To get back slightly on topic...
Of course I think most astrology is a sort of pareidolia of the mind where we see connections when we want to. But at the same time some of the readings seem pretty interestingly accurate PRIOR to the reader knowing specific details.
Do they? Do you have any specific examples of an accurate reading? Even better, do you have any examples of an accurate reading that makes specific predictions for which you can be sure there was no way for the astrologer to have known the details through mundane means?
Anyone follow this bunk and care to explain it a bit?
Astrology, forensic or otherwise, follows the tried and tested woo principles of making lots of vague statements, some of which can easily be retrofitted to seem like hits while the misses lie forgotten. The less vague claims will almost always come with a hefty helping of misses, be the kind of obvious guesses that anyone could have made, or involve prior knowledge.
And do cops really rely on people like this on a missing persons case?
It depends what you mean by "cops". Police are just human, so some of them will certainly believe in woo and will no doubt sometimes try to use it to help. More often, the woos simply contact the police as informants. The police are obliged to follow up leads, even entirely anonymous ones, and the woos will usually claim this as having helped the police solve a crime. They've even claimed that for crimes that have not actually been solved.
People have asked lots of police departments questions along these lines over the years, and I'm not aware of a single example where the use of any kind of woo was accepted policy. It's always either the woos contacting the police, or a lone believer in the police doing something outside of official policy and generally not getting anything useful from it.
