I am stunned by the ability of these astrologers to predict the past.
And they can predict the future as well, you say? But their ethics prohibit them from making predictions that can be tested, huh? Darn, that’s inconvenient.
There are about 250 people in my department. I’m sure there’s all kinds of woo belief going on I don’t know about. But I’ve come across a few. Last week I was talking to a guy and halloween came up. I mentioned that I was at Garden Ridge the day before and they already had christmas stuff out. He went off. “Well, at least we still have christmas but not for long, they are going to take it away from us!” I won’t be mentioning the c word around him again. We have a couple of government conspiracy theorists. I got involved in a conversation with them a few years back and laughed it off, thinking they were kidding around. Then I realized they weren’t. I avoid talking to them now. And there was a woman who has since left who, no matter what the conversation, had to work in that Obama is a muslim terrorist. I just laughed at her because what else are you going to do? It’s always a little sad to find out these things about people but, on the other hand, good to know who to stay away from.
The worldview I don’t get is the class of worldviews, many of which are conflicting, that start with “everybody…”
Stop. Now. Unless the next words out of your mouth are “breathes” or “needs to eat” or something like that just stop.
These are the people who have to torture absolutely any story or person into their worldview. “Everybody likes gifts”, “my girlfriend doesn’t”, “well she does, but she doesn’t think of it like a gift. It’s the gift of control over her life and what objects she receives that you’re giving her.”
Uh… sure, why not? It’s one of those “not even wrong” type deals. They just bludgeon everybody else’s preferences and worldviews into some meaningless easy-to-understand paradigm. You can’t really argue on any grounds other than “you’re really torturing your terminology there”. Some of them are better (and worse at the same time) and rather than assuming you’re honest and torturing their definitions to accommodate you, just assume whoever doesn’t fit is lying or mistaken.
depending on where you live that’s true. The Earth’s center line is not parallel to the Sun so the amount of light at a given time of day is different within a time zone. It can be dark in New York City but still daylight in Orlando FL. Not sure I explained that well but you can go to Google Earth and click on the Sun and move the slide bar back and forth to see the angle of light as sunset approaches.
My mother claimed this as well. The pediatrician told her that, back in the 1960s.
My mom’s 50% more reasonable about it, she says sleep after midnight only counts for half (or sleep before midnight counts double, I’m not sure).
I once had a coworker who thought that Zionists were behind everything from the Oklahoma City bombing, to Ruby Ridge, to Waco, to the WTC attack. Of course they had help from the government because, you know, Jews run the government. :rolleyes:
Jews do run the government…
of Israel.
Reading the horrorscopes doesn’t mean you believe in them, though. My mother likes running comparisons and looking for absurdities. Magazines with a predominantly-female target audience are particularly juicy:
“Nava, dear, why didn’t you notify me when you gave birth? Apparently your child will have moderate health problems!.. and by the way, your brother is going to have some terrible arguments with his husband; well, at least they’re saying that about the married one and not about the unmarried one… do you think we should notify his wife?”
Exactly. Not to mention many just give common advice and different ways of saying “don’t be a jerk”. Extremly nebulous to plan anything around those. Yet funny to read. “Hey mom, it says you’re going to find your true love today! So I guess dad is not it?” 
Aanamika, the heat we feel walking around the Earth is caused by two things: the electromagnetic energy from the sun directly (and reflected off surfaces) (which does peak at local solar “noon”), AND the energy re-radiated from clouds and from the ground after it has been absorbed. The latter kind of energy is shifted toward the infrared part of the spectrum, and it peaks rather later – both later in the day (by several hours), and later in the year (by several weeks), simply because it takes time for the earth’s surface (especially) to absorb and re-radiate.
Mine is an “artist,” which, I guess is more stereotypically consistent.
Or maybe I sound like someone who has seen how some of the tricks work, including cold reading (such as repeating to you things that you have told them in the process of being interviewed) or hot reading (investigating you and reporting back to you).
Astrological con artists are a known phenomenon. They come in all kinds of guises. One thing they have is common is that none of them are relying on either a science or a supernatural power of astrology.
I also know a couple of people who have studied Indian astrology. They have told me it’s the same old bullshit involved in Western astrology, just in a more complicated guise.
I don’t have to believe in conspiracies. I can point out that exactly zero astrologers—Indian or otherwise—have been able to prove that their astrology has either a supernatural or a scientific basis when scrutinized by actual scientists. On the other hand, there are individuals like you who have fallen for the con insisting that, no, your experience was genuine. Which one of us has a larger leap of faith?
Go back and find your Indian astrologer and set him in front of James Randi and see what happens.
Indian astrology has become a global business. I have a friend whose astrologer in India works at night when his American clients are awake. He takes credit cards. Maybe it wasn’t just the astrology that fooled you.
I like how everybody hastens to tell me that indeed, sometimes, it is hotter in the evening. I wasn’t disputing that, you pedantic friends of mine. No, what bothered me about this fellow was that he claimed that it was ALL the time, no matter what, in every place you go to, it was ALWAYS hotter in the evenings from 5-6 pm. No matter what time of year it was.
In Upstate NY, where we live, it’s just not true.
We had a thread on that topic recently. I was surprised because I had never heard it before and know that it isn’t true for the places that I have lived. I looked up some locations people were giving as examples (West Coast) and was surprised that it really was hotter many times from 5 - 6 pm than at midday there. You are right though, it certainly isn’t true everywhere and I didn’t know that many people assumed it was a universal rule.
So, if you are asleep when you cross into a new time-zone, is there some sort of weighted average or pro-rating that occurs?
There is actually some truth to this - depending on how you look at it - if you are on a normal sleep schedule - and go to bed at say 10:00 - most of the “deep sleep” - will occur before midnight.
This is probably what someone read somewhere - and changed it to a version quoted by apparently at least two moms.
I want my kundli read. I really do. I don’t believe in it but I would be very curious to know if in anyway they could predict my future, with a completely cold reading, nothing more than when I was born, what date, etc. Whatever they need to start with. Because a lot of stuff that happened to me was really freakin random. I should get it done next time I go back (hahaha whenever that is.)
Anyone wanting an example of this worldview will find plenty of it in this thread.
Could you point your finger more directly? Besides post #4, I think you’re just conflating any criticism of U.S. foreign policy to some utterly ridiculous hyperbole.