23 (numerology)


The number 23 appears in many mysterious coincidences - but only to those who notice them.The "23 Enigma" refers to the belief that all incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, some permutation of the number 23, or a number related to the number 23, given enough ingenuity on the part of the interpreter.

Unusual circumstances being linked to 23 are mentioned by William S. Burroughs. He tells the story of meeting a ferry captain named Clark who claimed to have sailed the same route without an accident for 23 years. That very day, however, the ferry sank, killing all aboard. Later that day, Burroughs writes, he was thinking about Clark's ferry accident when he heard that a Flight 23 on a New York-Miami route had crashed. According to Burroughs, the pilot's name for the flight had also been Clark. Burroughs began collecting incidences of the number 23 in a scrapbook and referred to them in his writings.

The 23 Enigma can also be seen in Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's Illuminatus! trilogy (there called the "23/17 phenomenon"), Wilson's Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati (there called "The Law of 23s" and "The 23 Enigma"), Arthur Koestler's Challenge of Chance, as well as the notorious Principia Discordia. In these works, 23 is considered to be alternately lucky, unlucky, sacred to the goddess Eris, sinister, sacred to the unholy gods of the Cthulhu Mythos, or just plain weird. Discordians regard this as a corollary of the Law of Fives.

In connection to the Discordian view, 23 may also be interpreted as 2:3 or 40/60 as opposed to the Pareto principle 1:4 (or 20/80). 23 does therefore symbolize a more balanced distribution of wealth. Both distributions, 2:3 and 1:4, add up to the sacred Discordian number 5 (note that a 50/50 distribution cannot be constructed by the same method, which underlines the Discordian esteem for chaos). The pyramid of the Great Seal of the United States with one base and four faces may symbolize the 1:4 distribution. The Pentagon, while also clearly representing the 5, does not show any bias toward a 2:3 or 1:4 quota.

Like other numbers that have long been linked to unusual coincidences, 13 and 17 also being favorites, the 23 Enigma can be seen as no more than an example of apophenia. Skeptics point out the fact that 23, being a fairly low number, occurs often in the media, current events, and daily life, concluding that it appears probably no more often in conjunction with catastrophe or coincidence than 22 or 24. In interviews, Wilson has acknowledged the possibly self-fulfilling nature of the 23 enigma, implying that the real value of the Laws of Fives and Twenty-threes lies in their demonstration of the mind's power to perceive "truth" in nearly anything.

As a number with which to associate things, 23 has several helpful properties. It is a prime number, and therefore more likely to be associated with coincidences because events associated with composite numbers would be divided by a factor to arrive at it or some other prime. In addition, it enjoys the boon of having the two lowest primes as digits; 2 and 3 are small and therefore can be included in complex calculations that arrive at numbers only remotely related, which can then become coincidental with significant events. Two and three are also the most frequent factors (excluding 1) of a given range of whole numbers. 23 less the numeric base is 13, which has many phobias attached to it. Finally, it is the largest integer that is a valid day and a valid 24 hour clock hour.(dubious; discuss)

More unusual interpretations of 23's prevalence involve solipsism and some of the stranger sub-theories of quantum mechanics.