Piet Hein Hoebens (29 September 1948,

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

– 22 October 1984) was a Dutch

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, parapsychologist and

skeptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, 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 pe ...

. Hoebens is most well known for debunking the claims of

psychic detective A psychic detective is a person who investigates crimes by using purported paranormal psychic abilities. Examples have included postcognition (the paranormal perception of the past), Psychometry (paranormal), psychometry (information psychicall ...

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. Nota ...

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

De Telegraaf ''De Telegraaf'' (; en, The Telegraph) is the largest 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 s ...

'' 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 US non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "prom ...

. He was an associate of

Marcello Truzzi Marcello Truzzi (September 6, 1935 – February 2, 2003) was a professor of sociology at New College of Florida and later at Eastern Michigan University, founding co-chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Para ...

and contributed to the ''

Zetetic Scholar Marcello Truzzi (September 6, 1935 – February 2, 2003) was a professor of sociology at New College of Florida and later at Eastern Michigan University, founding co-chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Para ...

'' 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 allegedly manifested extrasensory perception (ESP) after recovering from a head injury and coma caused by a fall from a ladder when aged 30. He came to t ...

and

Gerard Croiset Gerard Croiset born Gerard Boekbinder (March 10, 1909July 20, 1980) was a Dutch parapsychology, parapsychologist, Psychometry (paranormal), psychometrist and psychic. He was often asked to help police detectives trace missing persons, though auth ...

which he found to be bogus. Hoebens took his own life 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'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''. Mission statement and goals Daniel Loxton, writing in ...

'' 6: 18–28
available online
*Hoebens, Piet Hein. (1981). ''The Mystery Men From Holland I: Peter Hurkos' Dutch Cases''. ''

'' 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''. ''

'' 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 humanism, secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University at Buff ...

. Prometheus Books. pp. 631–643. *

References

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