Pro Evo; Pro Evolution - Guideline for an Age of Joy

[Velocir_X]

WTF IS THIS????

*ahem* I received this book in the mail today, free and unsolicited with an attached note that said:

The enclosed book, Pro Evo, comes to you as a free gift.
The author (1911 - 2001) discovered in the 1950's a new, simple and reliable guideline for human thought and action, orientedd on cosmic evolution.
The discovery was decisive in his own life, bringing him joy, fulfillment and sucess.
Grateful, he wanted to share his ideas. He published his discovery and set up a Foundation.
This book he wrote is sent as free gift from the Foundation. May the guidline be as helpful in your life as it was in the author's!

There was no return address. It was addressed to me, which is strange, considering I'm a 13 year old, and the only things i get in the mail with my name on it are letters from duke tip, letters from boarding highschools that want me, and my subscriptions to Scientific American and Discover (PopSci, is, sadly, still addressed to my father)

After some googling and searching around nameless blogs I discovered the following:

Apparently the book is some sort of pseudo-scientific, new age, world government, religious babble. People have described it as geared toward emotionally unstable women, and cultist in origin.

The author is a Joseph Haid (pseudonym and personal ideology: Tomot Om) All that I know about him is that he's Austrian born.

The book is mass-shipped from Hackney NJ

The address listed for the publisher Asana AG is:
Aquasanastrasse 8, 7001 Chur, Schweiz

This maps to a building in the Swiss town Chur.

Also registered at this address are the following:
1. TravCo Travel & Tourism (a "transport + courier")
2. "TNC" (stands for Treuhand Norbert Cavegn AG), see next item - they're remarkably similar.
3. "TRM" (which, as far as I can tell, is the acronym for a law/finance/trust/auditors "fiduciary expert" companyTreuhand Reto Mueller ("Reto Mueller Trust"). They also seem to have handled the bankruptcy/liquidation of the Hotel Steinbock Klosters AG in Klosters - Translates as Hotel Capricorn.)

TRM info is here:
http://www.swissguide.ch/de/Treuhaender ... reidg.html
...And also here:
http://www.swissguide.ch/de/Treuhaender ... uhand.html
...though the website listed is "under construction"
There are phone numbers and e-mail addresses, however.

There is more info about the publisher (and the multilayered business that controls it) here:
http://www.worldbox.ch/showdetail.cfm?win=CH0000533311

And a search for Treuhand Reto Mueller on Moneyhouse.ch has some interesting data, including former company names and names of various employees.

The majority of the people who receive this are socially liberal, fiscally conservative, politically independent, and atheists. Many of them have subscriptions to scientific journals.

Has anyone else received this mysterious book? Does anyone know something about its origin, and the Foundation? How do they select who to mail it to?

 

[Petros]

LOL! That actually sounds hilarious. What happen? You order Pro Evo the game and get that?

 

[Velocir_X]

Nope, I just came home one day and found it in the mailbox, with no idea how it got there....

 

[Venetia]

you said it yourself, you have a subscription to several science magazines.

when you sign up for magazines through publishing companies and 3rd parties, sometimes your name and address is compiled into a sales database which is sold to advertising and marketing firms specializing in sales leads.

these sales leads are categorized by what marketing niche you fall into (this, obviously, lends you to the "scientific/non-religious/liberal" category, as the magazines you subscribe to relate that demographic). if a company wants to sell something to 30-something women, they'll get demographics from people subscribing to Parenting Monthly or Good Housekeeping. If a company wants to distribute something to liberal non-religious people, they'll target PopSci and Discover readers.

whether or not this company is looking to make money is largely irrelevant as you have no interest in giving them money. But, they likely sent you that periodical in the hopes that you would be a wealthy professor or "new age" upper-middle-class housewife who gets swept up in the rhetoric and "donates" to them. the fact that you're 13 is unknown to them because age data is generally not collected nor shared in marketing leads, and, typically, children are not the named recipients of magazines.

if you're trying to figure out if these people belong to some kind of cult, or scam, you're probably fairly accurate in your assessment. but there's nothing unlawful about sending free reading material so there's nothing you can do about it other than have a good laugh.