Sick Of Psychic Spam

There is a small but bloody annoying contingent of the online spiritual chatrooms etc who think its ALL RIGHT to join a site, trawl your email from the members list and share it round.

My old hotmail gets regular emails from new chatrooms and training courses, all worded as if I am supposed to know all about it already. None of them ever have the regulatory statement at the bottom about why I received the mail or how to 'unsubscribe' (bit of a misnomer that, if I never subscribed in the first place.) If I reply asking how they got my name, they are always awfully apologetic and vaguely suggest we must have emailed each other once, way back in the mists of time. Oh yeah? When did a single personal email give you the right to save my address for advertising? Are you bullshitting me because your cyberfriend Spirit-bunny-hugs gave you all the email addresses they got from another wannabe goddess five years ago?


How and why do they get away with it?

Because they're 'nice', because they rely on granny rules, the ones that say they can do as they bloody well please because they are inoffensive and well meaning and therefore somehow don't count. They conceitedly trust that spiritual people couldn't possibly take offence at an advertisment dressed up as an offer of sisterhood and guidance even when the recipient has never heard of them in their bloody life. And then they go and teach others that that's the way to do it.

Wrong, ladies.

You might be really enthused about your latest course or site, you might be full of happy thoughts and hopes and warm fuzzy feelings, but I still RESENT my email address being passed from pillar to post in case I might feel the same, and I RESENT the spam that clogs up my inbox from a hundred people like you. I would readdress your emails to each other to make a point, except sadly I think that you would only end up swapping your illegally populated mailing lists, doubling the hassle you cause.

I don't want a reiki course on unveiling my inner goddess, I don't want to attend a lecture on putting a leash on the Archangels so they come at my beck and call, I don't want to learn DIY past life regression (aka pick a drama that panders to your ego and then wallow in it.)

If I did, I'd check a decent directory like WWM, or go and google for one.

So, to all my spiritual sisters and brothers who have reached a hilltop on your life path and feel called to accost strangers and call yourself teacher, particularly to all you off the wall loonies who are certain you were tinkerbell in a past life:

You believe in spirit, and guides, and possibly (increasingly rarely) in a God. Prove it. Whichever entity you feel has each of us by the scruff of the neck, try trusting it/him/her/them to 'guide' us to join a legal mailing list, life-changing new site or thrilling awareness course, and cut the sodding spam.

Otherwise, SOD OFF, go assess whether or why you feel so desperate to be important. You give the real experts a bad name.