Editor's pick
Decult Discount
Anke Richter
Decult is back – with a special offer for our sceptical friends!
Approx. 1 min read
12 October 2026
Since its inception in 1986, the NZ Skeptics have been writing about pseudoscience and other fantastical claims in New Zealand and further afield - in our Journal (the NZ Skeptic), for radio interviews and more recently in our newsletter. This site contains all of those articles, which have been categorised and indexed for searching.
Latest Articles
Global Skeptics in the Pub
David Almandsmith
Talk with skeptics & rationalists around the World! We call it Global Skeptics in the Pub.
Confessions of a Skeptic: Why my favorite "Homeopathic" Cramp Spray actually works (and it's not the chemistry)
Frank Rickit
A while ago, I was a paid-up member but opted out after a hell-of-a-roasting for defending the cramp-killing properties of Cramp Stop. I was told it was unscientific nonsense due to its "6c" homeopathic dilution (Arnica, Magnesium, Cuprum, Nux Vomica).
Saeed Writes Back
Mark Honeychurch
In September 2024 I wrote a short article, titled Saeed's Millions, describing an email exchange I had with a man named Saeed. He'd emailed me asking if our communication was private, and when I responded he followed up by offering me millions of dollars to give to charities, with 30% of the money going to me in exchange for doing the work.
Not so much Angry as Disappointed and Disillusioned
Lance Kennedy
Mark Honeychurch said that "I may risk another angry email from Lance." He is partly right. But I am not so much angry as disappointed and disillusioned.
Had an apophany lately?
Katrina Borthwick
No, not an 'epiphany'. I'm talking about its occasionally evil twin, apophenia, which is the human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns or connections in random or unrelated data. An 'epiphany' on the other hand is the eureka moment where a complex problem or situation suddenly makes sense from a new perspective. An 'apophany' can sometimes feel the same, but it's leading you up the garden path. Pareidolia is a specific type of apophenia where we tend to see a meaningful image, face or pattern in a random or vague visual or auditory stimulus, such as a face on mars or the moon. While that in itself is a very interesting topic, in today's exploration I want to dig into the wider pattern-seeking that feeds conspiracy theories.
Audio in the walls
Mark Honeychurch
A few days ago I was sitting at home, re-watching an episode of Breaking Bad, when I noticed - during a scene where Skylar White was talking on the phone - that the audio track had a weird background vocal track to it. The vocal wasn't part of the phone call Skylar was on, and there weren't any SWAT outside the door ready to burst in on her - so the audio seemed a little out of place. Then the scene changed, and after a little while the voice started up again, which was odd. I paused the show, and sure enough the background voice kept on speaking - letting me know it definitely wasn't part of the show.
Boo AM: Ghosts on the Air
Bronwyn Rideout
It will come as no surprise to regular readers that the various social media algorithms are delivering me the goods in the lead-up to Halloween. Both believers and debunkers of the supernatural are cranking out their haunted house/ghost hunting content, and it has been a hoot to watch all the 'shocking' evidence gathered which proves that ghosts float, or hover, amongst us. One piece of technology that always makes me groan a bit when it is pulled out is a modified radio called a Ghost Box or Spirit Box.
Emulating a Spirit Box
Mark Honeychurch
When Bronwyn told me a couple of days ago that she planned to write about Spirit Boxes, a part of many ghost hunters' arsenal, I was reminded of the fact that a few years ago I'd started a project to write a browser-based software version of a spirit box. The idea was to stream a handful of internet radio stations, switching between them rapidly to emulate the scanning of a spirit box. However, the project was never finished, and the code had been left in a semi-working state.
From the Archive
How Thinking Goes Wrong Part II
Michael Shermer
1 August 1996
Approx. 20 min read
The Great New Zealand Bean Hoax
Vicki Hyde
1 February 1997
Approx. 16 min read
Eating Cake While Thinking Backwards
Gerrit J. van der Lingen
1 February 1997
Approx. 9 min read
Astrologist a 'Sceptic'
1 November 1987
Approx. 13 min read
Topic Spotlight: doctor
The spiritual Science of Alpha Beta, healer to the stars
David Shanks
The skeptics having been invited to Mr Beta's lecture, I went along to clutch, if not wave, the flag. I duly arrived at the local spiritualist church, a commanding fading edifice at 14, Gullible St. A chap with a withered leg hobbled up the front steps; things were auguring well. An audience of approximately 100 slowly assembled, 90% women, mostly middle aged.
1 February 1990
Approx. 10 min read
Hokum Locum
John Welch
Neither Nutrasweet nor sugar-rich diets produce any change in children's behaviour. (New England Journal of Medicine 330:301-307, 1994)
1 August 1994
Approx. 9 min read
Mary Hobbs
Craig Shearer
And speaking of anti-vaxxers, there's another one that's emerged from the woodwork.
27 September 2021
Approx. 13 min read
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