Fortune-Telling​—Still in Fashion

“ONE would imagine, in this day of widespread enlightenment and education, that it would be unnecessary to debunk beliefs based on magic and superstition.” This was part of a statement signed by 186 eminent scientists, including 18 Nobel prize winners. What were they talking about? Astrology, a common form of fortune-telling using the stars that, according to them, “pervades modern society.” Do you personally believe in some forms of fortune-telling? Or are you perhaps skeptical, or even strongly opposed, like these prominent scientists? Your view of this matter is important. Let us see why.

This practice is extremely widespread. According to the spokesman for a congress of fortune-tellers in Paris, “4 million French [people] go to psychics every six months.” In the United States there are an estimated 175,000 part-time astrologers and 10,000 full-time. They are also numerous in Great Britain, where they have their own schools. And the French magazine Ça m’intéresse (That’s Interesting) comments: “Everywhere, including in the most highly developed societies, we meet up with similar statistics. Psychics are flourishing at the close of our century.”

Who Consults Them​—And Why?

Some may believe that only poorly educated, lower-class people are interested in the occult “sciences,” of which astrology is probably the most widespread. But Madame Soleil, a famous French astrologer, reveals: “They all come to me, whether rightist or leftist, politicians of all points of view, and foreign chiefs of state. I even have priests and communists.” In harmony with this, when the magician Frédéric Dieudonné died, an article appearing in Le Figaro, a serious French daily newspaper, recalled that he attracted “a very large clientele of Parisian personalities, ministers, high officials, writers and actors.”

Gamblers consult astrologers to learn how to place their bets. Businessmen go to them to find out how to invest their money. Astrologers are even willing to tell you when to leave on a trip or what to cook. And fortune-telling has invaded other fields too. Police departments in different countries resort to seers to search for criminals or missing persons. And according to the French weekly Le Figaro Magazine, “the Pentagon employs 34 persons gifted with second sight to supply information on what is going on in secret military bases in the U.S.S.R.” The same magazine reports U.S. congressman Charles Rose as saying that the Russians also resort to psychic powers.

IN 1962 Indian astrologers predicted a worldwide catastrophe “because of a rare conjunction of eight planets in the sign of Capricorn.” Nothing came of it, however. More recently, at the end of 1980, most French astrologers were of the opinion that then president of France, Giscard d’Estaing, would be reelected for a second term. But his opponent, François Mitterrand, won the election. Failures like these remind us that astrology provides no sure way to know the future.

Is there, then, another way? For example, will efforts of scientists to predict the future help you? Well, here is the prediction made by the McGraw Hill Institute (United States) in 1970 of what would happen by 1980: “Drugs to defeat cancer, manned spaceflights to Mars and Venus, a permanent lunar base, cars run on electricity, a generalization of home computers, the possibility of choosing your baby’s sex, and three-dimensional television and cinema.”

Back in 1970 the scientists of this institute stated: “This method [of predicting] aims at achieving a reliable forecast by the unanimous opinion of a group of experts.” But these experts’ predictions have proved wrong in these fields and a number of others, such as politics and economics.

Now, why is there such a fascination today with astrology and other forms of the occult? The French newspaper Le Monde Dimanche answers: “Faced with the crisis, people will stop at nothing to find reassurance. Parapsychology gives great comfort for little effort, and in this age of fear-inspiring scientific accomplishments such as nuclear feats and gene splicing, people are tempted to escape to the unknown and irrational, trying to rediscover a meaning to life.” So we should not be surprised at the widespread interest in occult practices, such as astrology. It is one of the symptoms of the “anguish” that people are experiencing today in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy.