors. Worse, the author seems to be ignorant of the basic astronomy needed for astrology.
Britain’s psychic challenge
John Jackson and others
British Channel 5 brought a kind of competition between seven psychics (selected from over 2000 candidates). The pilot was broadcast December 9, 2005, and the remainder in January and February 2006. Each time one psychic was eliminated. This article discusses the series in detail. Altogether it shows all that can go wrong when one tests psychics: poor blinding and poor randomizing, and often giving free reign to cold reading, confirmation bias, subjective validation, reinterpretation and playing to emotions. Also: the 24 tests were not of specific claims of the psychics. These comments were originally on the site of the UK Skeptics (skeptics.org.uk), but now it is only available in archived form.
Mrs. Sickesz is a [*bleep*]
Rob Nanninga
English version of an article from Skepter 20.1 (2007). Physician Maria Sickesz had thought out a kind of chiropractic system, and was listed in a booklet about the top twenty Dutch quacks of the 20th century, published October 2000. Sickesz sued the Association against Quackery that had authored the booklet, not because anything said about her was incorrect, but because she felt insulted by being listed at all. She lost (2005), but on appeal (2007) the higher court looked in the dictionary and found that ‘quack’ was also a synonym for ‘fraud’, hence an insult. The Dutch Supreme Court observed (2009) that the Association had clearly indicated what they meant by quackery (unscientific healing methods) and another court decided (2013) in favor of the Association. Dr. Sickesz holds very peculiar occultist ideas, as can be seen from a 1978 book of hers, a mixture of racist and theosophic ideas which says that she is one of the few Enlightened Masters of the Netherlands.
Hot air around a wind turbine
Martin Bier
Blog of August 16, 2014. A small wind turbine that costs (per amount of energy produced) ten times as much as a serious installation. The makers seem not be aware of the basic physics of wind turbines.
Was Hippocrates a Homeopath?
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Shortened English version of an article in NTtdK 118.3 and of Hippocrates was geen homeopaat!
The story that Hippocrates was aware of the homeopathic similia principle originates from Hahnemann. Hahnemann applied this principle to the choice of medicines and nothing of the sort is in the Hippocratic writings. Hippocrates merely said that a warm bath might be beneficial for an affliction of a warm organ, or that one should drive out bad water with good water and cure intestinal upsets with diet. He also said that there are no fixed rules: the physician should always do what is best in that case.
Letters from a clairvoyant
Hans van Maanen
Translation of an article in Skepter 27.2 (2015).
John Allen Paulos describes in Innumeracy (1988) a scam which was also depicted in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mail Order Prophet (1957). That movie in its turn was based on a 1954 story of Antony Ferry (1930-1970) in Maclean’s Magazine. While it is certain that many people are taken in by stock newsletters (that is where Paulos’ inspiration came from), the only person known to profit handsomely from Ferry’s idea is Ferry himself, who received nice royalities for his story.
Even Air Bubbles Do Not Break the Laws of Nature
Martin Bier
Blog of December 25, 2015. Analysis of a proposed perpetuum mobile, the Rosch Thrust Kinetic Generator. Rising air bubbles provide energy, but not as much as the energy to blow them into the bottom of a watercolumn.
Critical considerations on homeopathy
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of April 16, 2016, on the occasion of publication of the digitized version of the 1943 dissertation of D.K. de Jongh. This blog ends with the English summary of De Jongh himself.
The clairvoyant dog
Co Stolper
Blog of November 7, 2016. Reminiscence of math teacher A.S. van Dam, formerly a telepathic test person of Gerard Heymans in the period 1920-1922. ‘Clairvoyance’ may be ‘able to perceive minimal cues’.
Dubious Resonances
Martin Bier
Blog of July 29, 2017. Extreme low frequency fields do not do anything. They do not cause cancer or cure illness. So-called bioresonance in nonsense.
The writings of Ruggero Santilli
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of July 14, 2018. Santilli sued two Skepsis board members for defamation. Long ago he was a serious scientist, buy now he is confused about simple geometry. See also his reactions in the comments
Phyllis Newcombe and Fantasy
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of January 5, 2021. Fantastic stories (in this case about ‘spontaneous human combustion’) just products of the fantasy of the person who tells them.
Countess Cornelia Bandi’s last day
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of January 26, 2021. A famous example (1731) of so-called spontaneous human combustion. With original Italian and English sources. Cornelia Bandi probably died suddenly during the night (she had been feeling seriously unwell before going to bed) and her body was consumed by the wick effect. The fire started from the oil lamp she was holding when she collapsed. The case attracted attention because such deaths were thought to be divine punishment of drunks. But Cornelia Bandi was very pious.
Spontaneous Human Combustion
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of April 5, 2021 Spontaneous Human Combustion doesn’t exist. The overheated imagination of sloppy writers does. Four cases described succinctly. Phyllis Newconbe was already a Skepter-article in 2000, but Skepter 34.1 carried there more cases. Below are the documents of each of these cases.
Documents in the case of Maud Comissiong
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Maud Comissiong (née Crossley), aged 54, died as result of an accident in the cabin of a yacht, involving a piece of burning paper and an open tin of petrol. This happened in 1938. Her case was described in an article in Skepter 34.1 (2021) and in the blog of April 5, 20. Her tragic end was sensationalized beyond recognition. Here verbatim renderings of eight newspaper reports.
Documents in the case of Peter Seaton
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Peter Seaton, aged 11 months, died in a fire in a London tenement house on the morning of December 25, 1938. The case was described in an article in Skepter 34.1 (2021) and in the blog of April 5, 2021. Because the fire department could not find the origin of the fire (when it was detected the room already was an inferno), sensationalists claimed that nothing in the room – except the baby itself – was touched by fire. Here verbatim renderings of 19 newspaper reports.
Documents Re Sarah Morley
Jan Willem Nienhuys
The case was described in an article in Skepter 34.1 (2021) and the blog of April 5, 2021. Sarah Morley aged 72, living in the village Hockwold cum Wilton, suffered a fate similar to Countess Cornelia Bandi.
She probably died suddenly (May 24, 1902) while reading by the light of a candle, and then the candle set fire to her clothes. Her body was slowly consumed by the wick effect. As was the chintz covering of the chair she had been sitting on. In this case a sensationalist changed the story to that of Euphemia Johnson dying on a summer afternoon in London in 1922 after taking a sip of tea. Miraculously her clothes and the room were unaffected
Gauquelin’s Mars Effect
Jan Willem Nienhuys
Blog of March 9, 2022, translation of a blog post of July 10, 2017. The Gauquelin affair lasted from 1955 to about 2000. Gauquelin first observed among 200 possible results a relation between the planet Mars and sports. Maybe a fluke. He investigated, but didn’t keep the initial data separate from data collected to test his hypothesis. Also he determined for each sport separately who were the top – after he had see their Mars scores. Sports dictionaries are riddled with mistakes, and judging the reliability of doubtful data was similarly biased.
The Psychic Mafia
Jan Willem Nienhuys
This page is totally renewed in 2026. Here you can download a pdf and a txt-file of the famous book by M. Lamar Keene, with the comments by The Anonymous Typist. Here also the history of this digital version of The Psychic Mafia. Keene was a psychic who was fully aware that he was just scamming people, but was one of the first mediums to confess his deception. This partly under the influence of the Masonic ideals, after he had become a Freemason. So he said. Also with links to a series of six podcasts of Vicky Baker.
