Ethics in Astrology

1
Hi
I just been watching a programme on Placebos in Medicine. People who are given fake tablets get better just because they believe they take the real thing.
On the other hand, non placebos have negative effects.Reading about the side effects of a tablet can be enough to give them health trouble. Some people wrre given tablets with sugared water.Doctors told them those tablets were likely to cause vomiting. 80% of them vomited,though it was nothing but water and sugar.Thats how powerful placebos are.
Which makes me wonder,what should and shouldn`t be told a client by an astrologer?
If Uranus transits Mars should I tell people to beware of accidents? Wont that increase their chances of having accidents?

thanks

2
Well this is interesting. I have recently started a thread on ethics and astrology on another forum.

I agree that the nocebo and placebo effect are incredibly interesting and may well have an effect upon astrological counselling.

However astrology is not limited to those things which may or may not be affected by the placebo effect. Say I look, retrospectively, at your chart and note that you had an accident when Mars and Uranus transitted? No placebo effect woudl account for this. If I predict the potential for another accident and it happens is this because of the placebo effect? Why do we blame the placebo effect on one instance, when it clearly wasn't the case for another?

It raises interesting questions for astrology of course. But then if we do a horary and find a lost item, as nice as it might be to say you only found it because of the placebo effect, that hardly makes much sense.

There's a lot to astrology that works therefore without the placebo effect, does that mean that the placebo effect isn't responsible for changes in mindset or attitudes after an astrological session? No. But then it doesn't mean the same thing can't happen for a doctor or a psychologist.

My attitude to this is always, if I'm sick, I don't care whether you give me a placebo, a magic amulet or an antibiotic, provided what you give me makes me better afterwards.

3
While the studies you cite, Jorge, point to the power of suggestion, many of us have experienced an opposite effect. We have taken medication that our doctor insisted was fine, and then experienced a range of unexpected, nasty side effects.

Also, I recently saw a TV program about a pathological pharmacist, who routinely cut his patients' cancer drugs with placebos. He was caught only when one of the patients' doctors noticed that they were not experiencing the drugs' usual side effects, let alone not showing improvement in their cancer.

One underlying explanation of the placebo effect is the hidden power of people's minds to help cure themselves. Obviously positive thinking won't fix many health problems, but I think the research data also show that optimistic people have better health and live longer than pessimists.

Also, seniors with close family members or even pets seem to do better. Something about human (or animal) relationships, even if that human is a busy doctor, seem to do better. Probably it is not merely being optimistic about yourself, but just feeling yourself in an environment that is supportive.

Astrologers should be mindful of ethical concerns. Most ethics codes of professional astrological associations say so. The power of suggestion can be a force for good or ill.

4
Interesting how many ways this can be viewed. I always thought that medicine missed the mark in dismissing the placebo effect. The placebo effect is exactly what healers should be trying to activate, since it can help cure a person without bad side effects. In astrology, it can, as noted, work the same way.I do not necessarily support the astrological ethos that says astrologers should not talk about or answer questions about a death. This may be a contradiction of the above, but I feel the only thing we really own is our life, and we ought to be able to provide some kind of acceptance for ourselves, and take care of our personal business, like the great astrologer Grant Lewi did.