Dykshoorn, Marinus Bernardus (1920-)

Dutch psychic whose passport uniquely bears the occupation entry "clairvoyant." According to Paul Tabori, in his book Crime and the Occult (1974), Dykshoorn has:

"…solved some extremely complex crimes, has located graves that have been "lost" since 1917, foretold a great many events that defied probability, and once tracked a thief in a distant country by telephone. His fame is solidly established in his native Holland and in a number of European countries. He has actually been licensed by the Dutch government authorities as a 'practitioner of the psychic arts."'

He was born on July 10, 1920 in Gravenzande, near The Hague, and claimed to have had clairvoyant and precognitive gifts as a child. In 1938 a German scientist diagnosed his condition as being a result of ESP, and Dykshoorn decided to become a professional clairvoyant. At first he practiced in Holland, moving to Australia in 1960. His reception there was somewhat unsympathetic, and in 1970 he traveled to the United States, where he became widely known.

In his autobiography, Dykshoorn claimed extraordinary success in tracking criminals, finding buried treasure, and in other clairvoyant and precognitive feats. Some of these claims, however, depend upon Dykshoorn's own statements and have proved difficult to verify independently. For a skeptical view of Dykshoorn's claims, see Piet Hein Hoebens's 1982 article in the Zetetic Scholar.

Sources:

Dykshoorn, Marinus Bernardus, as told to Russell H. Felton. My Passport Says Clairvoyant. N.p., 1974.

Hoebens, Piet Hein. "The Mystery Men From Holland, III: The Man Whose Passport Says Clairvoyant." Zetetic Scholar 10 (December 1982).

Tabori, Paul. Crime and the Occult. N.p., 1974.