Dr. Joseph “Deepak” Vidmar has done something others phasing through a midlife crisis might contemplate but rarely do. He was a psychology professor at a Louisiana university and the past resident of the Louisiana Psychological Association when he reached the decision that propelled him into a serious-minded pursuit of enlightenment in the spiritual calm of India and other Eastern countries.
True, he was fed up with establishment views in America and chafed at the fact that professional colleagues rarely shared his enthusiasm for astrology. But, he recently told a BBC journalist, the main reason he left his comfortable lifestyle and professional achievements behind was because this existence failed to make him happy.
He gave it all up to become Deepak, an ashram astrologer living in India in sparse and frugal surroundings. He sums up his passion for astrology with these words:
“Astrology is the most misunderstood subject of all human knowledge. It is not about knowing your future…it is about knowing yourself. It is about the journey of your soul through this world and what this is all about. And it is about the process of self-awareness and what is true for you,” he observes.
“Astrology can tell you what, when, where, and how. However, something else will have to tell you why,” he adds.
Although there are few worldly trappings in the living space he now calls home, Professor Vidmar hardly fits romanticized notions sometimes associated with disaffected societal dropouts. Among his meager possessions are books, papers and the computer that keeps him tethered to the outside world.
From time to time, he drops in to remind anyone who might be listening of the ways intellectual priorities in the western world continue to run amuck.
A Life or Death Issue…
A few years ago, for a major astrological journal, he wrote a scathing critique of the Shawn Carlson research study which, according to the researcher, purportedly proved that astrology doesn’t work. More recently, an essay published in the OxfordStudent newspaper synthesized his adamant views on how western science is dodging obvious astrological truths.
Dr. Vidmar’s OxfordStudent essay is published here in its entirety. He writes:
“What if astrology is real? It is not only a multi-trillion dollar question; it is a life or death issue. It is the missing element in all the fumbling disciplines of quasi-knowledge being taught in the universities today. Without this missing element, not only can the institutions not solve the current problems we are facing, they are actually creating them.
“Let’s be clear about what we are talking about. We are not talking about a mystic teller with broken teeth and dirty fingernails who will tell you your fortune. We are talking about a universal constant that shows its effects in every body of knowledge we possess today.
“Astrology is just a word made up from Greek roots in the 14th Century. It is many thousands of years older than that and has had many names and applications. It is better in this age to call it the ET Effect.
“As a licensed psychologist and professor of psychology for 20 years, I gave over 3,000 psychological evaluations. As an ashram astrologer in India for 20 years I have given over 3,000 sessions. The end conclusion is that the ET Effect in the field of personality is real.
“If the ET Effect is real in the field of personality, then it may be a real effect in other disciplines also. I have just spent 50 hour weeks for the past five years researching this question. The end conclusion is that the effect is universal.
“Take biology. We are not disconnected and isolated on Earth from the rest of the Universe. F.A. Brown is the classic researcher here and has found fiddler crabs, clams, potatoes, seaweed, etc. to be phase locked to cosmic frequencies of solar and lunar cycles. The whole phenomenon of exogenous biological clocks pertains but is unexplained.
“Chemistry also – Giorgio Piccardi has extensively tested that chemical reactions on Earth vary according to sunspot cycles. Maki Takata found flocculation of albumen in blood serum varied to sunspots and sunrise. A.M. Comunetti found electrical conductivity of pure water changed with cosmic factors.
“And even in history, the orthodox position of a linear progressive model is illusionary and not supported by the evidence. Instead, the flow of events is cyclical with ups and downs.
“Whilst I have mentioned just these fields, similar situations apply in economics, physics and medicine.
“If these results were in any other field but ‘astrology’ the evidence would have lead to more funding than LHC (the Large Hadron Collider). This is a culture bound prejudice since 1666 when science/society went psychotic thinking reductionism/facts (left brain) could explain anything, while pattern recognition (right brain) was ignored.”
More on the unique views of Dr. Vidmar can be found on his website http://www.astronlp.com.
