I am not a big believer in signs or astrology, but sometimes the coincidences are simply too amazing. And sometimes the horoscopes are so close to the mark, it is scary. I don't mean the generalized predictions that that could apply to half of the population, I mean straight to the point, nail on the head, specific accounts of current events in my life.
Sure, it could be explained as coincidence, but sometimes I wonder if Dr. Brin's "Big Eye" (from the short story "Senses Three and Six") is not so far from reality.
Jean-Louis replied:
I'd say it's explainable by coincidence. Here in Quebec, we have an association of sceptics who offer a cash prize to anyone who can demonstrate a paranormal phenomenon in a controlled environment and in a reproduceable way.
And I think the reproduceability is the big issue here. By random chance, those things are likely to be dead-on for *somebody* every once in a while.
But if it starts happening day after day... :-) I had a friend give me a pseudo-scientific explanation once (I might have quoted this previously on-list). It went something like, "If we can see the stars, then at least their photons are having some effect on us. If their photons are affecting us, why couldn't they be affecting us in other ways? And the planets are close enough for their gravity and magnetism to have an effect on us, and studies of the brains of young monkeys have shown that small changes in the electromagnetic field can cause great changes to brains at certain developmental stages..."
The upshot was that delicate, sensitive brains of developing infants could have different patterns of hard-wired paths caused by the changing electromagnetic and gravity fields of different times of the year. I almost halfway took him seriously until I found out that the monkey brain study he quoted was only reported in Omni... :-)
Reggie Bautista Don't Believe The Hype Maru
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