Astrology, as I understand it, is the search for human meaning in the sky. Astrology began as a study as soon as human beings made conscious attempts to measure, record and predict seasonal changes by reference to astronomical cycles.

Early evidence of such practices appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show that lunar cycles were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago; the first step towards recording the Moon’s influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organizing a communal calendar. In the Neolithic agricultural revolution new needs were met by increasing knowledge of constellations, whose appearances in the night-time sky change with the seasons, allowing the rising of particular star-groups to predict possible annual floods or seasonal activities. By the 3rd millennium BC, widespread civilizations had developed sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and they consciously oriented their temples to create alignment with the heliacal rising of the stars.

The practices of astrology and astronomy have common roots, but just as the first sign of life evolved into the modern human being, so astrology evolved into astronomy. Astronomy is the study of the universe and its contents outside of Earth’s atmosphere. Astronomers examine the positions, motions, and properties of celestial objects. Astrology as part of our primordial slime, attempts to study how those positions, motions, and properties affect people and events on Earth. For several millennia, the desire to improve astrological predictions was one of the main motivations for astronomical observations and theories. Today it is used to either directly or indirectly manipulate thought and action.

Isaac Newton demonstrated some of the physical processes by which celestial bodies affect each other. Since then, astronomy is used to make predictions about celestial phenomena which are made and tested using the scientific method. In contrast, astrology is now regarded as a pseudoscience—though thousands of people around the world still base their life on these predictions, it is interesting to watch their reaction when they took part in an experiment which proves their beliefs about astrology, false.

The same star sign reading was given to several people, the comments that followed showed that all the different people, who supposedly had different star signs, all had incredibly accurate information. It was eventually revealed to them that it was all the same reading. In their embarrassment they realized that they were victims of a scam.

The idea that celestial bodies were created to influence our puny insignificant life is an ego trip on behalf of man. The only way that something from out of space can influence our life is by a solar flare burning the atmosphere or an asteroid smashing onto the earth and so on. Planets or stars do not influence our day to day relationships, financial status or our emotional state. We might become depressed if we believe that our wishes can come true by wishing on a shooting star or a meteorite hits your car. I would say that the universe doesn't care about your existence, but that would be personifying the universe.

The readings can be applicable to anyone at any time because it is based on the method of cold reading.

Cold reading on a one to one basis is a set of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, mediums and illusionists to determine or express details about another person. Without prior knowledge, a practiced cold-reader can quickly obtain a great deal of information by analyzing the person's body language, age, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, and so on and so forth. Cold readings are basically high-probability guesses, quickly picking up on signals as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not, then emphasizing and reinforcing chance connections and quickly moving on from bad guesses or assumptions. But they cover themselves from the beginning selling it as "unclear images" : "I often see images that are a bit unclear and which may sometimes mean more to you than to me; if you help, we can together uncover new things about you."

It is often the eager person who wants to get information from such people to solve their life's miseries, who often falls into the trap. We all can admit that it is an attractive thought to be able to look at the sky, crystal ball, streaks made by dry greek or Turkish coffee in a cup and see into the future. Kings of the past utilized these methods, why not us?

The answer is simple, because we should know better.

After determining that the subject is cooperative, the "reader" will make a number of probing statements or questions, typically using variations of the cold reading methods. The person will then keep revealing information with their replies (verbal or nonverbal) and the cold reader can continue from there, pursuing promising lines of inquiry (hits) and quickly abandoning or avoiding unproductive ones(misses.) In general, while (fake) revelations seem to come from the reader, most of the facts and statements come from the subject, which are then refined and restated by the reader so as to reinforce the idea that the reader got something correct.

Subtle cues such as changes in facial expression or body language can indicate whether a particular line of questioning is effective or not. Combining the techniques of cold reading with information obtained from the person, can leave a strong impression that the reader knows or has access to a great deal of information about the subject. Because the majority of time during a reading is spent dwelling on the "hits" the reader obtains, while the time spent recognizing "misses" is minimized, the effect gives an impression that the cold reader knows far more about the subject than an ordinary stranger could.

From personal experience I can confess I have a mother who really believes she is giving a good reading to people. She does it without any form of exchange, but as a general pass time with friends. She has a high number of hits which reinforces her own belief and her friends. if you ask my mother she will tell you she believes it's true but she is not aware that what she doing is cold reading. So yes, not all are out to trap you, like my mother they themselves might think what they are doing is true. I am sorry to say, after extensive study it was found that it's not supported by any evidence.

People claiming to be the ghostbusters of today are utilizing the methods of science to manipulate a fear instilled in people from a very young age- through innocent ghost stories told around a campfire. Mirrors and lights are utilized to form shapes of people that may portray a spirit of some sort. Walking into a kitchen with freaky self opening cupboards can be justified with further research utilizing the scientific method.

It was found that there was underground water, under a house, when the water changed pressure it produced effects such as light vibrations causing glasses to randomly fall or cupboards and even doors to swing open. Combined with the human brain, which has been brainwashed from a very young age through the environment. Makes for a nice haunted house story. Certain forms of brain damage or under the influence of certain drugs (including over the counter) may also trigger hallucinations.

We are coming to a time where our civilization is stagnating as a result of such beliefs, progress is hitting speed bumps because people are defaming the face of science and are placing hypes on pseudoscience.

Science is like a person with a superpower, you can use it for bad (Hiroshima,) or for good (vaccinations.) Money has unfortunately placed us in a position to choose which one is more profitable. I often wonder how many of these pseudoscientific practices would exist if all the world's resources were managed and distributed intelligently with human and environmental concern without the use of money, barter or any type of trading method.

The monetary system unfortunately provides a lot of incentive for scams to develop for people looking to make a quick buck. People believing in the supernatural distracts them from what's really important. Buying dream catchers, paying money for tarot and palm readings, speaking to spirits, etc.

Just like you are what you eat, you are what you draw from your environment and if your environment is filled with the supernatural, your mind will think along the lines of the supernatural. People dying in car accidents will not be stopped by knowing that something awful is about to happen in your life. Racism will not be stopped by getting a tarot reading. Cancer will not be stopped by drinking water from the Amazon river or giving yourself to light therapy. More attention and resources needs to be given to solving the problems through hands on help rather than involving the dead for solutions. The dead are providing fertilizer for the soil, the worms get fatter and the plants taller. That is how energy is neither created nor destroyed but moved to a different state.

This is an interesting article I found of different psychic scams:

http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/InPerson/MajorPerson/psychic_scams.htm

Also see a short demo:

http://youtu.be/1dHCxGMH6Zc

Short clip from a seminar:

http://youtu.be/MSnI1lmXhuk

Derren brown is very good at debunking people like this, and Richard Dawkins with his "enemies of reason" documentary on youtube.

Normally change is brought about by necessity and as we all can agree there is a definite need for change in our beliefs, values, thoughts and actions in order to ensure we leave better children for the future. Utilizing the scientific method to debunk pseudoscience and stopping the mechanism that leads people to such malpractices can allow us to educate people to take care of the earth and everyone on it. Is the scientific method the best system, no but it's a much better tool than meditating on your naval waiting for answers to enter through the ether, into your mind.