The Number 23 Enigma: Is it all a coincidence?

You might have heard of the expression "lucky number 7", or "unlucky 13", but this one is something you have probably never heard before. It is something that refers the number 23 as being the cause of many incidents and events leading up to this day.

You might think "This is crazy! A number being the cause of accidents?!", but you would be surprised. Let's get back to the origin that this all started. Robert Anton Wilson cites William S. Burroughs as being the first person to believe in the 23 enigma. Wilson, in an article in Fortean Times, related the following story:

"I first heard of the 23 enigma from William S Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, Nova Express, etc. According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very day, Clark’s ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was another captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23."

You might be thinking now that "This is just a coincidence!", but I can assure you that is not the only thing linked to 23. Now, let's take account of the horrible disaster that struck in 2001. The World Trade Center collapsed.
W = 23rd letter
T = 20th letter
C = 3rd letter
W = 23, and T - C = 23.

That may just be another coincidence, but the abbreviation isn't the only thing linked to the number.
The builds collapsed on 9/11/01. 9 + 11 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 1 = 23.

Now, they also had a plan to bring down the towers in 1976. 1 + 9 + 7 + 6. I think you can do the rest.
Now, Bill Clinton's initials are B.C. B = 2nd letter, and C = 3rd letter.

You might notice that you have to do some weird stuff in order for some of these to add up to 23, for example, Bill Clinton's initials don't exactly add up to 23, but if you put 2 and 3 together, you get it. You might notice that for some of these.

Now, you might remember about Julius Caesar from History class. Remember how he was stabbed to death?
Now, remember how many times he was stabbed? I think you can guess that as well. 23.

Also, let's travel to the Titanic. It sunk on 15/4/1912. Now, let's do the math.
4 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 9 + 1 + 2 = 23.

To make things even more interesting, there are 23 characters on every american coin. Go ahead and count.

Now let's move on to Hitler. On January 23rd, he organized the National Socialist Congress and he tried to seize power on November 23rd.

John F. Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963.
2 + 2 + 1 + 9 + 6 + 3 = 23.

On to the next tragedy; the Hiroshima Nuke. It was dropped at 8:15, August 6th 1945. 8 + 15 = 23.
6 + 8 + 4 + 5 = 23 as well. (The 8 is from the time.)

23 is also a VERY important number that created you and me. Remember, each parent contributes 23 chromosomes.

Michael Jordon's shirt number is 23, which is also the day of his father's murder on July 23 1993.

The list goes ON AND ON.

The Paris-bound TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed on July 1996, killing all of the 230 passengers. Notice the 23 in there? To make matters worse, the two recovered seats with shrapnel 23J and 23K. The explosion was theorized that the explosion causing the deaths of all the passengers occurred at this location.

Celebrity fun fact: Jim Carrey is obsessed with the number 23, long before he was the star of one of his more serious movies, "The Number 23." That brings me to my next statement.

I will include the Wikipedia for this movie at the end where I tell my sources. The movie is about how Walter, a dog catcher finds a dog named Ned which bites him. Making him late, he goes to the book store where his wife finds him a book. He becomes obsessed with it, but that is all I will tell you; I don't want to give you any spoilers. Now, this movie is actually what started my obsession with the number as well. I found out that the number 23 is actually to linked in my life a little bit; for example my birth date, 9/14. 14 + 9 = 23.


I really want your guys' opinion on this, because this has been on my mind a lot lately. Can it just be a case of finding what you want to find and these are all just coincidences, or does this mean something?

Sources:

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

The two numbers that have always been most prominent in my life are 23 and 17.

Another interesting point is that Micheal Jordan was #23, he's considered the greatest of recent athletes. M(13) +J(10) = 23, the number is in his initials as well.

Originally posted by PatrickGarrow17
The two numbers that have always been most prominent in my life are 23 and 17.

Another interesting point is that Micheal Jordan was #23, he's considered the greatest of recent athletes. M(13) +J(10) = 23, the number is in his initials as well.

Wow, thanks for pointing that out!

I feel like if you look for something hard enough, you'll see it...



I know your numbers weren't really to do with the Bible, but it is the same principle...

Here you are OP,

Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger novels and especially Prometheus Rising have the kernels of the 23 enigma as it has been propagated over the last 45 years or so.

This exercise of his was meant to directly address the questions that you are asking in your OP, in terms of whether or not your attention has increased the frequency of '23s' in your life...

Sad as it is to say, you never understand anything by merely
reading a book about it. That's why every science course includes laboratory experiments, and why every consciousness liberation movement demands practice of yogas, meditations, confrontation techniques, etc. in which the ideas are tested in the laboratory of your own nervous system.

The reader will absolutely not understand this book unless he or she does the exercizes given at the end of each chapter.

To explore the Thinker and the Prover, try the following:

1. Visualize a quarter vividly, and imagine vividly that you are going to find the quarter on the street. Then, look for the quarter every time you take a walk, meanwhile continuing to visualize it.

See how long it takes you to find the quarter.

2. Explain the above experiment by the hypothesis of "selective attention"—that is, believe there are lots of lost quarters everywhere and you were bound to find one by continually looking. Go looking for a second quarter.

3. Explain the experiment by the alternative "mystical" hypothesis that "mind controls everything." Believe that you made the quarter manifest in this universe. Go looking for a second quarter.

If the reader is a scientist, be not alarmed. This refers not to you but only to those benighted fools in the opposite camp who refuse to recognize that your theory is the only reasonable one. Of course.Prometheus Rising 29

4. Compare the time it takes to find the second quarter using the first hypothesis (attention) with the time it takes using the second hypothesis (mind-over-matter).

5. With your own ingenuity, invent similar experiments and each time compare the two theories—"selective attention" (coincidence) vs. "mind controls everything" (psychokinesis).

6. Avoid coming to any strong conclusions prematurely. At the end of a month, re-read this chapter, think it over again, and still postpone coming to any dogmatic conclusion. Believe it possible that you do not know everything yet, and that you might have something still to learn.

7. Convince yourself (if you are not already convinced) that you are ugly, unattractive and dull. Go to a party in that frame of mind. Observe how people treat you.

8. Convince yourself (if you are not already convinced) that you are handsome, irresistible and witty. Go to a party in that frame of mind. Observe how people treat you.

9. This is the hardest of all exercizes and comes in two parts.

First, observe closely and dispassionately two dear friends and two relative strangers. Try to figure out what their Thinkers think, and how their Provers methodically set about proving it.

Second, apply the same exercize to yourself. If you think you have learned the lessons of these exercizes in less than six months, you haven't really been working at them. With real work, in six months you should be just beginning to realize how little you know about everything.

10. Believe it possible that you can float off the ground and fly by merely willing it. See what happens. If this exercize proves as disappointing to you as it has to me, try number 11 below, which is never disappointing.

11. Believe that you can exceed all your previous ambitions and hopes in all areas of your life.

-Robert Anton wilson. Prometheus Rising. Chapter 1, page 29...


www.rawilsonfans.com...

I am very happy to see you getting an early start on this and you will learn more the closer you stick to the source materials, I will pray that Eris helps you to get the joke.



Hail Eris!

X.

And if you have the gene CCR5 Delta 23, it means your ancestors survived the Black death and have an immunity against HIV.
Pretty lucky in my mind.

23 adds up to 5 and 5 follows me everywhere. IDK why.

reply to post by Xoanon


Well that was a fascinating ready, Xonanon! I'm gonna play around with the quarter thingy tomorrow.