Skeptical Inquiries
Many studies have claimed to disprove astrology, but every single one of the studies has a fatal flaw. This flaw is that the studies are not precise enough to determine anything. First of all even the rare studies that have been performed precisely, the sample size is far too small to determine anything. For sun position correlation with personality traits as each degree has it's properties you would need at least thirty people for each degree of the zodiac, or 10,800 subjects. No study has even come close to this. The positions of the sun would have to be very precise, but there is no data base in the world that has this data. Then the relationship between each subject would have to be known. This is patently impossible. No one on the planets has relationships with 10,800 people. As far as relationships, such as marriage are concerned there have been "studies' of millions of people to "see" if the was a compatibility between signs and they have found no correlation. This is because if we take Libra and Aquarius for example two people born at the beginning of each sign would be compatible. but if one person was born at the end of Libra and the other was at the beginning of Aquarius, then the aspect between the suns would be square showing they would not be compatible. If the same person was compared to one with the sun in the middle of the sign, then there would be no aspect, and thus neutral. We can see from this then then all such sign compatibility studies would be random. No effect, just as it should be and this is what the studies showed. They were correct.
The study below shows as strong difference between long term relationships and short term marriages. The study shows that there is a difference between these two groups.
Gail Guttman Kosmos 1985, 14.2, 2-8. Relationship astrology was tested on 106 long-term couples and 145 short-term couples (lasting less than ten years) by a computer program that tallied 17 planets and asteroids, 4 angles (Ascendant, MC, Anti-vertex, East Point), and 16 aspects (all multiples of 30 and 45 degrees, orb 1-3 degrees), making a total of 3360 possible factors. The same couples were mixed and rematched to form a control group. In decreasing order of statistical significance the top seven male-female contacts for the long-term couples were Moon-Moon's mean south node, East Point-Ascendant, Chiron-Saturn, Moon-Moon's true north node, Pluto-MC, Ascendant-Pluto, and Ascendant-Juno. For the short-term couples they were Moon's mean south node-Uranus, Pluto-Chiron, MC-Mars, Ceres-Vesta, Jupiter-Antivertex, Chiron-Pluto, and Neptune-East Point.
it has been said that astrologers cannot tell the differences between signs and that they can't determine what these effects are when examined. The study below is one in which an astrologer tried to determine the correct sun sign, ascendant and moon sign. The astrologer guessed correctly over ten percent of the time, while the expected rate is only 8.3%. This is hugely significant. This would be like tossing a coin a thousand times and having 410 heads 590 tails. This is impossible.
Wim Heideman (AinO 1992, 7.2, 36-41.) Guesses were made of the Sun, Moon, and Ascending sign of a large number of people encountered in everyday life, eg in bars, without any research plan or controls. The guesses were afterwards compared to the actual sign as given by the subject. The guesses were based on the overall likeness between sign and the person's general appearance and behaviour and were not specifically aimed at Sun, Moon or Ascendant. Usually several guesses were made without being told the answer until the end. The results were as follows:
Sign Subjects Guesses Hits per subject per guess
Moon 81 287 32 3.54 0.111 The expected in al cases is 0.083
Another study was done which showed that workplace injuries were more likely to happen during negative aspects.
Astrologically Predictable Patterns in Work-Related Injuries
Sara Klein(Kosmos 1993, 22.1, 2-4 and 22.3, 21-30.) Study was her doctoral dissertation in psychology, University for Humanistic Studies, Del Mar CA, 1992, with 120 references. In 1988 nearly two million people in the USA suffered disabling injuries at work compared with more than 50 million disabling injuries from all causes (car accidents, falls, firearms, poisoning, burns, etc). There is no specific astrological factor related to accidents, only a general one involving hard aspects from transitting planets to natal planets, the generally accepted order of decreasing severity being 90, 180, 0. The only astrological work dealing with accidents is Charles Carter's The Astrology of Accidents (1932), which looked only at natal planets in 168 cases of accident and ignored transiting planets. In my study the experimental data consisted of the birth dates and accident dates of 1023 people in California who had been disabled for at least three months in an accident at work during 1983-1991 and had filed a Workers' Compensation claim. The data was copied at my request from the reports of doctors to whom they had been referred by lawyers presenting their claim. The copyists were told only that it was needed for a statistical study of injury patterns. Cases were excluded if any date was uncertain, if there was more than one injury date, or if the injury was predominantly psychological (eg stress) or had no definite onset (eg lung disease). The sample consisted of 414 English-speaking cases from three independent sources and 609 Spanish-speaking cases (mostly Mexicans) from a Los Angeles clinic that dealt with Hispanics. In both groups the accidents showed a marked tendency to occur when transiting Sun was 0, 90, or 180 to the natal Sun regardless of orb (between groups r = 0.82, df = 10, p = 0.001). If the expectancy is assumed to be N x (total orb)/360, the observed and expected number of such aspects for N=1023 are as follows:
Orb Obs Exp Obs/Exp
15 471 341 1.38
10 330 227 1.45
5 189 114 1.66
By chi-squared test the excess is very highly significant, p being typically <10-8. The excess was about 20% larger for the conjunction than for the rest, showing that the peak time for accidents was around the victim's birthday. Only astrology is able to explain why accidents also peak around 3, 6 and 9 months from the victim's birthday.
Here is another interesting study:
Rudolf Smit Correlation 1997, 16.1, 3-18 with a follow-up in 1998, 17.2, 72-75. If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, you must not seek to show that no crows are; it is enough to prove one single crow to be white. William James, What Psychical Research Has Accomplished 1897. Leo Knegt (1882-1957) was one of the Netherland's most eminent astrologers. He was tested in a 1933 blind trial by the lawyer Cornelis Van Rossem, who gave him the birth data and gender (and nothing else) of ten subjects selected for precise birth times, distinct characteristics, and the availability of someone who knew them well. Knegt had to describe characteristics that could be verified, and had to avoid anything that was general, ambiguous, or hard to verify. In some cases Knegt was asked to focus on particular issues such as career, health, or whether the subject had a very unusual character trait. As a precaution, unknown to Knegt, Van Rossem had altered the birth co-ordinates very slightly, which made no significant change to the chart but prevented identification of the registry office and therefore identification of the subjects by inspection of registry office records. In his published results Twee Occulte Problemen (The Hague 1933), Van Rossem reproduces Knegt's ten readings in columns side by side with his own comments and those of the independent assessor.
Knegt's interpretations were found to be both accurate and at times amazingly specific, certainly more specific than most astrologers today would consider possible. For example his correct prediction that one female subject would find a position on a passenger ship could hardly be more specific considering that (1) in those days not many women had paid positions, (2) the subject never had a job before, (3) the position of the stewardess on a passenger ship was certainly much harder to come by than the position of an office clerk, and (4) Knegt did not use Pluto since it had then hardly been introduced into astrology, nor did he use midpoints or other modern techniques, his interpretations being based largely on planets in houses. Similarly he correctly identified a formidable swindler, a prominent inventor, marked nervous disorders, and long-term troubles due to swollen feet. In effect Knegt seems to have been an astrological white crow, living proof of the impossible.
From the above studies we can see that the claims that there is no proof for astrology is spurious.
When I studied earthquakes I found that there was a direct correlation between the aspects of the major planets and the rate of earthquakes greater than 2.5 on the richter scale. (see the astrological research section of this website.) As I write this articale (Dec. 14m 2013) there was a major aspect between Jupiter and Saturn, they were trine, 120 degrees, from one another in the sky and there were 85 earthquakes in the previous day and the average for the past year has been 58 earthquakes pre day. This means that the number of earthquakes was elevated by 47% over the average during this time. This is just what the extensive studies on earthquakes found: that earthquakes occurred in greater numbers during planetary aspects as compared to random times. The reason why this is important is that one of the basic claims of astrology is is that earthquakes are cuased to a great extent by the aspects of the planets. This then proves one of the basic laws of astrology: the harmonic interactions of the planets.
In the 19th century astrologers noticed that the aspects of the planets seemed to be influencing the storms on the sun. In the 1940's and 1950's RCA carried out a number of studies that showed that the shortwave reception was being influenced by the sun centered aspects of the planets. John Nelson was their chief researcher. They scheduled their transmissions around these events. A recent massive study undertaken by the University of Colorado showed that the storms on the sun were driven primarily by the conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter, This pattern is modified by the other planets, especially the inner planets. The analogy is that if you had a large rock in the center of a pond and you had two large sticks that you placed in the water and moved them in circle two different circles moving in the same direction, but with different periods the smooth surface of the pond would be disturbed by ripples that would buffet the edges of the rock in the center. When the two moving sticks were close together the waves would enhance one another and at other points would cancel each other out and if put some smaller sticks moving in smaller circle close to the rock they modify the ripples coming form the larger slower moving sticks. The Colorado study shows that the sunspot cycle is controlled by these motions of the planets. The strongest effect is the period of the orbit of Jupiter, which is every 11.86 years. As we are now near sunspot maximum Jupiter is in opposition to the center of the galaxy. This is the probable cause of the sunspot cycle.
The Colorado study also found that these same factors drive the long term weather patterns on the earth. The study shows that all of the warming and cooling trends since the end of the ice age can be exactly mapped by the positions of the planets in their orbits. When the team combined the results with the effects of greenhouse gasses and volcanoes the correlation was exact over the last 150 years and predicts the present slowdown in the rise of global temperatures. It also predicts that after this slowdown in the rise in temperatures will be followed by a rapid increase in temperature over the next few decades. (The planetary harmonics section of this website) The idea that the weather could be predicted by the positions of the planets is as old as astrology itself.
The reason why the planets can affect life on earth is due to the nature of the time space matrix itself. This is quite complicated, by in some respects very simple. According to relativity when an object moves through space and time it drags space along with it. This is called frame dragging, or Lense-Thirring. This effect is quite small, for Venus this causes the perihelion to drift by 0.004 arc seconds per century. This does not sound like much, but since the beginning of the solar system this has caused this point to shift by 500 degrees. This results in minute gravitational waves that disrupt time and space. What happens when the planets interact with one another the space time matrix becomes distorted and this results in regions of what we would term stressed and non-stressed space. If we remember the pond analogy, then the parts of the pond where the ripples are small and the surface smooth, then this would represent non-stressed space and the regions where the ripples are chaotic and large, then this would represent stressed space. Around the surface of the rocks you would see a choatic region of stressed space and this regions then would be experiencing highly stressed space. On the earth we experience this as earthquakes and stormy weather. One of the most unusual things about the frame dragging is that more distant an object is the greater the frame dragging is. For the center of the galaxy 25,000 light years away the frame dragging becomes enormous. The largest effect of the planets on the sun is when Jupiter and Saturn are conjunct and in opposition to the galactic core. It may be that when these planets are in opposition to the core they amplify the Lense-Thirring of the spinning super-massive black hole and project it's chaotic space upon the sun. As the planets orbit the sun they wind up the space time field and this creates the stressed space.
We know that our DNA is largely responsible for our physical characteristics, but the action of the DNA is affected by the same chaotic space as is everything else. While the feotus is in the womb it is protected by the body of it's mother and so it does not experience the outer effects as greatly. When it is born, however, it is subjected for the first time to the naked field of the cosmos. As soon as the placenta detaches from the womb, then the foetus' DNA must order the body to exist in the world. Upon entry into the world the infant's DNA must tell the body to become alive. To exist as a separate individual. To explain the effects of the cosmos upon the infant then whe must assume that all of the bodily processes imprint themselves with the present spacial distortions and the chaotic space they are now occupying. How the pristine three dimensional imaging of the nativity by the DNA is projected upon the space time matrix is dependant upon the level and vibrational characteristics of the region of space they are occupying when they are born. When any object reaches completion then it is an independant entity and it's future characteristics are determined from that point on, not from time of it's conception as a future entity.
Just as a mirror will distort images in given ways depending on how smooth the glass is, so too does space-time distort the projection of the individual upon the world. When we listen to the sounds that the planets make and realize that sounds very nearly the same are being recorded all around the world, (see my blog: http://brianjohnston200.wix.com/skepticsand-science#!blog/c1fuz ) then we can begin to even hear the vibrations that are around us all the time caused by the cosmic interactions. When the individual is born the DNA and the body as a whole has no option other than to vibrate at the same rate as the world around it. The whole world is vibrating, which in turn causes everything else to harmonically vibrate with it, as anyone who has experienced an earthquake can tell you. The activation of the body and the DNA then is tuned at that moment to the vibrations around it and it becomes one with those vibrations. The womb before hand was vibrating at the imprinted rate of it's host body. Now the infant is exposed to the unadulerated vibrations of the comsic as a whole, which as a pattern will never repeat again. This is the manifestation of the of the astrological influences.
To be able to withstand the cosmic distortions is essential to an living being and therefore it's mastery is paramount to the survival of the species. If RCA did not find a way to predict when they could send signals via shortwave when the magnetic storms were low, then they would lose money and customers. Survival of the fittest.
Earthquakes were used as the primary study for several reason. First was that if the planets were not associated with earthquakes then a fundamental principle of astrology would be wrong. Second, getting reliable data is very difficult. All the earthquakes were recorded by the USGS to split second accuracy and all were earthquakes above 2.5. it was a very standard set of data. The third reason was that it is very difficult to find a phenomena that is very repeatable. Earthquakes are one such set of data and they should have been independant of planetary influences. The fourth reason was that if the aspects did not affect the rate of earthquakes, then the aspects did not exist and you might as well throw astrology out the window. A fifth reason was that the earthquakes should occur just before the actual time of the aspects due to the fact that another fundamental of astrology is that events should occur during the times before the aspect, applying, more frequently than after the aspect, separating. All of these factors were proven to be true proving most of the foundations of astrology. What was not seen was any influence of the signs, or houses, but when we look at the U. Colorado data the greatest effect is when Jupiter is in opposition to the galactic core and this then would set up the prime 12th harmonic which constitues the zodiac, and of course all the harmonics as well. The earthquakes studies have shown that the 24th harmonic is the base harmonic for the generation of earthquakes.
In a recent study I took 106 the dates of famous peoples births and the dates that they died and determined the number of degrees of separation between their suns’ at the time of birth and at the time that they died. What I found replicates the studies above that show that certain critical degrees cause events to happen. The earthquake study definitively shows that the angles between the planets of the 24th harmonic, or every fifteen degrees, has a response in the number of earthquakes greater than 2.5 on the earth. Also the positions of the planets in relation to one another also affect the rate of storms on the earth and Nelson found that the 24th harmonic angles between the planets was very critical to radio interference. The people were selected at random at the website NNBD. (http://search.nndb.com/search/nndb.cgi?n=born+on+august+31st++++++&omenu=unspecified&offset=20) This site just is a list of these events for people in history. Completely random. I took the birth positions of the sun and the sun positions and death and determined the approximate number of degrees between them. What I found was that 46% of the people died plus or minus two degrees of the critical degrees. The expected number was 33%. This is astronomically significant when we consider that this study replicates the results of the earthquake studies, the work of Colorado University and others who have found that there is a complex interaction with the harmonic positioning of the planets and the climate of the earth and the storms on the sun.
The results for the births and deaths were compared to a randomly generated numbers of the same order and the results of course were completely random. The distribution of the deaths is also highly structured as can be seen in the chart below. There is a definite peak at 60 degrees, which replicates the results of the study above that shows that accidents occur more frequently about 60 days, or degrees after a person’s birthday. The random shows no such peak:The days from critical are also highly structured. There is a beat pattern of 2 and 7 days. The seven day beat is explained by the harmonics of the 48th harmonic.Considering the completely random nature of the birth and death data the fact that there is a plain statistical correlation between the dates that the people died and the the position of the sun on the day of death this is extremely revealing. The fact that the deaths of these 106 famous people from history died under the same set of harmonics as those that cause earthquakes, disturbances is the electrical field of the earth and storms on the sun is proof that these forces exist and affect people.
If you wish to examine the full study please go the next page Data Biths Deaths where all of the statistical analysis can be examined. It also list all of the sources for the study. The earthquake stuies are found at the astrological research pages.
The correlation with the day a person is born must have to do with how the DNA and the bodily vibrations were initialized when the infant was born. Just as computer is initialized by it’s base program and it’s hard wired programming, so too a persons’ body is programmed by the vibrations it receives via the interplanetary matrix. The cyclic nature of the planets makes time cyclic on the earth. The reason why this is a survival technique is that the electromagnetic and vibrational nature of the earth is constantly changing and whether we know if or not it must be vital to our survival to adapt to it’s changing conditions. In fact we know that perils from space are a constant source of extinctions and vast climate changes. A life form that would be sensitive to the vibrations coming from space would be better equipped to survive than any being that did not concern itself with them. The ability to attune it’s rhythms to the planets would be able to predict future changes coming, whether this was conscious, or not. In man this ability is greatly attenuated, but there are many, many reports of animals heading to higher ground before a tsunami, or other abnormal behavior before an earthquake, or storm.
When I started my study of astrology I did it to disprove it. I tried for a great many years to do this. I would have been prepared to show that there was nothing to the planetary influences if the earthquake studies proved to be false. In total tens of thousands of earthquakes were studied and the correlation between the rate of earthquakes greater than 2.5 and the planetary aspects of the 24th harmonic held strong. So, I could no longer deny this strange facet of nature. The fact that was also found to correlate with those people deaths is even more astonishing. Mind boggling and a little scary in it’s implications. I have approached astrology as a skeptic and I have done many thousands of horoscopes and watched the world unfold in front of me. The anecdotal data piled up until it became a mountain whose top was in the clouds, but anecdotal data is not proof. This is proof. These modern findings by myself and a growing number of other scientists who look at the working of the sun and planets has no contradictions. The results of all these studies is perfectly correlated and self replicating and is the basic forces of nature at work.
Science and Astrology
