Author's query on number 13 opinions (for a book). JCT replies by John Turmel. (Read below, starting at 'Questions'). BOOK ON UNLUCKY 13 QUESTIONNAIRE I am currently researching and writing a book on the number 13, which will include a section on 13 and games of chance. If you have time, I would love to hear your opinions and perspective on 13. Please feel free to copy the questions below and email your reply to Bookonunlucky13@a... Write as much or as little as you like. There are no right or wrong answers. JCT: A professional is supposed to ignore the date of the game. Your answers may be used in my book on 13; your reply grants me permission to quote from or draw on your answers without compensation. I will, of course, keep your identity/contact information, etc., completely confidential. Please feel free to forward this questionnaire to anyone you know who may find it of interest. My goal is to write the best book possible-- which means a book that accurately reflects the full spectrum of people's opinions and beliefs about 13. So the more people who respond the questionnaire, the better. Thank you very much for your help. Sincerely, Nathaniel Lachenmeyer Bookonunlucky13@a... QUESTIONS: First, general background: 1. How old are you? JCT: 52. 2. Where are you from? JCT: Ontario French Canadian. 3. What is your level of education? JCT: Bachelor of Engineering (electrical); 4 years post graduate research as Teaching Assistant of Mathematics of Gambling. 4. What is your occupation? JCT: Political-Legal-Economic Combat Engineer financed by professional poker as the TajProfessor. Now, the important stuff: 5. Is 13 an unlucky number? JCT: If it were, casino statistics would show it and they don't. 6. Why or why not? JCT: I really can't believe it matters. I have a close ally who absolutely believes the number 13 has special powers over other numbers. Sure, there should be 13 months because there are 13 lunar cycles and why they only have 12 is more a function of the 4 seasons being harder to divide into 13 for the common folk. 7. Have you had any personal experience with 13? JCT: I took the biggest bath of my Blackjack card-counting career at the Frontier Hotel back in 1974-5 on a Friday 13th. I just refused to let myself be superstitious and it just kept getting worse and worse. But then it was a profession where the number of hours was the only determinant of my eventual win. Now, I'd call it a quits and go do something else on a Friday the Thirteenth a lot quicker. 8. If so, what? JCT: Other than that, I've noticed no anomalies about 13 and I'm sure the Roulette Wheel records would back me up. 9. How have your experiences influenced how you view 13? JCT: I try to ignore it but one can't help wondering if there are hexes in the paranormal we can't see. Messages from TV broadcasters appear in my home without my seeing any links. Who knows if souls in the Fifth Dimension can watch us in the Fourth as Fourthers can watch those in the Third. Darn, it needs explaining. Ignoring time as the other dimension for a moment, draw a figure of a man on paper, in 2 dimensions. For your Three Dimension personage to enter his Two Dimensional world, poke your finger through the page. What does he see? From his dimension, looking at you, all he sees is a flesh colored line where your body intersects his dimension. Since he can't see out of his plane. So, souls could be watching our 3-dimensional bodies, or our Fourth Dimensional activity through Time from their higher dimensional viewpoint. The only question is whether those souls can exert any pressure on the Father to influence things in our world or is it a fair game that they get to all bet on? Odds are 2:1 that Earth pollutes itself beyond saving before the UNILETS comes online to pay the unemployed to clean it up, switch from petrochemicals to hemp and save ourselves. Two times, the planet dies and only once does it survive to become Eden. That's the Big Question that the Gaia of souls could be betting on if the Father does not allow interference in the Third Dimensional Casino. But if cheerleading in Heaven has some effect on luck, I don't see why they'd waste it on the number 13. 10. Please list any examples you have come across of the way people, businesses, and society at large have responded to 13 (e.g., no 13th floor in an apartment building). Be as specific as you can. JCT: Good point about the apartments. The superstition is that prevalent. I've seen many buildings that do not have a 13th floor. But I've never noticed it otherwise. 11. What are some famous incidents/events involving unlucky 13? JCT: 13 lunar cycles in 12 months has to a have an esoteric reason. Otherwise, I've never noticed. 12. Where does the belief that 13 is unlucky come from? JCT: I'd have thought from the Friday the Thirteenth Massacre of the Templar Knights in France is the reputed story for the Friday. How the 13 itself came about, no idea. Hope you find it and let us know. 14. How prevalent is the belief that 13 is unlucky? JCT: How can anyone not have heard the fear? But how many times does it come to a person's attention other than when they're buying lottery tickets and then, those who pick the "unlucky" number that wins as regular as the others gets the higher odds. Lucky 13! 15. Are there other unlucky numbers? If so, what are they? JCT: Can't say I've noticed any but can say the casino statistics have not. Or I'd know and be wearing 13s all over my tie instead of my Royal Flush. 16. Are there lucky numbers? If so, what are they? JCT: It depends if the House rakes Snake-Eyes or Box-Cars. 17. Would you describe yourself as a superstitious person? JCT: I'd describe myself as a religious person who accepts the probability that the souls in the Gaia have a front row seat to any show in the Universe and only the ones with an uncertainty of outcome can draw the attention of the wagering souls in cyberspace. Remember that old Star Trek show when they fell under the control of a bunch of Gods. "I'll wager 10 credits on Kirk" says one, "I'll wager 20 credits on the other," says another. Only uncertainty can be good entertainment for souls watching whether our planet lives or dies. And every civilization needs to use money to be one, and money is easily corrupted from a service device to a slavery device just by getting the suckers to sign promising to repay 11 when they only borrowed 10 in existence. All planets must pass through their usury debt slaveries and shake them off before the final cataclysm, since only high-tech communications can break the chains, or make the "Don't Pass" gamblers the winners of that bet. So, on the assumption that some kind of God is watching me, all I can do is my best to become a liberated Son of God that we all should strive to be. I guess it's just my continual quarter century of political-legal combat with the overseer forces of government working for the rich that makes me such a pessimist in my own way. 18. If so, what are some of your superstitions? JCT: I got the UNILETS blueprint for financial liberation from our debts, the answers to Christ's Lord's Prayer, "forgive us our debts" on the UN Millennium Declaration. It's up to the nations to adopt the Time Standard of Money software and that's a political process. I only hope we're not already past the environmental "point of no return" and the crowds in Heaven have already been paid off and gone on to watch another planet where the same game of survival from the scourge of usury is being played. Switching from fossil fuels to hemp bio-mass is then possible as well as reductions from no more need for New Zealand carrots to compete with Canadian carrots in the Canadian marketplace and no more need for Canadian carrots to compete with New Zealand tomatoes in New Zealand. All the wasted transport costs saved. 19. Please feel free to add anything else you might like to say on the subject of 13. JCT: Dealing with superstition is an incredible experience that few, other than gamblers, must face on a regular basis. To know you've made the optimal "bear-off" at Backgammon but still lose is nevertheless reassuring. Had to be bad luck. To know Jesus Christ himself could not come on down from on high and do a bear-off any better than you just did is as reassuring. But to think that he'd roll some extra box-cars to win every time would be a travesty. That's why saying he was some kind of God with special powers over humans makes his facing the ordeal of the cross that much less epic. "What? Me worry? I've got super powers and I can't be kept dead." But like a skilled Shaman priest who can walk on hot coals to face his ordeal as the epitome of Man, now that's the epic story I want to remember him for. Not that they say he did great parlor tricks and violated the laws of physics. Mind over matter by a human, wow. By a Clark Kent with super powers, not such an epic story. Thank you! Nathaniel Lachenmeyer Bookonunlucky13@a... JCT: Let me know when it comes out and where people can get it and I'll let my readers know. -- Abolitionist Slave Leader John C."The Banking Systems Engineer" Turmel for UNILETS interest-free time-based currency in U.N. resolution C6 to Governments in the http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration.htm http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel 613-562-0669 USENET: can.politics