There are a lot of scared people. Some are afraid of real things - for example, flying on airplanes or dogs. Others - all unusual: evil eye, black cat, scary dreams. Still others - both together. A so-called chain letter with a demand, wish or request to send it to several more people can cause such people to feel a sense of unconscious fear. What if something bad happens to them if they don't follow instructions?

A friend called and received this letter: “Explain to me, are people fools? Don't they have anything to do? Why are they sending these letters? What does this give them?

My friend is a fearless girl; she cannot be intimidated by the fact that happiness will not come. However, there are people who are looking for secret meaning in any phenomenon, and such a letter seriously puzzles them.

A few days later, I received a chain letter from this friend. And I didn’t immediately realize that this was it! A beautiful romantic story with touching advice to love your loved ones...

Then again and again... And at the end there was a note: “Send it to 10 of your favorite friends and don’t forget about me.” Late at night, lying in bed, I decided to send a message to the recipient, simply because I always remember about him and really appreciate him. I poked my finger at the WhatsApp buttons on my phone, but I still couldn’t figure out how to do it. Irritably, I put my phone down.

How would you do it?

What is a chain letter

People humorously call letters from Pension Fund and notices of fines. In fact, this is an echo of the Middle Ages. “Heavenly” or “holy” letters containing prayers were in use in those ancient times. They had to be rewritten and passed on. Failure to comply risked all sorts of misfortunes.

“Chain letters” from unknown recipients arrived by mail in the old non-electronic times or were passed from hand to hand - with a message about the importance of passing the letter on.

Raise your hand if you've experienced something like this at least once in your life. The audience coverage is amazing!

And another question - who was afraid that if he did not send the letter further, an accident would happen to him?

Anyone can be frightened, but people with a visual vector are especially afraid - to the point of panic and shortness of breath.

Awareness of the finitude of life plunges the viewer into terrible fear. He naively clings to any information that can guarantee the ability to avoid trouble. However, the distribution of pleasant and unpleasant events in life is quite even and regular. Moreover, the main meaning is internal, that is state of mind a person, the way he reacts to these events depending on the properties of his psyche.

Receiving such a letter with an instruction to “send to ten dear people and wait for a miracle that evening, do not ignore it, because it’s Christmas time,” will puzzle and unsettle anyone, but visual person especially. To imagine all sorts of horrors - he is a master of masters! Besides, he really wants a miracle. He will remember dear people for a long time and, if he is good with gadgets, he will forward them without any problems. Fortunately, now you don’t have to rewrite it by hand, as before, you pressed the button and sent it! Such miracles! True, it is unknown how “dear people” will react to such a message with a task.

I received a letter of happiness - what should I do?

Letters of happiness in modern execution are various beautiful moral stories, parables, fairy tales, which ask not to be cut off and forwarded on. And there seems to be nothing reprehensible in them - you read it, shed a tear, and your soul becomes lighter. But for how long?

And if I send the parable about Matrona to 12 people, what happiness awaits me? And if a person asks to send it to him too, does that mean he needs help now? So why doesn't he just call? And he doesn't answer calls? Does he think that by weaving a web of these messages he can protect himself from himself? What to do?

If I sit and wait for happiness, but do nothing myself, will there be any benefit? I sent out letters of happiness - there is a feeling inside that I did everything right. But to be happy you need to take concrete steps in real life...And how to make them? Which way to go?

These are the sad thoughts that came to me about the letters I received.

There were quite a lot of them, letters - after all, now you can create a communication network with a few clicks on your phone. And so a group of fellow spectators sends sentimental messages to each other, imagining that they are saving the world.

Those who receive such letters are divided into several categories based on their reactions, which can be explained using system-vector psychology. The vector cannot be hidden anywhere - it manifests itself in everything. The reaction to a letter promising happiness depends on how developed and implemented the vector is.

Realized spectators will twirl their fingers at their temples, and sound people will look down on it. Others will frantically start copying and sending, and if they are suddenly embarrassed to do this, they will torture themselves with fears in anticipation of misfortunes. These are also owners of the visual vector, but in not very good conditions.

And through chain letters, people want to buy themselves luck. This is a magical act, a kind of spell that should work. Just in case, maybe it will help. Perhaps this may be characteristic of the skin vector.

What to do with a letter of happiness?

In principle, there are probably no people who would not react in one way or another to such a “message from heaven.” A person can get hooked on a beautiful instructive parable critical situation. It seems that no one can help... And then suddenly such a wonderful story!

And so, instead of understanding the meaning of what is happening, he or she begins to inspiredly send greetings from the Middle Ages to 21st century addresses in the hope of receiving a miracle!

What is this? Laziness of mind and soul? Desire to shift responsibility? Instead of outlining real steps.

Oh, how I would like to hear a familiar voice instead of such letters of happiness and ask how you are doing. Tell us how clear and interesting life became after the training “ System-vector psychology».

And that the letters you receive cannot change you in the way that life needs to make sense. This becomes possible only when you open inner world the way it was given to you from birth. Compare it with what happened in life and you will understand what to do next!

“...For years I suffered from causeless anxiety, which often fell on me. Psychologists helped me, but it was as if one hundredth part went away, and then the fears came again. My rational mind gave a logical explanation for half of my fears. But what's the use of these explanations if not normal life. And causeless anxiety in the evenings. By the middle of the course, I began to notice that I began to breathe freely. The clamps are gone. And by the end of the course, I suddenly suddenly noticed that anxiety and fears had left me. No, sometimes, of course, these states pile up again, but somehow easily and superficially. And even bewilderment arises, why am I afraid of anything at all..."
Diana N., economist, Ufa

What if suddenly such a letter arrives? It’s easy to disown letters, but what to do with the feeling of fear “what if something happens?”, how to stop stressing yourself out, free yourself from these stupid games?

But how to realize the reason that is hidden in the unconscious. Start with the free training by Yuri Burlan “System-vector psychology” - you will definitely stop being afraid!

Proofreader Anna Sorokina

The article was written using materials from Yuri Burlan’s online training “System-vector psychology”

Question 1. I was sent a “Letter of Chain”, what is it?

The form of such messages, as a rule, has the title “Letter of Chain”. It gives birth to and spreads rumors and myths, asserting the subordination of man to certain higher powers. The meaning and purpose of a “Letter of Happiness” is usually an offer of help to oneself and loved ones who need support and hope.

Knowledgeable people they say that the tradition of writing “letters of happiness” has its roots in the distant past of the East and Europe. Quite frequent references to “messages” are found throughout Europe, including its Slavic part. Such “Epistle” had the character of a sermon, in most of them the same motive was persistently heard: people were urged to celebrate Sunday, and not another day of the week, and not to occupy it with everyday labors, but to dedicate it to God.

A written text of a similar form, having the function and form of a saving prayer-amulet, was also included in the oral tradition. Preserved in peasant notebooks. They took it with them hunting, on the road, and carried it by pregnant women to facilitate childbirth.

The written text that spread among urban residents is closest to the modern “Letter of Chain.” Most often, the legend about the discovery of the letter spoke of a stone falling from the sky. After prayers are read over it, it opens, and in it they find the message of Jesus Christ, written “ with my own hand its letters of gold in the Hebrew language."

Question 2. Can you trust the “facts” stated in the “Letter of Chain”?

Having carefully read any modern letter of happiness, the attentive reader will immediately find many inaccuracies and the most serious errors. The most common and noticeable distortions are errors in names, dates, numbers, etc., etc.

Often each new phrase of such a letter contradicts the previous one. The first lines of the “Letter of Chain,” for example, may say that its original is in Holland. And “it went around the world as many as 445 times!” And below: “Luck has circled the world 9 times,” and further: “The original is in England.” (It is worth noting that such letters never specify who exactly is involved in such calculations.)

In the same paragraph it may be stated that “the chain comes from Venezuela, which is located in South Africa"(despite the fact that in fact the Republic of Venezuela is a state in the north South America.)
It is logical to assume that all the other information contained in such a letter is also lies.

Question 3. What is an electronic “Letter of Chain”?

An electronic “Letter of Chain” is one of the most dangerous manifestations of this genre. Progress does not stand still today in the era of globalization and new computer technology The practice of sending such messages has been adopted by all kinds of spammers to distribute “electronic waste,” as well as hackers to distribute viruses, worms and other malicious programs.

According to antivirus companies, many malicious programs are spreading at an unusually fast pace, which is why it was concluded that at the first stage, some attackers send tens or even hundreds of thousands of letters containing a virus to users by e-mail. As a rule, in such letters the role of “scribe” is performed by the malware. Of course, most users ignore messages coming from unknown addresses. Nevertheless, some of the letters still achieve their goal: a careless or inexperienced user launches the attachment, and the worm is able to send copies of itself to the E-mail addresses found on the PC.

Question 4. Who distributes “Letters of Chain” and why?

As mentioned above, all kinds of anonymous messages: “Letters of happiness”, “Letters of the game”, so-called. " Love letters" By e-mail can be sent by attackers in order to gain access to your PC. However, this is not always the case.

Also, the senders of “Letters of Chain” can be:
- easily persuaded, gullible people who believe that for sending them they will actually be given some bonuses from above;
- children who find this activity fun, as well as adults, but infantile people who didn’t play enough in childhood and are now having fun In a similar way;
- people who are lagging behind not only in their mental development, but also mentally. They can’t even write a simple sentence, let alone come up with a more or less interesting text;
- it is possible that the “Letter of Chain” was sent to you by your personal enemy or ill-wisher.

Question 5. I received a Chain Letter, what should I do with it now?

Most appropriate in in this case take advantage of the recommendations of a wise, in my opinion, saying, which advises not to take “bad things in your head, but heavy things in your hands” (if you take them, throw them away, “while you are flying, you rest”). In other words: if you are lucky enough to receive a Chain Letter, throw it in the trash and try to forget about it as quickly as possible.

Interesting

Electronic “chain letters”: who needs it and why?

A new epidemic is sweeping the Russian Internet - the so-called “chain letters”. In such messages, the respondent is asked to send the text of the letter to his friends, and then supposedly there will be someone waiting for him great luck. Otherwise - great grief. Who needs to distribute such letters and why? Sergei Bachinsky found out.

BACHINSKY: “An angel came down from heaven and brought you love and happiness. Send this message to 20 addresses within 15 minutes, and the person who loves you will call you, and tomorrow you will have a good day. If you break the chain, then five years "You won't be happy. One girl deleted the letter and her mother died."

Such letters are now wandering across the expanses of our Internet. Some people immediately delete them, while others do what the author requires of them, sending the text throughout their entire address book.

Previously, such letters were distributed by regular mail or simply thrown into mailboxes. This tradition is ancient - similar messages were written back in the Middle Ages, then they were called “holy letters”.

The text of each such letter contains assurances that the letter itself is endowed mystical power. “Chain letters” appeared on the Internet about ten years ago, says Internet expert Anton Nosik.

NOSIK: There were also all sorts of messages of a frankly psychiatric nature - about how good it would be for you if you forwarded the letter, and how bad it would be for you if you didn’t. There were some letters masquerading as charity events.

BACHINSKY: A lot of research has been devoted to the motivations for creating chain letters, but no one can say for sure why a person would write a letter and release it into the world, exposing other people to possible psychological stress. Here's what Anton Nosik said about this.

NOSIK: Sometimes these letters are launched simply by jokers, sometimes by people who quite seriously think that they are doing some useful work in this way. And then they spread like some kind of social virus at the expense of naive, inattentive people - they can be called active fools.

BACHINSKY: One might assume that, since we're talking about about the Internet, then in addition to the social virus, emails happiness can spread and computer viruses. But so far no viruses or Trojan programs no chain letters were found, assures Anna Vlasova, head of the spam analyst group at Kaspersky Anti-Virus Laboratory. However, not all such letters are harmless.

VLASOVA: Some messages suggest sending a small amount of money to designated recipients. Such letters usually describe that a person has lost or disappeared relatives, and he writes a letter so that these relatives can be found.

BACHINSKY: Well, at the end of the letter it is said that in order to receive happiness you need to send 50 or 100 rubles in an envelope to such and such an address, otherwise something very bad will happen. Such letters in Europe have long been regarded as fraud, and their authors are imprisoned. But these are already extremes. Most chain letters just get on your nerves. Therefore, experts advise impressionable people not to read them at all, but to delete them without opening them, like any letters that come from a sender unknown to you...

*www.radiomayak.ru*

In the second half of the 20th century, the phenomenon of “chain letters” became widespread in the USSR. Handwritten, illiterate messages, richly flavored with folk imagination, wandered from one mailbox to another. They were rewritten dozens of times, sent to friends, and then they waited for the promised luck. The distribution of chain letters was in the nature of spam.

These messages were widespread in cities and represented a certain layer of urban folklore. Similar written “documents” appeared back in the Middle Ages, under the strict dictates of the church. In this way, certain special prayers were spread among the people. Before the revolution of 1917 in Russia, Bolshevik propaganda leaflets (agitkas) were circulated in a similar way.

What were the “holy letters”

In the USSR there were actually “chain letters” and “holy letters”. The first were handwritten messages, which first stated certain “reliable” facts, after which the actual call came. Names were often used widely famous people: politicians, singers, etc.

One “letter of happiness” said that its effectiveness was “personally” tested by Nikita Khrushchev, Alla Pugacheva, Marshal Tukhachevsky and others, no less interesting faces. Allegedly, the one who conscientiously rewrote and sent the letter to friends received good luck and happiness as a reward. People who did not believe in the seriousness of the message were punished. The words of prayers and the names of God, the Mother of God and all kinds of righteous people in the so-called “holy letters” had a similar effect.

All these techniques were designed to convince the recipient of the letter that it was 100% effective. But happiness or material profit still had to be earned by rewriting the message a certain number of times (9, 12, 36, etc.). According to the anonymous author, the person who dared to tear apart “ holy letter“, was doomed to great grief.

No censorship

The colossal prevalence of “holy letters” in Soviet time phenomenal in that it flourished despite the dominant ideology. The Communist Party preached atheism and taught citizens not to believe in “priestly tales.” Those, on the contrary, conscientiously rewrote letters, full of prayers, superstitions and fictions.

It is also interesting that it was impossible to trace the author of such a letter. At the same time, more and more new messages appeared with amazing regularity and even some kind of persistence. Prayers, miracles and superstitions varied in them, but did not disappear anywhere. And this - in times of severe censorship, when every literary work, each film shot was carefully examined almost under a microscope.

Doubtful authorship

The structure of the “holy letters” remained stable. Only the details changed, as if the messages were carbon copies or came from the same source. The official authorities did not speak out in any way about them and completely ignored the existence of the phenomenon itself.

There are suggestions that the “holy letters” were distributed by the KGB to relieve certain tension among the masses. People's mentality changes very slowly. Even if the king is overthrown and a new system is established at once, people’s deep attitudes do not immediately evolve. This takes decades. “Holy letters” were created in order to redirect the religious aspirations of the people in a harmless direction.

According to another version, these messages were created Orthodox Church, which in Soviet times was forced to leave public life. With the help of “holy letters”, communication with the people was maintained. They were a way to remind about ourselves, about the Biblical teachings and everything that the Russian people believed in for centuries.