If you intend to give your critics a field day, base your argument on astrology or numerology, and they will have a good laugh. Numerology is about giving meaning to events using numbers. Numbers have no meaning except for the number itself, so numerology is nonsense. When you give meaning to numbers, you may find the occurrence of specific numbers meaningful. If your lucky number is twenty-six, and you happen to see that number, you might think it is your lucky day. Many of us are superstitious in some way or another. Some wear their lucky shirt when their favourite soccer team is playing. Conspiracy theorists think coincidences indicate that occult groups gather in secret societies like Skull and Bones to coordinate world events. Here is the proof, according to an anonymous online poster:

This year is the 192nd anniversary of the Skull and Bones Society. Matthew Perry died 14 days (2 weeks) after eclipse in October. Sonic (boom) = 192. Obama = 192. Leave the World Behind = 192. Eclipse = 192. Deer – 192. Matthew Perry’s birthday is August 19. 19 seen in Leave the World Behind. April 8th Chandler’s Birthday from Friends, played by Perry. Next Eclipse April 8th. March Twenty Five = 192. One Nine Two is 804 in English Gematria. That’s April 8th backwards, folks. Solar Eclipse is 804. At the very beginning of the movie, three 6s surround the bed. 666 There were 666 months between Chandler’s birthday and Matthew Perry’s death day. Julia Roberts played Chandler’s girlfriend on Friends for a very short time. They were also a couple in real life at the time. Matthew Perry died the same day Julia Roberts celebrated her birthday. At his funeral was a song played Don’t Give Up where the music video has an eclipse in it. Don’t give up – 133. Forty Eight – 133. Gematria for Moloch, Baal, and Mammon are all matched up with this movie.

Now, is it just me, or is this a collection of unrelated events cherry-picked to fit a meaningless scheme? If something remotely relates to Matthew Perry and adds up to 192, the poster added it to the list. And it supposedly proves that members of Skull and Bones are behind these events? That is why numerology attracts ridicule. But it is not that much different from what I am doing, seeing coincidences as evidence that there is a script. The connections I see could be meaningless to you.

These connections aren’t entirely arbitrary, though. The ‘prophetic’ licence plate number AIII 118 of the car that drove Archduke Franz Ferdinand to his assassin, raises the eyebrows of an editor at the Smithsonian Magazine, and many others as well, because the assassination triggered World War I while the licence plate looks like a reference to the Armistice of 11 November 1918 that ended the war. The more people see the same meaning, the less subjective it becomes, but it doesn’t mean someone made it happen. Meaningful coincidences can occur by chance. They aren’t necessarily evidence of an intelligent force directing events, unless they come in improbably large numbers or are part of improbably intricate schemes. Proving that is challenging, to say the least.

So, what about the licence plate of Franz Ferdinand’s doom car referring to the end date of World War I? The end date of the war, 11 November (11-11), may be odd, but most wars didn’t end on 11 November, so there is nothing suspicious about it if you take this fact in isolation. The license plate number and the role of the car in starting the war, however, make the scheme more peculiar, thereby highlighting the date. The start and end of World War I are among the most significant events in history. They are in an entirely different league than the 192nd anniversary of the Skull and Bones Society and the supposedly related events involving Matthew Perry. The combination of importance, meaningfulness and unlikelihood matters, even though we can’t pinpoint it as there is no reliable way to calculate the odds.

Many people notice the time prompt 11:11 on clocks appearing over and over again. So what about the number eleven? Is it special? Numerologists claim eleven is a Master Number. Others believe 11:11 is a sign from angels. If you see it, the angels have a purpose for you, they claim. Well, angels, tell me more. Some explanations make more sense. Eleven is the first double-digit number, and double-digit numbers attract attention. You may see other numbers, but they don’t draw attention because they don’t stand out from the rest. And so it seems you see eleven more often than other numbers. It is selective remembrance. You can remember only the things you noticed. If you happen to notice the same number again and again, it is either a selective remembrance or mind control.

Eleven is a pair of equal digits. Equal digits are an unusual occurrence that attracts attention like a remarkable coincidence. Coincidences can be pairs of similar events. That is why eleven represents coincidence to me. It is my interpretation. If you take this to the next level, you get 11:11. 11:11 thus represents a pair of related coincidences, such as the do-it-yourself store incident. Eleven is the fool’s number in the Netherlands and is associated with oddity. And so I think of 11:11 coincidences as the weird happening. But that is my personal view. Quran verse 36:36 states that God created everything in pairs. 36:36 is like 11:11 as 36 = 6 * 6. A Muslim might say, ‘It is a miracle of the Quran.’ And if you know how the Quran came into existence, you know it is not human intent that made this happen.

I became entangled in a few remarkable numerical coincidences as well. Take the following incident. I investigated eleven related coincidences and dedicated a webpage to them on the Natural Money website. I later removed it and focused the website on research on the financial system. The page had links to other websites dealing with eleven and 11:11. After uploading the page to the server, I noticed something odd had transpired. The upload timestamp of the 11coincidencegallery.html file was 11:11. I didn’t intend for that to happen.

Even more remarkable was a discovery I made more than a year later, which was closely related. I was researching the coincidences surrounding the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. After uploading excerpts from Killtown’s 9/11 coincidences website (files 2001.html to 2006.html), I found out their upload time was 11 April 2011 at 9:11 AM. Also, the file 911.html, which contained my findings regarding the subject, has this timestamp. At the time, the 11coincidencegallery.html page had an upload date of 11 September 2010, also 9/11. I did not make any effort to make this happen either. I discovered it seven months later. It is a pair of closely related coincidences. That is what 11:11 is about for me. If that happens to you, it might make you wonder.

An exercise often performed by numerologists is compressing numbers. It 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. And then you stop. There is one exception. You do not perform this on eleven, so 911 adds up to 11 as 9 + 1 + 1 = 11. You stop there. You do not go any further by doing 1 + 1 = 2. Why? Perhaps eleven is too beautiful a number to break down any further.

Perhaps you recall the fuss about the winter solstice of 21 December 2012. The world would end on that day, the Mayans allegedly predicted. The estimated time for the solstice was 11:11 GMT, while the digits of 21 December 2012 (21-12-2012) add up to 11 (2 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 2). That freaked out a few people, including me. What had happened to me made me think the End Times could be near. Nothing spectacular transpired on that date, perhaps also because the experts recalculated the exact time to be 11:12 GMT due to the Earth experiencing a delay in its planned trajectory. Coincidences might be signs, but you only know in hindsight, so trying to interpret suspected signs beforehand is pointless. Usually, nothing sensible comes out of that.

Coincidences involving numbers can be meaningful to us because we often attribute specific meanings to certain numbers. Once, I came upon the Dutch National Route 666 after leaving a village named Kwadendamme, which translates to ‘Evildam.’ Now, that is already quite peculiar. While getting on Route N666, I noticed a road sign to Borssele, the location of the only remaining Dutch nuclear power plant. The meaning we attach to 666 and Kwadendamme play into my feelings about nuclear energy. The only other Dutch nuclear power plant was in Dodewaard, which translates to ‘Death Holm,’ making it even more ominous. The former municipality of Dodewaard was 66.5 square kilometres in size, close enough to 66.6 to attract my attention.

But why was that size 0.1 square kilometre off? The N666 ends at ‘s-Heerenhoek, which means Corner of the Lord, a small village next to Borssele, so not Borssele itself, thus also slightly off. Furthermore, the N666 ending in ‘s-Heerenhoek adds an entirely different perspective to it, like that God is behind it all, including what we think of as evil. Is it just a coincidence, and do I see meaning that isn’t intentional? That depends on whether there is a script or not. So, was the Author of the script just sloppy when planning route N666 and sizing the Dodewaard municipality? Or did the Author do it on purpose to keep us wondering? Or am I just imagining that someone did this on purpose?

Weird things also happened in the stock markets. The S&P 500 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, that is closer to 667, but it is peculiar nonetheless. The FED stemmed the crisis by committing $7.77 trillion to rescue the financial system. Perhaps for that reason, IMF Chief Christine Lagarde made some frisky numerological comments on the Magic Seven in 2014 at the US National Press Club following the IMF’s annual review of the US economy.²

On 24 June 2016, the stock markets corrected after the results of the Brexit vote came out. In the United States, the Dow was down 610 points, the NASDAQ was down 202 points, and the S&P 500 was down 76 points, resulting in 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 people on the Internet picked up Lagarde’s remarks about the Magic Seven.

A widely used method in numerology is to translate letters into numbers using the following scheme: A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, D = 4, and so on. In this way, the letters AD represent the number 14. Similarly, A5 represents 15. Something will fit some scheme most of the time. You can cherry-pick events and argue that they are part of a scheme proving members of Skull and Bones are behind it. That is why numerology attracts mockery. Probability, meaning, and significance are difficult to gauge, so critics urge us to refrain from making such evaluations. Still, peculiar numerical coincidences happen, and some stretch the imagination to the point that you might ask yourself, ‘Is this really just a coincidence?’

Latest revision: 12 August 2025

Featured image: 11:11 on a clock

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]