What are the origins, goals, history, and potential futures of the
cult that sent me (and likely many other people) the following e-mail?
 What is its purpose, name, beliefs, and doctrine? Who are its members
and leaders?  Why did they send an invitation to me?
 
As one note, I haven't bothered with the searches at the bottom.  You
can try if you want to.
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 15:48:32 -0700 (PDT) 
From: Gaelicize Arabic <castor2yes3@yahoo.com> 
To: obsidian_fox@atia.homelinux.net 
Subject: Fakes... 
 
There is something extremely wrong with every single 
person in this world. They seem to be part of a 
pointless simulation. 
  
"The Matrix" has portrayed this idea somewhat, yet we 
watch it and go back to our daily lives.  Yet in this 
very life, underneath the seeming diversity in 
people's opinions, values, talents, and interests, 
there is something that makes everyone the same.  It 
is as though this planet is populated only by mindless 
fakes, objects that provide the appearance of 
intellect on the surface but are based on only 
mechanical reflexes and primitive thought patterns. 
 
I don't really care if anything I say has been said 
before, if it was portrayed in movies, in books, or in 
the lyrics of some useless song. With 6 billion people 
covering the globe at any given time, thousands and 
thousands of years of written literature, probability 
dictates almost any combination of words has occurred 
numerous times. Yet there is clear evidence there was 
no action, so those words, just like the people who 
spoke them, must have been just more fakes. I am 
forced to use this language (also created by the 
fakes) because there is no alternative, so everything 
I write here could be misunderstood to make me sound 
like one of them, but it will be the action that I 
take and the dedication that will separate me from 
them. 
  
In my estimation the fakes that occupy this planet 
don't make up 99%, but more like 99.9999999% of the 
population. I know this because I've searched, and in 
my search have so far only found one true ally (I have 
found him via the internet as well). But even with 
those numbers we would not give up because there is no 
logic in giving up.  
 
The people on this planet are all fakes because the 
societies have made them this way. Ideas that populate 
people's minds have no logic or purpose. Concepts such 
as religion, god, morality, individualism, freedom, 
identity, happiness, love and billions of others are 
all just memes. Like parasites they infect the minds 
and spread from one person to the next. They have no 
point or purpose; they exist without any logical basis 
or foundation. The fakes are completely controlled by 
them, and they will never see beyond them. To not be 
controlled by them one must do more then just realize 
that they exist. One must resist any ideas that have 
no point, endlessly question, and never accept 
imperfection or compromise in any answer. 
  
We (myself and my ally) are different though. While we 
have had the limitation of existing only in these 
societies, something has made it possible for us to 
resist being indoctrinated into becoming one of those 
fakes. We have no arbitrary wants, needs, desires, or 
preferences.  
 
If this world continues to exist the way it is then 
nothing in it will ever have a point. It will always 
be just a product of random evolution, one with no 
importance or relevance. The only logical goal is to 
dedicate our lives to increasing our numbers, those 
that aren't fakes, so that in thousands of years our 
numbers may be such that the fakes would no longer be 
a threat to progress. 
  
Those that join us must see every other person 
occupying this planet as the enemy, and us as their 
only allies. Like us they must have dedication only to 
taking the most logical action, and to nothing else. 
 
To tell you more about us, we've posted some personal 
information about ourselves on a website. You'll also 
find past responses to us on that webpage.   
 
Obviously anyone reading this email is most likely 
just another fake. Do not simply reply to this email, 
if you do, we will likely not read your reply. If you 
do wish to communicate, first demonstrate your 
interest by taking the effort to find us online, the 
way to do that is described below: 
 
Use a major search engine to search for a phrase 
combining any word from the first set with any word 
from the second set. Basically you would search for 
the string: 
"first_word second_word" 
 
There is no trick to this and this isn.t meant to be 
quick, it should, however, be fairly clear if/when you 
find the right site. The following search engines were 
verified by us, please use any of them as other search 
engines may simply not yet list us correctly: MSN, 
Overture, Lycos, InfoSeek, FastSearch, LookSmart, 
HotBot, InfoSpace, Ask.com, AllTheWeb, Teoma, 
WebCrawler. 
 
 
Possible first words: 
perfect 
final 
endless 
perpetual 
driving 
eternal 
logical 
only 
best 
infinite 
  
 
Possible second words: 
escape 
idea 
objective 
desire 
dream 
ambition 
thought 
logic 
clue 
theory 
 
 
  
Ryan and Jacob 
 
__________________________________________________ 
Do You Yahoo!? 
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup 
<a href="http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com">http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com</a> 

---

Request for Question Clarification by xemion-ga on 29 May 2002 09:04 PDT

I apologize for my answer.  I thought you must have just been some
stupid internet newbie who didn't know what spam :-)  I apologize.  I
will try and find a little deeper answer to your question.  Could you
please post the FULL headers to the e-mail?  I really don't think I'll
be able to find an answer for you, but I want to look.  Thank you.

xemion-ga

We refer to letters like this as "spam" or "forwards".  They are
really useless e-mails that tend to be forwarded from one internet
user to another.
 
This letter is intended as joke and was forwarded to you by someone
with WAY too much time on their hands.  There is no real cult
involved.
 
For more forwards, check out these two sites: 
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.forwardgarden.com/">http://www.forwardgarden.com/</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.forwardgarden.com/">http://www.forwardgarden.com/</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://bl.net/forwards/">http://bl.net/forwards/</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://bl.net/forwards/">http://bl.net/forwards/</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
 
Lots more useless forwards :-)  I found these page by searching Google
for &amp;quot;email forwards&amp;quot;.  Try it yourself:
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="://www.google.com/search?q=email+forwards">://www.google.com/search?q=email+forwards</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="://www.google.com/search?q=email+forwards">://www.google.com/search?q=email+forwards</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
 
If you do not know the person who sent you this e-mail and want to
find out who they are, look at the from field in the e-mail. 
Supposedly this e-mail was sent to you by &amp;quot;Gaelicize Arabic&amp;quot;.  His/her
e-mail address is &amp;quot;castor2yes3@yahoo.com&amp;quot;.
 
If you do not know Gaelicize, I suggest replying back and see why
he/she sent you the e-mail.
 
This e-mail may also be spam and contain &amp;quot;false headers&amp;quot;.  Basically
it looks like it came from Yahoo.com when it really came from
somewhere else.  I suggest visit &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.spamcop.net">http://www.spamcop.net</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.spamcop.net">http://www.spamcop.net</a>&lt;/a&gt; for more
information on false headers and how to trace them.
 
Thanks for using Google Answers! 
xemion-ga  

The researcher did not answer the question I asked, and instead
assumed I did not know what I was asking.  I desire a serious answer
to the question I asked.  I do not appreciate being dismissed and
chided for desiring detailed information on the origin of a piece of
spam mail.  Several people posted better, though incomplete, answers
in the Comments section.

I'm sorry.  I'm quite aware that this IS spam, and posted to this
forum with that knowledge.

However, someone initiated this particular piece of spam.

My question as to who these people are, their goals in sending me this
garbage, etc. remain unanswered at the moment.

I ran a search at Teoma using the sixth word from each list ("eternal
ambition") and found this: http://www.eternalambition.com/ . I believe
these are the guys you are looking for. The text on the first page is
very similar to the email you received and "author 2" identifies
himself as Jacob.

Apparently the purpose is simply meaningful communication and a search
for like-minded people ("This communication would strive toward true
understanding, not mindless social interactions.") and it was sent to
you at random ("I chose you by random, and along with many others.").

There are profiles of both members on the site, as well as a detailed
explanation of what they are trying to achieve.

Hope that helps. :)

liza-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by obsidian_fox-ga on 31 May 2002 10:25 PDT

I looked at the site and the writing style is similar.  Both authors
are as long-winded as the Dakotas... this is something they need to
work on if they want to improve their own communication skills.

Can you determine who owns the site or obtain any more information on
who has joined these people and such?  Those were part of my original
request.

If you can at least obtain confirmation that the people hosting this
site did send the spam, you'll get your $4.00.

---

Clarification of Answer by liza-ga on 31 May 2002 12:26 PDT

First, I wouldn't call it a cult. I used the word "members" in my
answer but that wasn't really correct. In my opinion, it's just two
guys with a decidedly un-fun outlook on life, emailing people at
random, hoping to communicate.

Whois results for eternalambition.com:
http://www.better-whois.com/bwhois.cgi?domain=eternalambition.com&x=0&y=0

Although the first name of the domain owner isn't Ryan or Jacob, the
last name is Russian and he lives in California, which is consistent
with the information on http://www.eternalambition.com/author2.htm .

Other similarities:

* The email says "You'll also find past responses to us on that
webpage." which matches up with
http://www.eternalambition.com/examples.htm .

* Also on the past responses page, you'll find an email that mentions
the name Ryan: "I'm assuming from your name -- Ryan -- that you're
male, although you didn't specify in your email." And, as I mentioned
before, author 2 identifies himself as Jacob.

* The email indicates that there are only two people involved ("We
(myself and my ally)") which also matches.

* The domain is hosted at Yahoo/Geocities and the email came from a
Yahoo address.

* I found the site by following their instructions.

* The content and attitude on the first page of the site are the same
as the email, just worded differently.

I can't prove that those are the guys who sent the email but, in my
mind, there are too many similarities for it not to be them. :)

Obsidian_fox:

It's just spam.  They, like every other purveyor of spam, have
harvested your e-mail and thousands of others from places like Usenet,
chat rooms, public profiles, even mailing lists and computer generated
spam-bots.

View your mail with full headers, then copy the whole thing and trace
them through SpamCop:

http://www.spamcop.net

You can register for their free spam reporting service, and SpamCop
will send abuse reports to the offenders' ISPs.

(How savvy can they possibly be?  They left Google off of their list
of "major search engines"!)

I tried a few searches and one ( "final objective" on Overture, 
http://www.overture.com/d/search/;$sessionid$QDMNJBYACGIGICQCBGCAPUQ?mkt=us&type=topbar&Keywords=%22final+objective%22
) included a page on Scientology. (
http://www.acceptedscientology.net/page22.htm )

Scientology is not new, and it may or may not be on the rise,
depending on who you talk to.

There is LOTS of information on the web about Scientology (and lots of
propaganda on both sides.)  One site I looked at a few years ago was
www.xenu.com.  It's admittedly a vehemently anti-Scientology site, but
its interest seems to be debunking through talking to ex-members and
publishing Church materials. (Xenu, for example, is the name of a
god... it's something you hear about only at the top levels, or 'OT's,
of Scientology, which means you've given the Church LOTS of money.)

The email you posted could have come from another group entirely, but
it sounds like it could very easily be from a Scientology group.

Let me add that while it certainly is spam, it's not the kind of joke
chain letter tha so often goes around, because it does not ask you to
forward it to your friends.  I think there very well might be an
actual group behind it.

The fact that they say they will not answer replies, and that they
want you to look for them with fairly complicated searches implies to
me that they want to filter the people who contact them. That's a
common recruitment method for cults and related groups (ie only
someone interested in what they're talking about will bother with the
searches, so if they get contacted, they know they have someone who
has already been partially drawn in.)

Heres' a very interesting page on the psychology of cults and cult
members, including common recruitment tactics. 
http://www.workingpsychology.com/cult.html

(One quote I found particularly interesting:  "According to
psychologist and cult expert Margaret Thaler Singer, cults flourish
during periods of social and political turbulence and "during
breakdowns in the structure and rules of the prevailing society." )

Good luck!

I received the same email only mine was from:

Borrelomycetaceae Dryopithecus <pikimbad@yahoo.com>

I did a search for "ryan and jacob"  fake on Google:

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22ryan+and+jacob%22+fake

and found this link:

http://students.washington.edu/charli1/messages_2002_04_2.html

which has  a discussion about it, including their website:  

http://four24.freeservers.com/communication_standard.html

It looks like their host shut their website down for violating the
acceptable use policy.  This is as much as I could find right now.

analogkid-ga

A longshot, with no evidence, but these two guys seem to have the
imagination and nerve to do it:

http://www.yhurhere.net/~cs/csPlayas.asp

With Jacob describing himself as:

"Keeper of key philosophical theories that stem from the beginning of
mankind."

Liza, I think you did it! I also noted that the site isn't listed on
Google using the search term (and Google isn't listed in the e-mail),
but it is listed with the search engines mentioned (or at least the
ones I tried).

mvguy-ga: Thanks. :)

These people are serious and you can read more about them on
http://www.singlegoal.com/

I have personally chatted with them. They are clever as anyone and if
you take time to read what they have to say you might find it very,
very interesting.

Keywords: memetics, reason, logic, evolution

Further commentary on this issue here:

http://www.kottke.org/02/07/020701an_email_fro.html

With multiple reports, it seems many people are getting the random
combination of two dictionary words as the "from" sender.

Some hypotheses are in that thread as well.