Astrology website experiment! - PRANK!

It was yet another boring night when I was Googling random stuff (as always),I came across this website that talked about astrology,solving problems with gemstones etc. After seeing that their 'basic' package that involved a reading,a solution,and how a 'premium' package can be helpful,I decided to pull a prank on them- I wanted to enter details of a totally fictitious character and random dates and events and send it across for a 'basic' reading.Due to total lack of creativity to come up with any other fictitious name,I entered the name 'Bruce Wayne'( The alter-ego of the Batman,for all those who just awoke from your cryogenic preservation).As for the dates,they were completely made up by me. There was also a column for entering details about any significant events that have happened so far ,and I entered details of events that did happen to Batman in the comics,such as his parents being shot down by a mugger,his back being broken,the death of Jason Todd(The second Robin) etc. Also,I created an email id specifically for this purpose - 'brucewaynerich@gmail.com',as I did not want to use my own email id (I'm a major spamophobe :P).

Today,I finally got a reply from the website.It reads as follows:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rakesh Singhal <lifescape@lifescapeastrology.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 8:54 AM
Subject: Re: Advice from Lifescape Astrology
To: brucewaynerich@gmail.com


Hello Mr bruce wayne,
a man who by heart is well wisher of society , colleagues and friends is getting worst from the same elements. your chart is likely to be included in our future training programmes.
your objectives are my objectives too, but before that, you need to be financially well off. you will do well in business, and in case there is any doubt, you remove them.
please wear emerald. keep in touch, and send us your observations after one month of wearing emerald.
yes, points mentioned by you can be read from your chart.
wish you good luck,
rakesh singhal

------ Original Message ------
From: webmaster@lifescapeastrology.com
To: lifescape@lifescapeastrology.com
Sent: 2/4/2011 12:00:08 PM
Subject: Advice from Lifescape Astrology

First name: Bruce

Last name: Wayne

Gender: M

Date : 19

Month : 2

Year : 1967

Hour : 5

Minute :

Town: Gotham city

State: NY

Country: USA

Email: brucewaynerich@gmail.com

Email 2: brucewaynerich@gmail.com

Eventdate1: October 1975

Event1: Parents killed by mugger

Eventdate2: June 1988

Event2: Partner dies

Eventdate3: January 1993

Event3: Back broken by a thug

Eventdate4: September 2008

Event4: Cheated by current girlfriend

Profession: Business

Problems: Bring peace to Gotham city and strike terror into the hearts of criminals

Casestudies: Yes

This clearly proves how true the website's claims are. I urge anyone who is reading this blog to try a similar thing with other such websites.Lets hunt these morons out!

Here is the image of 'Bruce Wayne's natal chart' that the website sent me:

Here's the excel file that I got from the website that has the details of the above chart in a spreadsheet:

bruce wayne.xls - 21.0 KB

Here's a pdf copy of the original form:

Gemstone Advice.pdf - 24.7 KB

I only have one thing to say to the website in question,and to other 'practitioners of astrology' : FAIL! :D :D

The real 'secret'

If one were to look at any list of bestselling books of the last ten years, one can see that a good portion of the ones noted are what are known as 'self-help' books. One thing that's common to these books is their purported nature of showing the reader how to make the 'best use' of his/her life and turn out 'successful'.Some of the more recent ones even go as far as saying that it's possible to obtain anything that one wants by merely wishing for it.Another common feature of these books is the usage of pseudo-scientific terms such as 'Quantum consciousness','Collective subconscious' etc and the usage of non-existent phenomena to highlight the author's attempt at explaining what according to him/her is the nature of the working of the world.The blurbs on these books all seem to claim that the ideas espoused by the book in question is mankind's key to understanding the universe.

The authors of all these books want to point out that our lives so far has been empty and meaningless and that they are the ones who will rescue us from the mundaneness that we have created,and turn us into 'highly successful people',who know 'the secret' of being good at everything.

If the books have helped anyone become succesful at what they do,it is the authors themselves,no doubt having got considerably richer with the sales of the books.

It leaves one to wonder if people have become so insecure about themselves,that they need someone else to tell them how to go about their lives.

One just needs to pause and think to know that the world around is beautiful in its own regard. Surely,the stars in the sky are enchanting,even without a 'God' to hold them up.The way nature works is a marvel,even without a 'spirit' to drive it.And it surely is common-sense to know that one can have what one wants/needs,by suitably working at getting it.

Our ability to reason and understand is what drove our species to have considerable mastery over much of the world,and ignoring our voice of reason will not be a good thing at all.