BYTEMARKS
New Age sites offer glimpse into self
By Burt Lum
Astrology lures us in by playing on our desire to understand our place in the universe. Whether we are promised a glimpse into the future or a way to better comprehend our inner workings, there seems to be no end to these predictive methods.
The scientific in us will balk at the claims, but the Chinese or European horoscopes have been pored over for hundreds of years. I might be trained in science, but I still find it fun to read my horoscope to get a peek at what might be.
Taking the popularity of astrology as their cue, many a New Age technique has popped up to claim correlation between some phenomena out there and your future. I am going to take the liberty of featuring some that I found entertaining.
The first is called Colorgenics, at colorgenics.com.
The concept behind it is that the colors you prefer are associated with specific human characteristics. Given a selection of colors, Colorgenics will return a character profile.
To play, all you need to do is click on the site's color cubes in the order of most favorite to least favorite. The Web site then returns the results.
When I made a pass at it, here's what it told me: "You want to be regarded as an exciting and interesting personality, able to persuade others to comply with your beliefs and ideas. You are charming and able to influence other people who come into your sphere of influence. You like mental stimulation, and you are the sort of person who is prepared to 'try anything once.' Your confidence is so much so that others are often swept away by your enthusiasm."
Yeah, right!
Another New Age answer generator is based on a technique called Numerology. One Internet site, members.aol.com/AspireA1, will fill you in on the method. The predictions here are based on the letters of your name and the number that results from adding those letters. Go to numberquest.com/numerology to have a result automatically generated. You might be surprised by the results. ;-)
Reach Burt Lum at burt@brouhaha.net.
