Many Astrological predictions or predictions in general across the ages have become true many times than not. Many rationalist and scientists have dismissed it off a mere coincidence. Sometimes they called it a self fulfilling prophecy. Read this article to know more of all such arguments against Astrology
An experience with a SFP
Long time back during a consultation session a client told me that he was jobless and doing nothing for the past 2.5 years. Not surprising given the fact that he was going through Sade-Sati (7.5 years Saturn phase) and it had started just about 2.5 years ago. However, I asked him the reasons for being unable to find a job apart from my point of view because many people wait for the ideal job with many conditions.
He said, “when i lost my job, I went to an Astrologer. He told me that my 7.5 years Saturn was about to start and that there was no point doing anything because nothing good will come anyway. So I actually never tried for a job. After all, it was going to be bad. So why work and still go through the bad”?
This is a typical SFP. The client does exactly what the Astrologer predicted. No ancient book has suggested joblessness during a particular period. So why are people jobless. Usually it is because they do not know that during a bad time they will have to accept whatever comes their way instead of waiting for their kind of job. Their ego does not permit them to step down a little during a bad period. They feel that it is an insult. So they are jobless. Because the world is full of opportunities for work.
I told him, “in fact it is the other way round. You should work 3 times harder during such a period. Otherwise things would be worse. By being jobless, you are going to deplete your savings and soon you will be in a financial mess. Then Sade-Sati gets confirmed”. It took me a long time to make him forget what the previous Astrologer had told him.
This is a typical example of a Self Fulfilling Prophecy (SFP). In other words SFP means that you make a prediction and because you believed in it, it slowly becomes the truth. If you did not believe it, then it will not happen. That is what the believers in SFP tell people.
What is SFP?
The term SFP – Self Fulfilling Prophecy was first coined by Robert K Merton.
Scientists, rationalist and atheist across the world have always been suspecting that any system of prediction works only because it is made true by the believer in such prediction system.
For example, if Jesus Christ was able to say what was going to happen before His crucifixion then these rationalists is likely to term it as an other SFP. During the last supper during a conversation,Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” However, the Bible confirms that Peter did exactly what Jesus Christ said.
For example, King Kamsa was told that the 8th born to Devaki would kill him. So Kamsa put Devaki his own sister in jail so that every child born to her would immediately be killed by his own hands to ensure that the prediction went wrong. However, the 7th and the 8th child escaped. Krishna grew elsewhere taken care by Yashoda and Nanda in the village of Gokula. Later on Krishna killed King Kamsa and the prediction came true.
One can go on with such predictions that came true and each time, the skeptic will tell you that it was simply a matter of coincidence or a case of SFP.
Sometimes SFPs have been real. That is why I started this article with one of my experience with an SFP.
VarahaMihira and his famous prediction
Mihira was one of the 9 Gems in the court of the King Vikramaditya and he was also his preferred Astrologer. After the birth of the Prince, Mihira was asked to speak on the prince’s future. When he studied his horoscope, he noticed that the Prince would be killed by a Varaha (wild boar) on a particular day and time, in a certain month of his 17th year and no human efforts would save the prince from death.
The King remembered the prediction. During that particular year, the King built a very high wall around the house that was used by the Prince and the palace was heavily guarded. So there was no way a boar would makes it way into the house of the Prince. With such precautions the prediction was bound to go wrong. Mihira was given one last chance to change his prediction about the prince but Mihira said that at the mentioned time a wild boar will cause the death of the Prince. After the predicted time had passed by, everyone went to see the Prince only to see him dead in a pool of blood on the terrace. A flag staff had fallen off due to heavy winds and on top of the flag staff there was the iron boar, the royal emblem of the kingdom. The boar fell exactly on his body.
Mihira was given the title “Varaha” Mihira. He was one of the best Astrologers from the land of India. He is the author of an astrology classic “Brihat Jataka” a small book loaded with information.
Well the critics across the world I am sure will say such stories are products of fiction.
The belief that Astrology does not work can also be a belief system in the same way there can be a belief system that Astrology works. Both groups will believe in what they say. After all it is their belief. Is it not?
