Original subtitles

(male narrator) Astrology, the celestial movements

of the Sun, Moon, and planets among the stars,

governing our personality and destiny.

Astrology is not just based out of something in the thin air.

It's a celestial fingerprint for somebody.

(narrator) For centuries, millions of people,

from paupers to powerful world leaders,

have relied on the ancient system for answers.

Mrs. Reagan had actually hired an astrologer

to guide the schedule of the President.

(narrator) But is there any proof astrology actually works?

Astrological predictions are just guesswork.

(narrator) Astrology has been fighting a cosmic battle for centuries.

Is it a science or merely a superstition?

[supernova explosion]

(narrator) Ancient mysteries shrouded in the shadows of time.

Now can they finally be solved

by looking to the heavens?

The truth is up there,

hidden among the stars,

in a place we call...

The Universe.

Astrology, an ancient system

based on the idea that celestial phenomena

in the universe have a direct effect

on human lives on earth.

Yet for centuries, the public has been mixing up

astrology with astronomy.

I am an Aquarius, so why should I care?

I'm a scientist, right?

However, I do realize, watching my students,

that astrology is a great way to break the ice at a party.

The first thing you ask a date is "what's your sign?"

(narrator) The scientific community has questioned the legitimacy

of astrology for centuries.

Yet astrology is now big business,

with thousands of internet sites, telephone lines,

and newspaper columns.

Nearly a billion people from all walks of life

depend on the ancient system for advice.

Wall Street executives now even support

the booming business of financial astrology.

There's a saying that millionaires

don't use astrology, billionaires do.

Anybody is gonna want to use a tool

that's gonna help give them an edge

and astrology absolutely does that.

(narrator) But is there any scientific basis behind astrology?

And how is it different from astronomy?

Astronomy has its real origins in astrology

because the first astronomers were actually the astrologers.

(narrator) To understand this, we have to travel back

to the Babylonians, who lived in what is now Iraq,

during the second millennium B.C.

There, a select class of sky-watchers

viewed the mysterious heavens as a gigantic projection screen.

They formed stories surrounding ominous celestial objects

that they believed were mighty gods controlling life on earth.

In ancient times, when we didn't understand

what those objects were up in the sky,

there were some people who began to keep track of them

and try and relate those, perhaps, godlike beings

to everyday lives here on earth.

People observing the heavens immediately noticed

that there was a daily rhythm to the sky.

That rhythm was that everything rose in the east

and set in the west, on a daily cycle.

But over the years, ancient people noticed

that there were seven objects in the sky

that had a motion separate

from that daily rising and setting.

(narrator) The seven objects were the Sun, Moon,

and the five planets visible to the human eye.

Jupiter,

Saturn,

Mars,

Venus,

and Mercury.

The early astrologers created the seven days of the week

based on these celestial bodies.

And this began the Babylonian Era,

when they were tracking and charting cycles of time.

So with this first form of astrology,

it was more about fate and destiny,

and looking at the gods in the sky

to see how they could best survive

the cycles of time that they were in.

(narrator) Astrology quickly spread throughout Asia and Europe.

By the 4th century B.C., Greek astrologers

made a big discovery.

The Sun moved across a pattern of stars

in a restricted narrow path,

which is now known to scientists as the ecliptic.

Now you can imagine the Sun projected against the stars

over the course of the year, and you can't see those stars

because it's daytime, but they're there.

And the path that the Sun makes over the course of the year,

among the stars, that is the path of the ecliptic.

(narrator) The ancient astrologers divided the ecliptic band

into 12 equal parts based on 12 collections,

or patterns of stars, known as constellations.

They noticed that some of these constellations

vaguely resembled animals and named them accordingly.

There was a pattern of stars that we call Leo today,

that looked like a lion.

There was one, which looked like a bull,

which we, today, call Taurus.

Now today we call a place

that has a number of animals in it a zoo.

And from that same root word, they got the word "zoodaic"

or zodiac.

We call them constellations, they call them signs,

through which the seven gods travel.

(Robert Ohotto voiceover) If you look at the constellations,

they don't really look like a bull or a ram, necessarily.

But they were really projecting their interior

psychic perspective out onto these stars

through their myths and stories, and then trying to make sense

of their lives and how they lived.

(narrator) For thousands of years, people used astrology

to make decisions about when to hunt, harvest, or wage war.

[war cries]

Many kings, queens, and emperors

relied on astrologers for virtually every move they made.

And of course, the kings and queens of old,

they were very superstitious.

They realized that if they make the wrong turn,

[imitates slicing noise]

I mean, someone's gonna take over the throne.

And they tried to use the Sun and the stars

as a way to predict the future.

(narrator) But in the 17th Century, astrology came under scrutiny.

Based on observations made by others,

Astrologer and physicist, Johannes Kepler,

proposed the three laws of planetary motion

to describe how the planets orbit the Sun.

Kepler's laws helped to usher in a new science called astronomy.

However, he, and many other scientists,

continued to practice astrology.

(Michio Kaku voiceover) Thousands of years ago, we didn't have NASA.

We didn't have the National Science Foundation.

Kepler, Johannes Kepler,

one of the greatest early astronomers,

made his living by being an astrologer.

And so all the great astronomers of old, let's face it,

they made pocket money by being on the payroll

of a superstitious king or queen who wanted to know,

"what is your sign?"

(narrator) But the invention of the telescope,

in the early 1600s, overturned the ancient view

of the universe,

and challenged the very basis of astrology.

Astronomers began to realize that stars that made up

the 12 constellations are not twinkling dots

imbedded in a flat background,

but are actually distant suns at very different distances

from Earth, and from each other.

[thrilling music]

*

Turn it on.

We're setting up lights in this field

to form one of the most recognizable images

in the night sky.

*

Behind me, is a replica of the Big Dipper.

Like the real the real Big Dipper,

this appears to be a two-dimensional,

or flat, pattern of lights against the sky.

However, these stars are actually not close

to each other in space.

But are, in fact, different distances,

both from our earth and from one another.

If we could see our Big Dipper from any other point

in the universe, what we would see is that

the familiar pattern of stars that we know so well disappears.

And instead, the stars become randomly oriented

next to one another in the sky.

(narrator) The Big Dipper isn't even a constellation.

It's an asterism.

A smaller pattern of stars

within a much bigger constellation

named Ursa Major.

And Ursa Major isn't even included in the constellations

that make up the astrological zodiac.

Astronomers soon realized there could be

endless numbers of constellations

depending on your point of reference in the universe.

Constellations are completely made up.

There's no reality to them.

Different civilizations assigned different star patterns

different names.

This is very much like playing Connect the Dots.

(narrator) The International Astronomical Union would eventually agree

on an official set of constellations,

which are simply artificial aids to help study the stars

of the universe.

(Andrew Fraknoi voiceover) We actually divided the sky into 88 boxes.

And each box contains some well-known constellation.

This, by the way, is no different

from what we did in the United States

when we drew boxes and made the states.

Kansas is every bit as made-man as one of the constellations

in the sky.

(narrator) By the 18th Century, astrology and astronomy

became completely separate disciplines.

And scientists stripped all forms of spiritualism

from the scientific study of the stars.

Astrology and astronomy seemed to part ways

during the Enlightenment period.

And it was the same period that the movement of the planets

was simply just the movement of the planets,

and not the movement of, also, psychological influences.

(narrator) But many remain convinced that astrology determines

people's personalities.

So what happens when we challenge two astrologers

to do an astrological reading

on one of the 20th Century's most famous people

without revealing his name.

Just when and where he was born.

(narrator) Astrology, an ancient tradition

that proclaims the stars, Sun, Moon, and planets

are guardians of our strengths, ambitions, and destiny.

But after thousands of years of existence,

astrology suffered a decline,

as the Western world turned to astronomy

for a scientific study of the universe.

The two disciplines diverged,

with astronomy becoming strictly about the observations

of the heavens and their predictions

made through physical laws

whereas astrology continued to be the predictions

of the lives of individuals

based on the apparent positions

of astronomical objects in the sky.

(narrator) In the 1930s, astrology experienced a sudden resurgence

with the introduction of daily horoscope columns

in newspapers.

They provided brief forecasts of a person's day

based on their Sun sign,

or the position of the Sun at the moment of their birth

as it passed through the 12 constellations of the zodiac.

The daily horoscopes quickly gained popularity

and helped to sell newspapers.

But were they peddling a false bill of goods?

If you think about it, what that implies

is that 1/12 of the world

will be having the same kind of day.

If you divide the entire world into 12 groups

by the date that they happen to be born,

then 1/12 of the world would be having the same kind of day.

(Alex Filippenko voiceover) Now what are the odds that 1/12 of the world's population,

about 500 million people,

are having nearly the same type of day?

Moreover, all of the predictions are pretty vague and general.

You can find aspects that seem to pertain

to the day that you're having.

(narrator) Even astrologers admit that daily newspaper horoscopes

are far too simplistic.

When astronomers reduce astrology

just to a Sun sign understanding to debunk it,

they're really missing the complexity

of the actual birth chart that every individual has.

(narrator) Astrologers say a true horoscope is a personal birth,

or natal chart.

A cosmic map that considers the influence

of, not only the Sun, but also the Moon,

and the planets at the exact date, time,

and place of birth of a specific person.

(Robert Ohotto voiceover) I do think the horoscope is absolutely scientific.

It's something that charts

exactly where everything was in the sky

at that exact moment for that particular person

when they were born.

And what that sets off is this clock of destiny

that the horoscope speaks to.

So it's a dynamic, empirical tool to see

when are you scheduled, in your life,

to have certain shifts and transformations.

I mean, these things are about fate and destiny.

(narrator) To test the accuracy of the horoscope,

two well-respected astrologers are provided the date, time,

and location of birth, of an anonymous person

from history, in order to create a birth chart.

So as astrologers, we used to have to use

lots of calculations and table to create birth charts.

Now we're able to generate charts with computers

and programs.

What we need are three primary things

to create any birth chart.

We need somebody's birthdate,

and this person's birthdate is May 29, 1917.

And then, we also need exact birth time.

So 3:00 P.M.

And then this person was born in Brookline, Massachusetts.

I entered all the information and it created this chart,

which is blown up and represented here.

(narrator) A birth chart positions the signs in the 12 houses,

or constellations, and the Sun, Moon, and planets,

at their rightful celestial longitudes.

The astrologer then analyzes the aspects, or angles,

the planets make to each other,

in order to get a reading of the person.

So for this particular person, we have a rising sign of Libra.

The Sun sign, over here, is in Gemini.

And the Moon, over here, in the 11th house, is in Virgo.

I see that the Sun in Gemini is in the 8th house here.

Gemini is the sign of being a teacher,

a communicator, orator.

This person comes in with a real strong desire to serve.

[cheering]

Whoever this person was

probably had an incredible ability to orate and speak

about whatever he or she was passionate about.

There is another indicator here.

In a relationship that we call The Grand Trine

which exists between the Moon, Mars,

and what we call the North Node.

This suggests that it would be his or her destiny

to be in the public eye.

This is a person with potentially

very great vision and lots of dreams.

(narrator) The astrologers seem to provide similar readings

of the mystery person...

We choose to go to the Moon in this decade

and do the other things.

(narrator) Who happens to be the late president

John F. Kennedy.

But were these readings based on science or sheer luck?

Would most presidents who were strong orators

have similar charts?

Different astrologers make different predictions,

and as far as anyone can see,

from a serious study of the predictions,

they are really not matched by the observable facts.

There's no statistically significant study

that shows that astrological predictions are any better

than just guesswork.

(narrator) Despite skepticism amongst scientists,

many people have relied on astrology

to make crucial decisions that affected millions if lives.

During World War II,

Adolf Hitler secretly employed an astrologer,

who was later imprisoned when predicting

Germany would lose the North African campaign.

British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill,

also sought advice from an astrologer.

As did former Russian president, Boris Yelstin.

(narrator) During the 1980s, the Reagan Administration

allowed the daily affairs of the White House

to be strictly managed by an astrologer.

(Andrew Fraknoi voiceover) Mrs. Reagan thought that election years

ending with a zero were bad luck.

President Kennedy had been elected in 1960.

He had died in Office.

President Roosevelt, who was elected in 1940, died in Office.

So she was very concerned that President Reagan

had been elected in 1980.

And in his first term, there was a very serious

assassination attempt.

(woman) President Reagan.

[gun shots ringing out]

And what happened is that the Chief of Staff

of the White House then had a color code

on each day of the calendar.

And the color code told them what was okay to do that day,

what was not okay.

And they postponed meeting so the President wouldn't fly

on the astrologically unapproved days.

(narrator) The Reagans were hardly alone.

By the 1980s, an estimated 50 million Americans

claimed to know their astrological signs,

and followed their daily horoscope.

[ominous music]

But then, the scientific community responded

with a bombshell that questioned astrology very foundation.

Was everyone's zodiac sign completely wrong?

[explosion]

(narrator) Astrology seems like a science

with math, complicated diagrams,

and a specialized vocabulary.

But can it actually unlock the secrets of your destiny?

Scientists claim there's a celestial phenomenon

that throws the entire astrological zodiac

into question.

The early astrologers had observed the Sun

spending about a month in each of the 12 signs of the zodiac

over the course of one year.

But there's one crucial thing

that the ancient sky-watchers did not know.

Due to gravitational tugs by the Moon and the Sun,

the Earth's axis of rotation slowly wobbles.

This wobble is called precession.

To illustrate precession,

here, I've got spinning gyroscope,

which represents the spinning Earth.

And you can see that its axis is tilted a little bit,

and gravity is trying to topple it over.

But instead of falling over, the gyroscope precesses.

It rotates around an axis that goes through the pivot point.

In the same way, Earth's axis of rotation

is describing a conical path,

which leads to precession of the equinoxes.

(narrator) It takes 26,000 years for the precession

of the Earth's axis to complete one cycle.

As a result, in the more than 2,000 years

since the Western horoscope was created,

Earth's slow wobble has caused the Sun's position to lag behind

by about a month.

This has surprising implications for astrology.

Because that precession of the Earth's axis

is roughly every 26,000 years,

that translates into, every 2,000 years,

those 12 constellations have lagged by a whole constellation.

So that means that every 2,000 years,

if your astrology doesn't take that into account,

you'll be a whole star sign out

in your astrological predictions.

(narrator) This would mean everyone has been reading

the wrong horoscope.

Your astrological sign would actually be the one

that precedes your birth month.

So for example, most people born in late March

and early April, who think they're Pisces,

are actually Aquarius.

At least as far as the Sun's position is concerned.

How do Western astrologers get around the dilemma

caused by precession?

The answer is they ignore the actual position of the stars.

Instead, they divide the year into four seasons,

and say that the period they call Aries

starts at the moment of the spring, or vernal equinox.

The Cancer begins at the moment of the summer solstice.

Libra start at the autumnal equinox.

And Capricorn, at the winter solstice.

In Western astrology, we're not looking at it

in terms of the background stars in the constellations.

As far as the signs in the horoscope goes,

it is based on the movement of our own planet

and the equinoxes.

(narrator) But since this new form of astrology

ignores the actual position of the constellations,

critics say it undermines the whole basis

of the ancient system.

I don't see how that can work because the characteristics

that astrologers assign to some of the signs

have to do with what the constellations look like.

So the Pisces sign is associated with water

because fish swim in water.

So you can't then, suddenly, decide

that the constellations and the signs

have nothing to do with each other.

(narrator) Modern astrologers insist, the real life force

of astrology exists within the planets of our solar system.

(Alanna Kaivalya voiceover) The word, planet, for an astrologer

doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as it does

for an astronomer.

We use the word in the vein that the Greeks meant it.

In the way that the planet literally means "wanderer."

So for an astrologer, anything that moves against

the background stars is a planet.

So the Sun is not a planet, technically,

but we call it a planet.

(Robert Ohotto voiceover) Astrology is not just based out of something in the thin air.

It's based out of actual configurations of planets,

their relationships to each other,

to create a map.

A celestial fingerprint, or a sense of destiny

for somebody, in terms of the life they're living

and its timing.

(narrator) One astrological phrase that's mentioned

a lot in astrology is, "Mercury in retrograde."

We've heard people describe it as a bad omen.

A time when one shouldn't make big decisions.

Or they blame bad decisions, or actions,

on the movement of the tiniest planet in our solar system.

But what does retrograde really mean?

Retrograde is the apparent movement of a planet,

seen from Earth, in the opposite direction of other bodies

in the solar system when observed

from a particular vantage point.

It's caused by the different rates of speed

at which a planet travels around the Sun.

Mercury, being the closest, according to the laws of Newton,

traveled faster because it's closer to the Sun.

And, therefore, as the Earth and Mercury

go around the Sun, Mercury seems to go backwards.

And so we have this optical illusion.

Forward can go backwards.

(narrator) This illusion is something we can easily see

in our everyday lives.

(Alex Filippenko voiceover) Suppose you have two cars going along a highway.

But one car is moving faster than the other.

As it's passing the slower car,

the slower car appears to be moving backward.

It's not really moving backward.

But it appears to be moving backward

from the perspective of the faster car.

In the same way, Mercury only appears

to move backward for a while.

But both Earth and Mercury continue to move forward

in their orbits around the Sun.

[mysterious music]

(narrator) Mercury has three retrograde periods per year.

Each lasting about three weeks.

Astrologers claim that certain people are sensitive

to this celestial phenomenon.

(Alanna Kaivalya voiceover) Mercury is the planet that affects communication,

short-range travel.

So when it goes backwards, it means that those things

are having a more difficult time moving forward,

So during Mercury in retrograde, you want to be careful

to start any new contracts.

You want to, probably, plan some extra time for travel.

This tends to be a time of plane delays.

And you also want to be very careful and mindful

of your speech and communication.

Particularly through technology.

[watch ticking]

Whether Mercury, or any other planet,

is in retrograde motion, or the normal prograde motion,

should have no effect, whatsoever,

on how our day goes, or our well-being,

or our futures, or our careers.

(narrator) Scientists insist that astrology must be wrong.

But is it possible that the ancient system

is actually driven by a known fundamental force

in the universe?

(narrator) Astrology.

Some believe it's a cosmic blueprint for life.

But is there any evidence of a force

that empowers the planets, Sun, and Moon,

to affect human behavior and destiny at the moment of birth?

[baby crying]

A lot of astrology talks about how crucial it is

to know, at time of birth, what was going on

in the night sky.

That implies that there's some sort of mechanism

connecting the motion of celestial objects

to influences on someone at birth.

[baby crying]

(narrator) But what kind of mechanism?

According to the law of physics, there are four fundamental

forces of nature by which particles,

or planets, can interact with each other.

They are gravity, electromagnetism,

the strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force.

Scientists argue that if astrology

has any basis in reality,

it needs to rest on one of these four basic forces.

But is there any evidence it does?

Gravity, which is one of the most fundamental forces

in the universe, is the pull of all stuff

on all other stuff.

Every piece of matter in the universe

attracts every other piece of matter.

And so we, the Earth, are pulled into orbit around the Sun.

We, in turn, pull the Moon into orbit around the Earth.

(narrator) So could gravity be the source by which celestial objects

affect humans on Earth?

The gravity of an object depends on two things.

How much mass it has.

And how far away it is

The more massive an object is, the stronger its gravity.

Yet the closer it is, the more its gravity affects you.

A way of thinking about that is to imagine that my voice

is accompanied by several other voices.

[all speaking at once]

And so what's actually going to happen

is that it's gonna be very hard for you to hear me.

I'm gonna have to raise my voice.

But if they start moving away,

then the effects of their voices,

even though there are many more of them than my voice,

will actually get weaker,

and produce a much less significant effect

than just me standing here talking to you.

That's very much like a planet being far away.

Even though it's very massive, its effects are very weak,

compared to effects locally that may be much stronger.

(narrator) Mars is the closest planet to Earth.

But does it have a measurable gravitational effect on a human

at the moment of birth?

[baby crying]

Regardless of the position of Mars in the sky,

its gravitational effect on the baby

is much less than that of the doctor delivering the baby.

The doctor has a lot less mass,

but the doctor is much, much closer than Mars.

And so the gravitational effect is much greater.

(narrator) Gravity can't be the physical mechanism

that governs astrology.

But could astrology be linked to another force of nature?

Electromagnetism.

It's the force that acts between electrically charged particles,

producing electricity, magnetism, and light.

Electromagnetism affects a lot of what's going on here

on Earth, in terms of how we broadcast radio signals,

how things are attracted to each other,

how things bump into each other.

That's all controlled by the electromagnetic force.

The Moon, planets, and even the human body,

are composed of electrically charged particles,

like electrons and protons that make up atoms.

But positive protons and negative electrons

cancel each other out and make the atoms

electrically neutral.

Electromagnetic forces shouldn't influence people

in their daily lives or at the moment of birth,

because between electrically neutral bodies,

there's essentially no electromagnetic interaction.

Now Earth is neutral, the planets are neutral,

there should be no electromagnetic interactions

among them.

(narrator) What about the two remaining fundamental forces of nature?

The weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force?

The strongest of all the known forces.

It's the glue that hold together atomic nuclei,

which all living things are made of.

The strong and weak nuclear forces

are influential only over extremely tiny distances

the sizes of sub-atomic particles.

There should be no effect whatsoever,

in terms of the nuclear forces, between the planets,

at the time of birth, and the baby.

[baby crying]

(narrator) Astrology doesn't appear to be linked

to any detectable force.

But could the ancient system be governed

by one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the universe?

(narrator) Astrology.

An ancient tradition that links the patterns of our solar system

with the patterns of our lives.

But what force in the universe could enable the positions

and motions of the planets and stars

to affect us here on Earth.

None of the four known forces of nature

appear to be the smoking gun.

But could modern science have missed something?

Could astrology be governed by a mysterious, undetectable force

in our universe?

Science can't even tell us what consciousness is,

but we know it's there.

So it's very similar to astrology.

We can interpret them and share the influences with people,

but we don't exactly know how it works.

(narrator) Unlike the known forces of nature,

astrologers theorize that this unknown force

that governs astrology is completely independent

of distance.

Meaning the Sun, Moon, and all the planets in our solar system

have an equal effect on humans on Earth.

Given that no experiment shows the force

that astrology's using, that the force doesn't follow

any of the known laws of science,

I think the simplest hypothesis is that there is no such force.

(narrator) Scientists assert that astrology hasn't kept up

with the times.

There are thousands of newly discovered objects

and phenomenon in the universe that are pushing the boundaries

of astronomy, and testing the legitimacy

of astrology.

Sagittarius, the 15th largest constellation,

is thought to loosely resemble an archer,

half-man, half-horse, drawing his bow.

Astrology claims that people born under this sign

are energetic and enthusiastic.

But scientists discovered one of the most exotic things

within the constellation.

A black hole.

A super massive object with such powerful gravity

that nothing can escape from it, including light.

The cosmic beast swallows gigantic volumes of gas,

and dust, and anything else that gets near it.

But does it have any effect on humans here on Earth?

(Alex Filippenko voiceover) In the constellation, Sagittarius,

26,000 light-years away, is the center of our galaxy.

And we've discovered that there's a giant black hole,

4 million times as massive as the Sun,

right there, in the middle of our galaxy.

That's really neat but it has nothing to do

with any physical effect on our lives,

in terms of what careers we should have,

what people we should date,

what kind of a day we're gonna have.

[bell tolls]

(narrator) According to astrology, the constellation, Cancer,

symbolizes a crab.

Those born under the sign are said to be maternal homebodies.

But scientists have recently made a big discovery.

The constellation is home to solar systems

containing planets resembling Earth.

Part of the reason the discovery of extra solar planets

is so exciting, is that we might be

seeing planets that are potentially like our own Earth.

Planets that received enough light from their star,

that they could warm enough to have liquid water.

And hopefully, with liquid water,

the chances to be host for life.

But none of these things are included in astrology at all.

(narrator) Astrologers acknowledge all the new scientific discoveries

but claim that the most important

astrological influences exist in our own solar system,

not the universe at large.

The reality is that if we were to incorporate

all of the new discoveries,

we would have an overwhelming body of things to consider.

So we have to play triage a little bit

and narrow it down to the things

that seem to have the most important

and influential effects on us.

I think you can lose the forest for the trees

if you get too crazy, and go too far out,

and start to look at too many variable pieces.

What's most important is just to take in this little space

that we're all involved with, within the solar system,

and understand your place in it.

(narrator) Despite the lack of hard evidence,

many people still swear by astrology

when making the most important decisions of their lives.

So what happens when scientists take the biggest claim

in all of astrology and put it to the test?

(narrator) Astrology and astronomy

have been engaged in a cosmic rift

for centuries.

Astrologers claim their system is scientific.

Astronomers, on the other hand,

dismiss it as a superstition.

However, in order to be fair and accurate,

the scientific community decided it was time

to test astrology themselves.

When scientists or educators

have asked astrologers for proof

that their system works, their response is

they're just too busy helping people

to devise experiments

and do any kind of proving of astrology.

Besides which, astrology doesn't need any proof

'cause they have thousands of years of satisfied customers.

So if the astrologers didn't want to advance any proofs

about whether astrology works or it doesn't,

maybe we could help them out and do some experiments ourself.

(narrator) In one study,

scientists tested one of astrology's biggest claims--

is the ancient system accurate at predicting

which Zodiac signs are compatible

or incompatible when it comes to relationships?

At Michigan State University,

a psychologist collected the marriage and divorce records

for the state of Michigan

and surveyed the Zodiac signs

among approximately 3,000 couples

who got married and 500 who got divorced.

(Andrew Fraknoi) Psychologists tried to see

were more compatible signs married

and more incompatible signs divorced?

And the answer was it was completely random.

The divorces were evenly spread among the signs.

The marriages were evenly spread among the signs.

Nothing about getting married or getting divorced

was visible in their astrological characteristics.

(Michio Kaku) These stars you see at night,

trillions upon trillions of miles away...

and yet some people believe

that the motion of these gigantic objects

is just there so you can meet a tall, dark,

handsome stranger tomorrow.

(narrator) If astrology can't predict compatibility,

can it provide clues about a person's

most suitable profession?

In a well-publicized study,

a French psychologist looked at famous people

to see if occupations lined up

with particular signs of the Zodiac.

The best-known finding was called "The Mars Effect."

It alleged that champion athletes were born...

when the planet Mars,

known astrologically as the Warrior Planet,

was rising or at its highest point

when viewed from earth.

(Alex Filippenko) That study has been repeated later

with a much more carefully selected sample,

with much more careful procedures.

And there, the correlations with athletes

are no better than the correlations that you get

among just a random sample of people

who are not star athletes.

(Andrew Fraknoi) The idea that somehow the position of Mars

the day I'm born is important,

that it will tell them something about my life

or my destiny-- that's nonsense.

There's no evidence for it either in the statistical tests

or in the examinations of the mechanism

of how astrology works.

(narrator) Astrology cannot pass the test of science,

but that doesn't seem to sway the true believers.

The National Science Foundation recently reported

that almost half of all Americans

think astrology is scientific.

(Alanna Kaivalya) Astrology isn't science in terms of hard, fast science.

But it's more like psychology.

Astrology shows us the habits and patterns

and tendencies of the human psyche,

and then, of course, the person's individual free will

has to interact with that in some way,

and there's no control group for that particular experiment.

There are things that we just don't know.

(Clifford Johnson) In some ways, a lot of astrology

is a narrative that people find

gives meaning to things that sometimes seems random.

As long as the narratives are not being misused,

not being used to deceive people,

I think it's perfectly fine.

(narrator) Astrology and astronomy share a common origin...

but now they're completely separate disciplines.

Astronomers admit humans do have

a deep connection to the universe...

but not in the way astrologers think.

We ar directly connected to the cosmos.

The atoms in our bodies

are made for us by previous generations of stars,

distributed throughout the universe

by the explosions of stars.

The warmth of the sun, the energy of the sun

made life on earth possible.

What I would hope is that people will look at the universe

as a modern mystery and try to learn more about

the fascinating world of stars and planets,

not ancient gods.