Myths and superstitions are debunked in this section with insightful and logical explanations.  This area of the site, as with the philosophy section, may challenge your own beliefs.  Proceed only with an open mind! Click to explore THIS PAGE ----------------------------------- Chain Letters and Their Empty Promises Horoscopes and Good Luck Charms The Year 2000 Click to explore ENTIRE SITE ----------------------------------- FLASH INTRO ----------------------------------- HOME PAGE ----------------------------------- INTRODUCTION    * Why Expand Your Mind    * How to Expand Your Mind    * Definition of Logic    * How to Navigate this Site    * Content Listing / Description ----------------------------------- LOGIC PROBLEMS    * Introduction    * Classic Logic Problems    * Visual Logic Puzzles    * Lateral Thinking    * Bonus Section ----------------------------------- SCIENCE AND FACTS    * Introduction    * One Billion    * Sound vs. Light Speed    * Overpopulation    * The Scoop on the Internet    * Understanding Y2K    * Interesting Facts ----------------------------------- PHILOSOPHY    * Introduction    * One Reality    * Everything is Relative    * The Earth and the Human Being    * Human Being: A Being of Meaning ----------------------------------- MYTHS    * Introduction    * Chain Letters    * Horoscope    * Year 2000 ----------------------------------- FEEDBACK ----------------------------------- CREDITS    * History / Information    * Technical Information    * See our BANNER!    * Disclaimer -----------------------------------   CHAIN LETTERS AND THEIR EMPTY PROMISES: Have you ever received an e-mail chain letter promising good luck if you just merely pass along the letter?  Or how about the one where Bill Gates promises cold hard cash if his "e-mail experiment" reaches x-million recipients?  Oh - and how about the ones that claim bad things will happen if you don't forward the e-mail to your "10 closest friends?" Well, I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but an electronic text file sent through the Internet has NO bearing on the good or misfortune in your life, no matter how much you want to believe it.  Let's take a closer look at this phenomenon; logically. In case you are unfamiliar, there are a couple types of "chain letters."  The most common, are stories of dying children or poems about life, granting you luck, love, and wealth, if you merely send along the message to a prescribed number of people.  Another classic is the facade of being involved in some "experiment" to see how many people send and receive the same letter (sometimes with financial promises).  Both are equally ludicrous. These chain letters are deliberately feeding off of human nature's desire to believe that fate exists outside of themselves.  Chain letters continue to be cluttering the web for the mere reason that some people actually believe them!  If no one ever did, chain letters would be no more than a part of history. Compounding the problem, there is an associated guilt that we feel when we don't comply with something that "might" be true.  For example, "but what if there really is a little girl dying in some town in Kansas," or "what do I have to lose from sending this e- mail - maybe I really will receive a $1000." SO, what's the problem with sending them just for fun?  I'll propose a couple of reasons.  First, the belief in a chain letter that is untrue feeds the weakness of gullibility.  If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. Second, sending them to friends and colleagues diffuses the deceptive nature of the false information.  Burdening and/or frustrating other people with this annoyance is discourteous.  Most people I've spoken with poke fun of chain letters, yet I still receive them with the "maybe it's true" appendix from many of the same people! Think for yourself, and analyze if something really makes sense to you.  Don't let the guilt implied for not sending the letters to 5 or 10 people get the better of you.  Chain letters defy any sort of logic; however, they magically capture a certain kind of wishful thinking that is a part of human nature.  Harness the strength of expanding your mind, thinking for yourself, and not accepting things just because they are said so. A suggestion: if you get a chain letter forwarded to you that actually has interesting content (a poem, joke, etc.), copy and paste the message into a new e-mail composition, but DELETE any reference to the necessity of forwarding the message, and any ridiculous consequences for not complying.  And if you don't do this as suggested, you will suffer from great unhappiness for the next 6 months and give birth to a goat within the next 6 years (just kidding - see! - isn't that preposterous!). If you can prove that you or someone you know has received good luck or bad, financial success or burden, or been cured from a terminal illness, by direct relation to an e-mail chain letter, please let me know and I'll remove this section from the site immediately!  Honest. If even an ounce of common sense and logic is applied, chain letters will become transparent.  Think twice before sending (or even reading) a forwarded chain letter. (back to top)   HOROSCOPES, FORTUNE COOKIES, AND GOOD LUCK CHARMS: The connection between reading your horoscope, fortune cookies, or carrying good luck charms, should be obvious.  All three are participating in fate projection; believing that your destiny is influenced by things outside of yourself. These myths are the most fundamental illustration that we, as human beings, want to place faith in things outside of ourselves.  The want to believe that we are not totally in control of our own destiny, is what fuels these superstitions.  A statistical survey concluded that 75% of Americans carry some sort of good luck charm; an astounding 70% of students have claimed that good luck charms help them perform better academically (more on this later). Let's think about this logically.  Is it possible that a physical item can influence positive things, or that a fortune cookie or horoscope blurb could predict what type of person we are?  First and foremost, horoscopes and fortune cookies are written by human beings, sitting down at a computer keyboard just as I am now.  They are not coming from some heavenly force, or high leveled consciousness, they are coming from a factory or a newspaper.  They are only as true as we believe them to be. A study was once done where a dozen or so people were put in a room, each given a piece of paper with their sign's horoscope.  After reading them, the individuals were confidentially asked how true they thought their horoscope was of them personally, irrespective of their belief in astrology.  An overwhelming majority thought that the horoscopes were very accurate.  The group was then told that each person had the identical piece of paper, with just the sign changed! The point is, people believe what they want to believe.  Horoscopes are carefully written as to be general enough to capture the mainstream.  If you were to read another sign other than your own, but believe it was for you, chances are that it would also be quite accurate!  Our minds play tricks on us, and we tend to overlook the things that lack sensibility or applicability to our lives.  But on the contrary, anything that connects with us in any way, we identify as miraculous and truth! Let's suppose that you get in a car accident on Friday the 13th.  You may instantly presume that it was bad luck, and associated with the day's infamous history.  But again, we, as human beings, created the system of counting time (days of the week, etc), and we also made that day known to be a "bad luck" day.  The day is completely ambiguous, and has absolutely no inherent misfortune other than what we decide to place upon it! Yeah, but what about getting in a car accident on that day, you ask?  Well, what about it?  There are literally hundred's of thousands of car accidents per year in the United States alone.  Logically, you'd conclude that some must happen on Friday's, and some also on the 13th day of a given month.  If you can assume that bad things do in fact happen everyday, then you can't exclude Friday the 13th.  Bad things have to happen to someone on that day, so why not you or I?! So what about the 70% of students that do better on examinations while having a good luck charm in their pocket?  The possession of such an item has a calming force because it is believed to provide tranquil and positive energy.  Again, this is a very human attribute.  People will always want to believe these things, so that will never change.  It's human nature. (back to top) (more topics will be demystified in the future)     Page Access #Failed to execute CGI : Win32 Error Code = 3   Last Modified on Variable 'LAST_MODIFIED' cannot be evaluated at Variable 'LAST_MODIFIED' cannot be evaluated Copyright © 2000-2006 Terwilliger Productions.  All Rights Reserved.  Feedback Check out another cool website by the same company!