For thousands of years, numbers have represented a language of universal knowledge that forever falls just short of complete understanding, whether that language has been translated by ancient mathematicians, by biblical prophets or by modern physicists.

The hidden secrets of numbers have been embraced by Euclid and Pythagoras, by the believers of Kabbalah, by astrologers, scientists and the merely superstitious. Numbers represent a code with the power to explain or predict the unseen rules and reality of our world, but while the language of mathematics applies the hard rules of scientific method to refine and prove its certainty, the eternal fascination with numbers as a key to unlock secrets of the supernatural touches upon many phenomena that have mystified mankind for millennia.

Numbers themselves contain a strange, teasing playfulness that seem to hint at magic.

For example, consider the mystery of the number 142857, a perplexing creature known as a cyclic number. By multiplying 142857 by any number, the result will be either a permutation of itself or of 999,999. When multiplied by small numbers, the enigmatic pattern is obvious: 2 × 142857 = 285714 or 5 × 142857 = 714285. Multiply the number by 7 however and a strange variation occurs: 7 × 142857 = 999999! As the number is multiplied by larger numbers, the magic becomes more hidden, but is always there upon closer scrutiny: 8 × 142,857 = 1142856 ... by adding the first digit to the last, the remaining six will be 142857.
42 × 142,857 = 5,999,994 ... by adding first digit to the last, the remaining six will again be 999999.

The most commonly experienced numerical mystery in daily life combines the phenomena of strange coincidence with the perceived significance of certain numbers. Almost everyone has noticed recurring numbers in their lives and found them to be inexplicably eerie. The most often experienced contemporary instance has come since the invention of the digital clock. Most people have glanced at a digital clock over the course of months or years and realized that they have a tendency to check the time just as one memorable numeric sequence has appeared: 12:34, 11:11, 8:08, etc. One possible explanation for this is that each of us possess a highly accurate biological clock that can be unconsciously 'set' to perform actions at certain intervals, though as we shall see there are also purely psychological explanations.

A less common but spookier phenomena occurs when recurring numbers are attached to places or events -- the number of a hospital room, an apartment, an airline flight, a cemetery plot or a signigficant date.

Delving into the purely mystical and conjectural realm of numbers and religion, there is the modern phenomena of the Bible Code. Some scholars claim that the chapters of the Bible contain hidden messages that are revealed when a matrix is used to select letters in the text to form new words and phrases. That matrix is applied as either a recurring visual pattern or as a sequence of equidistantantly separated letters. Sceptics claim that the same results can be found by applying letter patterns to any book, from the Bible to Moby Dick.

Apart from the number based 'codes' in religion is the overt symbolism and importance of numbers in sacred texts, from the infamous "666" in the Book of Revelation to the number "42" which is the number with which God created the Universe according to the Kaballah. (42 is also revealed to be the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything according to the computer Deep Thought in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.)

Finally, there is The "23" Enigma. According to contemporary writers Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Shea and Arthur Koestler, in their various writings, the number 23 is said to have an intrinsic importance in relation to all events according to the teachings of the Illuminati. 23 is also a number of mystical importance in the modern religion of Discordianism, a zen-like philosophy which incorporates chaos and disharmony into a quirky model of the Universe.

In the film The Number 23, Jim Carrey plays Walter Sparrow, a man who becomes obsessed with the 23 enigma to a degree that consumes his life and threatens to destroy those around him.

To what extent is the mysticism of numbers real and how much is it a trick of the mind? Much of what we experience as the startling emergence of significant numbers in our experience or definition of reality can be explained as the convergence of two psychological states.

Arithmomania is defined as an obsession with numbers or equations and apophenia is the psychological phenomena of seeing patterns or connections in random data to create false conclusions. The ability to see order in chaos or to recognize subtle variations as important is the foundation of higher consciousness, from the discovery of science to the ability to recognize faces -- but it's very easy to impose meaning on the meaningless.

A popular manifestation of apophenia is the phenomena of seeing religious icons in everyday things, from water stains to tree sap to grilled cheese sandwiches. Apophenia experienced to a frightening degree is a symptom of psychosis, and was used as an art motif to express bizarre dream states in surrealist paintings by creating illusions to trick the eye and the mind.

Are the strange synchronicities found in The 23 Enigma, The Bible Code and the Digital Clock Coincidence all just harmless manifestations of arithmomania and apophenia? Or as some suggest, are they a tear in the veil of common experience that reveals another layer of reality? The ultimate answer will forever remain up to each of us to decide.

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