RE: Treating astrology's claims with all due gravity

The Amazing Randi (famed pseudo-science debunker) often does an interesting classroom experiment. I saw a film of one such test.

He asked students to raise their hands when he called out their Astrology sign, and then he gave each student a sheet of paper which summarized the personally attributes of people born under their star sign.

When he finished distributing 12 sets of attributes, he asked the students to read the sheet, and if they thought the astrology reading accurately represented their personality, they should raise ther hand. Almost everyone raised ther hand.

Then he asked each student to take their sheet and pass it to the student sitting in front of them. Students at the front of the row passed their sheet to the student in the back.

After a flurry of paper passing, smiles and laughter erupted in the classroom, as each student realized that everyone had been given the same astrology "reading".

"There is a distinct difference between having an open mind, and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out." - James Randi

The Amazing Randi's website: http://www.randi.org/