This fortnight in skeptical history - October 28th to November 9th
Bronwyn Rideout - 28th October 2025
October 28th
2009 - At 7:30pm, Skeptics meet in a pub for the first Skeptics in the Pub Dunedin event at the Duke of Wellington.
2022 -
Chris McKinnell, grandson of infamous American ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren, joins Haunted New Zealand ghost hunters in a ghost hunt at the Lady Bowen bed and breakfast in Thames.
Chris McKinnell and Barbara Caisley (Bay of Plenty Times)
Radio NZ publishes an article on Highden and the complaints of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse there and to the loosely affiliated International School of the Temple Arts.
October 29th
1995 - Peter Jackson (yes, that Peter Jackson) and Costa Bote’s mockumentary Forgotten Silver is aired on NZ television. Its convincing story fooled New Zealanders around the country until the hoax was revealed the following day.
2010 - The site of the former Centrepoint commune is converted into a wellness centre, Kawai Purapura Holistic Residential Village.
The now-former owners of the former Centrepoint and now former Kawai Purapura property, Phillip and Jenny Cottingham in 2010
October 30th
1880 - The spiritualists of Auckland form a Spiritualistic Progressive Association.
1922 - Reports of fairies in New Zealand accompany an article in The Press about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s new work, “The Coming of the Fairies”
1977 - Due to poor ticket sales, Uri Geller cancelled his only South Island show in Christchurch. Fewer than a quarter of the tickets were sold.
Advertisement from The Press, 20 October 1977, p. 32
2013 - A Te Horo iridologist is cleared of wrongdoing in a case where her patient died from a tumour that may have been treatable by conventional medicine.
2018 - 1,000 people protest on the steps of NZ parliament, arguing that NZ is a Christian nation and Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the House, had no authority to remove Jesus from the parliamentary prayer. References to Almighty God remain.
2022 - Multi-level marketing company Tupperware ceased trading in New Zealand.
October 31st
1967 - The Life and Work Committee of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand reject faith healing. They argue that the church should not be distracted from recognising the scientific method and it was dangerous to assume that events where a scientific explanation was absent was evidence of direct intervention by God.
2017 - Children in Whitby, Wellington are handed tracts from Ray Comfort’s Living Waters on Halloween by a local Christian resident. The pamphlets warn children of the dangers of sinning against god.
November 1st
1961 - The New Zealand Crimes Act 1961 is enacted, which abolishes a number of common laws and terminates the local application of UK enactments, including the Witchcraft Act 1735 and the Whipping Act 1920.
2022 - Hair and skin care Multi-Level Marketing scheme MONAT officially launches in New Zealand.
November 2nd
2006 - Hell’s Pizza sparks controversy and a flurry of ASA complaints after distributing 170,000 condoms in the mail to promote their “Lust Pizza”. The campaign was condemned by Focus on the Family, Family First, and the Catholic Church, which accused the Pizza chain of promoting to children specifically.
November 3rd
2016 - A fire breaks out on Browns Island, and the police rescue a woman who claims she had been stranded there for 3 days.
2022 - Anke Richter’s book, Cult Trip, is released. It follows Richter’s 10-year investigations into how and why cults attract, entrap, and destroy ordinary people. Centrepoint, OSHO, Agama, and Gloriavale all go under Richter’s microscope.
November 4th
2022 - Graham Philip pleads guilty to seven charges of sabotage, after he attempted to bring down the national electricity grid in 2021 as a result of his conspiratorial views on the government and their COVID-19 response.
Graham Philip
November 5th
1886 - The first spiritualist funeral is held in Wellington. A graveside oration was provided by an entranced medium.
1991 - Kevin J Barnard pleads guilty in Tauranga District Court on over 40 charges of forgery. The plea is the capstone to one of the strangest job creation scandals NZ has seen. Barnard was able to swindle nearly $90,000 through the ReStart programme with a business plan that promised to find correlation between medical data and kirlian (aura) photography.
2016 - A final warning is issued to a rogue Hare Krishna group near Nelson, demanding that they address the variety of unconsented accommodation on their property. The notice meant that structures like caravans, buses, and sheds could no longer be used until permits were gained.
November 6th
1979 - Hailed as the next Edgar Cayce, psychic Paul Solomon gives a lecture in Christchurch.
2011 - David Icke, who believes reptilian shapeshifters are controlling world leaders, gives a talk in Auckland.
2016 - Scientologist Nigel Antony Gray makes a prediction on Facebook that an earthquake will hit New Zealand: “On 14th November and a couple of days either side of that date, watch for a major earthquake, and quite possible in the South Pacific area.”
2021 - Graham Philip, a conspiracy theorist who came to believe that the government was endangering the public with their COVID 19 response, decides to start sabotaging New Zealand’s national power infrastructure.
November 7th
1967 - New Zealand theologian Lloyd Geering was acquitted of heresy at a Presbyterian show trial. Geering is still kicking and is 107 years old as of 2025.
1978 - Archie Blue from Christchurch is awarded a US patent for an electrolytic cell that is used in a water-powered car. Archie’s claim is that “radiant energy” allows you to get more energy back from combining hydrogen and oxygen than it takes to split it.
1983 - The Astrology Foundation was “spontaneously conceived” by Owen Avis, Mark Griffin, and Hamish Saunders at 11:47am. One of the aims of the group is the maintain standards in astrological practice
2017 - A mirror for sale on TradeMe that made the news for featuring the reflection of a ghost is revealed to be a deliberate hoax, with a character from the TV show Outlander being inserted into the image as the ghost.
November 8th
1997 - Ryan Moynihan goes missing while flying a plane through New Zealand’s “Bermuda Triangle”.
2015 - Two boarders at the troubled Turakin Māori Girls’ College leave the school, saying that they were threatened by a resident ghost or kehua. Some parents were disappointed. in school’s neglect for the girls’ spiritual wellbeing as well as the response of Reverend Wayne Te Kaawa, moderator for the Presbyterian Church, who suggested that the kehua was created by the girls themselves.
November 9th
1959 - The first reported UFO sighting appears in a New Zealand newspaper, made by a mechanic in Invercargill.
