If you intend to give your critics a field day, just mention astrology or numerology in your argument. They may burst out laughing. Numerology is a way to give meaning to events using numbers. Numbers have no meaning, except for the number itself. But there are meaningful coincidences that may indicate that there is a script. Many of them could have happened by chance if there was chance. And chance can have a dramatic impact.

Chaos theory is about the huge consequences small events can have. For example, the flight of a butterfly may cause a storm that can derail events that were to happen in the future if the storm hadn’t materialised. Just imagine that another sperm fertilised the egg of Adolf Hitler’s mother. There were millions of sperms out there that day.

The reference to the end date of World War I on the licence plate of Franz Ferdinand’s death car could indicate that there is a script behind all the events that happen in this world. World War I consisted of countless actions of countless individuals so the end date would impossible to predict otherwise, unless you could time travel to the past. Only time travel would derail the events that were to happen, so that something else would happen. And the end date of World War I happened to be 11 November (11-11).

This may justify a closer look at coincidences like 11:11 turning up on clocks again and again. Some numerologists claim that eleven is a Master Number. And this quality comes with all kinds of esoteric attributes, numerologists explain:

The 11 (a double 1) has the traits and personality of the 1 twice, and when added (11 = 1 + 1 = 2) becomes a 2, thereby combining the most powerful male energy (the 1, Zeus) with the equally potent female energy (the 2, Hera). Considering that the 1 and the 2 are on opposite ends of the spectrum and the sum of their combined attributes pretty much overshadows all other attributes assigned to the numbers 3 through 9, you can perhaps imagine a merging of the strongest, most driven and aggressive warrior, an unstoppable masculine energy, with the supremacy of the most intuitive, feminine, and cunning goddess. And even that does not reveal the true essence of the 11 Master number: The 11 symbolises the potential to push the limitations of the human experience into the stratosphere of the highest spiritual perception; the link between the mortal and the immortal; between man and spirit; between darkness and light; ignorance and enlightenment. This is the ultimate symbolic power of the 11.

The only thing that is pushed into the stratosphere here is the level of nonsense. Other people believe that 11:11 is a sign from angels. This is speculation with no evidence backing it. If you are seeing some number time after time, it is either the result of selective remembrance or your mind being controlled. The latter can even be true when you don’t see 11:11.

Eleven is the first double-digit number. It forms a pair like many coincidences that attract attention. A coincidence is often a pair of similar events happening in a short time. This may be why eleven attracts attention. You get a number and then the same number again. To me eleven symbolises coincidence. It is my personal interpretation.

If you take this to the next level, you get 11:11. 11:11 symbolises a pair of coincidences to me. Eleven is the fool’s number in the Netherlands, so I think of them as the extremely weird happening, for instance events that show traces of design like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. But then again, this is my personal opinion. Quran verse 36:36 states that God created everything in pairs. This is a bit peculiar. 36:36 is like 11:11 as 36 = 6 * 6. This is a miracle of the Quran, a Muslim would say.

And the extremely weird has been happening to me. Take for example, the following incident. I had been investigating eleven related coincidences for my research so I dedicated a webpage to them on the Natural Money website. The page had links to other websites about eleven and 11:11. After uploading the page to the server I noticed that something amazing had happened. The registered upload timestamp of the associated 11coincidencegallery.html file was 11:11. I didn’t do this on purpose.

Even more remarkable was a discovery I did more than one year later. I was researching the coincidences surrounding the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. After uploading excerpts from the Killtown’s 9/11 Coincidences website, I found out that they were uploaded on 11 April 2011 on 9:11 AM. At that time, the page 11coincidencegallery.html was last uploaded on 11 September 2010. And I didn’t make any effort make this happen too. I discovered it seven months later.

The first coincidence was already amazing. It was followed by an equally amazing and closely related coincidence. To me 11:11 symbolises events like these. It may look like an observer effect. Something similar happened during my investigation of curse of the Omen. It appears that the investigation triggered the event. If there is a script then this is not the correct explanation. In that case doing the investigation and the incident were both scripted. It may also explain why paranormal phenomena can’t be reproduced in a controlled environment so that the paranormal can’t be proven scientifically.

A trick often used by numerologists is compressing numbers, which is adding up the digits of a number until you get a single digit. For example 1589 is 1 + 5 + 8 + 9 = 23. You then iterate this process until you get a single digit number. 23 adds up to 2 + 3 = 5. There is an exception to this rule. You don’t perform this trick on 11, so the number 911 adds up to 11 as 9 + 1 + 1 = 11. You stop there. You don’t go further by doing 1 + 1 = 2. Why? Perhaps 11 is too beautiful a number to be broken down further.

Many people were seeing 11:11 on clocks again and again. And perhaps you remember the fuss about the winter solstice of 21 December 2012. The world as we know it would end, the Mayans allegedly predicted. The estimated time for the solstice was 11:11 GMT while the digits of the date 21 December 2012 add up to 11 (2 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2+ 0 + 1 + 2). This freaked out a few people. It also freaked me out as it could be a sign that the End of Times is near.

Our inclination to attach meaning to numbers can be used. For instance, the Dutch National Route 666 goes towards Borssele, the site of the only remaining Dutch nuclear power plant. I once came on this route from a place called Kwadendamme, which means Evildam. The only other Dutch nuclear power plant had been located in Dodewaard, which means Dead Holm. The former municipality of Dodewaard was 66.5 square kilometres, which is also peculiar. It is possible that meaning we attach to the number 666 is used here to make a suggestion about the use of nuclear power.

Weird things happened in the stock markets too. The S&P500 hit a low of 666 on 6 March 2009 (date 6/3 while 666 is three sixes). The exact low was 666.79, so to be fair, it should be rounded up to 667, but it is peculiar nonetheless. The financial crisis was stemmed after the FED committed $7.77 trillion to rescuing the financial system.¹ Perhaps for that reason IMF Chief Christine Lagarde made some frisky numerological comments on the Magic 7 early 2014 at the US National Press Club following the IMF’s annual review of the US economy.²

Then on 24 June 2016, the stock markets had a correction after the results of the Brexit vote came out. In the United States, the Dow was down 610, the NASDAQ was down 202, and the S&P 500 was down 76, a total loss of 888 points.³ This happened exactly 7 years, 7 months, 7 weeks and 7 days after the Dow crashed 777.7 points at the height of the financial crisis on 29 September 2008.⁴ It didn’t take long before Lagarde’s remarks about the Magic 7 were picked up on the Internet by conspiracy theorists.

Another trick is translating letters to numbers via the following scheme: A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, D = 4, and so on. In this way the letters AD represent the number 14. In the same fashion A5 could represent 15. There are many possible connections you could make in this way, so something will fit some scheme most of the time. And numerology attracts people with limited reasoning capabilities. Numbers don’t have meaning except for the number itself. Only people attribute meaning to them. Peculiar numerical coincidences do happen. They might be evidence of a script. And that script may use our inclination to give meaning to numbers.

Featured image: Mayan Calendar: That’ll freak somebody out someday. Dan Piraro. bizarrocomic.blogspot.com (2009). [link]

1. Report: Fed Committed $7.77 Trillion To Rescue Banks. Eyder Peralta. NPR (2011). [link]
2. How One Speech Ignited A Ridiculous Conspiracy Theory About The Occult Allegiances Of IMF Chief Christine Lagarde. Peter Farquhar. Business Insider (2014). [link]
3. Crazy Day For Dow, S&P 500 And NASDAQ. Robert H. Anderson. Investing.com (2016). [link]
4. Dow Falls 777 as Market Reels From House Vote. Cindy Perman. CNBC (2008). [link]