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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that anynoe who believes in star signs is a complete numpty?

678 replies

bettybosseye · 01/02/2011 18:52

I mean it's so clearly such a great stinking heap of horse shit, how can anyone actually believe it?
Another mum at playgroup today was telling me what kind of personality my 9 month old will have based solely on her star sign.
All pleasant enough stuff but she actually believed it.
What's wrong with people?

OP posts:
CoteDAzur · 06/02/2011 08:40

"Earning lots of money, being flown all over the world, staying in first class hotels and all because billionaires are stupid enough to pay out without results!!!"

Actually, some people are stupid like that.

A friend of mine wrote a book about breathing and how it affects everything in life. Something to the tune of having to breathe deeply into every cell. It is of course ridiculous. Your breath doesn't got into cells, it only goes in and out of your lungs. Oxygen that is extracted from your breath is carried in blood to your cells.

She is now a millionaire, flown off to various parts of the world to give workshops to companies, to teach people how to breathe correctly Shock

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

Lamorna · 06/02/2011 09:09

OK seeker, I feel quite secure that I have them right so we will use it as a test! It wasn't a case of your niece lacking fire and having water. She has a sun and moon in Sagittarius which is fire, but it is very easy going and she won't push herself.

Your niece was 21st December.

Your DD was 29 December because she has the sun in capricorn, an earth sign but she has the moon in aries, fire. The aries gives her the drive and the capricorn is earth and grounds it and gets it into action. She doesn't just talk about it she does it. Your niece might be full of ideas but doesn't have the necessary push to get going.

It would have helped to have known the time of birth, the ascendant would be added proof.

However in this case I am so sure that I am right that I won't post another word. except to say 'sorry' if wrong.
If I am right all the scoffers will say she had a 50/50 chance so it was just luck.
This is why I have put in the reasons, aries/capricorn has to be a doer rather than dreamer.

I will await your answer with interest.

Lamorna · 06/02/2011 09:11

Firms do use graphologists for selection, I know one who is employed that way. It works. Handwriting shows your character.

mrsgordonfreeman · 06/02/2011 09:23

No it doesn't. Graphology is twaddle and possibly illegal if used in recruitment.

I don't know dd's star sign.

I can scry some birds' entrails if anyone wants though, say some general stuff about how you're usually very sociable but sometimes you need your own space, how you should sort those photos out and so forth, sounds like a piece of piss to me.

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 06/02/2011 09:29

Ok - let's get this straight. Astrology is total bollocks. Graphology is total bollocks. Myers-briggs is total bollocks.

Companies may use them for selection, but they work on the same level as chucking half the applications in the bin on the grounds that you only want lucky candidates.

BuzzLightBeer · 06/02/2011 09:36

Graphology does not work. It does not show your character. It has been rigorously tested and it has no basis in fact. Its an easy one to disprove.

Not surprising an astrologer would believe in it though.

seeker · 06/02/2011 09:40

Lamorna - I suppose I should be pleased that you're wrong. But I'm not really - I feel mean and rather petty. I'm sorry.

Lamorna · 06/02/2011 09:50

It is nice of you to say so seeker, among all these people being so insulting.Smile
I mentioned your DD and niece in the first place because they were so different,I knew it would be obvious. It stood out like a beacon that your DD was the capricorn/aries, I would have been so demoralised if I was wrong that I would have given up posting on MN altogether!

I really don't think that the people on the Christeen Skinner = lucky knickers have thought it out. Do you not think it silly for the head of a shipping company to say we must have this woman on the board when we make a decision because she is a 'lucky mascot' and then other companies say 'she brings luck we had better pay for her to be at our next meeting'!! It is ludicrous. The ask her along because of her track record.

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 06/02/2011 09:57

Companies do a lot of silly things, including graphology, astrology, myers-briggs and appointing ex-mckinsey consultants as CEOs.

Many companies are succesfull despite their best efforts.

Lamorna · 06/02/2011 10:02

They may well do silly things-my whole point is that they do -and if people think that astrology isn't used in quite mainstream ways they are deluding themselves.

Lamorna · 06/02/2011 10:04

Every company has an astrological chart so something like BPs disaster in the gulf of Mexico would show up. It wouldn't be obvious beforehand what it would be but it would be likely that problems were ahead.

StuffingGoldBrass · 06/02/2011 10:06

Lamorna - Well, usually what happens is there is one gullible fuckwit on every board, and the rest of the executives don't mind throwing some tax-deductible cash at a woo peddler to keep the fuckwit happy.

Lamorna · 06/02/2011 10:12

At the end of the day Christeen Skinner is the one laughing all the way to the bank!
She must be a remarkably good con artist to keep going for about 30yrs with no signs of stopping.

FellatioNelson · 06/02/2011 10:14

Well now. I don't know how I feel about this. I certainly do not hold any store whatsoever by weekly or daily general horoscopes. I sometimes read a few of the signs, and they all seem to say the same thing in a different way!

But, I DO find that certain zodiac characteristics and personality traits are bizarrely accurate for many people.

About a year ago, for a bit of fun, I input my exact time and place of birth details into a website for a free personality profile. It came back with a paragraph which was really very accurate, and piqued my interest, so I opted to pay £15 for the whole report, which stretched to a couple of A4 pages.

When I read it I burst into tears and sat staring at the pages in total disbelief and awe for about an hour. It was like someone had climbed inot my brain and anaylsed every part of my (rather complicated Grin) psyche.

All I had told the computer was the year, month, day, and time of day accurate to within a couple of hours I think, and the town I was born in.

seeker · 06/02/2011 10:44

Lamorna - I'm sorry, I didn't make myelf clear. You were wrong - dd was born on the 21st - dn on the 29th.

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 06/02/2011 10:46

Lamorna - the question isn't "Do some companies use it and think it works?" it's "if it does work, why isn't EVERYONE using it?"

If it did work Goldman Sachs would have racks of overclocked servers churning out thousands of charts a second.

xkcd.com/808/

CoteDAzur · 06/02/2011 10:48

How can a company have an astrological chart? Is it according to the time their charter was signed? How and when is a company "born"?

Just when you thought astrology couldn't get more silly...

CoteDAzur · 06/02/2011 10:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Psammead · 06/02/2011 10:56

Fellatio Derren Brown does the same thing, with large groups of people. Only each and every person is given the same reading. The vast majority say it's more than 90% accurate for them, or so.

I have seen cold readers do it too.

I get a sense that you are quite well liked and fun with your friends, but deep down you consider yourself quite an insecure and shy person. Not many people suspect that about you. You are quite creative and artistic, possibly you have considered doing something creative with your life, but sacrificed it for security. Family is veryimportant to you, but you tend to blur the boundarirs between friends and family, meaning that you feel familial bond with certain close friends... Blah.

And because we love hearing stuff about ourselves that is true, we discard the few lines that are not so accurate and embrace the rest.

I'm with SGB, really, although not quite as bluntly. I see no harm in peple believing this stuff so long as no-one gets hurt. But to me it's just.... Well, woo.

UnquietDad · 06/02/2011 11:11

What I find interesting about irrational versus rational explanations for things is that people like me, who want to find a rational explanation for odd-seeming phenomena, are usually perfectly open to there being more than one.

e.g.:
Someone came into your church in a wheelchair and got up and danced in the middle of the service after the Holy Spirit was invited to come down on them? Well, OK, it happened, so they were (a) not really disabled (b) a stooge/plant (c) someone with a condition like M.E. which has good and bad days (d) quite able to dance, but in a bit of pain... etc. It could be any of them.

e.g.:
Odd smudge on the photo? Hmmm, well, that might be (a) light reflection (b) a lens scratch (c) an oddity caused in development (d) a thumbprint....

And so on. We don't argue angrily for it being one to the exclusion of all others.

Whereas people who want to find a supernatural explanation - despite the fact that there are, if you believe that sort of thing, literally thousands on offer - always seem to want their particular favourite one to be the only answer. It was God! It was angels! It was demons! It was a ghost! It was crystal healing! And so on.

Confirmation bias, pure and simple. If you believe in Woo A, you will be looking for examples of Woo A at work in the world and attribute things to it. If you believe in Woo B, you will be looking for examples of Woo B at work in the world and attribute things to it. And so on.

NormanTheForeman · 06/02/2011 11:15

Interesting to read about your experience Fellatio - because if I put my date, time and place of birth in, I would get the same reading as for my twin sister (who was born in the same place 15 minutes after me.) But we are very different in personality!

Lamorna · 06/02/2011 11:40

I'll stop posting altogether then. It would have been interesting to know the time of day and why niece isn't using capricorn/aries and what is giving the sagittarian planets so much drive but I think that I will just stop posting as I would have expected it, from sun and moon alone to be the other way.
Nice knowing you all-bye Grin

Lamorna · 06/02/2011 11:51

Just proves that you shouldn't be too clever and should look at the whole chart! However since I have lost all credibility now, I will leave it at that. The moral of the story is don't make snap decisions based on the first things you see. So really is my last post.

BuzzLightBeer · 06/02/2011 12:00

the moral of the story is that astrology is that easy to show up.

Psammead · 06/02/2011 12:39

Lamorna, I hope you read this. You haven't lost credibility, people including me who have posted put no credibility into astrology in the first place.

You argued your case but you just can't convince the unconvincable :P

It was nice reading your views. Hope to see you around on the rest of the board, you come across as a nice person.