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The meaning of horoscopes
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Horoscopes have always been an iffy subject throughout my life. From the first time I found out about them and to do this day, I have always been intrigued by them. However, to be completely honest, I couldn’t really tell you that I believe in them all that much. They have always had this confusing, very vague tone to their message (Vague? SHOCKING I know). This always led me to the assumption that there’s literally no way for someone to guess how your day (year, month, or whatever type of horoscope you looked at) will go according to the position of extraterrestrial balls of fire in the sky. I may be oversimplifying the whole process of predicting the future, but on the surface this whole scheme seems a bit fishy…
I was first introduced to
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What I was trying to get at in the intro paragraph was that horoscopes have a lot and almost everything to do with trying to convince you that they can predict your future and certain events in your life. How you accept and let this information affect you is the reception of the horoscope. According to research done by Magali Colbert, reading positive horoscopes
decreases negative emotions and strengthens cognitive performance and creativity on a daily basis. This clearly makes sense; Because if you were to read a negative horoscope, you would most likely keep that in the back of your mind, and that would create subconscious sadness and cautiousness.
But does whether or not you truly believe in the science of astrology and horoscopes affect how you react to the actual horoscope?
Like I have stated earlier, I don’t think the alignment of stars can really determine what kind of day you are going to have, or the status of your upcoming love life. However, I do believe in the subconscious effects of reading horoscopes. For example: I am a Virgo, and let’s say my horoscope for the week was that my love life would heat up on the weekend, but during the week I would feel extra lonely. I would most likely just disregard the information at first, but subconsciously store it in the back of my mind; Noticing every instance of loneliness throughout
1. Video “Here Be Dragons” by Brian Dunning (4/15/14) is a fresh and critical overlook on the huge variety of so called “dragons” which exist in abundance even in our civilized society. This video promotes critical thinking and demonstrates the “red flags” that one has to look out for in order to detect pseudosciences. A pseudoscience is an idea that claims to be real but is not backed by any real science or evidence. For instance, hair analysis, feng shui, psychokinesis, homeopathy, numerology, aura analysis, the list could go on forever. The warning signs for such “sciences” are - appeal to authority, ancient wisdom, confirmation bias, confuse correlation with causation, red herring, proof by verbosity, mystical energy, suppression by authority, all natural and ideological support. The one “red flag” I have always been skeptical about and this video confirmed it for me is “appeal to authority”. It is hard for me to understand how people actually trust advertisements that are simply screaming “we are specialists, look at our white lab coats and and all the certificates and the celebrities that support our product”. It is simply pathetic. As Brian says - “Good science presents good data, it does not aim to impress”. However, the one “red flag” that I have to be careful about myself is confusing correlation with causation. It is the natural human tendency to assume that, if two events or phenomena consistently occur at about the same time, then one is the cause of the other. Our weakness for this tactic is often exploited by scammers and bogus scientists when they want to persuade us that a relationship exists between two variables without providing supporting evidence. In order to secure ourselves from falling for all the nonsense...
Sagan said “more than a third of American adults believe that on some level they’ve made contact with the dead” (151). This figure is not hard to believe when one thinks about our need to believe in something greater than ourselves. People believe in superstitions and horoscopes because they want to believe in that something that is greater than themselves is
Willis, Roy. and Curry, Patrick . Astrology Science and Culture. Pulling Down the Moo. (Oxford: Berg 2004)
“Life is all about making decisions: some big, some little, some mundane, some vital to your existence.” (Zimabardo & Boyd Prologue) Philip Zimbardo’s Time Orientation Theory states that our choices are surrounded by many time zones, such as past-positive, past-negative, present-hedonistic, present-fatalism, and future. Many people acquire a prejudiced outlook on a situation based on something that happened in the past, present, or future although these bad outlooks can be changed and adapted to make better decisions and live a better life. Some characteristics of my personality can be defined by looking at the results of my Time Orientation Survey, which consists of having a high past-negative score, an equivalent present-fatalistic and hedonistic
Before I start explaining what birth order does I want clarify exactly what it is. When I said birth order I know at least one person, probably more thought of something similar to astrology. In some ways they are similar. They both group personalities and have a basis in science, but that’s where the similarity stops. Birth order does not predict the future. Also, while birth orders facts are almost identical anywhere you look, I have found horoscopes where the methods used are so different that one source can say today’s you lucky day while another source for that same day may say that you will be brutally murdered by a dark stranger.
Even to the casual observer, using just the ability of the human eye, there is a noticeable order in the manner of the movement of the celestial objects as they travel across the sky. The Sun, Moon, and the stars, all have a discernable pattern to their rising and setting. Upon closer observance, one might notice slight seasonal changes in the relative location on the horizon where the Sun rises and sets. Alternatively, one can notice more drastic variations in the Moon's relative position, the timing of it's appearances, and the variation of the portion of the Moon that is illuminated on any given night. In addition, the stars, if tracked even for a short period, clearly have a pattern to their rising and setting on any given night. Again on careful observance over a period of time one can see that there is a seasonal variation to the location of some stars, with some not being visible at certain time of the year, and others appearing instead. Finally, still with the naked eye, if one were to place close attention, one would notice that some of these "stars" do not follow the same pattern, and seem to follow different rules. So, what do the observable facts all add up to? Are there rules of order that the celestial objects follow? If one were to study the celestial objects long enough, could one discover the rules and be able to accurately predict the movements of celestial objects with accuracy? Surely, peoples of ancient civilizations pondered the same type of questions.
Research has shown that there are negative personality traits that can cause an individual to be prone to becoming depressed. An individual’s negative personality traits can lead them to be perceived more negatively by others, which leads them to feel hurt and rejected (Whitbourne, 2013, para. 9). This is simply because no one likes to be around someone who is consistently negative since they bring negativity into the environment which also brings down other people’s mood. It is...
Bem, D. J. (2011). Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 100 (3), 407-425.
Implications and extensions suggest many forms of how the results of these studies can be influenced in future ones and more so, how they can go in many different paths. Forms of how a person’s day may go can also influence the way in which a person can make connections in determining the existence or bad. As too, countless conditions have a significant effect, but so, people rather make assumptions that many are benevolent, and not mischievous.
Firstly, people who show an optimism bias feel more happy and satisfied with their life. These people are also more in control of and engaged in their life’s goal, they will not just think about happy thoughts and wait for life to pass, instead they will be engaged in a meaningful life and do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals. They are also less likely to give up on a difficult situation and will cope with it. These are people who will not wait for the rain to pass but who learn to dance in the rain in order to fulfil their life’s goal. Unrealistic optimism shows an increased well-being and happiness. With this increased well-being, unrealistically optimistic people are also more able to pick themselves up after a major life
With the spotlight effect being the guiding effect for a person, and using effective forecasting, another aspect comes into play in how a person predicts their hypothetical future will effect them on an emotional level, and that is impact bias. This is the way in which we think we will emotionally perceive an event, and that it will be much worse than it may actually be. The article goes on to discuss a study performed by Tom Gilovich in which college students had to wear a Barry Manilow t-shirt into a classroom. While the actual experiment concentrated on the spotlight effect, impact bias could have been measured in this experiment as well. For instance, the students could have been asked how they felt it would go when they walked into the class, and then compared those feelings to what they actually experienced when they actually walked into the class. . At the end it could have been found that the experience was not as bad as they thought it would have been, and that their resilience was stronger than had
We all live in the world, which is full of sadness and disappointing. We see people dying, poverty, unemployment, etc. However, there are a lot of positive things in the world: children, who are born every day, people, who get new life opportunities, happy marriages, etc. The greatest gift is to see the positive sides of life, without concentrating our attention on negative. According to Winston Churchill, a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. In my opinion, it is really true, because the positive or negative attitude towards life can highly influence our chances to success, feelings and even health. Positive thinking can be the best treatment for those, who don’t know what to do, in a problematic life situation. Optimistic attitude can help the person to live longer, recover faster from the mortal diseases like cancer and coronary heart disease, and avoid alcoholism and psychological problems(like depression).
A Birth Chart and Interpretation or either a Horoscope and compatibility report cannot be accurate for everyone born under a specific Zodiac sign unless the Astrologer has accurate information about the time of birth, date of birth and place of birth. Place of residence is important in the casting of daily Horoscopes. Sometimes the time is not known and an Astrologer will use 12:01 P.M. which, while not as accurate as it should be, will put you as close to the target as possible. Without this information everything you read about your sign anywhere will be generalized information.
Many people use affirmations to begin implementing the Law of Attraction in their lives. We've always heard that saying, "Today's going to be a great day" could make it a great day, and shook it off as nonsense, but it's true. If every day you tell yourself, "Today's going to be a great day," you will notice a gradual shift in your overall attitude. If when something goes wrong you smile, that's all, just smile, you will notice a gradual shift in your overall attitude. Affirmations enhance optimism and an improved shift of focus.
Astrology has had its ups and downs through history, but it always maintained that station of being. (www.astrologers.com/history.html# Relevant, p.1) After some aspects of religion became prevalent, astrology became known as the “work of the devil”. (Weblinker.com Enterprises, p.1) During the Renaissance, though, astrology became more liked than before. (Weblinkers.com Enterprises, p.1) Even religious leaders began to practice astrology more often. (Weblinkers.com Enterprises, p.1) People of the royal families had their own astrologers. (Weblinkers.com Enterprises, p.1) That is how worldwide astrology was. (Weblinkers.com Enterprises, p.1)