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Mechanisms [Draft]

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In 1975, amid increasing popular interest in astrology, a widely publicized article, "Objections to Astrology," published in The Humanist in the form of a manifesto signed by 186 scientists, sparked a scientific controversy. In particular, "Objections to Astrology" focused on the question of astrological mechanisms with the following words:

We can see how infinitesimally small are the gravitational and other effects produced by the distant planets and the far more distant stars. It is simply a mistake to imagine that the forces exerted by stars and planets at the moment of birth can in any way shape our futures.[1][2]

Astronomer Carl Sagan, host of the award-winning TV series Cosmos, said that he found himself unable sign the "Objections" statement, not because he thought that astrology was valid, but because he found the statement's tone authoritarian, and because objections on the grounds of an unavailable mechanism can be mistaken. "No mechanism was known," Sagan wrote, "for continental drift (now subsumed in plate tectonics) when it was proposed by Alfred Wegener... The notion was roundly dismissed by all the great geophysicists, who were certain that continents were fixed." Sagan stated that he would instead have been willing to sign a statement describing and refuting the principal tenets of astrological belief, which he believed would have been more persuasive and would have produced less controversy.[3][4]

Astrologers, scientists and others have advanced several types of theories as to how astrology might operate:

  1. A supernatural or divine force that cannot be quantified. In this theory, astrologers practice divination invoking an unknowable force that cannot be subject to scientific measurement.[5]
  2. A causal mechanism based on the direct 'influence' of the planets and other heavenly bodies. While most astrologers don't consider their practice to be based on a known 'effect', causal mechanisms are evident within Natural Astrology such as terrestrial tides, seismic[6] and tectonic activity[7], the weather[8] and nature (e.g. coral and the moon phases)[9]. This includes the theories of Dr Percy Seymour and others[10] based on electro-magnetism within an intricate web of planetary fields and sunspot activity plus resonance and solar and other planetary tides.[11] Seymour connects his theory with the circadian rhythm and pineal gland.[12]
  3. An acausal relationship where there is correlation without direct causation. This is the basis for synchronicity or meaningful coincidences as posed by Carl Jung[13] and Wolfgang Pauli.[14] This theory, which draws on the Hermetic Maxim (as above, so below), correspondences, archetypes and Aristotle’s formal causation, postulates significance in seemingly unrelated phenomena or events that occur simultaneously.[15][16] (This could also be described by quantum entanglement but this would be OR).[citation needed]
  4. An artificial creative or co-creative process. Astrology is a projection of the human mind onto apparent celestial patterns and cycles. Critics of astrology see the projection as arbitrary and meaningless or as faulty attempts to explain natural phenomena. [citation needed] Some anthropologists[citation needed], psychologists and historians see these myths as a powerful reflection of the fundamental nature of the human psyche or the collective unconscious.[17]. Many psychologists[18] use an adaptation of astrology as a model in psychological practice such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator[19] but without any celestial connection or correlation. For many psychological astrologers, the archetypes are considered to have been projected onto the heavens and astrological practice is an inseparable co-creative process that involves the astrologer, the client and the cosmos, which by its nature cannot be tested or measured objectively.[13][20]

References

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  1. ^ "Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists". The Humanist, September/October 1975. Archived from the original on 2009-03-18.
  2. ^ Bok, Bart J. (1982). "Objections to Astrology: A Statement by 186 Leading Scientists". In Patrick Grim (ed.). Philosophy of Science and the Occult. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 14–18. ISBN 0873955722. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Sagan, Carl. "Letter." The Humanist 36 (1976): 2
  4. ^ Sagan, Carl. The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996), pp. 302-303.
  5. ^ Cornelius (2003). Cornelius’s thesis is - although divination is rarely addressed by astrologers, it is an obvious descriptive tag "despite all appearances of objectivity and natural law. It is divination despite the fact that aspects of symbolism can be approached through scientific method, and despite the possibility that some factors in horoscopy can arguably be validated by the appeal to science." ('Introduction', p.xxii).
  6. ^ Tamrazyan, G (1968), Principal Regularities in the distribution of Major Earthquakes Relative to Solar and Lunar Tides and other Cosmic Forces, Icarus Vol.9 pp 574-592, Inst. of Geology, Baku
  7. ^ Lovett, Richard A (24 January 2006). "Moon Is Dragging Continents West, Scientist Says". National Geographic News.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  8. ^ Cerveny, R. & Shaffer. J. (2001), The Moon and El Nino, Geophys, Res. Lett., 281(10), 25-28
    Cerveny, Svoma & Vose (2010), Lunar tidal influence on inland river streamflow across the conterminous United States, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L22406
  9. ^ Broad, William. (2007) Sexy Corals Keep ‘Eye’ on Moon, Scientists Say New York Times 19 Oct 2007 [1]
  10. ^ Hung, Chin Cheh (2007), Apparent Relations Between Solar Activity & Solar Tides caused by planetary activity, NASA, Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH, USA
  11. ^ Dr. P. Seymour, Astrology: The Evidence of Science. Penguin Group (London, 1988) ISBN 0-14-019226-3
    The Scientific Proof of Astrology. A scientific investigation into how the stars influence human life. [2] Quantum, Foulsham (Slough 1997) ISBN 0-572-02906-3
  12. ^ Frank McGillion. "The Pineal Gland and the Ancient Art of Iatromathematica".
  13. ^ a b Jung, C. G. Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principal." Routledge, 1985
  14. ^ Gieser, Suzanne. The Innermost Kernel, Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli’s Dialogue with C.G.Jung, (Springer, Berlin, 2005) p.21 ISBN 3-540-20856-9
  15. ^ Jung, C.G., (1952), Synchronicity - An Acausal Connecting Principle (London: RKP English edition, 1972), p.36. "synchronicity ...(is)...a coincidence in time of two or more casually unrelated events which have the same or similar meaning, in contrast to 'synchronism', which simply means the simultaneous occurrence of two events".
  16. ^ Maggie Hyde, Jung and Astrology; p.24–26; 121ff. (London: The Aquarian Press, 1992). "As above, so below. Early in his studies, Jung came across the ancient macrocosm-microcosm belief with its enduring theme of the organic unity of all things"; p.121.
  17. ^ Jung, C.G. The Structure and dynamics of the Psyche, Collected Works Vol.8, (Princeton University Press, NJ 1960) para.325
  18. ^ Briggs Myers, I. , Introduction to Type, Sixth Edition, OPP, Oxford (2000) "More than 3.5 million people around the world annually complete the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventory (MBTI)" p.5
  19. ^ Phillipson, Garry & Case, Peter. The Hidden language of modern Management Science: Astrology, Alchemy and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator', Culture and Cosmos 5(2) (Autumn/Winter 2001) pp.53-72
  20. ^ Campion (2008) pp.251-259.
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