I believe in what I've experienced. For everything else, I keep an open mind and allow for the possibility. So many people, so many different experiences and perspectives on life. To steal a concept from Douglas Adams I have found valid in exploring alternatives including the one mentioned: Astrology is like graphite when you try to find what someone had written on the sheet of a note pad. The original note is gone, but by using graphite and sprinkling it over the note paper underneath, the writing from the top is revealed. We all are trying to find what was written. The graphite is not important, it could be charcoal, it just reveals what is underneath. So all of astrology, religion, and other methods of explaining life, are just about people thinking about people. If it makes us happier, more loving, and empowered people, who cares whether it is or isn't part of someone else's reality. Even Abraham Maslow said in 'Toward a Psychology of Being' that the scientific method was not adequate to explain personal experience. But instead of invalidating experience he feels that we need to revise and expand the scientific method, not deny the existence of anything that doesn't fit. So, yeah, I believe in distance healing, astrology, and past lives, I allow for the possibility of alien abductions, but don't really believe in them as part of my reality.