Richard Feynman was a theoretical physicist who won the Nobel in physics in 1965 for his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics. I had read about him from time to time, but he didn’t really register until I was reading a book about Wolfgang Pauli and his obsession with the number 137.
The number puzzled most physicists. But it was Feynman, though, who said that physicists should put a sign in their offices to remind themselves of how much they don’t know. The sign would be simple: 137.
So the other day when I was at Barnes & Noble, I found a book called Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science. I realized I didn’t know much about Feynman except for this 137 detail, so I bought the book.
The book is fascinating – not only for insights into Feynman the scientist, but insights into Feynman the man. The love of his life was Arline Greenbaum, whom he met at a party when he was 15 and she was just 13. She was his opposite in every way – right brain to his left brain, endowed with artistic and musical talents.
“Richard and Arline were soul mates,” writes Lawrence M. Krauss, the author of the book. “They were not clones of each other, but symbiotic opposites – each completed the other. Arline admired Richard’s obvious scientific brilliance, and Richard clearly adored the fact that she loved and understood things he could barely appreciate at that time. But what they shared, most important of all, was a love of life and a spirit of adventure.”
Feynman proposed to her when he was a junior at MIT. During the five years between his proposal and her death from tuberculosis, they corresponded constantly. “…her spirit provided him with the vital encouragement he needed to keep going, to find new roads, to break traditions, scientific and otherwise,” writes Krauss.
Their parents were concerned about their relationship. His mother was afraid that Arline’s physical condition – the TB – would be a drain on his ability to work and on his finances. But as Feynman wrote his parents, “I want to marry Arline because I love her – which means I want to take care of her. That is all there is to it…”
And so they were married. But on June 16, 1945, six weeks before the atomic bomb Feynman helped to build was exploded over Hiroshima, Arline passed away. “After she breathed her last breath in the hospital room, he kissed her, and the nurse recorded the time of death as 9:21 PM.”
He later discovered that the clock by her bedside had stopped exactly at 9:21.
Unfortunately, Feynman didn’t recognize the synchro. “A less rational mind might have found this cause for spiritual wonder or enlightenment – the kind of phenomena that makes people believe in a higher cosmic intelligence. But Feynman knew the clock was fragile. He had fixed it several times and he reasoned that the nurse must have picked it up and disturbed it to check on Arline’s time of death.”
I found this part of Feynman’s story deeply sad. He had just lost the love of his life, the clock on the bedside had stopped precisely at the time she had died, and he didn’t recognize it as significant. Yet, this phenomenon has been experienced by numerous people, under the same circumstances, and certainly qualifies as a synchronicity.
I think it illustrates how all too often we humans dismiss the obvious because to acknowledge it would force us, at the very least, to question how the world works and, at the outer extreme, might shatter our current worldviews.
but here’s the thing about Richard and his found love of his youth,,, according to a bio…. they where sitting on the veranda one eve,,, I guess after having known each for a couple of years,, upon deciding to spend there life together,,, decided also to ALWAYS B 100% straight, honest and open with each other………. wonder how often that could work….
Feynman been my hero for decades,,,, yet I think your all half nut’s,,, S L no O,, humbly said…. back,, not really just bored and disappointed…..
This is totally off the subject of the post…..I just visited unknowncountry.com and listened to Whitley Strieber’s latest Dreamland show. I want to urge everyonhe who is interested, to click over and listen to that extremely enlightening interview with a Master Mason. It’s well worth the time for those who are seekers of truth in this regard.
Thanks, Darren. Now I understand. I just wasn’t able to follow your links and connect them to the post. As I said , my ignorance was showing. Sometimes I have to be hit in the head with a baseball bat before something is clear! My thinkinhg tends to be pretty linear. 🙂
Darren, my ignorance is showing. What in the world were all your comments and links about????? I got lost…….
@Math
The numbers 921 and 137.
@Math
The book “What is the Time ?” is in the (series 921) of children’s books and in the about post is that not the time of Richard Feynman’s wife on the clock that stopped ?
The photo in the link of the room numbers at Furnace Creek Ranch, Death Valley, California end at 921,which again is the time of Feynman’s wife’s death 9:21.
@ Math
The book “POW 921 ”
— a semi-fictional novel about WW2 is about a Prisoner of War with the #921.
Isn’t Feynman himself a prisoner of the war between science and spirituality when he tries to reason away the 9:21 that the clock stopped at and the time of his wife’s death ?
you pegged it, Daz.
That should read “above”post,not about post. Sorry.
Rooms 901 to 921, Furnace Creek Ranch, Death Valley, California
(Scroll right to the bottom of the page to see the photo)
https://www.kenrockwell.com/trips/2013-02-death-valley/02.htm
POW 921 — a semi-fictional novel about WW2
https://woolpresspublishing.com/2012/12/pow-921/
and the children’s book titled “What is the Time ?” is in the 1992 (series 921) –
https://members.iinet.net.au/~nicolee/ladybird_pictures/Early_learning.html
Interesting sequence of 921s!
Episode 921 – Mysterious Universe
“Graham Hancock joins us this week for a discussion on the War on Consciousness, his personal experiences with Ayahuasca, and the upcoming novel War God. The interview leads us to question the very nature of reality, the true potential of altered states of consciousness and the influence of entheogenic substances on humankind’s future survival.”
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2013/05/episode-921-mysterious-universe/
Thanks for the links! So perhaps 921 isn’t just a random time…
Interesting, I didn’t know much about Richard Feynman. You are right about how us humans often dismiss the obvious. I’m not sure though that the reasons are quite as deep as you mention. Sometimes we need a jolt or a ‘kick up the pants’ to make us notice what we are missing.
A jolt up the pants – love that expression!
Issue 137 ?-)
https://www.comicartcommunity.com/gallery/details.php?image_id=32399
That comic was the first thing to come up when I put 137 into Google images.It reminded me of Mike’s Elvis photo post.
That was one weird photo, for sure!
Nice commentary, and so true. My husband and father-in-law talked about Feinman many times. It’s nice to know something of the personal side of him.
A couple of comments: I’ve shared here on the blog that my Mother’s anniversary clock, given to her just nine days before Dad died, stopped at his precise moment of death and no clock repair person was ever able to fix it. Another synchro aligned with today’s post: I learned this week that someone very, very dear to me earlier in my life transitioned on June 16, a few weeks ago. He was a physician, and has been contacting me in my dreams. I finally went on an intense research, and discovered that he had indeed transitioned. He is spending time with me now. He is in another dimension, and I am here, yet we are tightly connected still.
The other thing I want to mention about a little synchro: I was going thru some photographs this week, picking out some to send to Trish and Rob, and was looking at a pic of my parents’ bronze grave marker on Acacia Lawn, that has the Masonic and Eastern Star symbols under their names. My TV was on one of the light classical music channels, playing softly. As I was gazing at the picture of my parents’ names, THEIR song came on the TV, CLAIR DE LUNE. It stunned me. Every afternoon when my Dad came home and was relaxing in his chair, my Mom played the piano, and she never failed to play CLAIR DE LUNE for him, as it was “their song”. It was played at his funeral. I was so touched that it came on the TV at the very second I was looking at their graves. Such a beautiful little synchro moment for me! So sad that Feynman didn’t recognize the connections between the dimensions…..connections that demonstrate we never, ever truly separate and that we remain bonded, through Love, in life and death.
He was a real left brain guy!
How well said – thanks for sharing this story. I absolutely agree, and was just reflecting on the same idea in my own blog. I increasingly agree with the Spiritualists, and people investigating NDE’s, that it’s so important we understand that life goes on, that we are participants in a vast web of consciousness that is also as intimate as the spirits of those we love, their efforts to help us and make themselves known. Maybe if we really knew that, there would also never again be a Hiroshima, or a 9/11.
Nice to see you back, Lauren!