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Studies on the paranormal: the ola leaf horoscopes

Horoscopes of contemporary people, written on ancient palm (ola) leaves have been known for decades in both Sri Lanka and in southern India, especially Tamil Nadu. One South Indian reader of these leaves who had dealt with these for over forty years in Sri Lanka told me they were originally written on goatskins later transcribed on copper plaques, and then on ola leaves which are now claimed to be hundreds of years old. If this is correct, the possibility of errors in transcription cannot be excluded. On why they were written, it has been surmised that they were tutorial exercises set by the ancient sages (rishis) to their pupils who were set the task of composing the horoscopes of persons yet to be born in a series of dates and times, or that the sages made these writings for the guidance of people. There were apparently seven rishis (saptharishi) who authored these horoscopes individually or in conference of all seven (saptha-rishi vaakyam, seven -rishi stanzas).

Identification
Leaves are identified as belonging to a given subject through his/her thumbprints, which probably serve as indispensable 'indexes' or codes; birth date and time are insufficient. Four main groups of thumb print patterns have been identified. The reader generally takes a few days or even a week to locate the respective leaf (leaves) in bundles which the reader has brought over from India. In one case narrated to me, and in which the readings were accurate, the reading was made an hour after the thumbprint was supplied. In my case, in South India, the reading was begun about 2 hours after the reader took my thumbprint. This short interval, in addition to the fact that I was a stranger in South India, would have excluded fraud through the reader seeking out information about me from outside sources. Final identification is done by the matching of birth date, names of the subject and his/her parents as a prelude to the reading. The distribution of 'planets' in the natal horoscope as stated in the leaf which is described during the definitive reading and not revealed earlier by the subject, is an important verification of the correspondence of the reading with the subject. It is important to state that this correspondence is not used for the selection of the leaf. Beginning with the first chapter (corresponding to the 'house' of an astrological chart) which confirms the identity of the leaf the subject may choose for reading, any of the remaining 11 houses which deal with various aspects of his life, e.g. 2nd dealing with his assets, 3rd with his brothers and sisters, 4th his home, vehicles, mother, 10th with profession and status in life and so on. Although the time of birth is not used for identifying the lea, the exact horoscope (distribution of the planets, birth star, rulership periods) is given on the reading. This indicates that the client's time of birth is implied in the leaf reading, because an accurate horoscope cannot be drafted without the exact time of birth. This suggests that the reader is not using a chart drafted by him on the occasion of the consultation for his reading, excluding this device as one possibility of fraud.

The reading
On the appointed day, the leaf is read, while a tape recording is made. In one centre (of the case documented below) there were several readers and translators, one pair dealing with a given leaf. After each sentence or part of it, the reading is translated (if the subject so wishes) into his own language by a translator; the translation is recorded at the same time. The reading covers not only the subject's present life (its past, present and future), but also his/her previous birth and the next birth. The leaf has often been known to state that the subject will have the reading only at the age (and year) at which he seeks the reading.

There is no discussion between reader and subject except initially when the subject is asked to verify that the leaf is indeed his, from his date of birth, and names of the subject and of his parents, and on occasion from key facts of his life, e.g. number of siblings. The absence of such a discussion excludes the possibility of the reader 'fishing out' information from the client.

The reading states all significant facts from the time he was born including where be was born (e.g. public hospital, major city), the date, day of the week, the natal horoscope, parents' names, subject's name, number of siblings (male, female), number of children (male, female), profession, events in the subject's life and a full description of the natal chart. It is again to be emphasized that, although the subject does not initially state his time of birth, the horoscope that is described necessarily entails'knowledge' of the time of birth because the natal horoscope depends on it for its accuracy.

The language
Tamil subjects who have had their readings and who have seen the writing on the leaves are of the opinion that the language was not modern Tamil. Translations might involve a distortion or obscurity of original meanings.

The future
It is invariably so that the past, up to the time of reading, has been entirely and uncannily accurate, down to the details of personal names.

What does seem to go wrong in some cases is the future. Why this is so is controversial and hypotheses abound. One suggests 'that, as much as the events described in the writings are based on the idea of karma (cumulative consequences of one's past deeds), a person's future depends not only on his past karma especially from deeds committed in his previous lives, 'but also on his deeds (and consequent karma) in his present life, which can modify his karmic account, modifying in turn the events of the future. It is relevant that a current view on the perennial debate on free-will versus determinism is that the answer probably lies in the idea of 'compatibilism' (Searle 1984) which accommodates both determinism and free-will, just as much as Radhakrishnan, the Indian philosopher-statesman compared the situation to a game of cards in which the predetermined (determinism) pack of cards is dealt out as a hand to each player, who can then use the cards as it pleases him (free-will).

The ola-leaf phenomenon
It is apparent that the phenomenon of the ola leaves cannot be studied 'objectively' or by quantitative, controlled experiments, as one would do in normal science or even with other putative phenomena. The approach that seems possible with the ola leaves is that used by Ian Stevenson in his analysis of cases suggestive of re4ncarnation, or the legal approach to gathering what could be circumstantial evidence, with corroboration from independent sources, and certainly the elimination of fraud. In this respect, another parallel is the validation of ideas in astro-physics and theoretical physics: "It is not easy to measure the mass and spin of something as dark and far away as a neutron Star or a black hole. These things have to be deduced from circumstantial evidence (especially hard for black holes) which by their nature reveal little about themselves" (General Relativity. The Economist, 1997, Nov 8th) yet it is possible to make some investigations such as whether the readings are off a written script. In this case re-reading at a later date, of the same leaf, should give an identical reading. If it is not identical, then some telepathic event at the time of reading might account for its accuracy.
(Courtesy Virtual library)

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