Numbers and Belief

[This essay was originally published at UBRON on Wednesday, Novemebr 4, 2009.]

Regarding the 11:11 phenomenon... This similar thing happens to me with 6:06 (our planet's Satania number), 6:66 (when my clock died - must have been "the beast"), 5:55 (the height of the Washington Monument), 3:14 (well, I guess it's not really pi since clocks are not decimalized - and this point will have a definite bearing on the rest of this essay), and, of course 4:20 (wink, wink)...

One problem is: WHICH SIDE OF THE DAY SHOULD BE COUNTED??

Do midwayers go by the 12 hour (am/pm) system, or the 24 hour, military system? After all, the earth day IS 24 hours, not two sets of 12. And since the earth day is also just slightly MORE than 24 hours (+/- 30 seconds), AND the day is increasing in length, how should that be figured in?

And what kind of time-keeping system should be applied to supernatural numerology? There are several to choose from [Wikipedia]...


A Day

A day is defined as 86,400 seconds, or 1,440 minutes, or 24 hours.

International System (SI) Day

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) currently defines a second as "...the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom."
This makes the SI-based day last exactly 794,243,384,928,000 of those periods.

Sidereal Day

A sidereal day is approximately 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.091 seconds, corresponding to the time it takes for the Earth to complete one rotation relative to the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox itself processes very slowly in a westwards direction relative to the fixed stars, completing one revolution every 26,000 years approximately. As a consequence, the sidereal day is some 0.008 seconds shorter than the earth's period of rotation relative to the fixed stars (sidereal period of rotation).

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) Day

As a time scale, UTC divides up time into days, hours, minutes and seconds. Days are conventionally identified using the Gregorian calendar, but Julian day numbers can also be used. Each day contains 24 hours and each hour contains 60 minutes, but the number of seconds in a minute can be 60, or sometimes 61 or 59.

Thus, in the UTC time scale, the second and all smaller time units (millisecond, microsecond...) are of constant duration, but the minute and all larger time units (hour, day, week...) are of variable duration.

If you see 11:11 on your clock at anytime AFTER 12 pm (noon), on the same calendar day, isn't it really 23:11 (which has no numerical significance that I am aware of)? If so, shouldn't that "11:11" not count? Therefore, could it be that 50% of time-based numerological belief in 11:11, is in fact, not true? And any phenomenon that is only 50% true is pure CHANCE - pure and simple. Just flip a coin and you'll get the idea.

Can we admit to ourselves that any 4 digit number could become some one's rationale for attaching times of the day and years of the calendar to mysterious situations they don't understand? And of what use is that?

Thinking clearly, with strict, unbiased, logical reasoning, DOES indicate that NO mysterious event can be tied to any human-based time system (especially when considering that there are DIFFERENT systems of measurement for these time periods).

Just for fun here's what can be done with numerology. Consider in the following just how "real" and convincing it can be...

FROM THE AIR FORCE BRAIN BOOSTER BOOK

Twin Towers Numerology

The following number curios were sent to me shortly after the World Trade Center bombing. We humans are always seeking meaning and significance in those tragic or happy events that affect our lives. The establishing of numerical patterns is one way (and a very ancient one) that people use to explore meaning.


• The date of the attack: 9/11 = 9+1+1 = 11

• September 11, 254th day of the year: 2+5+4 = 11

• After September 11, 111 days are left in the year

• 119 is the area code for Iran/Iraq: 1+1+9 = 11

• The Twin Towers looked like the number 11

• The first plane to hit the towers was Flight 11

• The 11th state added to the Union was New York

• New York City has 11 letters

• Afghanistan has 11 letters

• “The Pentagon” has 11 letters

• Ramzi Yousef has 11 letters (convicted in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993)

• Flight 11 had 92 people on board: 9+2 = 11

• Flight 77 had 65 on board: 6+5 = 11

[snip]...we will continue as rational beings to seek and establish patterns of all sorts.

WANTING TO BELIEVE is an interesting impulse in human beings it seems. I'm not usually a poo-pooer. And there are only certain situations where I will try to cut "the amazing" down to size. Allen G. poo-poos the realistic time table I gave for future space travel (based on NASA's information and the curves of several technological advancements as they laid out across modern history). Yet, Allen chooses to believe in crop circles as a means of alien communication - with very little scientific evidence. Yet, I think BOTH Allen and I believe that there are UFO's that are not of this world, also with little scientific evidence.

However, let us draw a distinction between beliefs based on facts and beliefs not based on facts. My prediction for manned space flight in the future is based on facts. Belief in crop circle-communication is not (yet) based on facts. But I don't deny SOMETHING is going on with crop circles and that there may be non-human involvement. YET, I don't believe they are a means of communication to us. I agree, rather, with the person who asked why they won't just sit down and have a conversation if they are so desperate to communicate?

We see mystery in different ways. And our personal belief in theories that explain those mysteries can most certainly be all over the map, including non- belief (which is still a kind of "belief").

So, my suggestion for dealing with things like "11:11" is to go through the following process (similar to the scientific process, but not exactly the same)...

Step 1. Have you personally experienced this mysterious thing?
Ok, so you think you HAVE actually looked up to see clocks that display 11:11 (AM!), more frequently than other set times of the day.

Step 2. Have you then THOROUGHLY and OBJECTIVELY (to the best of your ability) TESTED the tangible and physical environment around such unusual experiences, and kept your observations in a log?

Ok, so you kept a log of each day that you saw 11:11 more frequently than other set times of the day, and it shows that there is a correlation.

Step 3. Have you factored your own bias into your study? IOW, have you considered and mathematically compensated for the FACT that you are more likely to create results (whether consciously or unconsciously) that affirm your observation of the mystery in question?

This is a tough one to get by in this particular situation.

Here's why...

After the TIME 11:11 ceases to hold water as a theory, what usually happens now is a desperate re-directioning into... "Well, yeah, not only do I see 11:11 each day, even when I'm not thinking about it, but I also noticed that I bought a bottle of white wine and it cost $11.11 on the same day!"


NOTE: Bear in mind that this would then call into question whether the 11:11 of a NON-DECIMALIZED system (time of day) can REALLY equate to the decimalized MONETARY system that gave you a purchase price of $11.11. And if that clouds up the issue, you might also go back and examine the UB description of the number of Midwayers on earth, being 1,111. The midwayers are described in WHOLE NUMBERS, where as 11:11 (11 and 11/60ths) is a fraction, as is $11.11 (11 and 11/100ths). If we examine these two seeming similar situations we get a 100% difference...

When decimalized 11:11 turns into 11.18333... And, 11.183... does NOT equal 11.11, and those two numbers certainly don't equal the number of midwayers on the planet (by showing a comparison of the significant digits in each)...
Number of midwayers = 1111.000

Number of specified hours glimpsed = 0011.183 (plus 1/3)

Number of dollars spent = 0011.110

Step 5. At this point, do you think your belief is based on fact or not on fact?

According to simple logic, there are only two possibilities...

A. If you have examined things as clearly and mathematically as I have in the above "NOTE", and you are a person who needs rationality (even the smallest amount), you then MAY NOT believe in the 11:11 mystery.

B. If you have examined things as clearly as I have above, and you are not a person who needs even a small amount of rationality, you then MAY go on believing in the 11:11 mystery.

Neither way is wrong or right.

Are people willing to follow the above, or similar steps, when they propose a belief system? Honestly, I don't think so, as we will likely see in the replies to this post. But it IS what I do.

However, if you make the still-valid choice to not examine your beliefs rationally - you fall into category "B" - and you want others to understand or even subscribe to your theory on the matter, you will have to find other-than rational ways of showing them WHY you believe. And this would be very difficult since - unlike UFO's or crop circles - the problem with 11:11 is inherently based on NUMBERS, which can ONLY reside in a mathematical context, and math is not merciful toward irrationality.

Then again, for folks who can't stand precision and what it implies, a cigar will always just be a cigar.