[John H K]

The classic anti-astrology demo is done by famous skeptic Amazing Randi when he speaks before classes of students; doesn't reveal who he is, asked for birth date and location data, gives each student their "personalized" horoscope, students gasp in awe at how accurate their horoscope is, Randi spends a few minutes asking the students how accurate their horoscope is and they all gush in amazement at the accuracy...

Then Randi asks everyone to hand their horoscope to the person sitting behind them....

EVERYONE got the same horoscope.

The basis of astrology is cleverly designing "readings" that SEEM specific, but which apply to everyone and their opinion of themselves. Even quite intelligent people can be fooled by this.

[BikerNYC]

The Amazing Randi is a cool guy.

[Maceman]

The classic anti-astrology demo is done by famous skeptic Amazing Randi when he speaks before classes of students; doesn't reveal who he is, asked for birth date and location data, gives each student their "personalized" horoscope, students gasp in awe at how accurate their horoscope is, Randi spends a few minutes asking the students how accurate their horoscope is and they all gush in amazement at the accuracy... Then Randi asks everyone to hand their horoscope to the person sitting behind them.... EVERYONE got the same horoscope. The basis of astrology is cleverly designing "readings" that SEEM specific, but which apply to everyone and their opinion of themselves. Even quite intelligent people can be fooled by this.

I have not seen Randi do this, nor have I seen the "readings" he hands out.

But I can tell you that the analyses I have seen done by my wife about real people are not interchangeable.

[FreeTally]

The basis of astrology is cleverly designing "readings" that SEEM specific, but which apply to everyone and their opinion of themselves. Even quite intelligent people can be fooled by this.

Yes, this is generally how it is done. Even the "on-air" stuff like Miss Cleo, you can tell the questions asked are not too specific, something that may be partially true for most people. People get tricked because they "want to believe".

That being said, I used to have a good friend who is fairly intelligent who believes in it, and does tarot card readings for friends and family. She claims to be fairly accurate. But then again, I don't think she could tell specifics. I would always hack on her and say things like, "Hey, what did I eat for breakfast last Thursday?".