Tag: script

Virtual Universe

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Some religions claim that God or gods have created this world. That God uttered ‘Be’ and behold, there you have bees is not a particularly compelling explanation for the existence of bees. That doesn’t matter much because humans are religious creatures who need fairy tales to believe in. So, how could these supposed gods or God have the magical powers to accomplish that? Until recently, we had no clue, but then Nick Bostrom, known for his dry and incomprehensible employment of words, delivered the simulation hypothesis to us, the most profound breakthrough in theology in nearly 2,000 years. We might dwell inside a computer simulation run by an advanced humanoid civilisation. Our creators can define a class bee and instruct the computer to create instances of this class. A class has properties, allowing individual instances to be unique.

And so, Genesis might be closer to the truth than the religion sceptics think. Bostrom didn’t say whether or not that is indeed the case or how likely it is. He didn’t speculate on that issue. Otherwise, his critics might have a field day, ridiculing him for opening a back door to the paranormal and religion. That could have been the end of his career. However, it is easy to find out if you venture into areas that scientists anxiously avoid, such as paranormal incidents, religious experiences, meaningful coincidences, people’s memories of past lives, ghost phenomena, and UFO sightings.

Scientists dare not investigate these phenomena, as it could make them a laughing stock in front of their peers. That is groupthink and intellectual cowardice on a grandiose scale. On numerous occasions, multiple credible witnesses have observed events that science can’t explain. Like nearly everyone else, scientists have been proficient at ignoring evidence that contradicts their beliefs, such as unscientific ravings about spirits relaying messages from the other side during seances. Bostrom speculated that this world might be a virtual reality, but didn’t search for proof. As a philosopher, he had better things to do.

The book The Virtual Universe delves into the evidence. You can prove this universe is a virtual reality if you assume scientists have correctly established the laws of nature and that sciences like physics, chemistry and biology are correct. If events transpire that defy these laws of science, such as paranormal incidents, religious miracles, meaningful coincidences, memories of previous lives, ghost phenomena and UFO sightings, breaches in these laws occur. According to science, the Virgin Mary doing a miracle before a crowd of thousands, like in Fatima, is impossible. If science is correct, and it happens nonetheless, this world must be fake. The book The Virtual Universe puts it like this:

  1. If we live in a real universe, we can’t notice. Virtual reality can be realistic and come with authentic laws of reality.
  2. This universe may have fake properties, but we cannot notice that either because we don’t know the properties of a genuine universe.
  3. Breaching the laws of reality is unrealistic in any case. If it happens, we may have evidence of this universe being fake.

It follows from (1) and (2) that we can’t use the universe’s properties, reflected in the laws of nature, to determine whether or not this universe is real. Science can establish the laws of physics or the properties of this universe, but science can’t tell whether they are real or fake. However, if breaches occur, we have evidence suggesting this universe is bogus. The book The Virtual Universe investigates the evidence, which includes stories about paranormal incidents, religious experiences, meaningful coincidences, reincarnation stories, ghost phenomena, and UFO sightings, often with multiple credible witnesses. So yes, aliens can beam you up into their UFO because they are as fake as you are.

Advanced humanoids, often dubbed post-humans, may share our motivations because they evolved from humans or are created by humans ‘after their image’ in the case of artificial intelligence. The latter would indeed be most ironic, as these advanced humanoids may run simulations of human civilisations ‘after their image’ for research or entertainment. Research applications could be about running what-if scenarios. Possible entertainment applications include games or dream worlds where someone’s imagination comes true. These simulations may not be realistic in some aspects, as they reflect the rules of a game or someone’s personal fantasies. In a simulation, you can let Jesus walk over water and make him think that faith alone suffices.

Civilisations are complex. Small changes can derail events that would otherwise occur. Just imagine another sperm had won the race to Adolf Hitler’s mother’s egg. There were millions of sperm in that race. Guaranteeing an outcome, such as letting World War I end on a date referred to by the licence plate number of the car that drove Archduke Franz Ferdinand to his appointment with destiny, requires control over everything that happens. That doesn’t apply to games. Unpredictable developments make games more interesting. Considering how we utilise computing power, mainly for games, sexy pictures and cat videos, the number of simulations for entertainment likely vastly outstrips those run for research purposes. If we live inside a simulation, we should expect its purpose to be entertainment.

The owner or owners may use avatars to play roles in this world and appear like ordinary human beings to us. If you are familiar with computer games, you are familiar with avatars. Once you enter a game, you become a character inside that game, your avatar, and you have an existence apart from your regular life. Inside the game, you are your avatar, not yourself. Alternatively, you could start a virtual world where you are the Creator and bring your dreams to life. In this world, you also become someone else.

That is a lot of assumptions, and without evidence, they remain speculation. Even when there is evidence, it doesn’t necessarily mean the explanation is correct. Suppose you hear the noise of a car starting. That is the evidence. You may think there is an automobile starting. Perhaps a vehicle is firing up its engine. But your husband might be watching his favourite television series, Starting Engines, so you can’t be sure. Nothing you know contradicts your assumption, but you could be wrong. So, is God an individual from an advanced humanoid civilisation who uses us for amusement? It is credible, and perhaps nothing contradicts it. But who is to say it is correct?

Now comes the disagreeable part. We are instances of the class human. When the beings in the simulation think for themselves, that raises ethical questions like whether they have rights that the creators should respect. Considering how humans treat each other, it is not a given that these rights would be respected even when our creators acknowledge them. In the real world, bad things happen to people. In the case of control, the beings inside the simulation don’t think, but are mindless bots following the script. We have no independent will and are toys to our creators. God kills people at will, and a few million casualties more don’t matter. On the bright side, if God wants us to enter Paradise, where there is peace and happiness, nothing can stop that as well. Those who try will surely find themselves on the losing side. So, if the Boss makes a joke, you can better laugh. Perhaps it isn’t easy. But don’t worry. It took me fifteen years to look at the bright side of life.

Latest revision: 30 July 2026

What Are The Odds?

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The law of large numbers

On 11 November 2017 (11-11), I went to Groningen with my wife and son by car. While driving, I noticed the date and time displayed on the car’s clock. The date was 11-11, and the time was 10:35. It made me think, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to look at the clock at exactly 11:11 today because it is 11 November (11-11).’ Within a second, I noticed the distance recorder standing at 111.1. It had been 111.1 kilometres since I last filled up. Peculiar coincidences can occur by chance. With eight billion people on this planet and so many things transpiring, these things happen.

An example illustrates this. Imagine you have five dice and make a throw. A remarkable incident is throwing five sixes. If you roll the five dice only once, it probably doesn’t happen. On average, it only occurs once every 7,776 times. But if you throw the dice a million times, it happens 128 times on average.

If a reset of the distance recorder occurs every 500 kilometres, the chance of 111.1 kilometres appearing on it is one in 5,000. The distance recorder was not far from the clock, so I would probably have noticed a peculiar number on it after seeing the date. The probability of the distance recorder being on 111.1 might have been 0.02%. The likelihood of the thought about 11:11 popping up on 11 November is difficult to establish, but in my case, it was not low.

The birthday problem demonstrates strange coincidences happen more often than we might think. If you share a birthday with another person in a small group, it might strike you as odd, but the chance of someone sharing a birthday with another person is already 50% in a group of 23. However, two people sharing a birthday is not a mind-blowing coincidence. It is not as remarkable as the incident with the distance recorder.

When you are a member of this group, the probability of you being one of the persons sharing a birthday is much smaller, namely 6%. Meaningful coincidences are likely to happen, but less likely to you. So, if many people experience the same and think it is merely a coincidence because coincidences occur more often than you might think, they suffer from what you might call a collective delusion. Imagine a group of 24 all sharing a birthday with one other group member, so they share 12 birthdays, and they all think, ‘Nothing exiting to see here. The odds of me sharing a birthday with another person in this group are over 50%.’

Taking a smaller sample reduces the likelihood of meaningful coincidences. If you randomly pick two people, the chance of them having the same birthday is only 0.3%. So, if you run into someone else who happens to share your birthday, and it happens again with the next person, it is noteworthy. If it happens another time with the following individual, you might wonder whether there is more to this universe than mere chance. The more elaborate a scheme, the less likely it is to transpire. The probability of three people sharing a birthday in a group of 23 is 1.3%, and for five, it is only 0.0002%. If your life is riddled with elaborate, meaningful coincidences, you might start to believe that you have a critical role in the universe.

Possible avenues to circumvent the law of large numbers

There may be a way to find out there is no such thing as coincidence. If some of the most significant historical events come with peculiar coincidences, that might be more telling for two reasons. First, there are only a few, so the law of large numbers doesn’t apply. After all, it is a small sample. Suppose no intelligence is coordinating events in this universe. In that case, it is less likely that meaningful coincidences will turn up in this sample, and elaborate schemes will be unlikely to emerge. Second, if the most significant historical events come with peculiar coincidences, it becomes more likely that history is scripted than when peculiar incidents transpire in someone’s personal life.

To make the argument, you need to answer questions like, what are the most important historical events, and what are peculiar coincidences? Events such as the sinking of the Titanic or the Kennedy assassination might not qualify, even though the coincidences surrounding them form a strange and elaborate scheme. The extent of these schemes might compensate for that, but it is hard to tell. The beginning and the end of World War I meet the requirements. D-Day, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 are among the most important historical events.

And what should I think of the number of meaningful coincidences in my life? It is not possible to establish the likelihood of that happening. You can make assumptions to arrive at an idea. A highly unusual coincidence, such as the do-it-yourself store incident, could be likened to throwing five sixes with five dice. The chance of such an event happening in any year in any life could be one in 7,776. If something similar transpires again that year, it is like throwing five sixes twice in a row. The chance of that would be one in 60,000,000. On average, 120 people would experience something similar each year. But what if more similar incidents occur in one life? Or if 100,000 people have this instead of 120?

I have shared a few of my coincidence stories on the Reddit/SimulationTheory message board. Others also experience similar situations. Only the people on that message board are not a random group, but a select group of individuals who believe we live in a simulation, often because they have witnessed similar phenomena. Some of these stories are as remarkable as mine. I can’t verify these tales, but I believe most aren’t frauds because similar things happened to me. The question remains whether they have seen strange incidents occurring in the numbers I have seen.

There is a point where you must admit that these things are not merely coincidental. We can’t establish that point objectively. The number of possible unusual events is infinite, so the chance of something strange happening, such as the do-it-yourself store incident, could be higher than we intuitively think. It seems impossible to accurately estimate the odds. Still, without intelligence coordinating events in this universe, we should expect these incidents to be distributed more or less evenly across all people and time frames.

Even then, significant deviations from the average are possible. Lightning strikes only a few people. It happens to some people twice, which might seem odd, but there is nothing suspicious about that. If lightning strikes one in 10,000 people once, then one in 100,000,000 gets hit twice. But how would you explain if one person ran into lightning ten times, and this individual did nothing unusual? Statistically, it can happen. More likely, there is a cause, such as living in a dangerous spot. There is a point where we must assume these stories are evidence of us living in a simulation. We can’t establish that point precisely, but whether we live inside a simulation or not doesn’t depend on our assessment. We are, however, inclined to see causes behind remarkable situations or events, but they may be accidental.

The limits of our minds

We are good at attributing causes, but we do poorly at estimating the likelihood of an event. The psychologist Daniel Kahneman provided an example. It is a study of the incidence of kidney cancer in the counties of the United States. The research revealed a remarkable pattern. The incidence of kidney cancer was the lowest in rural, sparsely populated counties in traditionally Republican states in the Midwest, the South, and the West.1 So what do you make of that?

You probably came up with reasons why kidney cancer is less likely to occur in these counties, such as a healthy rural lifestyle or low pollution levels. You probably did not think of randomness. Consider then the counties in which the incidence of kidney cancer is the highest. These counties were also rural, sparsely populated, and in traditionally Republican states in the Midwest, the South, and the West.1

How can that be? Those counties all had small populations. And with smaller samples come more sizeable deviations from the average. Our intuition makes connections of causality, but our reason does not verify whether it could just be randomness. We like to think some cause makes unusual things happen, while they might be random accidents.

When we consider the most significant historical events, we run into problems if we use this small sample to establish that someone is ‘writing history’. On the other hand, comparing this sample to a sparsely populated rural county may not be apt. It is more fitting to compare this sample to the royal family, as it encompasses the most significant events in history. If a high incidence of kidney cancer were to turn up in the royal family, an experienced physician would tell you it is probably not a random issue.

I am a single individual, the smallest possible sample. Some people get struck by lightning twice. It could even happen three or four times, but the chance of it happening ten times is so insignificant that no one will ever experience that unless they live in a hazardous spot. Is the number of meaningful coincidences in my life enough to rule out chance? That number is extraordinarily high. It is not chance. The question arises: Am I just a random individual, or do I live in a dangerous location, or has destiny given me a unique role, such as proving that we live in a simulation? Others have this, too. And so, a lengthy series of peculiar incidents doesn’t suffice to believe the latter.

The things that could have happened but did not

In 1913, the ball fell on a black number twenty-six times in a row at the roulette wheel at the Casino de Monte-Carlo. Some people lost a fortune by betting the ball would fall on red the next time. They did not realise the chance of the ball choosing a red number never changed. The ball does not remember where it went the previous times. If we represent black with a B and red with an R and assume, for simplicity’s sake, there is no zero, we can write down falling twenty-six times on black like so:

B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B

The probability of the ball falling on black twenty-six times in a row is one in 67,108,864. That is a long shot. What might surprise you is that the following combination of black and red numbers is precisely as likely to occur:

R B B R B R R B R B B R R B R R B R B B R R B B R B

You wouldn’t be thrilled if that happened unless you became a millionaire by betting on this particular series of twenty-six. And even then, you wouldn’t think of the 67,108,863 sequences that did not materialise. We tend to consider only the things that did happen, but we rarely think of all the things that could have transpired but didn’t. Events such as the ball falling on black twenty-six times in a row impress us. And I am even more impressed because twenty-six happens to be my lucky number.

This argument applies to meaningful coincidences but not to a prediction materialising, as such a feat may imply that all the other things couldn’t have happened. If I say with firm conviction that the coming sequence of black and red would be R B B R B R R B R B B R R B R R B R B B R R B B R B and it happens as I predicted, I may have the gift of prophecy. The chance of me being accidentally right was one in 67,108,864.

Imagine the probability of you sitting here reading this page on a tablet or a mobile phone, but as a prediction from 3,600 years ago. Imagine Joseph telling the Pharaoh: ‘I see (your name comes here) reading a pile of papyrus pages, not real papyrus pages, but papyrus pages appearing on something that looks like a clay tablet. Do not be afraid, dear Pharaoh, for it will happen 3,600 years from now. But if we do not set up this grain storage, it will not happen, so we must do it. And by the way, Egypt will starve otherwise.’

The chance of this prediction coming true was not one in 67,108,864, nor was it one in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Adding more zeroes doesn’t help. The chance is far smaller than any number you can ever write down. It is so close to zero that no one can tell the difference. Nevertheless, you sit here reading this text, perhaps even on a tablet. How could this happen? The answer to this mystery is that many things could have occurred but did not; however, something had to happen, and that is what transpired. In any case, Joseph couldn’t have made such a prediction by accident.

The licence plate number

What about the reference to the end date of World War I on the licence plate of Franz Ferdinand’s car? Few historical events are as significant as the start and end of World War I. And so, the law of large numbers doesn’t apply here. It is one of the most important historical events, thus part of a sample comparable to the royal family. A mere accident seems unlikely. The assassination could have gone wrong; cooler heads might have prevailed, or the war could have proceeded differently, ending on a different date.

It might have been possible to guess the end date of World War I once it had started. If you presumed that the war would not take more than twenty years, a random guess of the end date could be correct one in every 7,305 times. But something doesn’t add up here. Hardly anyone expected the war to last longer than a few months. The licence plate originates before the war. The assassination succeeded after a series of mishaps. If the licence plate number contained a prediction, that prediction included the assassination succeeding, Franz Ferdinand dying in this particular car, and this event being the trigger for the war.

That is hard to do. And so Mike Dash in the Smithsonian noted, ‘This coincidence is so incredible that I initially suspected that it might be a hoax.’2 Only, it is not a hoax, so investigative minds could have probed other options, but they did not. Conspiracy theorists also ignored it, even though this incident agrees with their beliefs of a secretive plan being behind history.

In the conspiracy scene, a story circulates about a Freemason named Alfred Pike, who allegedly disclosed a secretive plan of the Freemasons to bring about the New World Order. Pike supposedly predicted both world wars with uncanny precision in 1871. Nobody had ever heard of this plan before 1959, when an ‘investigator’ ‘uncovered’ it. Contrary to the licence plate number, the story has no substance. It is a hoax. In the Netherlands, they would call it a monkey sandwich story.

Seeing meaning

Authors use symbolism, hidden meanings, themes, and stylistic figures. Events in their lives, as well as the writings of other authors, influence their writings. Literary critics look for those meanings. You can check out what experts wrote about the poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot. You will be surprised. Some authors marvel at what literature critics discover in their works. Apart from intention, there can be an unconscious influence. And so, seeing meaning is more like an art than a science. A scientist would argue there is no proof and that it is baseless speculation because science isn’t about meaning.

He spent a number of years at this project
And now he knows how an electron behaves

The Nits, Mountain Jan

You can’t understand intentions and meaning from investigating the conduct of electrons. Meaning in literature is often intentional. If someone wrote the script running the events in this world, the author might do what other authors do. And so, the licence plate number on Franz Ferdinand’s car could signal foreknowledge of future events or even control over them. The sceptics argue from a scientific perspective, while those who see meaning act like literary critics. Who is right about the meaning of AIII 118 depends on whether there is a script and, therefore, an author.

Sceptics might claim that AIII 118 is a random sequence of characters, but we see a reference to the end date of World War I. That is how our minds work. The argument is odd. If you take it to the extreme, this text is also a random array of characters, as is any book or report. And still, you read words and sentences that have meaning to you. Indeed, the licence plate number would have remained unnoticed if the war had not ended on 11 November 1918.

However, the war ended on 11 November 1918. AIII 118 is the car’s licence plate number that drove Franz Ferdinand to his appointment with his destiny. And destiny is the message the licence plate number radiates. It suggests premeditation concerning the assassination, the start of the war and its end on 11 November 1918. That is a meaning we can see without too much imagination. There are plenty of instances and locations where this sequence of characters could have turned up, so their presence in this particular spot is noteworthy. AIII 118 on a fish barrel in Vienna wouldn’t have attracted attention. Ditto for the licence plate number ABII 117 on that particular car.

Sceptics can also be fanciful. Austrians speak German. Armistice in German is Waffenstillstand. So why does it not read WIII 118? Or even better, W1111 1918? If someone sends you a message, you don’t quibble about such details. If I said ‘hello’ to you, you wouldn’t ask me why I didn’t utter the word ‘hi’ instead. That is, unless you are a philosopher with a lot of idle time and have a hobby of questioning everything. Great Britain, the United States and France were all major participants in the war. These countries all use the term armistice. And if the sceptics come with outlandish arguments, you have won the argument. Only, they disagree. Not seeing meaning is the art of being a moron. Communication with morons is, therefore, problematic.

Asking yourself which licence plate numbers were available in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire may be a better idea. You could check which combinations fit the purpose. There aren’t that many options. Perhaps, you end up with just one match: AIII 118. That makes it harder to believe that this sequence of characters is meaningless. This scheme became even more inconceivable because the war ended on 11 November (11-11), the most peculiar date of the year.

Only a few historical events are as important as the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the Armistice of 11 November 1918. You can think of D-Day, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and 9/11. The coincidence scheme surrounding D-Day is extensive, and the recurrence of dates is intriguing. The involvement of Hans van Mierlo is also mind-boggling. It also relates to the Curse of the Omen, a film released on the anniversary of D-Day, as well as the untimely passing of Senator Robert Kennedy on 6 June (6/6) and Martin Luther King on 4 April (4/4) 1968. A historian correctly predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, while the coincidences surrounding the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 are dumbfounding. In other words, this incident doesn’t stand alone.

A final argument may be that such extensive or peculiar coincidence schemes don’t appear in other historical events that are equally significant, such as the American, French, Chinese, and Russian revolutions. These events are marked by a few peculiar coincidences, such as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams having their appointments with the Grim Reaper on the same day, which happens to be 4 July, thus Independence Day. That is noteworthy, but perhaps not sensational. The parallels between Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler might also raise some questions. Somehow, the licence plate number of Franz Ferdinand’s car is more exceptional, most notably because of it being so precisely predictive.

The Chinese Revolution of 1911 began on 10 October 1911. It marked the end of 2,000 years of imperial rule in China. The date, 10 October (10/10), is not as remarkable as 11 November (11/11), even more so because there are no related coincidences. The Russian Revolution led to the establishment of a communist empire that lasted for seven decades. A bad omen marked the coronation of the last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II. The communists later murdered him and his family. You can ask why these events don’t seem part of a coincidence scheme. It is like asking why several members of the Royal Family don’t have kidney cancer. Well, they haven’t. That’s all there is to it. Perhaps, it is not satisfactory to philosophers with a lot of time on their hands, but it will have to do.

Hindsight bias

And then there is the benefit of hindsight. Countless strange incidents could have occurred, but they didn’t. We notice only things that did happen and don’t think of those that didn’t. That is hindsight bias. The sample of the most significant historical events comes with the benefit of hindsight. There is a danger to that approach, and it is unacceptable in science. It is like selecting only the data that confirms your theory. You might have a theory about gravity, saying that all objects will fall to the ground. And you prove your theory by ignoring the heavenly objects and the birds in the sky, so everything you investigate falls to the ground. It later turned out that gravity works that way, and ignoring the heavenly objects and the birds in the sky put you on the right track.

With hindsight, you know things you can’t learn in advance. Hindsight knowledge is also a favourite tool of critics when something goes wrong. However, when you use hindsight to find evidence, your critics argue you can’t. That’s how the critics play their game. They might clip a bird’s wing feathers and then ask the bird to prove it is a bird by flying. But if you use clipped birds to prove your theory of gravity, they might criticise you for that as well. You can’t beat your critics in their game. No evidence will ever convince them. So I won’t try. This wasn’t science in the first place, but metaphysical speculation.

Using hindsight, thus, is the only way to conduct this investigation, as we can’t predict the occurrence of meaningful coincidences. If this universe is genuine, we can’t establish that it is authentic. However, if it is a simulation, we may discover it is a simulation. So, if there is meaning, we must look for it to find it. We should be careful, as we are inclined to see intent when it could have happened accidentally. With that in mind, it is still fair to say that meaningful coincidences related to the most important historical events are likely not mere coincidences. Combined with the other evidence, we can establish that we live inside virtual reality, probably a simulation created by an advanced post-human civilisation.

Latest revision: 24 July 2025

1. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Daniel Kahneman (2011). Penguin Books.
2. Curses! Archduke Franz Ferdinand and His Astounding Death Car. Mike Dash (2013). Smithsonian. [link]

Getting Used to Strangeness

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Eleven is the fool’s number in the Netherlands. 11 November (11-11) is when the Councils of Eleven are elected. It marks the beginning of the carnival season, which culminates in the celebrations of Carnival in February. In the former Roman Catholic areas of the Netherlands, forty days of fasting ended with a feast of excessive eating and drinking, in which people dressed in costumes. Nowadays, people only opt for feasting and excess. Fasting and contemplation are bad for business. In any case, in the Netherlands, eleven is associated with oddity.

Eleven is also the first double-digit number. To me, eleven symbolises a strange event. After all, it is the fool’s number. 11:11 symbolises a repetition of such an event or two related peculiar incidents. That is the nature of coincidences. Something unusual might happen. That can make you wonder, but if something similar or related happens again shortly afterwards for unexplained reasons, that could be amazing.

Several incidents in my life are noteworthy because of a repetition in an unlikely manner. One, while visiting my father in Nijverdal, I drove on a narrow road nearby. An oncoming car hit my rear-view mirror, and it broke off. A few weeks later, my father had the same type of accident in his car. To the best of my knowledge, no one I know has ever had an accident of this kind.

My son Rob had two bicycle accidents that injured him. The first was near our home, just before the home of a retired physician who could help him with his injuries. The second accident occurred during our holiday in Ameland, just before the home of a retired physician who could have helped him. That is odd, even more so because these were the only two bicycle accidents he had ever had.

In the Autumn of 2008, a strange accident occurred before our house in Sneek. A car had crashed into a lamppost. The lamppost broke off. Two men stepped out and hared away. A few years later, I realised the accident may have been a prelude to the array of unusual events that followed. That day, I bicycled towards IJlst, a village near home. Near IJlst, I found the remains of a broken-off lamppost. That was remarkable, even more so because our house is on the road to IJlst, which is the same road.

In August 2014, we were waiting for a traffic light near our home in Sneek. In the car ahead of us sat a guy who looked like my cousin. And so I told my wife. My cousin and I had been best friends for over a decade. We made a funny newspaper together. Immediately after I finished speaking, four trucks from the transport company Leemans came from the right. My cousin had once decorated a truck of Leemans. When I was eighteen, I went on holiday with him, hitchhiking through Scandinavia. A truck driver from Leemans brought us to Sweden.

I hadn’t seen a Leemans truck in my home town before. They were there because of railroad construction work. My cousin came from Haaksbergen, a village near Enschede. In June 2015, we left Nijverdal after visiting my father. Haaksbergen was in the news because of a shooting incident.1 Haaksbergen had been on the news a few times because of electricity failures,2 3, skating contests,4 and a monster truck accident.5 I told my wife, ‘Haaksbergen is often in the news.’ Just after I had finished speaking, we passed a truck of Leemans parked by the side of the road.

In 2014, a woman rang our doorbell. Her father was about to turn eighty. He had lived in our house during the 1950s. She wanted to give him a tour of his old home as a birthday present. She made an appointment to visit us the following Saturday. She showed up with her sister and father. I gave them a tour around the house. A few hours later, the doorbell rang again. My wife opened the door to an elderly lady with her daughter and son-in-law. They asked if they could see the house because she had lived there in the 1960s. Both families had taken up this idea independently and hadn’t spoken to each other. And nothing of that kind had transpired before or afterwards.

In July 2014, we went on holiday to Sweden and Norway. My son wanted to visit Hessdalen Valley in Norway. People have spotted mysterious lights there. Those lights look like orbs and are known as the Hessdalen orbs. Some people have claimed they were UFOs. When we were in Hessdalen, we went to a viewing point on a hilltop. A few Norwegian guys had been there already for hours, hoping to photograph a UFO. We did not see anything unusual. We took some pictures of the surroundings. After we had returned home, we noticed orbs in one of the photos we had taken there. Orbs on photographs are a phenomenon unrelated to the Hessdalen orbs. Still, it is remarkable.

My wife and I had one specific person with whom we couldn’t get along. What is remarkable about it is that they both have the same last name, and there is no connection between these conflicts. And their last name is not very common. In my wife’s case, the person had been a friend previously. This friend wanted the friendship to become closer, but my wife didn’t. My wife doesn’t dare to offend others, so instead of stating plainly what she wanted, she decided not to see this friend again. Now, this former friend wasn’t easy-going, and nearly all her friendships ended in conflict, so there may be more to it. She was rich, volatile, overbearing, and easily offended. She didn’t have to work for a living but could buy anything she wanted because she had inherited a fortune, making her spoiled. She sometimes drove her husband crazy, but he couldn’t leave her because she had the money, or so my wife said. And so, he lived in a golden cage. My wife had succeeded in remaining her friend for decades, which is probably an epic achievement.

I had trouble with the lawyer in the office next door. He wanted me to cut down the trees in my garden, which I did not. That displeased him. Most notably, he took offence at the pine tree in my front yard, which dispensed needles in the Autumn and also had branches that invaded his territory, or at least the air above it. I was accommodating, trying not to let the dispute escalate, so I allowed him to prune the trees, and I also pruned them. When pine needles ended up in his garden, I often removed them, which I was not obliged to do, as these legally were his needles in his garden. But that wasn’t enough. He believed he could order me. And he became angry when I didn’t do what he wanted or forgot to remove the needles from his garden. You know how lawyers are. They try to intimidate you, even when they have a weak hand. There is a Dutch television programme, De Rijdende Rechter (The Travelling Judge), where neighbours fight out their petty judicial conflicts, and a judge makes rulings, so I proposed bringing the case there.

There was no risk that we would have ended up on television. Otherwise, I would have had second thoughts before making such a proposal. Losing a petty conflict with me would make him lose face, as he was a lawyer. He came from a poor family and had long been a car salesman, but had become a lawyer. He talked with a slight elite accent, so a bit with ‘a hot potato in the mouth’ as the Dutch would say, but not much, and so close to Dutch without a local accent that it is hard to tell the difference, so that I might just be imagining it because I don’t like him. At least he gave me the impression that he saw me as a peasant he could order around. Such a man wouldn’t risk losing face. He backed off, perhaps not for that reason, but who knows? Out of frustration, he dumped the pine needles he found in his garden in my garden several times. For several years, I avoided him so the conflict would not escalate. He later turned the office into his home and became my next-door neighbour. Assuming he had had years to calm down and think it over, I contacted him again. Now, we have a reasonable understanding. I later realised that it is indeed odd that he has the same last name as my wife’s former friend.

Latest revision: 28 August 2025

Featured image: Orbs on a photograph taken at Hessdalen, Norway (2014).

1. Schietpartij Haaksbergen, politie geeft beelden vrij en toont auto schutter. RTV Oost (7 May 2015) [link]
2. Leger helpt Haaksbergen bij stroomstoring. Nu.nl (26 November 2005). [link]
3. Stroomstoring treft Haaksbergen en omgeving. De Volkskrant (29 March 2007). [link]
4. Natuurijsbaan. Wikipedia. [link]
5. Derde dode door ongeluk monstertruck Haaksbergen [link]

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

Aftermath Of The 11 September Terror Attacks

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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 216th 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 88th floor of 1 World Trade Center, which was still under construction.24 The date, 8 August (8/8) and 88th 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]
19. ‘Den Haag doelwit van al-Qaeda’. Nu.nl (2012). [link]
20. Gewonden door aanrijding passagiersbus in Eindhoven. Nu.nl (2012). [link]
21. Twee noodlandingen in korte tijd op Eindhoven Airport. Ronald. Travel.blog.nl (2010). [link]
22. Humbug. Dan Dailey. Wandervogel Diary (2011). [link]
23. American Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Guardian (2011). [link]
24. FDNY Responds to Fire Report at WTC. Katherine Creag. NBC New York (2012). [link]
25. Murdered French Cartoonist Charb Predicted Attack In Chilling Cartoon. Huffington Post Canada (2015). [link]
26. Mecca crane collapse. Wikipedia. [link]
27. Strikes Claimed by ISIS Shut Brussels and Shake European Security. Alissa J. Rubin, Aurelien Breeden and Anita Raghavan. New York Times (2016). [link]

World Trade Center on 11 September 2001

11 September Coincidences

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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).

If you like this post, then you might also like:

Aftermath of the 11 September terror attacks

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, a lot more peculiar coincidences happened.

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Events in my life related to 11 September

A few strange coincidences happened in my life that can be related to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks.

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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.

1. Thousands Had Winning 9-1-1 Numbers. Sue Chan. CBS (11 September 2002). [link]
2. September 11 attacks. Wikipedia. [link]
3. The Inauspicious ‘Curse’ of Flight 191. Daniel Morley (2015). AirlineGeeks.com. [link]
4. Prince voorspelde 9/11 in Tivoli Oudegracht. Nu.nl (2016).
5. The cancelled Jackie Chan movie with uncanny parallels to 9/11. Finlay Greig. Inews.co.uk (2017).
6. How Deus Ex Predicted the Future. Richard Wordsworth. Kotaku.com (2014). [link]
7. Out of the Loop (I Am the World Trade Centre album). Wikipedia. [link]
8. The Matrix Prophetic Film 911 coincidence. U2r2h Blog (2008). [link]
9. Live Scenes from New York. Wikipedia.
10. How The Simpsons predicted 9/11, Trump and Disney-Fox. The Irish Times (2018).
11. 15 Bizarre Signs In Popular Culture That ‘Predicted’ The 9/11 Attacks Before They Actually Happened. Nishant Raj (2016). [link]
13. Linda and Terry Jamison. Wikipedia. [link]
14. Twin towers to be demolished. BBC (2001). [link]
15. Controversy and conspiracies III. Mike Rudin. BBC (2008). [link]
16. Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the Persian Gulf Crisis and the Federal Budget Deficit. George Bush (11 September 1990) [link]
17. Project for the New American Century. Wikipedia. [link]
18. U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba. David Ruppe. ABC News (2001). [link]
19. Global Guardian. Wikipedia. [link]
20. Date with Destiny? Howard Altman. Philadelphia City Paper (2001).
21. The Carlyle Group: C for capitalism. Economist (2003). [link]
22. September 11 attacks. Wikipedia. [link]