12 October 2020 | Sundry
A critique by Claus Larsen Sealioning is a term created by cartoonist David Malki in his comic strip Wondermark #10621. Sealioning assumes that a conversation held in public between two people should not be unwantedly interrupted by others, be they ever so polite,...
4 March 2019 | Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen The one certainty in life is that you will die. Not even taxes are as certain as the fact that you will, at some point in the future, cease to exist. That is a hard fact to face. Death is not just fodder for philosophy but also a source of income for...
15 November 2009 | Conspiracy theories, Pseudohistory
by Claus Larsen Paranoid fanaticism As long as humans have needed scapegoats, we have also invented reasons why we have picked on the right people. Within the past century, we have seen convoluted conspiracy theories about who really was behind big events like the...
27 July 2009 | Parapsychology
by Claus Larsen Introduction There is no question that the history of mediumship is a deeply tarnished one. We would be hard pressed to find a field where so much deceit, trickery and chicanery have been found. From the early days of spiritualism, starting with the...
1 April 2007 | Psychological phenomena
We see what we want to see. We hear what we want to hear. Could it be….Satan? Or is it merely our active imagination, being guided just a little...
1 April 2007 | Prophesies
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxM3dtA0e_M Soundtrack Artist: Olyphant Title: Emerald Shores (Radio Version) Length: 60:00 Format: MP3 Size: 82.3 MB Download here
1 April 2007 | Pseudoscience
by Dann Simonsen This article is an adaptation from a Danish article published in the on-line magazine Para-nyt (Para News), the website of the Danish skeptics. It was mainly inspired by the controversy surrounding the Danish IQ psychologist Helmuth Nyborg, an...
1 April 2007 | Psychic abilities, Psychological phenomena
Mind reading is a long-honored tradition among people with supernatural abilities. Even you will be fooled by this exhibition of this skill. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h8bOm_Tm_Y
1 March 2007 | Pseudoscience
by Dann Simonsen “… and to implement abstractions in reality is synonymous with the destruction of reality.” (G.W.F. Hegel)1 After the ideas in the book The Bell Curve were thoroughly debunked a couple of years ago, almost everybody seems to agree...
1 March 2007 | Conspiracy theories, Frauds & Hoaxes, Pseudohistory
by Claus Larsen The story begins on February 19th, 1948, with the murder of Wilhelm Jacobsen, and his wife, Inger Margrethe Jacobsen, born Scheel, in their flat in Copenhagen, Denmark. Because the double-murder was never solved, there have been numerous myths and...
1 April 2006 | Religion
by Niels Christian Hvidt Dear Mr. Claus Larsen, More than 2½ years have passed since we met at the occasion of one of my conferences in Denmark and you subsequently published your report. I did not feel the need to reply to it, but have learnt from Ole Hartling,...
1 April 2006 | Religion
by Claus Larsen Dear Niels Christian, The subject of miracles is indeed a fascinating one, that compels us to stop and take notice, and I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my article. As you note, we do indeed come from very different backgrounds. While...
1 November 2005 | Frauds & Hoaxes, Psychic abilities
Editor’s note: This article appeared originally in the newspaper The New York World, on October 21, 1888. It is the testimony of the first modern-day psychic, Margaret Fox, where she tells the story of how a simple childhood joke sparked the spiritualist...
1 May 2005 | Mysticism, New Age, Prophesies, Pseudoscience, Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen Whenever I can, I like to visit the psychic fairs that pop up from time to time. It is always a journey into enlightenment, although not the kind I am promised. It is more an uplifting tale of just how vivid human fantasy and invention can be. The...
1 March 2005 | Parapsychology
by Jens Laigaard The oldest society devoted to parapsychology is the English Society for Psychical Research which was founded in 1882. Second is the American Society for Psychical Research, organized a few years later. The third society is Danish. In the evening of...
1 March 2005 | Psychological phenomena
by Hans Christian Andersen Editor’s Note: Written in 1848, this well-known fairy-tale reminds us that Mother Nature is not only a wondrous place with whole worlds for us to explore, but also a fierce and bloody place, so unlike the benevolent, friendly and...
1 August 2004 | Prophesies
by Claus Larsen In the Euro 2004 soccer championship, two Danish astrologers tried their luck in predicting the outcome of the matches. Based on the thousands of years of experience, it should be a relatively easy task to determine such a binary result. Alas, it...
1 July 2004 | New Age
by Claus Larsen A miracle: TV just got worse It seems that today’s television only consists of precious few types of programmes. Game shows of dubious qualities, sitcoms with canned laughter, “Home with Celebrity X”, “I’m OK, You’re...
1 July 2004 | Mysticism, New Age
by Claus Larsen http://fengshui.tv2.dk/bagua/ http://www.fastfengshui.com/feng_shui_bagua.htm http://www.foto-reiseberichte.de/feng-shui/ http://www.effectivemeetings.com/design/workplace/designtipaug2001.asp...
1 April 2004 | Religion
by Claus Larsen In these days of never-ending pandering to the cheapest thrills, it is not every day you get to witness a whole string of miracles, where people are cured of such varied ailments as ski injuries, whiplash, asthma and ovarian cancer. Blind people see,...
1 January 2004 | Mysticism, New Age
by Claus Larsen Being a skeptic means that you learn a lot about how people who believe in paranormal phenomena think. Rational thought is often a scarce commodity, and you will encounter more or less bizarre notions. One of the more ridiculous ideas to pop up in...
1 August 2003 | Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen Lack of documentation Famed psychic Sylvia Browne has done past life regressions for decades, literally thousands of them. Each and every one of these is claimed to be “true” and well documented. However, she will not allow anyone to...
1 August 2003 | New Age, Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen Cell memory is based on the idea that whatever happens in our lives, each cell “records” it – spiritually, of course. Homeopaths have cherished this idea for a long time now, and people like Dean Radin (see “Book Review: The...
1 August 2003 | Prophesies
by Claus Larsen How well do astrologers agree? One of the more amusing aspects of an astrologer’s life is to predict who will be suitable as a partner for the client. This can be done in seconds: Merely compare the two persons’ astrological signs and you...
1 August 2003 | Aliens & UFOs, Frauds & Hoaxes
by Edgar Allan Poe This is Edgar Allan Poe’s famous hoax about the Atlantic being crossed by balloon. First published in an 1844 April issue of the New York Sun. Astounding News by Express, via Norfolk ! – The Atlantic crossed in Three Days ! Signal...
1 July 2003 | New Age
by Claus Larsen In his book, “The Demon-Haunted World”, Carl Sagan tells of a taxi driver, who held the most crazy ideas about pseudo-science: Lemuria, Atlantis, UFO abductions, you name it. I often wondered if Sagan was just lucky – or unlucky?...
1 July 2003 | Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen Graham Bishop is a self-proclaimed “spiritual teacher, trance medium, trance healer and medium”. He is also one lousy cold reader. After watching his performance in a Copenhagen cafe a sunny evening, that much is certain. After the initial...
1 July 2003 | Psychic abilities
by “Instig8r” What is a “special hit”? One of the most frequent arguments heard from believers in psychic medium John Edward is that he is real because he gets those “special hits”: A lot of precise information, seemingly from out...
1 April 2003 | Aliens & UFOs, Psychological phenomena
Commented by Claus Larsen The most famous UFO skeptic is Phillip Klass. He has written many books on UFOs as well as articles for aviation magazines such as Aviation Week. He is also one of the original founders of CSICOP, the Committee for the Scientific...
1 April 2003 | Religion
by Claus Larsen On Tuesday, the 29th of April, 2003, the author of the Danish book “Miracles – Encounters Between Heaven and Earth”, Niels Christian Hvidt, held a lecture in a small church in Southern Copenhagen. The Danish Skeptics were represented...
1 April 2003 | Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen This is a grisly tale. It will not please many people. It is a story about an abducted girl, a family in grief and fear and a bunch of vultures, who prey on parents with a missing child, while marketing their own, bogus claims of being able to find...
1 March 2003 | New Age
by Claus Larsen Everywhere, Anytime? Astral projections, Remote Viewing and other similar paranormal phenomena basically means one thing: You leave your body to go elsewhere. Some claim to be able to do this on demand, and go wherever whenever, regardless of time and...
1 March 2003 | Psychological phenomena
Commented by Claus Larsen In his book, “Flim-Flam!”, James Randi describes 20 points that can be applied to paranormal phenomena. Here they are, along with my comments. “It is claimed that the subject does not seek money or fame, and thus no motive...
1 March 2003 | Mysticism
by Claus Larsen Here are the results of the little name-character comparison test. Surprised? Person A was Augusto PinochetYour first name of Augusto creates a dual nature for you desire to systematize your life to progress step by step, but so frequently, you are...
1 March 2003 | Mysticism
by Claus Larsen When you are born, you get a name. Some are called Jeroboam, some are called John. Giving a child a name is serious business – it can certainly influence you later in life. Imagine a 7 feet professional basketball player called...
1 February 2003 | Prophesies, Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen I took a good, hard look at Sylvia Browne’s predictions for the next 100 years. It’s rather depressing how little imagination she has, given the fact that she is in the lucrative business of presenting fantasies as facts. I have divided...
1 February 2003 | Prophesies
by Claus Larsen Astrologers have a hard time explaining what really is making astrology “work”. Most claim it is gravity, based on the old analogy of the Moon causing the tides: If the Moon can cause the waters on Earth to move, then why not the water in...
1 February 2003 | Prophesies
by Claus Larsen Robert Zoller is the self-proclaimed “world’s leading proponent of Western Predictive Astrology also known as Medieval Astrology.” Among his feats, he claims to have predicted the events on 9-11 no less than twelve months in advance....
1 January 2003 | Parapsychology
by Claus Larsen The other night, as I was playing with my camera in a room in my old house, these ghost-like appearances showed up in the pictures. I have often felt chills in that particular room, where the previous owner is supposed to have died a violent death....
1 January 2003 | Uncategorized
by Claus Larsen The other night, as I was playing with my camera in a room in my old house, I felt like creating a couple of fake ghost photos. It was extremely easy to do, with the following props: A stool A book A couple of incense sticks The reason I had often felt...
1 January 2003 | Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen Novus Spiritus – The Church of Sylvia Browne Sylvia Browne is a modern-day preacher and founder of her own religion, replete with ordained ministers in robes, a “portable philosophy” and a 24-hour crisis line. Her gospel is a very...
1 January 2003 | Prophesies
by Claus Larsen Introduction A while ago, I frequented the #astrology channel on Undernet a couple of times. I began to ask a lot of questions about the nature of astrology, and was amazed to find a multitude of answers. Nobody seemed to agree on anything –...
1 January 2003 | Parapsychology, Pseudoscience
by Claus Larsen I spent one of the last evenings of September 2002 attending a lecture by Dean Radin, author of “The Conscious Universe”, on the Upper East Side, Manhattan. Radin told about the Global Consciousness Project, which is described as: “a...
1 December 2002 | Prophesies
by Claus Larsen One thing immediately strikes the student of Astrology: The predominant feature is confusion. No consensus seems to be achievable on just how Astrology works. Sure, it’s the planets that “influence” us humans here on Earth, but...
1 December 2002 | Prophesies
by Claus Larsen The ancients looked at the sky and saw images. Some constellations looked like animals, some looked like people in various situations and some looked like other things that were familiar to them. They told stories of these images in the sky, and a lot...
1 October 2002 | Prophesies
by Claus Larsen When astrologers claim horoscopes work, they often point to celebrities, lay out a chart for them and interpret their (already known) lives as proof that astrology works. But what if nobody knows who the charted person is, yet is still part of our...
1 October 2002 | Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen Famed psychic Sylvia Browne claims to be doing 15-20 past-life regressions each day, and members of her staff also do past-life regressions. It would take a small army doing nothing but indexing these regressions and later verifying them. Who does this...
1 October 2002 | Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen One of the most touted readings by proclaimed psychic John Edward is the “Feather at Niagara Falls”. It is pulled out whenever John Edward-believers want to prove that John Edward is a real genuine medium. Here is how John Edward himself...
1 October 2002 | Frauds & Hoaxes, Mysticism, Psychic abilities
by Claus Larsen On his web site, Uri Geller has a list of things he connects with the number 11. He believes this number to be all-important. E.g. he attaches meaning to the fact that some people have noticed their clocks sometimes show the numbers...
1 October 2002 | Uncategorised
by Claus Larsen The one thing Uri Geller is known for is his spoon-bending trick. Even though he has given it up, it still is his tour-de-force1 . No cutlery is safe, when Uri’s in town! The following images is from a short video clip, where Uri Geller...
1 October 2002 | Psychological phenomena
In his book, “The Demon-Haunted World”, Carl Sagan provides tools for skeptical thinking. This excellent list is a strong tool to weed out the bad seeds in science. Quoting ad verbatim: Tools Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the...
1 October 2002 | Uncategorised
by Claus Larsen Jeffrey Dahmer Serial killer, necrophiliac, cannibal and psychopath From 1978 to 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer killed 19 men. He had sex with the corpses, kept body parts as souvenirs, ate other parts of the bodies, and kept a detailed photo-diary of his...
1 October 2002 | Prophesies
by Claus Larsen John Hogue is a self-anointed prophet, born in 1955 in Hollywood, CA. He has a high-school degree, but claims to have read enough of his own to “become a Rhodes Scholar”. He, of course, could not be bothered with the dumbing-down process of...
1 January 1914 | Pseudoscience, Psychic abilities
by Professor Svante Arrhenius Svante Arrhenius This article was the second and final one that Svante Arrhenius, Swedish physicist and chemist, 1859-1927, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1903, published in the newspaper “Stockholms Dagblad” 1914. The...
