ExpertDabbler

I wanted to write something else today but Random’s comment and WA’s comment made me write some more on this topic. I also felt I sacrificed clarity for the sake of brevity in my previous post. My apologies for that.

The main argument in favor of astrology being a science seems to be that some of the predictions are spot on.

There are two factors here:

One is that the mind seeing and listening what it wants to see and listen.

Let me explain it with some background info. When I started my career, my first employer already had a designer and a web developer who were calling the shots in technical aspects. I was a junior and merely had to assist them.

Sometime later on, there was one project to develop a huge astrology portal for one of our esteemed clients. The person missing in the team was a content writer. I realized that both B~ and the developer guy G~ were not as good as me when it comes to wordsmithing and subject matter expertise (astrology). So I volunteered to take up content writing for this project.

My task was to collect information from the web about astrology as much as possible and then develop content for the portal. Since the budget was small, there was no scope for any original research nor was I good enough to do any formal research following established research methodologies. But my earlier acquaintance with astrology came in handy.

All I used to do was collect information from free resources online and rephrase it -add some, delete some and come up with my own write-ups. Not very different from Deva’s music actually.

The site was providing services on subscription basis. That means there were people who believed in the accuracy of what was written and were prepared to pay for my ‘astrology content’. While this made me feel guilty initially, I also realized this is a classic belief mechanism of the mind. People anyway read whatever they want to read no matter what is written.

The other factor is the personal astrologer really getting it right.

It would be apt to quote one example in the political arena. This was sometime during 2000. JJ was facing N number of court cases. The DMK rule was criticized for the lack of money circulation but apart from that everybody felt it was much better than the 91-96 ADMK regime. Moreoever JJ had lost whatever goodwill she had when she brought down the BJP government in 13 days in 1998. So people basically expected the DMK regime to do well in the 2001 assembly elections.

The astrologer came on air and boldly declared that 2001 will be a good year for JJ and she might come back to power. The rest is known to all.

I totally agree that some astrologers can hit the nail right in the head.

But does that constitute science? History is replete with people who have been credited with a divine power to foresee. But all that will not come under the purview of science. We can call that divine powers, intuition, whatever. But it’s not a scientifically explainable process in my opinion.

When we go to a doctor with yellow eyes, the doctor orders a lab test and finds our serum bilirubin level elevated. The primary inference is jaundice. This is the same no matter which doctor sees the test report. Only the method of treatment or further diagnosis can vary based on the doctor’s experience and other factors.

But unfortunately this is not the case with astrologers. To my knowledge, no astrologer can tell with clarity a person’s level of education and his occupation consistently. Anyone can test any 10 astrologers with 10 horoscopes. For that matter no astrologer can say on seeing a horoscope whether the person is alive or not.

I can quote another example here as well. The tragic death of Saravanan Ramasubramanian came as a rude shock to most of our family circles. His family members were searching for a bride for him. Consequenly, his horoscope should have reached tens if not hundreds of astrologers, that being the case, how come no one doubted the lifespan of Saravanan based on horoscope findings?

The discipline is so open that anyone can draw N different valid conclusions for the same horoscope. If that is the case, it cannot be a science. Whichever astrologer who can predict accurately relies on faith and intuition and not in anyway related to the theoretical principles of astrology. Its not a question of knowing more and deeper in astrology. It is well beyond the conscious control of the astrologer in my opinion. I rest my case on the hope that I’d conveyed whatever I wanted to convey clearly in this topic.

The recent developments and the ensuing violence allegedly by the students regarding the AICTE approval for deemed universities is disturbing to say the least.
Read here, here and here.
I checked out alaphia’s blog and nothing to be found there.

i will write more on this later…

Astrology. I’ve spent months and years trying to understand the principles and concepts of astrology when I was in my teens. My maternal uncles are considered astrology experts. My dad was a firm believer in astrology too. As a result of all this, I had access to books and information since childhood. Astrological magazines used to get mixed up with vikatans and kumudams in our home. I would not say I am an expert blah blah. But I know the principles of astrology to the extent nobody can take me for a ride on concepts.

The main argument in favour of astrology is that it’s a science.
What constitutes science? My text book tells me a definition like ‘Systematic body of knowledge…’ or some such vague sentences. Textbooks never ever made sense to me.

To my knowledge, the way astrology works is by attributing some effects on one’s life due to the influence of planetary movements. This again is derived by seeing and recording patterns in an individual life’s happenings based on the birth time and planetary positions at the time of birth and actual planetary positions and then abstracting the phenomenon.

The premise is that history repeats itself. Man’s insecurity has propelled him to pursue in the belief there should be a pattern for the way things happen around the world. Our forefathers wanted to crack the code and come up with ways to predict the future with precision.

Without getting into ancient texts and too much technicalities, let’s take the case of one Dosha. Let’s take Kuja dosha as one example. Easily the most notorious one. Kuja Dosha is nothing but having Mars in 2,4,7,8,12 th houses from the lagna in a horoscope. Kuja Dosha spells doom in one’s marriage life. This, they say is nullified when the other partner too has a chevvai dosha in his horoscope.

My assumption is in those days people would’ve analyzed horoscopes of people in marital discords and separation and this one factor would’ve manifested in many cases. Therefore they documented it and it’s been passed on for generations. Thus, this concept is based on statistical principles. But again we all know that statistics’ validity depends on the quality of the sample. How do we constitute a sample space for this problem? What would’ve been the sample space thousands of years back when such texts were written? Is that sample space valid now?

In the present day scenario anyone who cares to look for can find out 100s of people people having chevvai dosha living a happily married life. And hundreds having a pefect horoscope whose life is in shambles.
How is this possible? ‘When making predictions it is important to take into consideration other aspects as well’ is the typical answer given by Astrologers. But the point is what are those other factors?
When you permute and combine 9 planets, their aspects, 27 stars and 12 signs and add moon’s movement and sun’s movement, dasa bukthi combinations etc, the weightage can baffle the best of super computers.

How is that the rate of divorce is greater in cities than in indian villages? Can this be explained astrologically or sociologically? We all know the answer.

Kuja Dosha is but one example. My view is that each and every effect attributed to one planet or aspect gets life this way.

Most of the times astrology is used to cripple one’s spirit. Its crippling effect is so powerful it takes enormous effort to come over it. I would say one is better off not to learn or know anything about it at all. Nor let it tamper with one’s life in any way. It helps you not to have this perspective. For once, ignorance is surely bliss.

Therefore my only suggestion to people is that, there are umpteen number of factors which plays havoc in one’s life. It’s beyond mankind’s comprehension to analyse, predict and explain precisely. If ever we try to do it, we would miss out on the more important aspect, our own life. Its not worth it. So, forget astrology and have a blast!

Two cups of Paal adai pradhaman. After this, my work is suddenly more enjoyable, my life a bit more meaningul and my world a bit more colorful.

God has given us certain harmless psychotropic substances. Its upto us to use it judiciously.

This post is dedicated to NRIs capri and Uma