Conference hydra::dejavu

    
    	I believe I may have recieved a copy of that very letter.
    
    I also broke the chain.    Even if no money gets sent, imagine
    how much this must tie up the mails.....   Just think of all
    the *really* down and out people, who may *need* the luck, but
    waste their money on postage stamps + such.   
    
    	I think such letters must be composed as jokes, or by enemies
    of the postal system.   And, yes, I think these letters often
    embody negative manipulations.    I wonder what percentage of
    people are motivated more by the promise of good luck, and what
    percentage are motivated by fear of the bad luck ?
    
    	alan.
    

    Don't forget that anyone sending chain letters though interoffice
    mail can get in big trouble.  A while back some clown from back
    east (not sure exactly from where) sent about 20 copies of a chain
    letter through interoffice mail to our office here in Denver.  Talk
    about sh*t hitting the fan.  Sounds like the letter in .0 was real
    close in content to the one we received.
    
    Pat

    	It's been quite a while since I did any "looking" or replying
    in this notes file, so pardon my butting in...
    	A couple of years ago, 2 or three days after my mother died,
    I was going through my backed up mail and there was a similar chain
    letter.  This particular letter expounded on that fact that if you
    didn't  send off copies within 3 days something terrible would probably
    happen to you, and it listed many examples of people commiting suicide,
    losing million dollar lotteries, etc.  I thought this was a terrible
    practicle joke being played on me by some poor joker who really
    believed, but also knew of the state of my mothers health.  The
    letter was postmarked the day after I informed my manager that my
    mom had passed away.  I tore it up and threw it away.  Six months
    later my "healthy" sister found out she had terminal cancer and within 
    3 months was also dead. Coincidence?  I also had a chain letter 
    similar if not exact, cross my desk here in Colorado in July and tore 
    it up also. Dad died on the 22nd of July, yes he had been ill for 
    awhile and while us kids "new" he probably wouldn't make it through 
    the year, he was in one of his healthier periods when he died.
    	I really don't believe in the chain letters but still...it makes
    you wonder.
    
    _stew-
                            

    I have probably broken three or four chain letters and I and all
    my near and dear ones are still alive and kicking:-) 
    
    I just can't understand why anybody would send anything so threatening
    to a "friend".  I think chain letters really prey on inner
    ancient strong *fears* and should be squelched.
    
    Their effect can be summed up in the words of an "ancient" philosopher:
    "I know there ain't no heaven and I pray there ain't no hell." :-)
    
    Thom  

    Well Fredrick, considering that you typed in the mail for everyone to
    read, I guess that you've reached more than twenty people.  You did
    send it out within four days, too.  Is this what you meant by
    manipulations? 8*D 
    
    I think that chain letters is superstition.  There might be something
    behind the action, but that something has been lost long ago.
    Personally I think that junk mail and mail-order catalogs swamp
    the post office more than chain letters.  At least if you get a
    chain letter you know it was sent by a person and not a computer.

    I'm curious about what will happen in the next few days.  The letter
    can be a way to "blame" bad or good news in your life.
    
    Dave

    If you send out enough letters to enough people, than some of the
    recipients are going to have good things happen to them, and some 
    of them are going to have bad things happen to them.
    
    I've probably received 20 or so chain letters over the years, and
    have ignored them all. I had nothing happen; I had good things happen 
    and I had bad things happen.
    
    The mere fact that Event B follows Event A does not mean that A
    caused B, or even that the two events are related. 
    
    -bs

    
    I received the same chain letter last Friday at my home address.
    I did not do anything with the letter and am not planning to
    do anything.  That Friday night I won $70.00 at Bingo and the next
    night I won $50.00 at Bingo.  I think the letter ended up in the
    trash that weekend.
    
    Kathi
    

    Keep in mind how "chain" letters started.
    
    Originally, the instructions for chain letters were:
    
    1. make 10 copies but remove the bottom name from the list of people
       and put your name at the top.
    
    2. Send those 10 copies to friends.
    
    3. Send 1 dollar each to the 10 people on the list on the original
       letter you got.
    
    Now it is pretty clear, (if you don't think about it much) that
    if NOONE BREAKS THE CHAIN, you will spend $10 plus postage for 20
    letters and get back $10,000,000,000 dollars!  Wow!  Everybody gains!
    Nobody loses!
    
    The feds, via the post office, cracked down on this HARD.  The result
    was a substitution of other things than money (prayers, post cards,
    whatever) and general good luck as an eventual consequence.  (I
    believe that *any* kind of chain letter is illegal, by the way,
    but prosecution is lax if no money is involved).
    
    Since many people resent getting chain letters, and office copiers
    aren't real good at changing names, the recipients of the "gifts"
    (in this case, a kiss) are other than the sender.
    
    So you see, there is not even any good "occult" reason to believe
    in these things -- they're simply a scam which won't die.  And they
    won't as long as their is at least one person in each generation
    willing to propogate them.  (There are some interesting analogues
    to viruses, evolution, etc. here, but I won't persue them.  You
    can probably figure them out for yourselves.).
    
    					Topher

RE: .9
    
    Actually the "obvious" amount you would get back from a chain is
    $11,111,111,110 but who's counting.
    
RE: .8
    
    Maybe the letter's backwards, and you get the good luck if you *DO*
    break the chain ;-)
    
    					Topher

Hmmm .. the letters are always the same. The gift changes ( a dollar a
kiss, a card, a prayer) the names change (so and so won this, or had this
happen to him). But the letter is always the same. I've always broken the
chain and so far, no bad luck.

Interesting that in 1953 Constating Dias won a $2m lottery. Isn't that
BIG bucks for those days? And imagine his secretary, no copier or word
processor! She had to type 20 letters. Where's her good luck?
Jay

    I've received that very same letter a total of 4 times over the
    past 7 or 8 years.  I've broken every one and nothing has happened,
    good or bad.  For yucks I once made 20 copies of one and tacked it 
    up on my office wall in a folder that said Take One; a lot of people 
    did and we yuck-yucked our way through the deadline after which 
    nothing happened.
    
    I agree that the letters tend to prey on our fears and are best
    left alone (even if they weren't illegal--which they are).
    
    Marcia

    I hate being forced into things so I ALWAYS throw them away_:-)

    Chain letters like that; whether or not you follow-through,
    still carry some type of aura or energy--just like any
    object.  I wouldn't carry through on those letters--that
    would be maintaining the circle and impacting people who
    can't (or won't) protect themselves from the influence.
    
    I wouldn't want to blame a chain letter for what happens to me--
    nor would I want to be responsible for sending a letter to someone
    else and have that good luck/bad luck blamed on me.  
    
    I agree with the others who say, "don't perpetuate the chain"--
    that just continues a negative stream.
    
    --E
    

    
    re: Mary..."I ALWAYS throw the away"
    
    Yes, and look at what happened to *you*, dear!
    
    ;^)
    
    Tananda
    

    Shhh Tananda....  (we mutations can't tell the earthlings all of
    our secrets_:-)

    I received this same chain letter about 4 years ago. As many of you
    have, I simply ignored the warnings and threw the letter away. Unlike
    many of you though, bad luck did strike at me. Within 2 weeks I
    receive 4 more copies of the same da*n letter! :-)
    
    Paul.
    
    
    Also, about this time last year a chain letter was being circulated
    around the ENET via VAXmail. The net police were VERY pi**ed and a
    couple of folks got repremanded. So PLEASE don't go shipping these
    things around within the company. 

    I have received many several chain letters over the past N years,
    but I only really responded to one of them.  It was started by
    entrepreneurial women and was designed to be copied and sent on
    to 10 of your entrepreneurial women friends.  You would send a dollar
    to the person at the top of the list.  You would add your name to
    the bottom of the list.  You would also add, as the others did,
    the reason why you want the money the letter could yield.
    
    It never paid me as much as it promised, but it was a good idea,
    and held no pretense of luck or whim.
    
    Honesty is the best policy...
    
    -Jody
    

    Re .18:
    
    >to 10 of your entrepreneurial women friends.  You would send a dollar
    >to the person at the top of the list.  You would add your name to
    >the bottom of the list.  You would also add, as the others did,
    >the reason why you want the money the letter could yield.
     
    That's how chain letters started in the first place, as a
    get-rich-quick scheme.  The idea's workable only as long as there
    are more people left who are willing to send in a dollar.  For
    instance, suppose everyone sends a dollar to ten people at each
    "chain" level.  If there are six names between you and the first
    name, then when your name comes up on top, you'd in theory get $1
    million ($1.00 X 10^6), _if nobody broke the chain_.  But such a
    scheme would require one million people sending letters at the sixth
    level (yours), ten million at the next level, 100 million at the
    eighth, and one billion at the ninth.  Thus, between the eighth
    and ninth levels, one would exceed the entire population of the
    United States.  Two or more levels more, and one would more than
    exceed the entire population of the Earth.
    
    The "solution"?  Get in early, and get out early.  Money chain letters
    have a history that goes way back; they were popular when I was
    young, and I've seen variants of them over the years (one involved
    savings bonds instead of cash).
    
    They are illegal, of course.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

This might well fit in with the "Wild Theory of the Week" topic, but I propose
that a chain letter is a quasi-living thing like a virus.  Think about it: they
replicate themselves, require a host, and never really go away.  Thus one might
well consider them a kind of "postal virus." 


John M.

    
    A friend called last night asking me to join what she called the
    Airplane Game (for a mere $1,500!). I've heard of this as the Infinity
    Process. Intuitively, I know that it won't work; can someone supply
    a logical analysis of the reason it won't?
    
    If you're not familiar with this scam, let me know and I'll post
    the scenario.                    
    
    Tananda
    

    I've heard about this somewhere.  The flaw is the same as for
    monetary chain letters and pyramid sales schemes.  It works fine
    for the first few "tiers" but soon there is no more people available
    who are willing to fork over $1500 and people start loosing money.
    
    I would advise you to only get into it for the fun of the "game"
    (expensive entertainment!) but I can't even do that.  The Justice
    Department wants to prosecute this under the laws forbidding pyramid
    sales schemes.  There seems to be some disagreement as to whether
    the wording of the laws covers this case, but there is a good chance
    they'll figure out how to do it.  You could end up with a stiff fine or
    even a jail term on top of your lost $1500.
    
    					Topher

    
    Yes, I thought that was the case, although this new scam embellishes
    somewhat the pyramid scheme. It's unfortunately too late to dissuade
    my friend from plunking down her cash...she got extremely agitated
    (unfriendly, even!) when I suggested she call the NH Attorney General's
    office for information.
    
    Tananda
    

    
    
    
    I heard from a third party that the Massachusetts Attorney General's
    office has looked into the Airplane Game.  They apparently were
    able to convince them that they are selling a product.  Can you
    guess what it is?
    
    Carole
    

    Re .23:
    
    > ...............................she got extremely agitated
    >(unfriendly, even!) when I suggested she call the NH Attorney General's
    >office for information.
    
    An interesting point of psychology.  Back in the 1960s, when I was
    in Huntsville doing Space Things, there was an outbreak of a savings-
    bond pyramid scheme that caused a lot of local agitation at the
    time (it was _not_ done through the mail; it was done, if memory
    serves, through house parties, vaguely akin to Tupperware Parties),
    including a couple of front-page newspaper stories.  When I pointed
    out both the flaw in the practicality (running out of tiers) and
    the probable illegality of the scheme, I got a significantly hostile
    reaction.  Some people want to believe in get-rich-quick schemes,
    and woe betide any messenger who brings them bad news!  Like as
    not, they'll ignore advice and invest anyway [One of my Huntsville
    friends said, "I know what you're saying, Steve, but when my wife
    visited <the person who'd gotten a return on the scheme> and she
    saw her riffling those bonds in her hands ...."].
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    
    Yes, my friend was definitely glassy-eyed. I could tell that she
    was beginning to have doubts after about ten minutes of conversation,
    and that obviously scared her. She concluded the chat by asking
    me not to "introduce any negative vibrations into the akash" about
    her investment (new-age-speak for "don't call the cops"). I agreed.
    
    Please think only happy thoughts when reading these replies.
    
    Tananda
    

    RE: 0
          WOW, 1992 and this thing is still around. I got it in the mail
    the 10th. The wording is almost exact except some of the names and
    dollar amounts were slightly different. I'm going to trash the sucker.
    
    And as far as good luck or bad, let me tell ya, if I find out who sent
    this letter to me their going to have some REAL bad luck.
    
    One thing I found curious was the address lable. It was put in the form
    that my name is listed in the phone book which is just my initials and
    my last name. This letter says to send it to friends and associates you
    know that might need good luck. Obviosly this person just looked up
    names in the phonebook.
    
                                                 Scott.