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I want to put an end to this confusion - should we check astrology while planning a marriage or should we not? I want to share the outcome of some authentic research done over last few years and finish this topic once and for all.

And this is not a small issue. It is a big deal..a very very big deal. Crores of people... hundreds of Crores of Rupees and many life decisions are on the line. More than 90 percent of arranged marriages in India today are fixed only after matching birth-charts but no one knows if it has any scientific base. No one has authentic data of how many marriages become successful without matching kundalis. And no one exactly knows how many marriages break despite matching kundalis. Still, no one is asking the question - should we really do this? Is astrology true? I'm not going to debate on whether the planets emit some undiscovered rays that affect us all differently. In spite of being a Ph.D. in physics, I have not been able to win this argument yet. I believe data and statistics are the only answers to this debate. A heads up before proceeding, you should be little technical in reading this blog. This is because if there is a reason that astrology has its deep roots in our lives today, it is due to our mind’s interia towards its complexity. However, if you do bear with this just for a couple of minutes, you will be rewarded with a very clear answer to the million-dollar question - Astrology yes or no? Let me tell you the story of the experiment that we carried out on behalf of everyone like you who wanted an answer but do not have resources for the same.

I formed two groups of birth charts, one of 350 birth charts of divorcees and the other of 350 birth charts of people who got married on time, stayed with the family for their entire life, and spent a seemingly normal married life. The point is to form two groups of exactly opposite marriage experiences so that their birth charts show some distinct difference when their astrological parameters are compared, if astrology is true. The next step was to analyze those charts the way an astrologer will analyze and compare them to see if there is any substantial difference. Though I am writing about astrological analysis in just a few lines here, it took several years for us to develop the computer-based solution that does the job as desired. This is followed by the question - what did we measure and compare? To describe this in a highly simplistic manner; we measured the ‘negativity’ in the birth charts of the two groups and compared them. And how did we measure this negativity? For that, I collated a list of astrological markers or what are called as rules. I applied them to birth charts and I checked how many of them were respected. I advise you not to go further at this stage because that could be a bit boring. Let me give a few examples instead. Have you ever heard an astrologer whispering something like …ohh your Venus is debilitated and retro..plus it is in conjugation with Saturn…you have to be careful about marriage etc. Those are the rules. A Planet in debilitated and Retrograde gives malefic effect is one rule. Conjugation with Saturn destructs the significance of the planet is another negative rule. And so on.

From where did we get these rules? I did not give my introduction yet. I've been an astrologer myself for 20 years, so this list was kind of ready in my spreadsheet when we sat down and developed these algorithms. There are many rules in different books provided for divorce. In fact, the diversity in astrological rules has been another reason why refuting astrology has been challenging. We have therefore chosen those that are provided as fundamental principles in every astrology textbook. To be specific, we came out with 56 astrological rules which predict a destruction in married life. For purposes of this discussion, let's call them negative rules because they predict adverse effects in life. The computer solution we developed applied these rules to the 700 birth charts and measured how many of these negative rules each birth chart complies with. If astrology is true, we should see more and more of these negative rules getting satisfied in the group of divorcees, correct? I really do not want to use heavy words in this blog, but in scientific terms this kind of experiment is called an ‘empirical test’. Astrology has always been projected as a science but for any ‘science’ to get proven as a ‘science’ it must pass the empirical test. The experiment I am talking about here is nothing but an empirical test of astrology. Let us get back to our experiment and the results. Before that, a question may come to your mind about 56 negative rules that we tested ….why so many rules? Please check Part 2 of this blog which will answer all such questions but in the short answer is- In case of marriage, Venus and Moon are considered as significant planets, 1^st and 7^th house as significant houses and their lords as significant lords. Applying 6-9 negative rules to each of them makes the total 56. If astrology is true, we should see substantial differences in the compliance of these 56 negative rules in both groups. Now no more diversions, let us go straight to the results.

Result - you will be surprised; we have seen no significant difference in compliance in these two groups. A difference upto 10 percentage is considered insignificant as it is of the order of noise. From statistics point of view this means, practically compliance is equal. If astrology is true, that difference should have been substantial, at least 50%, but in practice there was no difference. Statistical tests also confirmed that there exists no difference. Astrology is so much hyped that we too were surprised with this result. We therefore decided to go to the next level. We tested the negativity of Venus alone by comparing compliance with nine negative rules applied on it. The result was the same - no difference. Then we checked Moon and then checked 1^st , 7^th houses and their lords etc..all one by one to cover everything that is considered as ‘important’ for marriage. Same result..no difference…no where. Then we thought why not check other planets, houses and their lords. If you go by hundreds of rules that astrologers talk about, almost all planets and houses become ‘significant’ for marriages anyway. We did that one by one and believe us, the results were identical for all the entities. No difference. This means that no planet or house or its lord in the birth chart has any substantial negativity in group of divorcees as compared to opposite group. It also means they DO NOT play any so called ‘SIGNIFICANT’ role for marriages.

We went one level down and tested validity of individual rules like planet in conjugation with Saturn gives malefic effect or planet in malefic Nakshatra gives malefic effect, etc. but none of these rules were found to occur more frequently in the group of divorcees. Simple meaning of this observation is, these rules are invalid. Remember, these are the same rules used by astrologers to analyze your birth charts day in and day out. You can imagine the accuracy of these predictions now. Since none of the planets are different in negativity in two groups there is no need for you to be scared of Mars (a good news for Mangaliks), Saturn (attention : guys in sadesati), Rahu, Ketu (those bitten by kalsarp) or any other planet. They are all imaginary evils and the moment you take them out of your mind they disappear from your lives. With this background, when the rules were proven invalid, when planets or houses were proven as NOT SINGNIFICANT to our life, I guess the question does not arise like - should we really check birth charts while arranging a marriage? The answer is obvious - It would be a terrible mistake to do that. Rules for divorce are getting satisfied equally by people who have a long married life without divorce. What will you check astrology for and what will you check in your birth charts?

And what you've heard so far is just ten percent of what we've done. Like the rules for divorce, there are rules for a happy and long married life. Let us call them positive rules. If astrology is true, they should be observed with more frequency in our second group but we found them complying equally in both groups. This means no difference in positivity too. What kind of 'Science' is this? Do you still want to go to an astrologer and find out how your marriage will be? When I showed these results to astrologers they said marriage could be one off topic that may not show up at times (unbelievable though…in my view astrology was discovered for marriages) so we did several other experiments. We repeated the experiment with people who never got married in their life versus people married on time and had long married life. Venus which is significant for marriage and Saturn which is considered instrumental in delays should have showed up in this experiment. But the results were no different. Neither Venus, nor Saturn nor any other planet, house… nothing could show any difference. We did not stop there. We decided to check various other life effects. Cancer Versus No Cancer, Celebrity Versus ordinary people, mentally retarded Versus Intelligent….and so on. And we took 300 to 500 birth charts from each group to ensure that the results had strong and statistically sufficient confidence levels. No difference in negativity of any of the planets, or house or lord of house. No difference in positivity either. Based on all these tests and comparisons, we have concluded that Vedic astrology does not pass through these empirical tests and does not have the merit of predicting the effects of life. For more details, please visit AstrologyYesOrNo.com OR watch the Hindi video on Youtube at https://youtu.be/5iVmPUo42aE .

The response of astrologers to such a test is usually “never say die” and they continue to come up with some or other arguments which is fine given the wasted interest they have. The above research however is good enough for any sensible person to conclude whether he should give any importance to astrology and GUN Milan system while fixing his marriage.

Are you able to make out what is happening here? Astrology claims that our birth charts have a unique astrological configuration reflecting our attributes, life's effects, events, etc. but empirically when we observe birth charts in hundreds and thousands, nothing stands out as a differentiator. Basically, there is no such thing as a ‘unique configuration’ (yog) in birth charts. You may still have a lot of questions around this experiment, moon signs, gun milan, being Mangalik etc. OR you may need guidance for NOT USING astrology in your marriage. If so, please do write on astrologyyesorno@gmail.com We will provide you a support at no cost. Yes, the objective of our research is to free people from the scare of astrology and ensure a healthy decision making process in the matrimonial and hence this service is absolutely free.

Hope you found this helpful. For now, please digest this information yourself and share it with others if you think it can make a difference to them. Have a great astrology free life.

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Published papers - An article in The Skeptic, UK, June 2021 by Dr. Nagesh Rajopadhye

When put to the test, the predictive powers of Indian astrology simply don’t hold up

Link - https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2021/06/when-put-to-the-test-the-predictive-p...

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