I was born in the first week of October, and according to my horoscope, I am a fair and balanced person, courageous but indecisive. In the horoscope you can even find a description of my appearance. According to one of the astrologers of the 19th century, Raphael, I have "a rather graceful appearance and a round face, very attractive, despite a certain roughness of features, ruddy in youth, but with a tendency to rashes, which can disfigure it in old age." I was offended, but remembered that, according to Rafael, the American actor and singer Zac Efron and the famous pop singer Gwen Stefani should have the same appearance. nine0011

Of course, in scientific circles, such predictions were considered fiction for a long time. Although a 1970 psychological study found that certain signs of the zodiac could be associated with certain personality traits, later scientists concluded that the result was almost certainly related to self-hypnosis. If a person is told from childhood that he will grow up fair, stubborn or passionate, he begins to move along a given trajectory. Scientists concluded that people who did not know their horoscope did not correspond to the descriptions given in it. nine0011

Perhaps astrologers are wrong in specific predictions, but there is some truth in the horoscope. In the past few years, scientists have begun to recognize that the month of birth can indeed determine the fate of a person.

The most obvious indicator is school performance: children born at the end of the school year study slightly worse than those born at the beginning of it, although this trend smoothes out over time. But there are other, more surprising relationships that are not easy to explain. nine0011

For example, in the late 1990s, Leonid Gavrilov, a senior researcher at the University of Chicago, discovered that people born in autumn usually live longer. Subsequently, he was able to confirm his discovery with the results of numerous studies among centenarians: in his latest work, it is stated that "autumn" children are 40% more likely to live to a hundred years than those born in March.

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Winter children tend to have fewer vision problems

Gavrilov's discoveries at first caused only resistance and misunderstanding. “People who are not familiar with the results of the latest scientific research in this area are still skeptical - they associate my work with astrology,” says the scientist. “But when we transfer the data to scientific journals for specialists, experts already accept them very OK".

University of Oxford research fellow Sreeram Ramagopalan agrees that this topic is starting to get attention. He notes that the number of respondents in a number of early studies was very small, and therefore it is difficult to argue that their results are not a mere coincidence. "Large-scale complex studies have begun to be carried out quite recently, only in the last 4-5 years," he says. nine0011

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Some of the latest findings come from studies involving tens of thousands of people. For instance, Ramagopalan's own work, based on extracts from the medical records of nearly 60,000 British people, suggests that those born in winter and spring tend to suffer more from schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar affective disorder. nine0011

Other indicators that depend on the time of birth include vision (those born in winter are less likely to develop severe myopia) and a tendency to allergic diseases ( those born in summer are least at risk of allergies).

Admittedly, the mechanisms that determine these trends are poorly understood. Changes in diet and cyclical outbreaks of infectious diseases throughout the year can indeed affect a child's development, his health in the following decades, and even his ability in baseball (surprisingly, if you are a professional baseball player, then were born in autumn rather than in spring - perhaps success in sports is explained by the fact that the state of health of the "autumn" in infancy was better than that of those born in the spring?). nine0011

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"Spring" children are more likely to become chess champions

In addition, different allergens are active at different times of the year. It is possible that one of the factors is simply the length of the day. According to studies, the dark time of day helps to regulate the growth of the eyeball. Thus, due to the long summer days in infants, excessive growth of the eyeballs is possible, accompanied by a loss of focus, while "winter" children, having matured, are not so often forced to wear glasses. nine0011

Vitamin D, which is produced during sun exposure, also plays a role. Deficiency of this vitamin has long been known to weaken bones and can cause rickets, and has recently been found to be of great importance for the development of the immune system (which may also affect susceptibility to allergic diseases) and the nervous system.

"Animal studies have shown that limiting maternal vitamin D intake during pregnancy causes severe neurological damage to the calf," says Ramagopalan. nine0011

Image copyright Thinkstock

"Summer" children are much less likely to suffer from depression explain the higher percentage of mental illness, such as schizophrenia or depression, among people born in winter.

This is still a hypothesis, although it unexpectedly found some confirmation in Denmark. Shortly after birth, every baby in this country has a blood sample taken from the heel. A dry blood sample is stored as an indicator of the state of health of a person at the time of his birth. By analyzing blood samples from people born in the early 19In the 1980s and early 1990s, scientists found that those who had low vitamin D levels at birth more likely to develop schizophrenia later.

It may be worthwhile for future parents to plan conception in accordance with these dates, but we must not forget that the effectiveness of such planning is usually low. However, Ramagopalan believes that in the end, it may be possible to find simple ways to smooth out seasonal differences - for example, by replenishing vitamin D in children born in the winter. nine0011

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Fall kids are more likely to live to 100 and. .. become professional baseball players

Destiny may not be known from the stars, but we are just now beginning to understand how many invisible forces have been guiding our lives since we were conceived.

Read the original of this article in English is available on the website BBC Future .

A swindler or a magician: 120 years ago the mentalist Wolf Messing was born

September 10 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of the most mysterious Soviet artist, the mentalist Wolf Messing. "Gazeta.Ru" recalls stories about the predictions of a psychic and his "friendship" with Stalin, the veracity of which was refuted after verification. nine0011

Honored Artist of the RSFSR Wolf Messing was born on September 10, 1899 in a village near Warsaw. According to the book by Nadezhda Dimova “Wolf Messing. The drama of the life of a great hypnotist", he suffered from headaches and sleepwalking from the age of three. He allegedly managed to cope with these ailments only with the help of a local healer.

When Messing was six years old, he impressed those around him with a phenomenal memory, reciting a set of biblical rules by heart. The adults decided to direct the child prodigy's skill in the right direction and at the age of nine sent him to study as a priest. Messing himself took this idea without enthusiasm and two years after entering his studies he fled to Berlin. In Germany, he took on any job to earn money for food. nine0011

Once Messing fainted from hunger, but the doctors decided that he was dead and sent the body to the morgue. Three days later, this boy "revived" - professor of psychiatry Norman Abel ruled that it was a case of lethargy.

Yesterday's "dead man" surprised Abel by supposedly being able to read his mind and asked him not to contact the police or the shelter. The specialist decided to take the boy to him and monitor the development of his abilities. He conducted many psychological experiments with Messing, and at the age of 16 the guy began to go on tour in Europe as part of a circus troupe, surprising the audience with psychological tricks. By the beginning of the war, Messing's paranormal abilities were known in many countries. nine0011

He arrived in the USSR as a Polish-Jewish refugee in 1939 and began performing in Moscow as an illusionist. One of the main calling cards of Messing throughout his life was a focus with the transmission of thoughts at a distance. For that time, such performances were extremely unusual and were in great demand among Soviet viewers.

But the stories about Messing's predictions and his close relationship with Joseph Stalin have always deserved the most attention.

In the pre-war period, a psychic allegedly claimed that there would definitely be a war between the USSR and Germany. Historian and writer Alexander Mosyakin also recalled the story of Messing's prediction about the outcome of the battle of Stalingrad. nine0011

“He said that it would end with the defeat of the Nazi troops, that he “sees” the captured field marshal, and gave the date - the beginning of February 1943. He was asked when the war would end. He said that the victory would be in 1945, and named the date - the date of signing the German Surrender Act: May 8. Here are two completely accurate predictions of Messing, made in the presence of so many people, ”the specialist assured.

According to other sources, Messing had such a trusting relationship with Stalin that he could enter the Kremlin without a pass. According to a famous legend, at 19In 1950, he predicted the crash of a plane on which the hockey team of the Central House of the Red Army, headed by Stalin's son Vasily, was supposed to fly to Sverdlovsk. The psychic called the Generalissimo and demanded that the flight be cancelled. As a result, the plane flew without Vasily and crashed.

Most of the theories and predictions related to the activities of the illusionist appeared only after the publication of his memoirs in 1965. In them, he talked about meeting with Stalin in Gomel, as well as with Albert Einstein in Vienna. However, after verification, it was found that Einstein did not live in Vienna during the indicated years, and his name is not on the list of people who were in contact with Stalin. nine0011

“Messing said that he met with Stalin, Khrushchev, Hitler, Freud's grandfather, Einstein - all this is an absolute lie from the first to the last word. One hundred percent. Just like his memoirs. He was just a talented entertainer who learned tricks,” said historian and writer Alexander Myasnikov.

Later, it was suggested that Messing's "memoirs" were fabricated by Mikhail Khvastunov, head of the science department at Komsomolskaya Pravda. This version was confirmed by the former scientific editor of the publication Vladimir Gubarev, who wrote about falsification in Pravda.ru in 2010.

“Unwittingly today, Wolf Messing becomes an apologist for ignorance, which is rapidly taking over our society. He would be upset that contributes to this, ”wrote Gubarev.

In 2009, Russian television aired the TV series Wolf Messing: Who Seen Through Time, based on the novel of the same name by screenwriter Eduard Volodarsky. The work highlights the biography of Messing according to his memoirs.

On the eve of the 120th anniversary of the birth of the “magician”, his alleged son Dmitry Kiselev came to the studio “Let them talk”. The man said that his mother had a brief affair with Messing after one of the sessions. nine0011

“I didn't come here for PR, not to become famous and make some money on this name. I came to find out the truth, because I myself am interested in it, ”said Dmitry Kiselev in the release of the Let Them Talk program.

Show host Dmitry Borisov noted that the man really looks like a psychic, but it will be difficult to prove their relationship.

Despite a number of proofs that Messing greatly exaggerated his abilities, and numerous revelations, his figure still attracts attention.

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