Hang on! Did I just invent new gobbledegook? This should be a game for all of us into language – spotting. The horoscope thing is a game, another mind game. It has enough science backing it for it to be saleable, but not enough for it not to be misused.

Like every other social science, it probably started with a set of hypothesis. There were enough co-incidences or events to fund research. Sadly not enough robust data. Plenty of PR hype, and derivative ‘experts’ to keep it going.

And its fun!

I met Ian Rowland last year by the way, and it was terrifying. On the surface, he is just a very good cold reader. But if you start modelling what he does, ‘reality’ implodes into a vacuum. It’s very clever, and very scary. I get the feeling he could walk through a field of snow and leave no footprints.

Go on, argue with, “…At times your quick mental processes could mean you are impatient with slower colleagues.”

If anyone hasn’t come across it, I recommend Ian Rowland’s Full Facts Book on Cold Reading – http://www.ianrowland.com. The information in this book gives me great pleasure when I see “professional” psychics on the TV.

For example, last year on Irish television (RTE), Gordon Smith (the “Psychic Barber” – where did that come from???) appeared on the “Late Late Show” – a long running and still popular Friday night chat show. He very sincerely explained to the presenter how he had realised since he was child how he could see dead people and used this “power” to help people. After this very sincere interview he then agreed to give a demonstration with the audience and did a classic cold reading of a woman. It was almost straight out of Rowland’s book.

This type of “art” is pure fraud and should be made illegal.

Stephen

I gotta say, though, that Hannes Bok — an astrologer who was also justly famous as an illustrator — who had no information about my mother other than her name and birthdate, wrote her a stunningly detailed and not terribly flattering horoscope that knocked the whole family’s socks off. I consider that one an exception to the usual vague and flattering horoscope, as it would not at all have fit the vast majority of people. I have no idea how that happened.