-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,727351,00.html
}}}>Begin
Probability proves your horoscope correct
Paul Webster in Paris
Wednesday June 5, 2002
The Guardian
A Nobel prize may not be essential to becoming a modern mystic, but it helps.
Georges Charpak, the physics prizewinner in 1992, has co-authored a rapid guide to
becoming a fakir or astrologer and making a fortune by bamboozling a gullible public.
His co-author, Henri Broch, who runs a paranormal research unit at Nice University,
went through sessions of firewalking and tongue-piercing to prove that all mystic arts
were based on trickery, natural circumstances or mathematical probability.
Devenez Sorciers, Devenez Savants (Become Wizards and Wise Men) is a best
seller because so many want to learn telepathy, levitation, horoscope-casting, water
divining and metal-bending.
Mr Charpak said his attempt to debunk mysteries by applying the laws of probability
had left many unconvinced.
"I have been inundated with letters saying I interviewed the wrong astrologers from
people who claim their personal fortune tellers had been right."
Fooling people is easy, he said: just generalise. When a single astral chart was used
to define the "individual characters" of students, 69% were convinced it was
accurate: a better result than analyses by professional psychologists.
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
End<{{{
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