Gerard Croiset

Gerard Croiset a.k.a. Gerard Boekbinder (March 10, 1909, Laren – July 20, 1980, Utrecht) was a Dutch parapsychologist, psychometrist (a person who purports to be able to read information from a held object), and a psychic. Croiset said he began to become aware of his gifts while a youth working for a watch repairer. On one occasion he held a ruler belonging to his employer and saw events which he related to his employer and which his employer confirmed were accurate.

Early work

After World War II, Croiset was sometimes consulted by Dutch police authorities in cases involving missing persons, or murder. On one occasion he was said to have examined the property of a murdered woman, and provided accurate information relating to her murder, and also gave the name of her murderer. The name matched a man who was being held in connection with the crime. He gained a reputation as a reliable consultant in the area of missing persons, and his fame extended beyond the Netherlands, as anecdotes about his abilities came to be discussed in other countries. He also gained a reputation as a psychic healer, and would allow people to visit him in his clinic for healing sessions.

Notable case work

Beaumont children case

In 1966 he was invited to Australia to aid in an investigation relating to the disappearance of the three Beaumont children, who had disappeared without trace from a beach in Adelaide, South Australia. Although police were skeptical, his expenses were paid by a wealthy businessman interested in the case, and public pressure was such that Croiset's views were thought to be worthy of consideration. During his short stay in Australia he attracted widespread publicity but failed to find any trace of the missing children.

Japanese missing child case

In the mid 1970s he was invited to Puerto Rico to find the two missing children of a local businessman. He concluded that the children were no longer on an "earthly plane" and could offer no clues. Also, he was called upon to locate a missing woman in Scotland, and once again failed to provide any clues. His reputation became tarnished in his later years by his well publicised failures. However he claimed to have achieved one more notable success when invited to Tokyo, Japan in the 1970s to locate a missing child. As he told, he had provided a description of the location in which her body could be found within 24 hours. When her body was found after following his instructions, all details seemed to match exactly with his prediction. There are no known independent sources for this.

Son follows in father's footsteps

Croiset's son, Gerard Jr., was also a parapsychologist and assisted the relatives of those involved the Andes flight disaster in 1972, while the elder Croiset was recuperating in a hospital after an operation. On October 13, 1972 an airplane with 45 passengers , all of them members and family of a rugby team of Uruguay, crashed on its way to Santiago de Chile. The airplane crashed on a remote place in the mountains, with temperatures of -30 degrees celsius. The family of one of the passengers, Carlitos Paez, contacted Gerard Coiset Jr. who gave them details about the accident, told them that he saw live and dead people, and gave them some reference of the site of the accident. Croiset Jr. also gave them exact details about a "tic" the copilot had when he was nervous, which was confirmed with his family. After 72 days in the mountains, the 14 survivors were rescued thanks to an expedition made by two of them. Even though the survivors weren't found because of Croiset's intervention, the predictions he gave were accurate.

See also

• Parapsychology
• Psychometry
• Psychics
• Paranormal
• Psychic healing

Bibliography

• Hoebens, Piet Hein Croiset and Professor Tenhaeff Discrepancies in claims of clairvoyance. published in The Skeptical Inquirer (Fall 1981, vol. 6, no. 1; Winter 1981-82, vol. 6, no. 2)
• Dutch translation by Karel Beckman available online as published in the Dutch skeptical magazine called Skepter 1(3+4), sept/dec 1988

External links

• BOEKBINDER, Gerard (1909-1980) Dutch language entry in scholarly biographical dictionary