Will Astrology deliever?

The astrology is being put to scientific test first time in India. What is more fascinating is that the experiment is being carried out in Pune. Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Statistics Department of University of Pune and Andhshraddha Nirmulan Samiti have joined hands for this novel test which is a kind of attempt to verify the veracity of astrology.

Informing about this experiment, Prakash Ghatpande who is the co-ordinator of the project said, "We want to bring astrology into the realms of scientific investigation. To do it, it was necessary to do some study of this branch. This experiment is a part of this attempt."

The project involves collecting and then verifying, analysing of a particular data. Sample of Kundalis (Horoscopes) some students are collected by the activists of the Andhshraddha Nirmulan Samiti from all over the state. The horoscopes belong to mentally challenged students as well as normal students. These samples will be mixed with each other and distributed to the astrologers who are willing to participate in the project.

Dr. Naralikar is to make an announcement on Monday to the astrologers to come forward for this project. He said, "Such test have been carried abroad. But to my knowledge, there have been no attempts here. We have kept an open approach without any bais." Asked about the failed attempts in the past to make astrologers take up challenges, he said, "We will pursuade them to participate in this."

After astrologers come forward, statistics department will provide them with the samples of horoscopes. Astrologers will be told to analyse the samples and tell exactly which students are mentally challenged and which are not. The statistics department is to ensure that the experiment will be a ‘Double Blind Test’ one. The data providers as well as analysers will not be aware about who the horoscope belongs to. A random sampling of the horoscopes will also be done. If the astrologers succeed to identify the horoscopes correctly more than random sampling, it will be assumed that the astrology has some basis to it. Otherwise it will be established that it has no substance.

"We have collected all the data. The only remaining thing is the verification. University of California and other foreign universities have conducted such tests before. Even late V. M. Dandekar had done research in that direction but at institutional level, this is first of its kind project," said Ghatpande.
--------------------
WHY the test
To bring astrology into the realm of scientific investigation and scrutiny.

How it will be
Horoscopes of students to be collected from all over the state.
The students will be mentally challenged as well as normal ones.
The horoscopes will be mixed and encoded by Statistical Department.
They will be provided to astrologers willing to participate in the project.
Astrologers will be asked to analyse and identify the origins of students.
The findings will be matched to the findings of random sampling.
Astrologers have to score over the random sampling to prove their logical basis.
----------------------------
What Other Study Says
University of California’s researcher Shawn Carlson had conducted a similar study in 1980s. The findings of the study was published in December 1985 in Nature. The controlled study was designed specifically to test whether astrologers can do what they say they can do. Carlson, a researcher at UC's Lawerence Berkeley Laboratory, found astrologers had no special ability to interpret personality from astrological readings. Astrologers also performed much worse in the test than they predicted they would, according to Carlson.

Carlson's research involved 30 American and European astrologers considered by their peers to be among the best practitioners of their art. To check astrologers' claims that they can tell from natal charts what people are really like and how they will fare in life. Carlson asked astrologers to interpret natal charts for 116 unseen "clients." In the test, astrologers were allowed no face-to-face contact with their clients.

Despite astrologers' claims, Carlson found those in the study could correctly match only one of every three natal charts with the proper personality profile - the very proportion predicted by chance.
In addition, astrologers in the study fell far short of their own prediction that they would correctly match one of every two natal charts provided. Even when astrologers expressed strong confidence in a particular match, they were no more likely to be correct, Carlson found.
http://www.psychicinvestigator.com/demo/AstroSkc.htm
---------