posted February 10, 2008 12:27 PM         

Dear Dr. Sagan,

It is with much relish that I finally got around to reading Cosmos which has been fascinating. Let me preface by saying that I don't fawn, but I do appreciate and respect your work. The reason I am writing this to you is that I felt that your treatment of the history of astrology in Cosmos was surprisingly misinformed.

The tone was severe, so I am assuming that you were successful in communicating your contempt for astrology.(That's one of the reasons I respect your work..you're good at what you do.)

I believe the reason for this gap in your knowledge base is similar to the reason for mine 3 years ago. I wasn't about to waste time on something which I had no respect for and would have been embarrassed to even entertain. A fortunate incident got me to investigate further (I'm still investigating..) and I've since given up a lucrative career as a software engineer to pursue the study, because it is a fascinating subject. I won't go on about my opinions or my history, I'll just put my money where my mouth is (figuratively speaking) and offer, maybe not proof, but a very convincing argument in favor of the utility and accuracy of "humanistic"astrology.

Here's what I propose:

You or a neutral party choose 1000 participants at random from the general populace.
Participants will need to provide picture ID and a birth certificate which can be verified by any party you choose.
I choose 100 of the participants using only their birth charts calculated from their birthtime, birthdate and place of birth.
Each participant is interviewed over a phone or other visual clue shielding method, both by your person and by myself in isolated sessions
Questions are asked starting with nothing more than the above provided information(birthdate, etc)
Questions will attempt to describe the subject's personality, lifestyle or habits.
Questions are to be asked in a YES/NO format until 20 Affirmative answers are reached(per subject.)
Questions are to be asked in such a manner that the participant responds YES if the interviewer's guess is correct, NO otherwise. Follow up questions are fine, also in YES/NO format.
All questions and responses will be recorded.
Points should be given for style. "Don't you love the snow up there in Buffalo?" or "Do you like music?" being MUCH lower on the ratings scale than "You feel people's pain don't you? That's why you shy away from them. You've seen someone you loved suffer when you were younger."
If your view of astrology is correct, the results will be comparable, or you, being a much more learned man than I, will have put together a more accurate personality profile of each subject in most cases.
Otherwise, if you find the results unsatisfactory because astrology proves more accurate than expected, we may repeat the experiment as many times as you would like.

I've always admired you as a man of truth and always will. I think there is something here that needs a man of both truth and stature to at least give it a moment or two. If you honestly don't have time to do the experiment, try reading a book called Sun Signs, available at just about any bookstore. Even more information about major aspects can be found in a great primer called The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need. (I'm sure they'll give you a brown paper bag at the register and you can hide it when you get home. Just kidding.)

Thanks for your time. I need to get back to reading Cosmos. It really is a wonderful book. I knew it would be when I saw your name on the cover.
Thanks for entertaining and enlightening me on so many things, Dr. Sagan.

R. Dafremen

posted February 10, 2008 12:37 PM         

And if there is anyone out there that thinks they can get the funding for this study..by all means. It'll work..and it'll blow them away. They'll be double checking the results for years because they won't believe their eyes.

Here's what you do:

1. Gather information from a large pool of participants (at least 1000 more is better)

2. Gather ONLY chart information..Birthdate, Time and Place. Contact information and visually verified proof of birth data.

2. Go through the charts looking for people with the Moon and at least one of the 3 inner planets in the same Sign as their Sun. Avoid charts with very strong opposing influences to the Sun.

3. Take this much smaller pool of candidates and have ANY scientist perform ANY of the Sun Sign experiments performed by ANY researcher anywhere at ANY time in history.

The results will be favorable to astrology and demonstrate once and for all, that astrologers study a very real phenomenon.

As a dubious bonus, said academic will look a complete fool once your results are verified.

daf

posted February 10, 2008 12:48 PM         

It's symbolic. Carl Sagan was, in my opinion, the epitome of the earnest scientist.

This is an open letter to all earnest, open-minded researchers everywhere who care about careful research and accurate results.

posted February 10, 2008 01:05 PM         

You've been peeking through my hard drive...

I personally wrote something almost identical to this. It was of course not written to the same recicipient but the rest of it it spot on!

WOW!!!

This kinda' freaked me out there Daf.

Anyways, um... I do have a suggestion of what you can actually do with this now.

Looking.....

Hang in there, I'll be back this afternoon with the link.

You are gonna love this!

posted February 10, 2008 03:53 PM         

Empirically produced ignorance..isn't it soooo precious?

daf

posted February 16, 2008 02:55 PM         

Ok I did some charts:

Here are the results for the first batch (remember, we're trying to
come up with individuals who have majority planets in the Sun's sign.
At the very least, we'd like the Moon and the Sun and one other major
influence (Venus, Mars, Asc) in the same sign):

24/03/78 - Planets everywhere. Only Mercury and Venus are in the Sun's
sign. (Moon is in the OPPOSITE sign as the Sun!)

22/09/72 - Only Mars is in the Sun's sign. Moon is in opposition to
the Sun (opposite side of the Zodiac.)

13/02/73 - Only Venus in the Sun's sign. (Again, Moon on the other
side of the chart)

31/12/67 - Decent candidate. Has Mercury and the Moon in the same sign
as the Sun. Best candidate so far. Not exactly what we're looking for,
but probably close enough.

06/06/1975 - This candidate doesn't meet the requirements, but is an
interesting prospect. Only Mercury is in the same sign as the Sun, but
the sun is in Gemini. In astrology this is called its rulership and it
signifies an extra nudge to the sign influence.

11/02/41 - Only Venus in the Sun's sign. Once again Moon on the
opposite side of the chart as the Sun.

02/01/73 - Ok this guy has only Jupiter in the Sun's sign. (which
isn't a very strong influence usually, but in this case it helps his
Sag side.) This person isn't a good candidate, but if you could relay
a message to him/her? Tell him to start looking at the astrological
information related to Saggitarius and it might fit better. He is a
Sag/Capricorn with VERY strong Sag. No wonder his Sun sign description
rarely fits.

05/10/76 - Mars and Pluto in the same sign as the Sun. Moon, once
again on the other side of the chart. (You have a lot of these. Is
this the skeptics association? Moon in opposition to the Sun makes for
some very interesting astrological difficulties.)

27/4/81 - Every major planet (Mars, Venus, Mercury) except the Moon,
which is square the Sun in Aquarius, otherwise this guy is VERY
Taurus. That Moon is important though. So he'll be an unconventional
taurus who likes to shock people more than Taurus' usually do.

04/08/54 - Only Pluto in the same sign as the Sun. Moon is square the
Sun. (Oppositions and Squares signify a conflict or "bumping of heads"
between influences. An opposition is around 180 degrees difference
between two planets. A Square is 90 degrees. When it's the Sun and the
Moon, that can make it REALLY difficult because these are the two
MAJOR influences with the Moon being of primary importance in MOST
cases.)

04/09/83 - This person was VERY close to our perfect test case,
unfortunately, the Sun was into Virgo and is all by itself there. You
might tell this person to look at the description for Leo next time
they open an astrology book, since that is what their chart really is.
(I'd like to suggest that this would make an interesting subject but
for a different experiment.)

28/05/55 - Only Mercury in the Sun sign and all of the rest of the
major planets spread out all over the chart. Once again the Moon is
Square the Sun.

That's it Danny. what I found interesting was that the vast majority
of these people didn't just NOT have the moon anywhere near the Sun,
but in most cases it was Square (at a near 90 degree angle) or in
Opposition (at a near 180 degree angle). What this signifies to me is
that the signs that the Moon and Sun are in aren't going to mix well.
I wouldn't be surprised if all of those people with the Moon in
opposition or square to the Sun are skeptical of astrology. The Moon
being so strong, only about half of anything descibing the Sun would
hit, if that

So one candidate so far. We'll get this.

daf
-------------------------------------------

He never wrote back after that.

posted February 16, 2008 06:48 PM         

#1

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The truth is ... everything counts. Everything. Everything we do and everything we say. Everything helps or hurts; everything adds to or takes away from someone else. ~ Countee Cullen