When an eclipse occurs, astrologers and rationalists have a field day, with the former predicting scenarios of doom, which the latter vociferously debunk
When an eclipse occurs, astrologers and rationalists have a field day, with the former predicting scenarios of doom, which the latter vociferously debunk. Thanks to the confusion they create, few tend to concentrate on the Allais Effect, which is associated with Maurice Allais, who won a Nobel Prize in Economics.
As part of his 1988 Nobel autobiographical lecture, Allais said, "During the total eclipses of the sun on June 30, 1954, and October 22, 1959, quite analogous deviations of the plane of oscillation of the paraconical pendulum were observed..." According to Wikipedia, the Allais effect is a claimed anomalous precession of the plane of oscillation of a pendulum during a solar eclipse.
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Eclipsed: Every eclipse has the layman swinging between the conflicting claims of astrologers and rationalists |
While some have debunked this claim, many observers have also confirmed this, including D C Mishra and M B S Rao, who, while studying the solar eclipse on October 24, 1995 said, "We recorded temporal variation in the gravity field at this place [Dhoraji in Rajkot, Gujarat] continuously for approximately 12 hours before and after the eclipse." They recorded the variation in the gravity field by using a Lacoste-Romberg gravimeter of 0.01 micro-Gals accuracy (A micro-Gal is a unit used to measure gravity anomalies and 1 micro-Gal is about one-billionth of the earth's total gravitational field). Some credibility can be attached to this because this data appears on science.nasa.gov.
While the doom scenarios of astrologers and the all-this-is-superstitious-nonsense attitude of rationalists prevail, scant attention is given to the fact that something happens during an eclipse. What is it? Is this created by a distortion of gravity, which causes the anomaly of the swinging pendulum?
And is there any link that ties the fact that the scientists found it happening 12 hours before the eclipse and the general belief that one should not eat food for 12 hours before an eclipse?
Eclipses are traditionally supposed to be a good time for contemplation and meditation and maybe we should ask ourselves some questions. Are astrologers right when they make doom and gloom predictions every time an eclipse happens?
Should rationalists act as if something that cannot be perceived by the senses doesn't exist at all?
In some ways, we are like swinging pendulums. Ancient man believed that eclipses led to catastrophes, while modern man believes that it is just another reason to watch TV. But reality may lie somewhere in the middle and so we should explore the matter carefully.
And unless we learn to examine this issue properly, our knowledge will never develop fully, and all coverage of eclipses will be limited to beautiful photos of the eclipse's diamond ring, old wives' tales, and the verbal diarrhoea of false astrologers coupled with the intellectual masturbation of ersatz rationalists.
