There is an ongoing debate among self-proclaimed pundits who sell books about whether this universe is a simulation. They argue we can know by examining the universe’s properties. They are wrong. We can never say whether these properties, reflected in the established laws of reality, are real or fake. Even when a property of our universe appears strange or consistent with a simulation, it doesn’t prove that this universe is a simulation. It can be a property of an authentic universe. It is like saying, ‘This object is grey, and elephants are grey, so it probably is an elephant.’ Now, imagine that grey object saying moo. However, people continue to buy their books, so the so-called pundits keep writing them, because of what economists call the law of supply and demand.
That is also why science can’t establish whether we live inside a simulation. Science aims to determine the properties of the universe, as reflected in the laws of reality, also known as natural laws. However, science can’t say whether or not these natural laws are, what you might say, real. Hence, any argument that this universe is a simulation based on its properties is a dead end. In its simplest form, the reasoning goes that this universe must be a simulation because the underlying properties are digital. At the most basic level, everything can be just numbers in computer memory.
How does that work? A digital television screen consists of more than a million tiny coloured dots. Every single spot on the screen has a unique number. Also, every colour has a unique number. And so, spot 268,122 on the screen has colour 187,091. From a distance, you see a person or a mountain. At the underlying level, the screen is just a display of digits. It is possible to store numbers in computer memory so that you can represent an entire universe in this way.
Real universes might also be digital. We don’t know. Being digital is a property, not a cause of existence. Another argument based on quantum physics states that our reality is a sequence of states. Nothing exists or happens between them. Like the dots on a television screen, we can represent these states as numbers. Again, this could mean that our universe exists inside a computer. And also in this case, there is no way of knowing whether this applies to a universe that is not computer-generated.
Quantum entanglement is bizarre. Particles can interact directly with each other regardless of the distance between them. If you come to think about it, then one particle at one end of the universe might interact directly with one at the opposite side, as if there is no distance between them. This phenomenon mocks our idea of distance. Billions of light-years are nothing. Forget about warp-speed space travel. You can be on the other side of the universe in the blink of an eye. It can raise questions about the age of the universe, as estimates of its age are related to its size. However, we don’t know whether this behaviour is also present in a real universe that is billions of years old.
Many believe that intelligent extraterrestrials must exist. So far, there is no material evidence of their presence. UFO encounters occur, and people have seen aliens, but no extraterrestrials have revealed themselves to the general public. The physicist Enrico Fermi once asked, ‘Where is everybody?’ Perhaps humankind is the only advanced civilisation in the entire universe. If we live inside a simulation, there may be no point in simulating other beings on remote planets. That is not the only possibility. Perhaps civilisations tend to die out before becoming advanced. Or maybe we overestimate the probability of advanced civilisations contacting us. And possibly aliens do visit us. After all, people have seen them.
Several types of small particles don’t exist most of the time. They come into being when someone observes them. It is the observer effect. If this universe is a simulation, it would be a waste of memory and processing power to represent them all the time. If this universe is real, these particles might, or even should, always exist even when no one is watching. The argument stems from a misconception. These particles don’t disappear when not being observed. They become waves instead. There is no way of knowing whether this kind of observer effect exists in real universes. And why can we notice this? It shouldn’t be hard to conceal the non-existence of unobserved particles in a simulation.
Latest revision: 24 July 2024
Featured image: Tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. Julian Herzog (2008). Wikimedia Commons.
US Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were both involved in drafting the Declaration of Independence, signed on 4 July 1776. Hence, 4 July became Independence Day. Jefferson was Adam’s Vice President until he became President in 1800. They were the last surviving members of the revolutionaries. Both died on 4 July 1826, precisely fifty years after the Declaration of Independence.1 Independence Day is 4 July (4/7) as 4 + 7 = 11. This date occurring twice is similar to seeing an 11:11 time prompt.
Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler
Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler both conquered nearly all of Europe. There are several parallels between them. Both came to power through a coup that ended a period of instability. Napoleon and Hitler both turned Europe into a battlefield. They both ventured into Africa and faced defeat in Egypt. They both waged war on two fronts. Both attacked Russia while not having defeated Great Britain.
Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica, which was then an independent island but later became part of France. Napoleon became the leader of France. Hitler was born in Austria, an independent country that was later annexed by Germany. Hitler became the leader of Germany. On 9 November 1799, Napoleon came to power following a coup. Hitler was involved in a failed coup on 9 November 1923.
The Titanic
The supposedly unsinkable Titanic had sealable compartments. In 1912, it sank on its maiden voyage after having a close encounter with an iceberg. In 1898, Morgan Robertson wrote the novel Futility, describing the maiden voyage of a transatlantic luxury liner named the Titan. Although touted as unsinkable, it collided with an iceberg and sank, resulting in a significant loss of life. In the book, the month of the wreck was April, the same month the Titanic sank. The similarities are striking:
The ships had similar names.
Both were the largest crafts afloat and considered among humankind’s greatest achievements.
The sizes were roughly the same: the Titan counted 45,000 tons, and the Titanic was 46,000 tons.
Both ships were deemed unsinkable.
Both had a triple screw (propeller).
Both vessels had a shortage of lifeboats.
Both struck an iceberg: the Titan, moving at 25 knots, struck an iceberg on the starboard side on a night in April in the North Atlantic, 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland, while the Titanic, moving at 22½ knots, struck an iceberg on the starboard side on the night of 14 April 1912 in the North Atlantic, 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland.
Both ships sank with much loss of life.
Robertson’s apparent clairvoyance drew attention. He claimed the similarities were the result of his shipbuilding knowledge. That can explain the technical details but not the sinking or the similar names. And the story was to get a sequel.
In April 1935, the cargo vessel Titanian sailed in the North Atlantic. A sailor claimed he felt uncomfortable because the ship’s name was similar to that of the Titanic. For that reason, he sounded a warning. He claimed to have done this before an iceberg was in sight. He added that the vessel stopped just in front of an iceberg. According to reports, the Titanian had run into some damage during the voyage.2
One hundred years later, the luxurious Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia sank after hitting a rock. The accident occurred on Friday, 13 January 2012. The ship had thirteen decks. Some passengers claimed that the Titanic theme ‘My Heart Will Go On’ played in a restaurant when the accident happened.3 Shortly afterwards, on 27 February 2012, another cruise liner of the same parent company, the Costa Allegra, ran into trouble near Seychelles.4 This repetition within a short timeframe adds to the peculiarity of the scheme.
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand
On 28 June 1914, the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand in his car in Sarajevo. His act triggered World War I. World War I ended with the Armistice of 11 November 1918. 11 November is a peculiar date as it is 11-11. Several strange coincidences accompany the assassination. Franz Ferdinand had premonitions of an early death, and the assassination succeeded after a series of mishaps. But the most peculiar coincidence was the licence plate number A III 118 of the car that drove Franz Ferdinand to his appointment with destiny. It contains a possible reference to the Armistice of 11 November 1918 (11-11-18).5
Gräf and Stift Double Phaeton ridden by Archduke Franz Ferdinand at the time of his assassination
D-Day
D-Day was on 6 June 1944 (6/6/44). That date has double digits, like 11 November (11-11). The Allies had selected 5 June 1944 for their invasion because of a full moon that night. They postponed it by one day due to the weather. There was no consensus among historians on the start date of World War II, whereas the Battle of Stalingrad lasted more than two months. Therefore, D-Day is considered the most important single day in World War II. D-Day means Decision Day. D is the fourth letter of the alphabet, so Decision Day (DD) can refer to (19)44, the year D-Day happened.
Normandy invaded England in 1066 AD, while D-Day occurred on 6 June, or 6/6. In the ensuing Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, King Harold II of England died while trying to repel the invasion. That happened a few days after his forces had killed King Harold III of Norway, who also had invaded England. On 14 October 1944, the German General Rommel committed suicide after having overseen the construction of the German coastal defences intended to repel the Allied invasion.
Roman de Rou is a chronicle written around 1170. It covers the history of the Dukes of Normandy. It mentions that Roger the Great de Montgomery commanded parts of the invading forces in 1066. Other sources don’t confirm this account.6 During the 1944 invasion, Bernard Montgomery commanded portions of the invading army. That is most peculiar indeed, and there is more.
On 11 March 2010, the founder of the Dutch political party D66, Hans van Mierlo, boldly went where billions have gone before, and passed away. The name D66 stands for Democrats 66 and refers to the year 1966 as the party was founded on 14 October 1966 by 44 people.7 The name can refer to D-Day, making the founding date and the number of people involved in establishing the party rather intriguing. D-Day was on 6-6-44, so D66 could mean D-Day 6-6. Van Mierlo died in 2010, 44 years after starting D66 and 66 years after D-Day. Van Mierlo had just married a few months before on 11 November 2009 (11-11-11 after compressing numbers), which might also raise some eyebrows.
The numbers 66 and 44, along with the date 14 October, repeatedly appear in this scheme. And 11-11 is part of it too. It was the day Hans van Mierlo got married. 11 November is the date of the Armistice that terminated World War I. And the Vikings founded Normandy in the year 911. This number is closely related to the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11. On 9 November 1989 (9/11 European notation), the Berlin Wall fell. On 11 September 2001 (9/11 American notation), the terrorist attacks took place.
The assassination of Martin Luther King was on 4 April 1968, one year after he spoke out against the Vietnam War on 4 April 1967. Both dates are 4 April (4/4). On 5 June 1968, in another high-profile political assassination in the United States, Senator Robert Kennedy crossed the path of a bullet. He died the next day, on 6 June (6/6). Both incidents happened in the United States in 1968 and point to the digits of D-Day (6/6/44). 6 June was also the release date of The Omen, the most ‘cursed’ film in history.
John F. Kennedy’s assassination
‘We’re heading into nut country today,’ said President John F. Kennedy to his wife on the morning of 22 November 1963. She had just seen an advertisement from the John Birch Society in the Dallas Morning News suggesting that he was a communist. The border of the advert was in the black of a funeral announcement. ‘But, Jackie, if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?’8
A few hours later, somebody shot him from a window with a rifle. The assassination date, 22 November (22/11), consists of two multiples of eleven, which is somewhat unusual as is the date of D-Day and the date of the Armistice ending World War I. There are also parallels between John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln:
Both concerned themselves with Civil Rights.
Both did get a bullet in the back of their heads in the presence of their wives.
Lincoln was shot in the Ford Theatre, and Kennedy in a Ford Lincoln.
They were both murdered on a Friday.
In both cases, an assassin assassinated the assassin before he could face trial.
Lincoln’s election into Congress happened in 1846, and Kennedy’s in 1946.
Lincoln’s election to President occurred in 1860, and Kennedy’s in 1960.
Lincoln’s successor was Andrew Johnson, born in 1808, while Kennedy’s successor was Lyndon Johnson, born in 1908.9
Longer lists are circulating with some false claims. Sceptics have argued that these similarities are mere coincidences and that similar parallels exist between other US presidents. Wikipedia even labelled it an urban legend, although it is not, as it implies that the story is false. That both murders took place on a Friday is indeed unremarkable. But the murder of Lincoln taking place in the Ford Theatre and the assassination of Kennedy happening in a Ford Lincoln is noteworthy, as is the time difference of precisely one century that recurs three times. And there are links with other peculiar coincidences.
Kennedy’s brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was shot a few years later. He died in 1968 on 6 June (6/6), just after the murder of Martin Luther King on 4 April (4/4). That is odd, given the coincidences surrounding D-Day (6/6/44). His untimely passing is part of a series of premature deaths, accidents, and other calamities involving members of the Kennedy family called the Kennedy Curse.
The son of President Lincoln, Robert Todd Lincoln, also had his share of remarkable coincidences. A few months before John Wilkes Booth murdered his father, Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes, saved him when he was travelling by train. During a stop, he stepped back on the crowded platform to let others pass, pressing his back against a stopped train. When the train began to move, Lincoln fell onto the tracks. Booth hauled him back onto the platform. The Booth family and the Lincoln family were not neighbours, which makes the incident even more remarkable. Robert Lincoln was in the vicinity when the murder of his father occurred. He was also present at the assassination of President Garfield in 1881 and the assassination of President McKinley in 1901.10
The Kennedy assassination takes part in a series of premature deaths in office of American presidents elected in years starting with a zero, called the Curse of Tippecanoe or Zero-Year Curse. From William Henry Harrison to John Kennedy, every President elected in a year ending in zero died in office. It ended with Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980, who survived an assassination attempt. First Lady Nancy Reagan reportedly had hired psychics and astrologers to protect her husband from the curse.11 George W. Bush, elected in 2000, also survived an assassination attempt. The curse seems to have lost its lustre. Even Joe Biden, who could have passed away at any time without raising any suspicion of something of a curse having an involvement, survived.
Houston, we have a problem
We associate the number 13 with bad luck. Bad luck haunted the voyage of Apollo 13. The launch was on 11 April 1970 at 13:13 CST from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The departure time combined with the mission number was a daring attempt to defy fate. Possibly, the people at NASA thought, ‘We are scientists and don’t believe in this superstitious nonsense.’ And bingo! Fate took vengeance. On 13 April, note the date, an oxygen tank exploded. The event has enriched the annals of history with the famous quote, ‘Houston, we have a problem.’ Mission control aborted the lunar landing. The crew made it back alive.12
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall was the pivotal event marking the end of the Soviet Empire and the Cold War. Its deconstruction began on 9 November 1989 (9/11 European notation). On 11 September 2001 (9/11 American notation), a terrorist attack was another pivotal event in the war on terror. It marked the end of the period of relative peace following the fall of the Soviet Empire. On 11 September 1989, thousands of East Germans began crossing the Austrian-Hungarian border to emigrate to West Germany. That eventually led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. This date is also 11 September, which is noteworthy.
The historian James P. O’Donnell unwittingly predicted the year the Berlin Wall would fall. In the German edition of Reader’s Digest, he wrote ten years before it happened, ‘Not long ago I dreamed of Berlin. The year was 1989. The wall was coming down. Along its hideous 165 kilometres, East and West Berliners were pouring out to dismantle it. […] Canny merchants were weaving through the happy crowd selling souvenir bricks.’13 Now, as a historian, he didn’t know the future, or so we can safely presume.
Now, that is not as remarkable as it seems at first glance. O’Donnell made his prediction in 1979. If you were thinking in 1979 about the Berlin Wall falling and were guessing when it might happen, 1989 is a year you could easily pick. The final year of a decade can be a moment to think of the next decade’s final year. A 1979 ABBA song named Happy New Year does the same. But then again, O’Donnell thought of it in 1979, which increased the likelihood of choosing 1989. He could have thought of it in many other years, but he just happened to think of it in 1979, so that is the real miracle here.
And this coincidence involving O’Donnell is not the only one, as coincidences by their nature tend to come in pairs. In 1945, O’Donnell became Newsweek Magazine’s German bureau chief. He came to Berlin on 4 July 1945 to investigate Hitler’s death and gather information about his wife, Eva Braun.5 Braun died at the age of 33, and Hitler died at the age of 56, while 33 + 56 = 89. Hitler was born in 1889. And the erection of the Berlin Wall was a consequence of Hitler’s defeat. And it fell in 1989. There is more to say about Eva Braun and 1989, which make up part of a larger scheme. That is, however, a separate story.
Latest revision: 23 July 2025
Featured image: NASA mission control celebrating the successful return of Apollo 13. NASA. Public Domain.
1. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die. History.com (2009). 2. Titanian – Echo of Titanic. Encyclopedia Titanica (2004). 3. Costa Concordia disaster. Wikipedia. 4. MS Costa Allegra. Wikipedia. 5. Curses! Archduke Franz Ferdinand and His Astounding Death Car. Mike Dash (2013). Smithsonian. [link] 6. Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. Wikipedia. [link] 7. Hans van Mierlo. Wikipedia. [link] 8. Three surprising details from the JFK assassination – and why they matter. James L. Swanson (2013). The Globe And Mail. 9. Lincoln–Kennedy coincidences urban legend. Wikipedia. 10. Robert Todd Lincoln. Wikipedia. 11. Curse of Tippecanoe. Wikipedia. 12. Apollo 13. Wikipedia. 13. Reader’s Digest, Geman Edition, January 1979 14. James P. O’Donnell. Wikipedia. [link]
Already in ancient times philosophers found out that there is no way of telling that the world around us is real or that other people have a mind of their own. Perhaps I am the only being that is real while the rest of the world exists only in my imagination. This could all be a dream. On the other hand, some major religions claim that gods created this universe, and that we are like these gods. For instance, in the first chapter of the Bible God allegedly said: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”
For a long time it was impossible to clarify why this world might not be real or how the gods might have created it. More recently that became possible due to advances in technology. This universe could be a virtual reality created by an advanced civilisation. We could all be a characters in a virtual reality controlled by a computer programme. That may give you an uneasy feeling for we are inclined to think that what our senses register, is real. For instance, we may think we see a pipe when there is only an image of a pipe. The caption of the picture reads ‘this is not a pipe.’
Do we live inside a computer simulation?
The idea that we could be simulated beings inside a computer first came up in 1964 in the book Simulacron-3. In 1977 a science fiction writer named Philip K. Dick (funny name) was the first to really claim that our reality is made up by a computer. He did this after experiencing a psychosis. The philosopher Nick Bostrom formalised the idea twenty-five years later in the simulation argument. He argued that we might be living inside a virtual reality. There could be many different human civilisations. The humans in those civilisations may enhance themselves with bio-technology and information technology, live very long and have capabilities ordinary humans don’t have. For those reasons these beings aren’t humans any more, henceforth they are called post-humans.
Bostrom now asserts that these post-humans may run virtual realities of human civilisations. An obvious reason for doing this is entertainment. And so we could be living in a virtual reality ourselves. The difference between a real (non-virtual) universe and a virtual reality is that a real universe is not created by intent, while a virtual civilisation is. Given sufficiently advanced technology, it seems possible to represent a universe in a meaningful way, including simulated human consciousnesses. Current developments in information technology suggest that our civilisation may be able to create virtual reality universes in the not-too-distant future.
Bostrom thinks that one of the following three options must be true: (1) nearly all human civilisations end before they can build virtual realities resembling human civilisations, (2) when human civilisations or post-human civilisations can build virtual realities of human civilisations, they will not do so or only make a small number of them or (3) we are almost certainly living inside a virtual reality as there will be a large number of virtual universes for every real universe. The hidden assumption behind the simulation argument is that this technology is feasible and can be made cheap.1
How likely is it?
It is not possible to calculate the probability of us living in a virtual reality. There are a lot of uncertainties in the simulation argument. For example, our civilisation could be the only human civilisation and we could go extinct. Or perhaps post-humans develop ethical objections against building virtual realities of humans. And even though humans like to write stories and use virtual realities for research or entertainment, they may alter themselves so that post-humans do not have these desires. Still, there is a good chance that live in a virtual reality ourselves.
That is because we humans see ourselves as special and unique. Religions make use of this trick too. The Bible says that we are made in the image of God and that humans are ordained to rule all other living creatures. So if we have the means to perpetuate our delusions, we will not give up on them. On the contrary, as soon as it is possible to make our imagination become reality, we will not hesitate to do so. Hence, when humans transform themselves to become post-humans, they will probably cling to their human essence, and let their imagination run free. And their imagination may become their new life as Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert noted:
For those of you who only watched the ‘old’ Star Trek, the holodeck can create simulated worlds that look and feel just like the real thing. The characters on Star Trek use the holodeck for recreation during breaks from work. This is somewhat unrealistic. If I had a holodeck, I’d close the door and never come out until I died of exhaustion. It would be hard to convince me I should be anywhere but in the holodeck, getting my oil massage from Cindy Crawford and her simulated twin sister. Holodecks would be very addicting. If there weren’t enough holodecks to go around, I’d get the names of all the people who had reservations ahead of me and beam them into concrete walls. I’d feel tense about it, but that’s exactly why I’d need a massage. I’m afraid the holodeck will be society’s last invention.2
Processing and memory constraints
Even though the advanced civilisation will may have enormous processing and memory capacity, there may be processing and memory constraints for individual simulations as they may run billions of simulations. There may be ways to overcome these limitations like rendering only observed reality and running a predetermined script. Free will may simply be too expensive.
The idea of this universe being a virtual reality is popularised in the 1999 film The Matrix. The film speculates about us having an existence outside this world. That doesn’t need to be. We may just be virtual reality characters inside a computer simulation. So why did Neo’s passport expire on 11 September 2001, the date of the terrorist attacks? Perhaps it is just a coincidence. Or perhaps this universe is a form of entertainment.
Neo’s passport expirin on 11 September 2001
Featured image: The Treachery of Images. René Magritte (1928). [copyright info]
1. Are You Living In a Computer Simulation? Nick Bostrom (2003). Philosophical Quarterly (2003) Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255. [link] 2. The Dilbert Future. Scott Adams (1997). Harper Business.
It was December 2010, and the wind was blowing. My wife and I sat at the kitchen table. My wife was discussing her late mother and father. Her mother had outlived her father for more than three decades. When her father was still alive, her mother had once asked him to contact her as a spirit if he were to die first. My wife recalled her mother later saying he had never made himself noticed, ‘not even by stopping a clock.’
Just after my wife had finished speaking, a gust of wind blew a flower pot over the balcony, making a loud noise. It was windy that day, but the blow came out of nowhere. It was eerie. The next day, my wife noticed that both a clock and an alarm clock were back one hour. One was connected to the power grid, while the other ran on a battery. So, did her late father make himself noticed?
Perhaps you also experienced something you couldn’t explain, such as an incredible coincidence or a near-death experience. You are not the only one. Or maybe you know someone who did. You can’t reason it away. And so you believe there must be something more than this life in this world. That can be comforting. Perhaps there is a God, and maybe your life has a purpose.
And I’m gone with the wind like they were before But I’m believing myself, I think there’s something more There must be something more, I think there’s something more Something more
Amy MacDonald, Footballer’s Wife
Why do people believe in an afterlife or God? Do they fear death? Do they hope their life has meaning? Would it be so bad if our existence had no reason? Is that worse than playing a part in the grand scheme of a Supreme Puppet Master? And eternal life? You could bore yourself to death. For a long time, I believed that I would die one day and that it would all be over by then. And that was comforting.
Let’s end this on a lighter note. In 2014, my wife, son, and I visited the Apenheul monkey zoo in Apeldoorn. We had been walking around watching monkeys for hours when a long-tailed monkey came down from a tree to sit near me. I could have touched its tail if I wanted to. And so I said to my wife jokingly, ‘Well, if I pull the tail, a bell will go off, saying ding-dong.’ Within a second, a loud ding-dong came from the speakers all over the zoo. An announcement followed. There had not been an announcement all day, nor did one follow later on. The monkey zoo is in Apeldoorn. That is noteworthy, as this name refers to the word ‘ape’. Indeed, there may be more about this universe than science can explain.
Latest revision: 16 July 2025
Featured image: South Western langur (Semnopithecus hypoleucos) female, Kanha National Park, MP, India. Charles J. Sharp. CC BY 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.
It was the Autumn of 2008. The financial system was in jeopardy. The world as we know it could have ended if the financial system had imploded. And I had just discovered how to prevent financial crises forever by having negative interest rates and a maximum interest rate of zero. At the time, it seemed an epic find that could change the world forever. Interest charges on money and debts, or usury, are the underlying cause of financial crises. However, banning interest would require negative interest rates, which had been impossible to achieve. In the early 20th century, Silvio Gesell proposed charging a holding fee on currency, allowing interest rates to become negative when the conditions in the money and capital markets justify it.
During the 1930s, when the world was mired in the Great Depression, several leading economists, including John Maynard Keynes and Irving Fisher, recognised the potential of a holding fee on currency to prevent economic crises. Still, they didn’t think of using it to create an interest-free financial system. Interest-free lending never took off because you don’t lend money interest-free if you can receive interest elsewhere. Interest-free lending must be attractive to lenders. That long seemed impossible. And then I found out how it might work. If the currency’s value rises, lending at negative interest rates can be appealing. More evidence emerged a few years later when interest rates in Europe fell below zero for several consecutive years.
At the time, that was still years in the future. A holding fee on currency and the abolition of interest rates above zero could stabilise the financial system and prevent economic crises. That requires limiting lending to the safest borrowers, since there is no reward for taking risks in the form of interest. As lending creates money, it promotes inflation. So this money could be inflation-free or even bring lower prices, or deflation.
In the Austrian town of Wörgl, money with a holding fee had been a spectacular success until the central bank banned it. The money continued to circulate because holders spent it to avoid paying the holding fee, so people didn’t need to borrow to keep it circulating and the economy afloat. A similar kind of money had existed in ancient Egypt for over 1,000 years. Grain stored in granaries had been money there. This money came with a fee to cover the storage costs. The Biblical story about Joseph in Egypt claims that he introduced these granaries.
I named this financial system Natural Money after The Natural Economic Order, Gesell’s book in which he presented the idea of the holding fee. Initially, I attempted to recruit a few people to work on the theory and promote it. Nothing came out of it. Most economists think negative interest rates are impossible. I realised that might be wrong, and even if I were right, who would believe me? It seemed pointless to go on, so I planned to give up.
But then, strangeness crept in. Strange coincidences piled up like music on the radio synchronising with what I was thinking. Gesell first published The Natural Economic Order in German as ‘Natürliche Wirtschaftsordnung,’ or acronym NWO. The meaning of ‘NWO’, New World Order, made me think it could be part of a greater plan. And every time I woke up at night and looked at the clock, it showed times like 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, or 5:55. Then, out of the blue, my wife told me she was also waking up at night and seeing these time prompts. I hadn’t mentioned this to anyone, so she couldn’t have known I had the same. This episode lasted for several weeks.
My wife and I were not the only ones having this, as it soon turned out. People have shared stories online about being haunted by time prompts such as 11:11. This peculiarity is often referred to as the 11-phenomenon or the 11:11-phenomenon. Eleven is the first double number, a noteworthy coincidence of digits, and 11:11 is like the same happening a second time, thus two related, strange coincidences, hence doubly strange. World War I ended on 11 November 1918. The licence plate number of Franz Ferdinand’s car refers to this particular date. But what does that signify? Could there be a connection? Or was there nothing to it, and was it just my imagination?
Our minds trick us in different ways. One of them is selective remembrance. Remarkable things we remember best. Maybe you have experienced a few strange incidents. They stick in your memory, but you may not remember thousands of mundane events that also transpired because nothing about them was special. Often, I see a number, and within a second or so, I see the same number again somewhere else, usually on licence plates. But when I look for recurring numbers, I rarely see them. Perhaps repeating numbers triggers my brain. Recording them then becomes a conscious process, so countless others remain unnoticed for each remarkable combination.
Yet, my waking up at night to see these time prompts was different. There were no exceptions. I didn’t see other time prompts. And my wife had the same at the same time. That was not my mind playing a trick on me. Something made me wake up and look at the clock at these times. Is it mind control? Is there a plan, and is Natural Money part of it? And is there a connection with the licence plate number of Franz Ferdinand’s car? Only large-scale mind control can make the assassination succeed, trigger a war, and end that war on that date, 11 November 1918. And so, mind control, it is. And your mind is under control as well. But don’t worry. A tin foil hat won’t help you. Nothing will.
Usury, thus charging interest on money and debts, is an ancient question and a biblical issue. It has turned money into a system of slavery. Things were about to get a lot stranger, but that is a different story. The only sensible explanation I could eventually think of is that this world is not real, but a virtual reality created by an advanced post-human civilisation, and that we are actors in a play. And everything goes according to a script, so this world is like a play’s stage, and Natural Money could be part of the scenario. Time will tell whether that is indeed the case, but it is better to be prepared. That is why I worked out a monetary theory for a usury-free financial system with negative interest rates. And I investigated whether this universe could be a virtual reality created by an advanced post-human civilisation.
Latest revision: 27 September 2026
Featured image: 11:11 time prompt.
Other images: Tin foil hat. Morton Devonshire (2007). Wikipedia. Public Domain.
