Michel and Francoise Gauquelin and the Mars Effect

Episode 173 features an interview with Kenneth Irving about the work of Michel and Francoise Gauquelin, who conducted the largest statistical studies of timed birth charts in the 20th century, and claimed to have found scientific evidence for the validity of astrology.

Their most famous and controversial finding was known as the Mars Effect, where eminent athletes and sports champions were found to have the planet Mars around the Ascendant and Midheaven in their birth charts more frequently than chance would allow.

The Mars Effect became the subject of controversy when other scientific and skeptical groups successfully replicated the study, which led to debates over whether this indicated that some small piece of astrology might be valid, or whether the study was simply flawed.

Kenneth Irving co-authored a book on the subject with a professor named Suitbert Ertel in 1996 titled The Tenacious Mars Effect. You can find out more info about Ken on his websites Planetos.org and Wordsandthings.com.

Below you will find an extensive set of show notes containing the outline Chris prepared for the discussion, followed by links to download or stream the recording of this episode.

This episode is available in both an audio and a video version below.

Episode Outline: The Gauquelin Research and the Mars Effect

Introduction

* Michel Gauquelin (1928-1991).

* Known to astrologers as statistician who claimed to find scientific evidence for astrology.

* Worked with his partner Francoise Gauquelin (1929-2007) until separating in mid-80s.

* Conducted the largest statistical tests on astrology ever so far.

* At least in terms of testing timed birth charts using large sample sizes.

* Published many books, with his data and conclusions from statistical studies.

* Became embroiled in conflict with scientific/skeptical community over replicating tests.

* He died in 1991.

* Francoise retired a few years later, in 1997, and died in 2007.

* Ken wrote a book in 1996 titled The Tenacious Mars Effect with Suitbert Ertel.

The Gauquelin Research

* Background information on Gauquelin.

* Myth: he was a skeptic who set out to debunk astrology.

* In reality he had an interest in astrology from a very early age.

* His thinking went through different stages though.

* His statistical studies made him skeptical of much of astrology.

* Michel’s early life and background in astrology in the early years.

* He was very widely read, and essentially did a literature review.

* Graduated from the Sorbonne with degree in statistics and psychology.

* Met Francoise there.

* Birth times are recorded and data is public record in France.

* This allowed them to collect and create a database of over 100,000 timed charts.

* They were the first to run large-scale statistical studies with large sample sizes.

* They also collected data from other European countries.

* Ran different statistical tests on the data, and published books with the results.

* Michel’s first book L’influence des astres published in 1955.

* His core finding was already in this book. Plus zones.

* While Francoise encouraged him to publish, this was before her involvement.

* While he did find some statistically significant correlations, they were sometimes/often not in alignment with what the astrological tradition said.

* Caused tensions with both the astrological and scie...