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© 2012 Sanjeev Sabhlok's revolutionary blog
A long time ago, in 1980, after about six months of studying for an MA in Mathematics in Central College Bangalore, I dropped the course, wrote to the Government of India to stop my National Science Talent scholarship payments, and decided to study at home for the next two years to prepare for the IAS exam (which I took in 1981).
I had plenty of spare time during which I wrote on hundreds of topics, and made numerous philosophical notes. Altogether I wrote perhaps 2-3000 pages (each page containing about 100 words) using small sized school notebooks. I've lugged these notebooks around, hoping one day to re-read them and convert them into something if I find anything of value.
Yesterday I pulled out these notes on a random impulse to find out what I had written on the topic of freedom 30 years ago.
It is hard to find things in the middle of this pile, so I didn't find precisely what I was looking for but I was pleasantly surprised to find what I'd today call Hayekian views and views that Adam Smith advocated. I had no training in economics nor had ever read these authors, so such writings are of some interest to me.
When time permits, I'll scan and post some of the more interesting notes on this blog. Please ignore these posts if you wish (as I'm sure you do for topics that don't interest you).
Here's something amusing to kick-start this "series".
The Control Experiment to verify Astrology/ Palmistry
Below is the original note, as scanned (click for a bigger version).
1st day: Take a bearded man dressed up in shabby, tattered clothes to a palmist and record the predictions made by 10 different palmists on 10 questions.
1 month later: Allow the man to shave off his beard, wear brand new clothes, speak English in a fluent style and otherwise act differently as compared to the first instance. Record the predictions of the same 10 astrologers [palmists] now on the same 10 questions.
Treatment of data:
1. Find out the correlations between the 10 different predictions in each of the 2 cases.
2. Find out the difference (qualitative) between the predictions of each astrologer in the two cases.
A similar experiment can be conducted on astrology.
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http://sabhlokcity.com/2010/08/telepathic-and-spiritual-fraud-prevention-agency/
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A control experiment to verify astrology/ palmistry: A long time ago, in 1980, after about… http://goo.gl/fb/PPcBp
:)
Astrology and palmistry are all bogus sciences. I have my share of birth charts and predictions and palm readings but seriously, this is all anotehr scam that just doesn't seem to go away. Now, don't get me wrong. I have absolutely nothing against palm and horoscope readers. I have frequented them and have bought Cheiro's books myself. There was a time when I started reading palms of my friends and many of the predictions in my prediction book (based on horoscope) have come true. However, when I tried to do some objective study of this, I realized that this is as bogus as 'Pushpak Viman'.
There is absolutely no way to predict the long-term future of anything in this world. Lines on palms may mean 100's of things that I do not know but it does NOT tell you how pretty your wife is going to be. Position of Planets do NOT affect future of any human. Moon and Sun are NOT planets.
Astrology is bunkum but this is a good example where science has actually benefited from man’s peculiar proclivity to see his future. Our panchanga – and various planetary studies – were an outcome of this funding for astrology. So some good did come out of this. For the rest I’m inclined to recommend that this “discipline” be licenced, and only those who are able to provide at least 98% accuracy in predictions (tested scientifically over 5 years) be allowed to practice. In other words, this occupation effectively ought to be banned.
Dear Sanjiv,
I prefer you as humanist rather than Hindu. Being a Sikh, I ask myself the same question. What has happened to such a good religion which Guru Nanak formed for equality. Despite the fact that Sikhism is good, it has fallen into the hands of such unparh preachers that we have slipped down the ladder.
A classic case has happened here in our area which will make my point clear;
We had a couple who are trained in Yoga by Baba Ram Dev. They are both stonch Sikhs and follow all the teachings but conduct Yoga classes free of charge. They conducted quite a lot of camps all over the US, England, Canada and they have an ashram in India. Just because the couple is attached to Ram Dev for their initial training, the suedo sikh priests from some gurudwaras have not allowed them to conduct free Yoga. There is no where in Sikhism which says that Yoga is bad for health or is against Sikhism.
I attended classes and I wrote an article about it because I was greatly cured with their massage and the exercises which they have given me.
Yes! we need to be humanist first as organized religion ha sproduced hardliners who misguide ordinary people.
Bill
Before you make your judgment on my comment: I'm not saying astrology and palmistry are to be encouraged neither am I saying that these are proper sciences that need more ''faith'' and not at all am I saying that they work, however, what I will say is that the expermient you've stated is flawed heavily.
Self proclaimed palmists and their actions do not represent the ''Vedic Hasta Shastra'' itself.
Questions like:
''if you can find out about your own future, why can't you use it to become more successfull?'' are questions that is irelevant to the topic of astrology and palmistry.
''If the future is pre-written then, what sense does life make at all?'' - again, irelevant.
Why do I say so? Because I asked these same questions 5 years ago BUT I had the decency to at least know more about the topic that I argue against which led me to a world of Astrology, Palmisrty, Physics, Biology, Comparative religion, Human Psychology, Sociology and certain other subjects.
Am I saying I support Astrology and Palmistry? Well, almost all who read my comment will say yes, I am supporting it but only a handful will understand that just because a murderer was convicted doesn't mean it gives anyone the right to accuse him for further crimes which he didn't comitt at all.
This is a severely borderline comment. It is confused and doesn’t add any value – and I generally trash such comments.
However, the writer apparently did some study – if I’m publishing it with a request that the commentator explain VERY CLEARLY what he/she is trying to say. And provide serious evidence, either way. Unfortunately, as the comment stands, it merely confirms that these things are a hoax.