by Sunnygal41 151 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Now why couldn't you have left going to Dallas till one of the Fests either side of the one you attended??
LOL LT... the stars told me to attend the one late last year. It wasn't my choice!
Mulan, I knew you'd know I was a skeptic! But hey, I'm open minded and had a friend do a tarot card reading on me.
I don't believe astrology (the newspaper type) is accurate at all. I didn't even believe in astrology was of any use whatsoever UNTIL I had a full reading. I'm not talking about someone saying "Oh, you are a virgo....therefore Xyz" I'm talking about a detailed astrological analysis. She predicted things for the future, she told me things about my past that were very accurate.
Anyway, overall I think that the heavenly bodies have their influences, but the jury is still out for me on whether we can chart it in the way astrologers do. Any skeptics should try studying it - the woman who did my reading said she'd started out 15 years ago studying astrology to prove to herself it was rubbish, and now she believes and does readings!
Sirona
Octavia,
Oh, and by the way, every Virgo I've ever met (so far) has said that their horoscopes NEVER are accurate; yet they can't see the their saying (/be lie ving) that, they are proving the accuracy of their "sign"'s description. It's cute, really.
LOL! I just went back and read this. I'm virgo
Sirona
Sirona,
It would be interesting to see your reading. If it's anything like professional readings that have been done for controlled scientific studies then most people will probably identify with it as being very accurate about themselves. This effect is quite well understood. The effect is so strong that it even fools the practitioners into thinking they are doing something supernatural.
rem
these powerful stars and planets which are countless must have a some kind of effect on us
In what manner? Gravitational? If so, the gravitational force from the doctor has more effect on you at the time of birth than a star millions of light years away. Must be something else I guess.
Thats interesting REM. Have you got any links to such info that I could take a look at?
Skeptisism is a good thing.
Yes, I did just say that.
Sirona
I find it thought-provoking to consider that since the sun and moon very much affect life, growth, tides, and human emotions and activity on this planet, it's entirely credible that other planets also influence life on this planet, including the activities, personalities and emotions of humans.
Frannie B
I think everything in the universe has an effect on everything else,,but I don't think astrology has the answers as to how the stars effect us. And I totally agree with Rem on this one.
Rem:
The one I had done accurately pinpointed three major events from my past (house moves, with associated upheavals), and one in about two years time, if I recall correctly (I thought I'd have another look closer to the time ).
Sirona ,
Most of my research has been in books about parapsychology, such as:
I was able to find some web links that deal with controlled scientific experiments of Astrology:
http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/Correl01.htm
In several experiments people have been given an interpretation based on their own birth chart and one or more interpretations based on a different chart. All showed that people were unable to pick out their own (e.g. Carlson, 1985, or see Culver & Ianna, 1988; Dean, 1987a; Dean, Mather & Kelly, 1996 for reviews). In other experiments, subjects were given their own chart together with a reversed chart and asked to pick their own. They did not do better than chance (Dean 1987b). Some experiments could be deemed unfair by astrologers so it is important that astrologers agree in advance that a method of testing is fair. This was the case in another study by Dean (1987b) in which subjects were chosen for extreme introversion or extraversion, and stability or instability according to the Eysenck Personality Inventory. 45 astrologers were given the birth charts of these people and asked to rate their personalities on the same scales. A further 45 astrologers were asked to guess. Those using the charts did slightly worse than those who guessed.
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/act3/astrology3.html#defense
Many astrologers insist that a person's Sun sign is strongly correlated with his or her choice of profession. Indeed, job counseling is an important function of modern astrology. Physicist John McGervey at Case Western Reserve University looked at biographies and birth dates of some 6,000 politicians and 17,000 scientists to see if members of these professions would cluster among certain signs, as astrologers predict. He found the signs of both groups to be distributed completely at random.
To overcome the objections of astrologers who feel that the Sun sign alone is not enough for a reading, physicist Shawn Carlson of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory carried out an ingenious experiment. Groups of volunteers were asked to provide information necessary for casting a full horoscope and to fill out the California Personality Inventory, a standard psychologists' questionnaire that uses just the sorts of broad, general, descriptive terms astrologers use.
A "respected" astrological organization constructed horoscopes for the volunteers, and 28 professional astrologers who had approved the procedure in advance were each sent one horoscope and three personality profiles, one of which belonged to the subject of the horoscope. Their task was to interpret the horoscope and select which of the three profiles it matched.
Although the astrologers had predicted that they would score better than 50 percent correct, their actual score in 116 trials was only 34 percent correct - just what you would expect by guessing! Carlson published his results in the December 5, 1985, issue of Nature, much to the embarrassment of the astrological community.
Other tests show that it hardly matters what a horoscope says, as long as the subject feels the interpretations were done for him or her personally. A few years ago French statistician Michel Gauquelin sent the horoscope for one of the worst mass murderers in French history to 150 people and asked how well it fit them. Ninety-four percent of the subjects said they recognized themselves in the description.
Geoffrey Dean, an Australian researcher who has conducted extensive tests of astrology, reversed the astrological readings of 22 subjects, substituting phrases that were the opposite of what the horoscopes actually stated. Yet the subjects in this study said the readings applied to them just as often (95 percent of the time) as people to whom the correct phrases were given. Apparently, those who seek out astrologers just want guidance, any guidance.
Some time ago astronomers Culver and Ianna tracked the published predictions of well-known astrologers and astrological organizations for five years. Out of more than 3,000 specific predictions (including many about politicians, film stars, and other famous people), only about 10 percent came to pass. Veteran reporters - and probably many people who read or watch the news - could do a good deal better by educated guessing.
http://home.wxs.nl/~skepsis/astrot.html
Eventually, 44 astrologers completed the test. Many of them had much experience. Half of the participants had read at least fifty books on astrology. Three quarters had taken a course in astrology and one quarter was training others. At least half of the participants had analyzed over a hundred astrological charts and one-third was frequently paid for it's services. One quarter was member of the Dutch Society of Practising Astrologers (NGPA).
The astrologers were asked to indicate how many correct matches they would have expected. There were 36 participants who revealed their expectations. Half of them predicted that they had matched all subjects with the correct charts. Only six astrologers expected less than four hits.
In fact, the most successful astrologer achieved only three correct matches, whereas half of the participants (22) did not score a single hit. The average number of hits was 0.75. This is 0.25 below the mean change expectation (MCE), a deviation that is not significant. Moreover, there was no evidence that the most experienced astrologers did any better than beginners.
It is interesting to compare the entries of the participants with each other. Because they all had received the same information, one would expect many similar responses. Actually, the lack of agreement was striking. Each of the seven charts could be paired with seven questionnaires. Of these 49 possible combinations, none was selected more than twelve times. It was as if each astrologer had used a random generator to determine the correct matches. There were only two astrologers who had independently arrived at the same solution (p = 0.18). Two other entries were also identical, but in this case the participants had joined forces.
