23 enigma

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The 23 enigma is a belief in the significance of the number 23. [1] The concept of the 23 enigma has been popularized by various books, movies, and conspiracy theories, which suggest that the number 23 appears with unusual frequency in various contexts and may be a symbol of some larger, hidden significance. A topic related to the 23 enigma is eikositriophobia, which is the fear of the number 23.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Origins

Robert Anton Wilson cites William S. Burroughs as the first person to believe in the 23 enigma. [2] Wilson, in a 1977 article in Fortean Times , related the following anecdote:

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. [3]

In literature

The 23 enigma can be seen in:

The text titled Principia Discordia claims that "All things happen in fives, or are divisible by or are multiples of five, or are somehow directly or indirectly appropriate to 5" [4] this is referred to as the Law of Fives. The 23 enigma is regarded as a corollary of the Law of Fives because 2 + 3 = 5.

In these works, 23 is considered lucky, unlucky, sinister, strange, sacred to the goddess Eris, or sacred to the unholy gods of the Cthulhu Mythos.

The 23 enigma can be viewed as an example of apophenia, selection bias and confirmation bias. In interviews, Wilson acknowledged the self-fulfilling nature of the 23 enigma, implying that the real value of the Law of Fives and the 23 enigma is in their demonstration of the mind's ability to perceive "truth" in nearly anything.

When you start looking for something you tend to find it. This wouldn't be like Simon Newcomb, the great astronomer, who wrote a mathematical proof that heavier than air flight was impossible and published it a day before the Wright brothers took off. I'm talking about people who found a pattern in nature and wrote several scientific articles and got it accepted by a large part of the scientific community before it was generally agreed that there was no such pattern, it was all just selective perception." [5]

In the Illuminatus! Trilogy, Wilson expresses the same view, saying that one can find numerological significance in anything, provided that one has "sufficient cleverness".

Music and art duo The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (later known as The KLF and the K Foundation) named themselves after the fictional conspiratorial group "The Justified Ancients of Mummu" from Illuminatus!; [6] the number 23 is a recurring theme in the duo's work. [7] [8] Perhaps most infamously, as the K Foundation they performed a performance art piece, K Foundation Burn a Million Quid on 23 August 1994 [9] and subsequently agreed not to publicly discuss the burning for a period of 23 years. [10] 23 years to the day after the burning they returned to launch a novel and discuss why they had burnt the money. [11]

The 2007 film The Number 23 , starring Jim Carrey, is the story of a man who becomes obsessed with the number 23 while reading a book of the same title that seems to be about his life. [12]

Industrial music group Throbbing Gristle recounted in great detail the meeting of Burroughs and Captain Clark and the significance of the number 23 in the ballad "The Old Man Smiled". [13] Their 1980 album Heathen Earth , where this song appears, also features the number 23 on the cover [14] .


See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discordianism</span> Belief system based around Eris

Discordianism is a belief system based around Eris, the Greek goddess of strife and discord, and variously defined as a religion, new religious movement, virtual religion, or act of social commentary; though prior to 2005, some sources categorized it as a parody religion. It was founded after the 1963 publication of its holy book, Principia Discordia, written by Greg Hill with Kerry Wendell Thornley, the two working under the pseudonyms Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst.

<i>The Illuminatus! Trilogy</i> Series of novels by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Drummond</span> Scottish artist and musician (born 1953)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">It's Grim Up North</span> 1991 single by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

"It's Grim Up North" is a song by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. The song was originally released as a limited edition "Club Mix" in December 1990 with Pete Wylie on vocals. A re-recorded version with Bill Drummond on vocals was released commercially in October 1991. These recordings were the first releases by Drummond and his creative partner Jimmy Cauty under the JAMs moniker since the 1988 compilation album Shag Times, and the last under that name; in the meantime they had operated as the Timelords and the KLF. The 1991 single release reached No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart and entered the top 10 in Denmark and Finland.

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<i>1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)</i> Debut album of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">All You Need Is Love (JAMs song)</span> Song by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

"All You Need Is Love" is a song by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, independently released as their debut single on 9 March 1987. A politically topical song concerning the British media's AIDS furore, the track was initially given a 12" white label release because of its sampling of other records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitney Joins the JAMs</span> Song by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Down Town</span> 1987 single by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

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Welcome to the Dark Ages was a three-day event organised by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, held in Liverpool in August 2017. The event heralded a revival of the creative partnership between Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, under the name with which they first recorded and released music together in 1987. The duo had last worked together in 1997, when, as 2K, they staged an art performance and released a single, "Fuck the Millennium", and, as K2 Plant Hire Ltd, hatched a plan to build a "People's Pyramid" to celebrate the new millennium.

References

  1. Cahal, Milmo; Willetts, Tom (23 February 2007). "23 fascinating facts about the number twenty-three" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 2020-11-01. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  2. "Going loco over 'El Becko'"
  3. Robert Anton Wilson on the "23 Phenomena" Archived September 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Principia Discordia , pg. 23
  5. Robert Anton Wilson sees the clustering illusion everywhere, not just 23, Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything (audiobook), December 2001.
  6. Cranna, Ian (1987). "1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) review". Q . Archived (via the Library of Mu) on 4 October 2016.
  7. Pilley, Max (24 August 2017). "The Ice Kream Van Kometh: The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu Return". Drowned in Sound . Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  8. Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (23 August 2017). "The return of the KLF: pop's greatest provocateurs take on a post-truth world". The Guardian . Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  9. Reid, Jim (25 September 1994). "Money to burn". The Observer . Archived (via the Library of Mu) on 16 September 2016.
  10. K Foundation (8 December 1995). "Cape Wrath". The Guardian (advertisement). Archived (via the Library of Mu) on 16 September 2016.
  11. "The KLF: Pop's saboteurs return after 23 years". BBC News . 23 August 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  12. Ordora, Michael (14 January 2007). "Quite a jazzy little number". The Los Angeles Times . p. E10. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  13. Benecke, Mark (2011). "The Numerology of 23". Skeptical Inquirer. 35 (3). Committee for Skeptical Inquiry: 49–53.
  14. Ford, Simon (1999). Wreckers of Civilisation : The Story of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle. Black Dog Publishing. p. 10.5. ISBN   978-1901033601.