Piet Hein Hoebens (29 September 1948,

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

– 22 October 1984) was a Dutch

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

skeptic Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

, and critic of

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry (paranormal), psychometry) and other paranormal cla ...

. Hoebens is most well known for debunking the claims of

psychic detective A psychic detective is a person who purports to investigate crimes using paranormal psychic abilities. Claimed techniques and abilities have included postcognition (paranormal perception of the past), psychometry (information psychically gain ...

s. He worked as a Dutch journalist and investigated claims of

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

phenomena. He was a staff member for the newspaper ''

De Telegraaf ''De Telegraaf'' (; ) is the largest Netherlands, Dutch daily morning newspaper. Haro Kraak,Gaat Paul Jansen de crisis bij De Telegraaf oplossen?, ''de Volkskrant'', 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Paul Jansen has been the editor-in-chief since ...

'' for 13 years and a member of the

Committee for Skeptical Inquiry The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the U.S. non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to " ...

. He was an associate of

Marcello Truzzi Marcello Truzzi (September 6, 1935 – February 2, 2003) was an American sociologist and academic who was professor of sociology at New College of Florida and later at Eastern Michigan University, founding co-chairman of the Committee for the Sc ...

and contributed to the '' Zetetic Scholar'' regarding the claims of psychics such as

Peter Hurkos Pieter van der Hurk (21 May 1911 – 1 June 1988) known as Peter Hurkos, was a Dutchman who claimed he manifested extrasensory perception (ESP) after recovering from a head injury and coma caused by a fall from a ladder when aged 30. He went to ...

and Gerard Croiset which he found to be bogus. Hoebens killed himself in October 1984.Gerd H. Hövelmann
Piet Hein Hoebens (1948-1984)
/ref>

Publications

*Hoebens, Piet Hein. (1981). ''Gerard Croiset: Investigation of the Mozart of "Psychic Sleuths"''. ''

Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' (S.I.) is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle "The Magazine for Science and Reason". The magazine initially focused on investigating clai ...

'' 6: 18–28
available online
*Hoebens, Piet Hein. (1981). ''The Mystery Men From Holland I: Peter Hurkos' Dutch Cases''. '' Zetetic Scholar'' 8: 11–17, *Hoebens, Piet Hein. (1982). ''Croiset and Professor Tenhaeff: Discrepancies in Claims of Clairvoyance''. ''

'' 6: 32–40
available online
*Hoebens, Piet Hein. (1982). ''Mystery Men From Holland II: The Strange Case of Gerard Croiset''. '' Zetetic Scholar'' 9: 21–32, *Hoebens, Piet Hein. (1983). ''Sense and Nonsense in Parapsychology''. ''

'': 8: 121–132. *Hoebens, Piet Hein. (with

, 1985). ''Reflections on Psychic Sleuths''. In ''A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology'', ed.

Paul Kurtz Paul Kurtz (December 21, 1925 – October 20, 2012) was an American scientific skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Bu ...

Prometheus Books Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by the philosopher Paul Kurtz (who was also the founder of the Council for Secular Humanism, Center for Inquiry, and co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry). The publ ...

. pp. 631–643. *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoebens, Piet Hein 1948 births 1984 deaths Dutch skeptics Critics of parapsychology Writers from Utrecht (city) Suicides in the Netherlands 20th-century Dutch journalists 1984 suicides