Vol. 7, Issue 5, Part B (2021)

Abstract
This article examines few fundamental principles of Vedic astrology through a systematic empirical experiment conducted on the birth charts of people who have suffered from cancer and people who have never had it in their life. Two data sets were formed, one consisting of 254 birth charts of people who were diagnosed with cancer before the age of 60 and the other one consisting 498 birth charts of people who had a long life of more than 80 years and never had cancer in their lifetime. In the absence of an authentic list of rules that predict cancer disease, we tested these two groups through a comprehensive statistical test where we compared astrological negativity as well as positivity (claimed to give unfavourable and favourable effects respectively) of all the planets, all houses and lords of all houses (entities). It was expected that if the principles involved are true, then both datasets would differ in their averages for one or more related parameters. It was however found that there was no statistically significant difference between the two data sets in terms of astrological negativity or positivity of any of the entities we tested. Two sample T-test of significance further confirmed these observations. We tested 23 fundamental principles of astrology for 34 entities and found none of them pass through the empirical test. Though we have not tested complete scope of astrology, these principles like a planet when conjugated with Saturn or Mars gives malefic effect or other principles regarding a house that has malefic planets or a lord of house in cruel nakshatra etc. are the basics of Vedic astrology and are something that one cannot do away with if astrology has to be practiced. Their invalidity proven through our test therefore raise a lot of questions about accuracy of predictions made by Vedic astrology using them.