Can Horoscopes Be Trusted?

AMONG the horrible crimes of World War II were those committed by Dr. Marcel Petiot. He made a living by offering people a safe passage from Nazi-occupied France. However, he murdered his clients, stole their possessions, and dissolved their bodies in a bath of quicklime. Eventually Petiot was caught and in his death cell admitted to the murder of 63 people. What, though, does this have to do with horoscopes?

Dr. Michel Gauquelin, who has investigated claims of astrologers for some 30 years, decided to use Petiot as a test case. He sent the doctor’s birth date to a professional astrologer, who worked out Petiot’s horoscope by computer. Gauquelin then placed in a French newspaper an advertisement offering a free, personalized horoscope to any inquirer. What he actually sent, however, was the horoscope of murderous Dr. Petiot!

Did anyone realize he had received the “wrong” horoscope? On the contrary! Writes Gauquelin: “I received a dozen enthusiastic letters of acknowledgement. Ninety per cent thought that the portrait was very true and expressed their personal difficulties well.” Continues Gauquelin: “Psychologists have taught that we all tend to see a mirror of ourselves in the horoscope; but it is still disquieting that these people should find a resemblance in a profile drawn to fit only one individual​—a murderer.”