Predestination Issues

7 Sep 201923 Jun 2026 nivtricLeave a comment

Whether or not we have free will is an ancient philosophical question. Ancient Greek philosophers already reasoned, ‘This happens because of that. Everything that happens could be an endless sequence of causes and effects.’ We feel we make our own choices. If I went out to buy a garden gnome yesterday, I am inclined to think I could have decided not to go out shopping or to buy something more useful instead, like an inflatable Santa Claus that says ‘Ho ho ho’ when you pinch his nose. If I could go back in time, I might have done something different, or so I believe. But had I felt an uncontrollable urge to buy that gnome, I would have considered myself subjected to forces beyond my control.

Some things are beyond our control. Our biology and culture limit our options. You can’t simply stop breathing or run faster than the speed of sound. Those who have tried, failed, or died. And it is hard to do things that go against the prevailing will of society or your family and friends unless you don’t care about other people’s opinions, which might be something you have no control over. But it seems you have options. Choices like buying a garden gnome don’t raise controversy, and you appear free to make them.

Recent advances in neuroscience have enabled scientists to observe brain activity associated with decision-making. And that was quite revealing. Our choices originate in our brains several milliseconds or even longer before we become aware of them.¹ The evidence suggests that there is no free will in the sense we traditionally believe it to exist.

The traditional idea of the will is that it is a force in its own right. Nothing else causes it. It is rooted in the belief that we have a mind, a spirit or a soul that is separable from our bodies. This idea is at odds with scientific findings that the mind results from chemical processes in the brain. Not having a will is not the same as predestination. It doesn’t rule out the possibility that we could make different choices if we went back in time. Our choices could still be random, like the throw of a dice. A dice doesn’t have free will, either.

Religious people face questions like, ‘If we have free will, how can God know what we will choose?’ Or conversely, ‘If God knows what we will choose, how can we have free will?’ The most straightforward answer is that there are two levels: the level of us mere mortals, who make our plans, and the level above, that of the Supreme Puppet Master, who pulls the strings and determines what we will choose. That is not free will at a higher level, but at a lower level, it is. Somehow, some people remain fascinated by this question.

At least we experience making choices. These choices might be illusions, but the feelings that accompany them aren’t. It is the experience of choice that we understand as free will. When you go through an emotional struggle before buying a garden gnome, the emotions are real to you, even when they are chemical processes in the body. Free will, as an experience, exists as we understand it. And it is pointless to argue that even if you could go back in time, you couldn’t have done otherwise, because you can’t go back in time.

Predetermination raises several questions. One is about punishing criminals as retribution rather than to protect the public. A desire for reprisal is a human emotion. But it seems unjust to hold people responsible for actions they can’t control. Often, criminals lack a proper upbringing, or they have psychological issues. And punishing offenders rather than addressing the underlying causes increases the likelihood of recidivism. Worse yet, small changes in body chemistry can profoundly change our character. That may all be true, but it is our nature to have moral systems with accountability and punishments. We can’t help ourselves in that sense as well. And so, the alternative of having no accountability and punishments is having no society.

In our experience, moral rules and punishment matter, just as free will does, and we experience having a choice. That is the point of punishing criminals. And it can deter calculating individuals. From a pragmatic perspective, you can prevent a lot of trouble by rehabilitating criminals when possible. Still, humans are rule-following creatures, and transgressions come with feelings of moral indignation. Failing to cater to feelings of justice and the desire for reprisal undermines the moral fabric of society.

Compatibilism holds that we have free will even when our choices are predetermined. It is similar to the Christian concept of making a moral choice, even though God knows what you will do. It becomes logically consistent if you introduce two levels: one of daily experience and another of the underlying reality. It is a practical approach which allows us to make moral choices. Morality is more than just following rules. It is about doing the right thing. However, the entire concept of morality hinges on the assumption of freedom of choice.

The second question deals with fate. If you are going to die on a preset day, then what is the point of seeing a doctor? Alternatively, you could opt for a dangerous hobby like mountaineering, for you will live until a specific date. But you don’t know that date. So, if you go to a doctor who cures you of an illness that would otherwise have been fatal, that would be predetermined. If you choose not to go to the doctor and you die, that would also be predestination. The same applies to abandoning a hobby such as mountaineering rather than perishing on the slopes of Mount Everest.

The third deals with premonitions and accurate predictions insofar as they are not attributable to fraud or chance. Why can fortune-tellers sometimes make accurate predictions? And why are their predictions unreliable at the same time? The answer is that it is impossible to know the future. If I knew I would have a car accident tomorrow, I would remain home, and the accident wouldn’t happen. Predictions can influence the future, unless they are vague or hidden. In 1914, no one could have guessed that the licence plate number on Franz Ferdinand’s car referred to the end date of the upcoming world war.

So, if I pass a sign saying, ‘You will have a car accident tomorrow,’ it can only be a sign if I laugh about it and discover it was a sign the next day. Premonitions and accurate predictions require more than predestination. If you have a suspicion that proves correct, it is not you knowing the future but the one giving you the premonition. Predetermination suggests that we are like characters in a story, much like the comic book character Spiderman. Spiderman may realise he is a comic character in a story, but only if that is the script. Spiderman can’t change the script, but the script’s author can make him believe he can. That would be a delusion on the part of Spiderman, for you can’t escape destiny.

That is also how voodoo works. The practitioner of voodoo puts needles in a doll, and the targeted subject may suffer intense pain simultaneously, yet there is no causal relationship, nor is there any magic involved. It is a scripted coincidence, and the author of the script wants you to believe that voodoo works.

Predetermination allows for accurate predictions that defy chance. Actions taken to prevent these predictions from being fulfilled must fail, which requires a lack of information on the actors involved. Oedipus fulfilled the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother. He didn’t know that the couple he believed to be his parents were not his true parents. Fearing the prediction, he fled, setting off a chain of events that made the prediction come true. The prophecies of ancient Greek oracles only made sense in hindsight. And so, for guidance on people’s actions, they could be pretty worthless.

Latest revision: 16 June 2026

Featured image: Aruba sunset. English Wikipedia.

1. The clockwork universe: Is free will an illusion? Oliver Burkeman. The Guardian (2021).

Satire on False Perspective. William Hogarth (1754).

Strange Universe

31 Dec 201819 Sep 2025 nivtricLeave a comment

The license plate number on the car that drove Franz Ferdinand to his appointment with destiny was just one of the remarkable incidents and experiences on record. In many cases, we can establish the relevant facts to the point where there is little doubt that the event has indeed occurred. We have no evidence suggesting someone has changed the licence plate. Perhaps science will explain these things in the future, as this universe may have properties we don’t yet know. Some have come up with explanations that let go of our understanding of time and cause and effect.

Our usual way of perceiving events is that something happens in a particular place at a specific time. We think of a place as a constant as time passes. Events in the past caused events happening now. And events in the present cause future events. The Allied invasion took place in Normandy on 6 June 1944. Normandy is still there, but 6 June 1944 is history. The liberation of Western Europe from German occupation is a consequence of D-Day. If D-Day had not happened, history would have taken a different turn. In this way, cause and effect work. That makes sense to us.

Perhaps, events connect in ways other than causality and time. The psychiatrist Carl Jung proposed a collective consciousness that connects all events through meaning. If you believe it, that can explain a few things, such as reincarnation accounts and premonitions. Perhaps the collective consciousness carries a deceased person’s memories into someone else or gives premonitions that come true. According to science, this is all total gibberish, not even worth a second of your thought, as it contradicts established laws of science. Only in a story can events connect via meaning.

Others think of time as a dimension, so you can travel to a time like you can travel to a place, even though nobody ever succeeded in doing that as far as we know. These ideas counter our traditional notion of cause and effect over time. But so does the theory of relativity. And the theory of relativity proved to be helpful, so we consider it to be true. Perhaps physics will one day explain premonitions.

A reference to the end date of World War I could thus have ended up on the licence plate of Franz Ferdinand’s car because of some connection we don’t yet know. No plausible explanation is available for that connection, but perhaps some property of this universe is still unexplained. And maybe both are true. All points in time might be connected in another way, while causality also applies. Physicists have to work with queer phenomena that are hard to explain. For example, light behaves like both particles and waves, but waves can’t be particles.

Alternatively, a time traveller could have put AIII 118 on the licence plate, even though the theory of relativity doesn’t allow for that. Time travel to the future may be possible, but going back in time creates logical problems. It would alter future events. And there is another fly in the ointment: chaos theory. Insignificant disturbances can have dramatic consequences. If I could go back to 1914 to screw a license plate with the combination AIII 118 on the car, that may derail the events that were about to occur, and World War I would not end on 11 November 1918 and perhaps not even have started. And sneezing can be enough to do the job, just like a butterfly in Texas can start a storm in China. It seems likely that the Austrian authorities issued the license plate. Plate AIII 118 probably came after AIII 117 and before AIII 119, so we can drop this imaginative scenario into the bin.

And look at what scientists are doing. Recent measurements confirmed the electron’s roundness to a record level of exactness. It deepened the mystery of why the universe consists of matter rather than antimatter. Any asymmetry in the electron’s shape would point to a related asymmetry in the laws of nature that could explain this feature of the cosmos.¹ Scientists were baffled. Metaphysical speculation also dominates science, and scientists imagine invisible friends like gravity and electrons to describe our world. And then they discover something suggesting that some of their imaginary friends may not exist. Well, who would have thought that?

Maybe we should let our imagination run free. Anything is possible if we can think of it and corroborate it with experiments. It is how science progresses. A piece of fruit could be an apple for as long as you look at it. And it can turn into a banana once you look the other way. Scientists believe that if experiments confirm it. Some particles turn into waves when you don’t look. Scientists might even base their theories on things that are impossible but do happen because we live inside a simulation. We don’t know that, of course, because we don’t know the properties of a genuine universe.

Some laws of this universe appear ridiculous. Only why should they make sense? Nature doesn’t exist to make sense to us. We can imagine that this universe is a simulation to avoid logical difficulties. It makes more sense than apples turning into bananas. Assuming the obvious, however, can be dangerous. If it quacks, walks, and swims like a duck, it might be a great actor in a duck suit. Apples could turn into bananas when you don’t look. Of course, when you place a camera to observe them, they don’t. And one plus one might only equal two after you have solved the equation. And if faith moves mountains, this universe could be genuine as long as you believe it is.

Latest revision: 19 July 2025

Featured image: Satire on False Perspective. William Hogarth (1754). Public Domain.

1. Electrons are extremely round, a new measurement confirms. Emily Conover (2023). Science News. [link]

Psychics, Mediums, and Premonition

24 Oct 201818 Oct 2026 nivtricLeave a comment

Our intuition processes a lot of information, much more than we realise. Sometimes, it seems like magic. When you drive your car, you may suddenly discover you have travelled a long distance without realising it. That is more likely to happen when you are a frequent driver using the same route. Research has shown that we can train specific abilities to the point that they become subconscious processes. An important domain of our intuition is social information. Unless you are autistic, you intuitively read body language and facial expressions and adapt your actions to the clues others give. Mediums might be so good at asking the right questions to influence minds and reading body language and facial expressions that they appear psychic.

Between 2002 and 2010, a medium named Char appeared regularly on a Dutch television show. She performed readings and claimed to be in contact with the spirits of the dead. Sometimes, she seemed to retrieve specific information that only the person receiving the reading and the deceased could have known. In 2008, journalists from the Dutch television programme Zembla investigated her performances. People wanted to hear that their deceased loved ones were doing fine. And guess what? They were always doing fine up there somewhere.

Zembla claimed that the television show aired only the best parts of Char’s readings, making her performance appear better than it actually was. Char was often wrong, but the programme didn’t air many of her misses. The editing of the materials also made a difference. Char might say, ‘I see a white dress.’ The person receiving the reading might then say, ‘The deceased had a pink dress.’ Then Char might say, ‘I see a pink dress.’ If the editors took out the previous two sentences, that would make Char appear spot-on.

James Randi, always willing to enlighten us on these matters, was once again kind enough to weigh in. Randi is sceptical of paranormal claims, and sees them as frauds or delusions. He argued that Char could have extracted the information from the people receiving the reading. Char often guessed and then used clues people gave. She might say, ‘I see someone whose name starts with G… Gerald perhaps?’ There often is someone deceased with a G, and sometimes Char seemed to guess the name right.

The name Char also forms the first four characters of the word charlatan. Notice the mention of characters in the previous sentence because this word starts with the same four characters. Interestingly, Zembla was discussing Char’s character, so this is a remarkable coincidence. Yet, I still remember a few guesses she made that defy conventional explanation and left everyone on the scene dumbfounded. It seemed impossible to obtain this information from the individuals who received the reading. Zembla didn’t delve into these cases. If there had been fraud, like using actors, Zembla would have mentioned it.

It may not be fraud. My wife’s and my experience is that most of what mediums say either doesn’t make sense, is a general statement, or could be derived from information and signals we give. Yet they also said a few things that were specific, accurate, and impossible to guess. Only, this is no more than a meaningful coincidence with a low probability of occurring. And sometimes, it is a combination of events. So, a medium in Key West, United States, once said to me, ‘You will return.’ It made me think, I will not return to the United States unless I win a trip there. Later, my wife won that trip, so we went. Now, the medium wasn’t specific and didn’t mention the United States, so she might as well have meant Key West or Florida. Yet, it is remarkable nonetheless.

So, can mediums do better than guessing? That must be possible if we live in a simulation running a script. A so-called gift can be an array of accurate guesses. These guesses are like meaningful coincidences that likely aren’t accidental happenings. Otherwise, they couldn’t stand out that way. It can make mediums believe they have a gift. The phenomenon is widespread and persistent enough to have caught the attention of scientists like cognitive neuroscientist Julia Mossbridge, who has investigated it. The following is one of the accounts of precognition that she has learned about.

On an October night in 1989, a phone call and a scream awoke a four-year-old girl. She tiptoed barefoot through the hallway. Her mother’s voice said, ‘He died in a car accident!’ That hadn’t happened yet. When she threw her arms around her father before he boarded his flight for that fateful business trip, she knew she would never see him alive again.

Her own experience with psychic gut feelings led Mossbridge to study them. Scientists are seeking explanations. But there is only so much science can clarify, so they come up with speculations reminiscent of New Age beliefs, such as the idea ‘that precognition suggests that our consciousness reaches beyond the linear perception of time’ and that ‘time behaves in a much stranger way than how we experience it.’ Well. Is this science, or are these the ravings of some guru from the Indian mountains? Several experiments have demonstrated the existence of precognition. In 1995, the CIA declassified its own precognition research after statisticians had reviewed it and declared it reliable.¹

An incident in my life showed how premonitions can come true, and that the likely cause is scripted reality rather than time behaving strangely. On 9 February 2009, a severe storm struck northern France. A storm of this strength occurs only once or twice a decade. I predicted such a storm on this exact date two months earlier. Only I feared that it would be more severe and strike the Netherlands. It was a miss of 400 kilometres (250 miles), but that is still remarkable, most notably because of the events that made me make the prediction. On 19 December 2008, I posted a warning on an internet message board.² On 9 February 2009, Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris had to be closed because of the storm.³

Somehow, I got a hunch that a superstorm might strike the Netherlands that day, causing widespread flooding in large parts of the country. It began with an article on an alternative website about the web bot, a piece of computer software that allegedly made accurate predictions in the past. The word ‘alternative’ is a bit deceptive here, as the website was about conspiracies, UFOs and the like. In the autumn of 2008, the web bot predicted that large areas of land would suffer permanent flooding in the first half of 2009. The website reported on it. The article didn’t mention a location or a date, but the word ‘permanently’ suggested that this area is below sea level. That narrowed it down to the Netherlands.

That came after I was haunted by time prompts like 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, and 5:55 on the clock at night, which pushed me into psychosis and made me open to suggestion. The date 9 February came up as I believed it was the birthday of a peculiar Lady I had learned to know as a student on the campus of the University of Twente. My memory for dates can be accurate. I remember the birthdays of some of my former schoolmates from secondary school and the exact date my father quit smoking. A genealogy site, however, states that her birthday is 7 February. And so, I might be wrong. However, this possible mistake made me think of 9 February, so it is like slipping on a banana peel to find a clue, which is in the true tradition of slapstick like Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau.

And I found more clues. A blogger on the website Sargasso.nl wrote on 2 September 2008 (2/9) about a storm that would strike the Netherlands on 9 February 2009 (9/2), potentially flooding large parts of the Netherlands. The author wrote it as a what-if scenario, not as a prediction. The article on Sargasso.nl featured animated graphics that showed the flooding of parts of the Netherlands on 9 February 2009, making the images more impressive. The numerical coincidence of the dates was a bit peculiar. Compressing numbers makes them refer to 11:11 as 9 + 2 = 11. And it was precisely the date that I had guessed. Now, what are the odds of that? That frightened me even more. I saw this as an eerie warning sign. A flood of this kind would put millions of people in danger.⁴ And I had never come across this blog before. I found it while searching for clues to support my hunch. If you have a suspicion, you look for clues to confirm it. But you wouldn’t expect to find this. And it was about to get stranger yet.

On 13 December 2008, I went to Enschede with my son. We visited the University of Twente. My son didn’t know of my foreboding. I hadn’t discussed it with anyone yet. On the campus was a work of art, a church tower in a pond. It seemed to refer to flooded land. It was evening. It was dark, the moon was shining, and a thin layer of ice had settled on the pond. Suddenly, my son told me he saw the coastline of the Netherlands reflected in the moonlight on the ice surface. I didn’t see it, but he kept pointing at the ice until I saw it, too, and very clearly. The Dutch coastline has a peculiar shape that is unlikely to be mimicked by some random incident. That was as eerie as it can get.

That freaked me out. The church tower in the pond refers to flooded land, and this storm threatened the Netherlands’ coastline. A lunar eclipse was to occur on 9 February 2009, another eerie coincidence. There were a few more strange things. The Dutch singer Boudewijn de Groot had made an album named Lage Landen (Low Countries). The 11th track, Lage Landen, is about a superstorm hitting the Netherlands. The song suggests that the storm will hit on a Monday, while 9 February 2009 was a Monday. Monday is the day dedicated to the Moon (Moon-day), which is noteworthy for the lunar eclipse and the Netherlands’ coastline reflected in the moonlight.

Lage Landen album cover — Album cover of Lage Landen of Boudewijn de Groot

The song was the 11^th track and lasted 5:55 minutes, which was peculiar as the date, 9 February 2009, becomes 11:11 after compressing the numbers. It can be rewritten as 9-2-2009 while 9 + 2 = 11 and 2 + 0 + 0 + 9 = 11. When I first came to the University of Twente campus during the introduction weeks, I stayed at Club 9-2, the most notorious residence hall on the entire campus. This address refers to 9 February. It was indeed intriguing because there was a link with the campus and the Lady.

On 18 December 2008, I issued a warning on two message boards. I expected everyone to ignore it, except perhaps a few nutters. What proof did I have? I had never been psychic. I don’t have prophetic foresight. Only this unique long-term weather forecast was more accurate than chance allows. The events that caused me to make the prediction make it an incredible story. As a prediction, it was pretty useless, and luckily, no one took it seriously. Imagine that a large-scale evacuation had taken place. That is why I refrain from making predictions. Still, the incident sheds some light on why mediums can be highly accurate at times, and beyond what chance and mere guessing allow for, while making countless misses on other occasions.

Latest revision: 18 October 2026

Featured image: Church tower in pond on the campus of the University of Twente. Source Unknown. [copyright]

1. Your Consciousness Can Jump Through Time—Meaning ‘Gut Feelings’ Are Memories From the Future, Scientists Say. Elizabeth Rayne (2025). Popular Mechanics. [link]
2. De duistere zijde van de Maan. Maroc.nl (2008).
3. Storm shuts Paris airports. The Guardian (2009). [link]
4. Wat als het toch fout gaat? Sargasso.nl (2008). [link]

Toulouse rally in support of the victims of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting. Pierre-Selim (2015)

Aftermath Of The 11 September Terror Attacks

5 Oct 201823 Jul 2025 nivtricLeave a comment

Pim Fortuyn and Theo Van Gogh assassinations

There were exactly 911 days between two recent political killings in the Netherlands. That is remarkable as both incidents relate to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. On 6 May 2002, a left-wing loner shot the Dutch populist politician Pim Fortuyn. Fortuyn died shortly afterwards. It became the first political killing in the Netherlands in over 350 years. Fortuyn had suddenly gained immense popularity after the attacks of 11 September 2001 because of his strong stance against Islam and immigration.¹

On 2 November 2004, an Islamic extremist slit the throat of the Dutch film producer Theo Van Gogh for insulting the prophet Muhammad, an act that proved to be fatal for Van Gogh. The last film Van Gogh completed before his death, 06/05, was about the assassination of Fortuyn.² The date 2 November can be rewritten as 11/2 (American notation), while 112 is the European emergency telephone number. This is remarkable in combination with the 911 days between both assassinations.

On 2 November 2011, so again on 11/2, the Islamic terrorists attacked the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, shortly after the prophet Mohammed featured on its cover.³ This date, being the same as the date of the assassination of Theo Van Gogh, made the Dutch website Geenstijl.nl declare 2 November to be ‘the most humourless date in the history of Islam.’⁴

On that same day, on 2 November 2011, photographs of Umar Patek and his wife appeared in the news. The mastermind behind the attacks in Bali in 2002 posed with his wife for the camera during a reconstruction of his actions in Jakarta.⁵ The other perpetrators of the Bali bombings had already been executed on 9 November 2008.⁶ The date 9 November can be rewritten to 9/11 (European notation).

Madrid train bombings of 2004

On 11 March 2004, the Madrid train bombings took place. It was the deadliest terrorist attack after 11 September 2001. There were 912 calendar days between 11 September 2001 and 11 March 2004. Due to the different time zones between Spain and the United States, there were 911 full days between the events. For a long time, the death toll assessment had been 191,⁷ a number that has the same digits as 911. The figure currently stands at 193.

7 July 2005 London suicide bombings

The number seven appears to be behind the London suicide bombings of 7 July 2005. 7 July can be rewritten as 7/7, while the numbers of 2005 add up to make 7, making three sevens or 7-7-7. The number of people killed, including the four suicide bombers, was 56,⁸ also a multiple of seven. Two weeks later (which is 2 times 7 days) on 21 July 2005, another attack on London was staged,⁹ while 21 is three times seven or three sevens.

During the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, 343 FNDY personnel died while 7 * 7 * 7 = 343. On 11 September 2001, the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted a military exercise, Global Guardian. One of the simulated scenarios was the hijacking of planes.¹⁰ The London Police completed a terror training exercise that envisaged an attack on London’s transport network days before the 7/7 terrorist attacks.¹¹

Benghazi attack and China riots

On 11 September 2012, exactly 11 years after 11 September 2001, an angry mob attacked the US consulate in Benghazi and murdered the ambassador and three others.¹² On that same day, a territorial dispute between China and Japan over a group of islands in the East China Sea intensified. Anti-Japanese riots broke out in China, and protesters gathered outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing.¹³ Japan’s ambassador-designate to China then fell ill and ran into the Grim Reaper at a Tokyo hospital a few days later.¹⁴

Also on that same day, President Obama was 18,666 days old. And 18 = 6 + 6 + 6. He was born on 4 August 1961, and 4 August is the 216th day of the year, while 216 = 6 * 6 * 6, which is curious, as many conservative Christians in the United States believed President Obama was the Antichrist.¹⁵ That makes it noteworthy that Satan’s character in the History Channel’s Bible series looked like President Obama.¹⁶

11 September 2012 was eleven years after 11 September 2001, making it an 11:11-related scheme. Both incidents featured violence near embassies. In both instances, an embassy employee died. The relationship between Obama and 666 is remarkable, as he was born on the 216^th day of the year. Even more happened on the eleventh anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, so that it became a focal point of peculiar coincidences.

The Hague and Eindhoven public transport accidents

Also, on 11 September 2012, thus eleven years after 9/11, trams 9 and 11 collided near the Holland Spoor Station in The Hague, causing 36 people to be wounded.¹⁷ The Dutch news website RTL Nieuws noted, ‘Pure coincidence?’¹⁸ A few days earlier, a report had come into the news that Al-Qaeda had recruited two Somali men to carry out a suicide attack in The Hague.¹⁹ That makes another link with the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks and The Hague

On the same day, a major bus accident took place in Eindhoven, causing 27 injuries,²⁰ while 27 = 9 + 9 + 9 and 999 is the emergency telephone number in Great Britain and Ireland. The bus accident in Eindhoven happened 11 years after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, while two emergency landings happened in one day on Eindhoven Airport on 11 September 2010, exactly 9 years after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.²¹ That is a 9:11 related coincidence. As 36 = 9 + 9 + 9 + 9 and 27 = 9 + 9 + 9, the number of wounded people in both accidents is also remarkable.

Some other tidbits

Exactly ten years after the attacks, on 11 September 2011, a blogger using undisclosed sources noted that the estimated death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan amounted to 911,911. An interesting number, he added.²² His wording suggests he didn’t make it up, as he didn’t seem to think more of it. He only found the number interesting.

On 29 November 2011, American Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. 29 November 2011 can be read as 29/11/11 or 29/11/2011, while 2 + 9 = 11 and 20 = 9 + 11. Filing for Chapter 11 on this date is notable because the terrorists used American Airlines flights, and the flight code AA translates to 11.

On 8 August 2012, about 100 firemen responded to what the FDNY called an equipment fire likely sparked by welding on the 88^th floor of 1 World Trade Center, which was still under construction.²⁴ The date, 8 August (8/8) and 88^th floor make an 11:11 related coincidence. The incident also features the World Trade Center and emergency services. The number 88 also has significance to Nazis as it refers to a salute dedicated to Eva Braun’s husband.

The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s New Year’s edition of 2015 featured a cartoon that eerily foreshadowed the terrorist attack that was to happen a few days later, and in which most of its editors died. That happened after a previous attack on ‘the most humourless date in the history of Islam.’ Stéphane Charbonnier, the editorial director who also died in the attacks, drew a cartoon pointing at the possibility of a terrorist attack in January 2015. Its title reads: ‘No attacks yet in France.’ The terrorist in the cartoon then says, ‘Wait! We have until the end of January to send you New Year wishes.’²⁵

On 11 September 2015, a powerful storm toppled a construction crane at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, killing 111 people. It is remarkable that the crane fell over on 11 September and that it was operated by the Saudi Binladin Group, founded by the father of Osama Bin Laden, while most hijackers of the 11 September 2001 attacks came from Saudi Arabia. An engineer for the Binladin Group said the accident was an act of God.²⁶

The 22 March 2016 Brussels bombings consisted of two suicide attacks. The first bombing targeted the desk of American Airlines at Brussels Airport. American Airlines was one of the airlines used in the attacks of 11 September 2001. The second bombing occurred precisely at 9:11 AM.²⁷ The perpetrators probably didn’t plan this particular timing as the bombings have been hastily executed after the Belgian police had apprehended the mastermind of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, who was part of the same terrorist cell, a few days earlier. During these attacks, which took place on Friday, 13 November 2015, ISIL terrorists murdered 137 people, including 90 in the Bataclan theatre. In the weeks leading up to the Paris attacks, ISIL had claimed responsibility for several other attacks, including the downing of Metrojet Flight 9268 thirteen days earlier. That flight number is indeed most peculiar, as it refers to 9 February 1968.

Latest revision: 23 July 2025

Featured image: Toulouse rally in support of the victims of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting. Pierre-Selim (2015). CC BY-SA 2.0. Wikimedia Commons.

1. Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn assassinated. The Guardian (2002). [link]
2. Life of slain Dutch film-maker. BBC (2004). [link]
3. French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo attacked in Paris. BBC (2011). [link]
4. Tijdschrift Charlie Hebdo vangt Moslim-molotov. Van Rossem. Geenstijl (2011). [link]
5. The bomber and his bride: Chilling smile of Al Qaeda mastermind behind Bali bombings as he is paraded with his wife. Wil Longbottom. Mail Online (2011). [link]
6. 2002 Bali bombings. Wikipedia. [link]
7. 2004 Madrid train bombings. Wikipedia. [link]
8. 7 July 2005 London bombings. Wikipedia. [link]
9. 21 July 2005 London bombings. Wikipedia. [link]
10. Global Guardian. Wikipedia. [link]
11. Counter-terrorist training exercise days before 7/7 was ‘entirely a coincidence’. Mail Online (2011). [link]
12. 2012 Benghazi attack. Wikipedia. [link]
13. Senkaku islands dispute escalates as China sends out patrol ships. Associated Press (2012). [link]
14. Japan’s ambassador-designate to China dies in Tokyo – ministry. Reuters (2012). [link]
15. Poll: 13% think Obama is the anti-Christ; 29% believe in aliens. Ruth Brown. USA Today (2013). [link]
16. ‘The Bible’ producers: Satan/Obama? ‘Utter nonsense’. Ann Oldenburg. USA Today (2013). [link]
17. Tientallen gewonden door aanrijding trams in Den Haag. Nu.nl (2012). [link]
18. Tram 9 botst op lijn 11 op 9/11. RTL Nieuws (2012). [link]
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11 September Coincidences

23 Sep 201813 Sep 2026 nivtricLeave a comment

An obscure fact

The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 (9/11) were the first major geopolitical event in the Internet era. The Internet allowed conspiracy theories to spread more easily. And 9/11 proved a treasure trove for those with a suspicious mind. The collapse of WTC Building Seven is one of the incidents that have left those people wondering. No plane had flown into it. So, how could that building collapse? And how could the BBC report its collapse in advance? Nowadays, 9/11 conspiracy theories are a bit outdated, like those regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Most people moved on, and crazier theories emerged. Several peculiarities have occupied conspiracy theorists’ minds, but most have mundane explanations that make more sense. They question everything, for a fool can ask more questions than a thousand wise men can answer.

What to think of the discovery of four of the hijackers’ passports? Two emerged at the United 93 crash site. The ground there was soft, and much of the wreck sank into the ground. In such crashes, luggage remains intact. Another was among lost luggage at an airport. One was found on a street near the WTC. The crash videos show parts of the plane’s front exiting the building. The hijacker would be in the front, so his remains and his passport exiting the building would not mock the laws of physics. And buildings nearby suffered major structural damage, making the collapse of WTC Building Seven not particularly mysterious either, or at least, not as mysterious as the conspiracy theorists try to make us believe. They even wonder why the other buildings collapsed, despite them having been shells of steel and glass and aeroplanes having flown into them.

And so, much of the so-called mystery is not much of a mystery. All the noise obscured a remarkable fact. No other event in history came with so many peculiar coincidences. Physics may explain the collapse of WTC buildings, but not the related coincidences, which reveal there is a plot of some kind. The perpetrators were a secret group within the deep state, maybe Jews, the conspiracy theorists claim. But they weren’t paranoid enough. Osama Bin Laden and the terrorists believed they were executing the will of God. And they were right. What might strike you about these coincidences is that many of them seem inconsequential. However, the combination of these incidents is mind-boggling and beyond even the most sophisticated deep-state conspirators’ capabilities. To begin with, the Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989. The hallmark events of the end of the Cold War and the start of the War on Terror occurred on dates marked as 9/11 and 11/9. If that is not a mere accident, history could be a script. And that is what the coincidences suggest.

Emergency

The US emergency services telephone number is 911, while 11 September is more commonly known as 9/11. Emergency services played a central role on that fateful day. Starting with 11 September, the remainder of the year lasts 112 days. And 112 is the European Union’s emergency telephone number.

On 11 September 2002, exactly one year after the 9/11 attacks, the winning numbers in the New York State Lottery were 9-1-1.¹ There were two draws, so the chance of drawing these numbers in this order on that day was about one in 500.

The total number of FDNY personnel killed was 343.² That is 7 x 7 x 7. On 7 July 2005 (7/7/7 considering that 2+0+0+5=7), the terrorist attacks in London took place.

The flight number that has the most accidents is 191. Four commercial flights with that flight number have crashed. Another had a serious incident. The best-known accident was the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 on 25 May 1979.³ The Flight 191 Curse has led several airlines to discontinue scheduling flights with number 191. The digits of 191 are the same as those of 911.

Popular culture

References to the destruction of the World Trade Center have appeared in popular culture before the terrorist attacks occurred. It may seem remarkable, perhaps even outright eerie. Still, there is an explanation that doesn’t involve secretive moves by secretive actors and signalling their intentions in hidden ways to unsuspecting artists who copied these signals so that we learned of them, or these artists being in on the plot. The building was an iconic symbol of capitalism and, for that reason, an obvious target. Terrorists had already attacked the World Trade Center in 1993, so it was not far-fetched to think it could happen again. Still, some incidents are noteworthy.

On 23 December 1998, an artist formerly known as Prince was on stage in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Later that night, he did an extra performance in Tivoli. A local journalist noted that the artist spontaneously started rapping, but not about his usual themes, love, sex, and the Second Coming of Jesus. Instead, he began repeating the words, ‘Get ready to bomb Osama bin Laden,’ and ‘America, watch out in 2001.’⁴

Nosebleed, a Jackie Chan action-comedy scheduled for release in 2001, was cancelled because it featured an attack on the World Trade Centre. The original script likely included the lines, ‘It represents capitalism. It represents freedom. It represents everything America is about. And to bring those two buildings down would bring America to its knees.⁵

The 2000 computer game Deus Ex did not feature the Twin Towers in the New York skyline. In the game’s fiction, terrorists had destroyed them. Deus Ex refers to God coming out of nowhere to interfere with the plot (Deus Ex Machina). The main character’s initials are JC, the same as Jesus Christ. Somewhere in the game, JC wakes up in a secret Illuminati mansion. JC can discover the code to a blast door if he makes the right choices. Behind it is an artificial intelligence called Morpheus.⁶

In July 2001, the band I Am the World Trade Centre released the album Out of the Loop. The 11th track on the album is titled September, which makes an advance reference to 11 September combined with the World Trade Centre in 2001.⁷

The rap duo The Coup had published an advance graphic of their late 2001 album Party Music months before 9/11. It depicted explosions in the Twin Towers near the points hit by the planes. The detonation device held by MC Boots Riley is labelled Covert Labs. Pam, the Funkstress, was holding the conductor’s batons.⁸

Live Scenes From New York was an album of rock group Dream Theatre released on 11 September 2001. The cover artwork depicted the New York skyline, including the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, in flames. The album was recalled and re-released with a different cover.⁹ Issuing an album named Live Scenes From New York featuring a burning apple representing New York on 11 September 2001 is an eerie coincidence.

A 1997 episode of The Simpsons about a trip to New York showed a guidebook with the number nine, followed by the Twin Towers, seemingly referring to 9/11.¹⁰

In March 2001, Fox TV network aired a pilot episode of The Lone Gunmen in the United States. It is about a plan by rogue elements in the United States government to hijack a jet aircraft by remote control and crash it into the World Trade Centre to justify an increase in military spending and a war on terror.¹¹

In early 2001, the simulator game Trade Centre Defender came out. Players had to gun down planes that were heading towards the Twin Towers.¹²

The 1999 film The Matrix features a reference to 11 September 2001. About 17 minutes into the film, a file folder appears, containing an image of the main character’s passport, Neo. The expiry date is 11 September 2001. That is remarkable because the coincidences surrounding the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 suggest that this universe is a virtual reality like The Matrix.⁸

Predictions

Linda and Terry Jamison, known as The Psychic Twins, predicted in 1999 that there would be terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and federal buildings in South Carolina or Georgia in 2002.¹³ The prediction was not accurate. But it was made on 2 November (11/2 American notation), while 112 is the European emergency services telephone number. Furthermore, Linda and Terry Jamison were identical twins like the Twin Towers.

The BBC was more accurate in predicting the destruction of the Twin Towers as well as Building Seven. The BBC never intended to make these predictions. A BBC Scotland article from 5 April 2001 headlined, ‘Twin towers to be demolished.’¹⁴ The twin towers referred to the two chimneys at Kincardine Power Station, but the choice of words is remarkable to say the least.

On 11 September 2001, a BBC television reporter said that World Trade Centre Building Seven had collapsed. Subtitles accompanied his words. Building Seven was still standing and then crumbled 26 minutes after the news was reported.¹⁵ The BBC thus ‘predicted’ the collapse of Building Seven and the Twin Towers, which makes a pair of closely related peculiar coincidences.

New World Order

On 11 September 1990, exactly 11 years before 11 September 2001, President George H.W. Bush delivered a memorable speech. An important theme was Saddam Hussein. The first Gulf War against Iraq was about to begin.¹⁶ The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 became a pretext to start the Second Gulf War against Iraq and Saddam Hussein. President George W. Bush ordered this war. That is indeed remarkable.

President George H.W. Bush stated the developments presented an opportunity for a New World Order of cooperation between nations to emerge.¹⁶ One year later, on 11 September 1991, he made similar comments. Remarkably, both dates are 11 September. The same is true for the recurring conflict between Saddam Hussein and two Presidents named George Bush. It is a set of closely related peculiar coincidences.

In September 2000, a group of neoconservatives published a study titled ‘Rebuilding America’s Defences.’ Their report stated it would be difficult to rebuild the military unless some catastrophic event like a new Pearl Harbour occurred.¹⁷

A few months before 11 September 2001, the plans for a secret operation named Operation Northwoods were declassified. America’s top military leaders drafted them in the early 1960s. They included hijacking planes and orchestrating violent terrorism inside U.S. cities to provoke a war with Cuba.¹⁸ The declassification of these plans occurred just before the attacks.

On 11 September 2001, the North American Aerospace Defence Command conducted a military exercise, Global Guardian. One of the simulated scenarios was the hijacking of planes.¹⁹ And so, the attacks caused more confusion than they would have done otherwise.

On 11 September 2001, the official Bin Laden family website, http://www.saudi-binladin-group.com, expired.²⁰ On the same day, a defence contractor, the Carlyle Group, hosted a business conference in Washington. Osama Bin Laden’s brother was an honoured guest. The Bush and Bin Laden families were both involved in the Carlyle Group. Members of the Bin Laden family secretly flew out of the United States shortly after the attacks when air travel was still forbidden.²¹

Numerology, 11 and 11:11

Bloggers on the Internet noticed coincidences surrounding the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks that they found spooky. Several places, items, and persons had names consisting of eleven letters. Emails have circulated, urging us to be scared because Afghanistan and George W. Bush have eleven letters, like some other names and words linked to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

A few things are indeed a bit peculiar. The US emergency telephone number 911 compresses to 11 as 9 + 1 + 1 = 11. The European emergency telephone number, 112, is also noteworthy. First, 112 = 56 + 56. It can refer to 11:11 as 5 + 6 = 11. And 112 + 911 = 1023, which is 1111111111 binary. Many countries have emergency telephone numbers 999 and 112. And 999 + 112 = 1111.

Two of the four flights used by the terrorists on 11 September 2001 were from American Airlines.²² American Airlines uses AA for its flight codes. After transforming the characters of the flight codes to digits using the scheme A=1, B=2, and C=3, they resolve to 11. It is like 11:11 happening. Both American Airlines flights had flight numbers that were multiples of 11 (11 and 77).

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Latest revision: 7 January 2026

Featured image: Plumes of smoke billow from the World Trade Centre after the September 11 attacks. Michael Foran (11 September 2001). Public Domain.

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The Plan For The Future

There is a plan

Category: reality