Author: Craig Shearer
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Therapeutic Products Bill
The New Zealand Skeptics Society is a non-profit body that exists to promote critical thinking. We are frequently contacted by the media to provide informed comments on science and pseudoscience, and support evidence-based policymaking. We offer public education on rational thinking, helping people to understand the gap between proven ideas and nonsense. We think that…
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UFOs – the camera doesn’t lie…
…It Just Tells Dirty Great Big Fat Whoppers! by Anthony Wharton – St-Helens, UK MEIER UNDER THE MICROSCOPE /EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL CONTACT. I continue to be fascinated with the Swiss farmer who has, in my opinion, been engaged in the longest running UFO hoax on record. My fascination comes from the obviously terrible quality…
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Cult Dining: The Lotus Heart and the legacy of Sri Chinmoy
Bronwyn Rideout investigates the connection between the Lotus Heart restaurant in Christchurch and Sri Chinmoy. The Lotus Heart Restaurant has been on my radar for almost as long as I have been living in New Zealand. I was introduced to it by a vegan friend in 2007, when it was still located in Cathedral Square.…
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The case of the haunted house in Pukekohe
With the season of Hallowe’en approaching, what better time for a tale of haunting? The NZ Skeptics recently commented on the story of a purportedly haunted house in Pukekohe, currently occupied by Filipino workers. The story appeared in the NZ Herald this week. Let’s have a look at what we know about the claimed evidence…
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When is an anti-vaxxer not an anti-vaxxer?
Answer – when they’re an ex-vaxxer! It seems that being an anti-vaxxer is a bad thing now, in the minds of the public. Nobody wants to be labeled as such. So, people who, for all intents and purposes, are anti-vax, have started calling themselves ex-vaxxers. To a certain extent this is literally true – people…
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The Healy “energy medicine” device is the next big thing in CAM
Note: this article was written over the last few weeks, but today Radio New Zealand featured a story by Susan Strongman that gave a great deal of publicity to this. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/422241/vitamin-dosing-via-bluetooth-physicist-warns-don-t-waste-your-money-on-healy At the risk of it appearing as if there’s only one person who concerns NZ Skeptics, we’ve yet another item of concern from that…
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Jeanette Wilson strikes again!
Local “psychic medium” Jeanette Wilson seems to be finding surviving the COVID-19 pandemic a little challenging. No longer can she tour the country running her Psychic Surgery sessions, and with the NZ border closed, she can’t travel to the UK. And they say pandemics don’t have a silver lining! But, in this age of internet…
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Jeanette Wilson, “psychic surgery” follow up
Last week we ran a campaign to get self-proclaimed “spiritual medium” and “healer” Jeanette Wilson shut down. This woman is touring NZ, doing a show called Psychic Surgery, which purports to be able to heal people (not cure, mind!) of whatever ails them. The “mechanism” is that she communicates with a team of “spirit surgeons”…
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Psychic Surgery coming to a town near you!
NZ-based, self-described “spiritual medium” Jeanette Wilson has started touring the country with her Psychic Surgery show. We’re running a campaign to try to disrupt this by contacting the venues and making them aware of the sort of thing they’re hosting. “Traditional” psychic surgery has involved literal blood and guts from animals being passed off as…
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Conference tickets now on sale
Tickets to the NZ Skeptics Conference 2019 are now available for sale, with early-bird prices until the end of September (but of course, we’d love you to buy sooner so we get a good idea of numbers). The conference has a bunch of exciting speakers, including all the hosts of the popular Skeptics’ Guide to…
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Nationwide school video competition promotes vaccination
The Force Field Film Challenge, aimed at helping kids to learn about the importance of vaccines, is an innovative competition being spearheaded by the New Zealand Skeptics. The Challenge will test the research and creative skills of New Zealand Primary and Intermediate students in a deep dive to promote vaccination and the advantages of herd…
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NZ Skeptics launch official Facebook page
Facebook has been host to some lively discussion among Kiwis who identify as having a skeptical outlook. These pages are not endorsed by NZ Skeptics Society, and we have no control over their content. Unfortunately, some of the content falls well outside the collective views of the NZ Skeptics committee. We have now set up…