Is it a real thing? How does/has it affect/affected you?
I think it’s fun but I don’t give it much seriousness.
consider this: things like this affect you if you are receptive to the idea of it affecting you. i find that while some mishaps do happen, these mishaps are not out of the norm as we experience mishaps every day outside of this time. if you change your attitude to say "oh it's because of mercury is in retrograde" often times you end up psychologically looking for more confirmation bias/proof or evidence that is it and subconsciously it may lead to more mishaps because you are anxious or worried about this time.
basically, if you believe in it, it is real to you and it may affect you.
Agree with @CuddleStella . Other than extremely minute fluctuations in gravitional forces between celestial objects, it's a non-issue. But, by possessing knowledge of something, one can certainly psyche oneself into having a reaction to it.
It's very much not a thing. Neil Degrasse Tyson says it exceptionally clearly here (starting around 1:10):
Yes, Mercury is in retrograde at the moment. It happens three or four times a year, usually for about three weeks at a time.
No, it isn't a real thing. It's just a line of sight effect.
No, it doesn't have any effect on you. Unless you want it to.
Thanks everyone for their input. @natickben I will check out the video when I get off work. I'm on the fence cuz I have friends on both sides of the argument. So I just wanted to see if it was 50/50 with the general public.
It has as much effect as any other superstitious, astrology, etc effect (it only affects you as much as you believe it does)
Cookiepak in highgrade!? Similar or nah?
What's more fascinating to me is how powerful "the placebo effect" and our brains are in shaping our reality based off of our thoughts/beliefs.
Take for example the belief that kids get hyper when they eat sugar - this has been debunked scientifically, and yet anecdotally gets reported regularly. Cue scientists changing the experiments to see if the belief that sugar makes kids hyper changes things. Sure enough - when parents/teachers believe that eating sugar makes their kids hyper, it changes how they interact with the kids and leads them to interpret behavior as more hyperactive. In turn, the kids also tend to live up to expectation because of the change in adult behavior. Here is one of the studies about this effect.
Similar function seems to be behind the "people act crazy during full-moons" effect. Because people expect weird/bad things to happen during full moons, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They take bigger risks, have shorter tempers, and behave otherwise out of the norm - which leads to more accidents, conflicts, injuries, etc.
It makes me wonder if something similar might be behind the whole "mercury retrograde" thing. Because people are expecting communication difficulties, that is the frame through which they are interpreting what others say. This in turn makes them respond certain ways and perhaps leads to more verbal conflicts and misunderstandings.
I swear I can feel it, but Neil deGrasse Tyson makes me laugh
@PeopleLikeUs thank you for that. I think that was thw vid Ben was trying to share earlier. Appreciate you
@cuddlefaery I kinda believe there is something behind the full moon thing, though. My cousin is a nurse and she didn't used to follow moon cycles, but then she started checking AFTER the "crazy" night at the hospital and it would be a full moon night. Lady at the DMV said same thing. She'd check after a "crazy" day and it was a full moon day. I'm less on the fence with the full moon stuff.
@FriendlyFemale oh believe me, as a teacher in some fashion for 20+ years anecdotally I absolutely can attest to crazy shit happening during full moons, kids and parents acting out of character, Murphy's Law in full effect. But I chalk it up to the placebo effect I mentioned earlier - because parents & teachers expect stuff to go bad, because nurses & doctors anticipate more patients with accidents, because people believe the full moon will cause them to behave differently....they do. It's rather a case of belief in the causation actually causing the effect, much the same way believing a placebo will work causes the body to cause the symptoms/effect that is expected. Brains are weird, wonderful, powerful things and they become even more so when working together towards common beliefs.
@cuddlefaery Agree to disagree on this one. 🙂
As an astronomer my opinion is that no effects from mercury retrograde are going to be measurable. It's a simple geometric arrangement, and is merely the way something looks from Earth's perspective. Other perspectives wouldn't show anything at all .. Mercury just keeps moving along its orbit, same as always.
On the other hand - the full moon effect could be real - there is a lot more light at night when the moon is full, which could lead to either folks being out and about at night, or more people having slightly disrupted sleep for a couple of days. It's difficult to test this in a controlled way to know if it's just a psychological effect of belief, or a real effect from something like sleep distortion. No matter, I love the full moon and it's beauty!
It's a simple geometric arrangement, and is merely the way something looks from Earth's perspective.
Speaking of, I've always wanted a Ptolemaic orrery. A quality one made out of metal or something. But they're either very rare or unbelievably expensive.
@TxTom - in the absence of funds for an orrery I would recommend the free planetarium program Stellarium. Besides providing beautiful simulations of the sky as seen from Earth, one can view things from many places in the cosmos, speeding up time for drama or zooming in to see the faintest stars. You can even show retrograde tracks of the planets!
Thanks, @TallStars . I've heard of that or something like it.
Still, I enjoy mechanical devices. And the mechanics of a Ptolemaic orrery would be fascinating to watch as each planet in "retrograde" does a little loop-de-loop.
Mercury Retrograde are real and it affects the person based on the energy and charts either in a positive or negative manner.
Mostly people have setbacks and have to postpone the plans or lose jobs . I can explain if interested you can IM me
@SamtheHealer Can you sum it up here in six or seven paragraphs? I'm skeptical, but I'd be interested in a brief summation.
Given enough time, all the planets go through a period of retrograde relative to the Earth. Are we affected by each of them, or just Mercury?
What I’ll say is that there is not any scientific evidence to support anything like it effecting people’s “energies” or anything like what people may claim who believe that. Does that mean it’s absolutely impossible? Not at all. In fact, as I touch on later, I encourage being open to asking these questions. However there is a lot that we do understand about the universe, and there is nothing that currently indicates any kind of influence on people’s actions as a direct result of things like full moons or mercury being in retrograde. One thing to note here is that this does not mean there are not increased occurrences in certain things during these events, but it’s important to not confuse correlation with causation. For an entertaining example of this, check out the site https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations (I’d encourage anyone to check this out who’s interested in a bit of a laugh). It demonstrates that, just because there is a correlation, doesn’t mean that two things are connected. Perhaps the uptick in certain events when mercury is in retrograde or when there is a full moon is caused by other factors beyond some kind of pseudo-science. All this to say it’s 100% ok to be open to these types of possibilities, but be careful not to fill possible gaps in our current understanding with unverifiable solutions that people claim to be “facts” ☺️. If something has not been verified using the scientific method, then it’s either because it’s wrong or because no one has been able to do so yet. Perhaps you could be the first! So with that in mind, I hope you enjoy looking into this question of yours and enjoy the rabbit hole it may take you down! There’s so much to learn about our incredible universe.
Mercury Retrograde in my own experience is real. I'm also a spiritual healer & advisor, so many of my clients they seek more of my services during this time. During Mercury Retrograde usually more people experience misunderstandings, miscommunications, cancelled plans & trips. Break-ups, falling out on both personal relationships & business relationships are more common. Sometimes people from our past tend to reappear again. You will notice more celebrities breaking up since their lives are in the public eye.
No clue what mercury in gaterade is. I’m good on electrolytes
Would really like the CliffsNotes version of the science behind how a rock the size of our moon, that's roughly 90 million miles away has an effect on people's relationships and misunderstanding.
➵ TxTom ☣️ toxically positive 🐄💨 pro-cow farting 🤓 cuddle nerd
@cuddlefaery Indeed, the placebo affect can be quite strong with pain management. It's been documented in multiple studies that people who take placebos (knowingly AND unknowingly) report lower levels of pain than people who took nothing. Placebos haven't been shown to actually cure the main symptoms (like high cholesterol or whatever). It's my belief that things like superstitions, astrology, and things like mercury is in retrograde might have an affect on people but only because they believe it to
I would take placebos, but I don't like the side effects.
@JoyfulHeart Placebos are also too expensive for me.