During one of our recent radio shows, the person interviewing us asked about clusters of synchros and we got into a discussion about number clusters. One of the most interesting, which we wrote about in 2009, involves the number 23.
In Tangiers in the early 1960s, William Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, knew a certain Captain Clark who ran a ferry from Tangiers to Spain. Clark boasted that he’d been running the ferry for twenty-three years without incident. That same day, the ferry sank, killing Clark and everyone on board. That very evening, Burroughs was thinking about this gruesome event and turned on the radio and heard about the crash of a New York-Miami airplane. The plane was piloted by a Captain Clark. It was flight 23.
The synchronicity apparently shocked Burroughs enough so that he started compiling a list of synchros involving the number 23. In 1965, his friend and fellow author Robert Anton Wilson also began putting together a list of oddities about that number. One of the personal synchros he noted concerned his daughters. They were born on August 23 and February 23. Wilson wrote about the number for the Fortean Times in 1977. His article appeared in issue – yes, you guessed it! – number 23.
Here are some other synchros involving the number 23. In science and math:
During conception, each parent contributes 23 chromosome apiece to the fetus.
Euclid’s geometry has 23 axioms.
23 is the first prime number in which both digits are prime numbers and add up to another prime number.
It takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate through the human body.
Every 23rd wave that slams into a shore is twice as large as the average wave.
The first lunar landing was in the Sea of Tranquility, 23.63 degrees East. The second lunar landing was in the Ocean of Storms, 23.42 degrees West. The first two landings were Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 – 11+12=23.
The earth rotates completely every 23 hours, 56 minutes.
The axis of the plane Earth is 23.5 degrees.
The human biorhythm cycle is 23 days.
The pattern of DNA shows irregular connections at every 23rd section.
Humans have 23 vertebra running down the main part of their spines.
The Harmonic Convergence occurs every 23,000 years.
Geosynchronous orbit occurs at 23,000 miles above Earth’s surface.
September 23rd is the Fall equinox.
23+23+23=WWW, the World Wide Web (W being the 23rd letter of the alphabet)
In Hollywood and with movies and TV, the number also plays a role. Take X-Files. The production company, Ten-Thirteen -10+13 – adds up to 23. 10-13 is the birth date of creator Chris Carter. For fans of X-Files, remember that abandoned nuclear silo where a UFO is being held? 1013 is the number on the silo. In another episode, Mulder goes to the apartment of a recently deceased man and the number 23 is on the door.
In the popular TV series Lost, which builds on layers of synchronicity, there are a number of oddities involving 23:
Oceanic Flight 815 – 8+15=23
The gate number from which the flight departed
Jack’s seat on the flight was 23A
Rose and Bernard were sitting in row 23
Hurley stayed in a Sydney hotel on floor 23
The reward for turning Kate in: $23,000
One of the numbers in the sequence of 6 that won Hurley the lottery and opened the hatch: 4 8 15 16 23 42.
Even if the repetition of 23s in the series is intentional, it’s nonetheless the sort of weirdness that would have interested both Burroughs and Wilson.
In 2007, a Jim Carey movie, The Number 23, met with lukewarm reviews, but the premise is intriguing. Walter Sparrow, an amiable dogcatcher, becomes obsessed with a murder mystery novel that continually circles the number 23. The characters in the novel who become obsessed with the number invariably end up dead. Carey’s character believes the number parallels his own life and that the author is writing about him.
And all this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg with this number.
And of course hexagram 23 in I Ching is Splitting apart which I always associate with our DNA – splitting to join with another 23.
Great, interesting – as I was born on the 23rd, as was my mother.
I was born on the 23rd,too.
All these 23s!!
I’ve been watching the TV series LOST on DVD,as I didn’t catch the show when it aired.
I noticed the plane crashes on the 22nd of September in the show and that the first show aired on that day as well.
The 23rd of September is my birth-date,which is why I took notice of the date of the 22nd of September somehow being meaningful for the show.
Of course,#22 is sometimes used instead of a 0 to represent The Fool card of the Tarot and Jack seams to resonate with the card and the Fool’s journey in the show and also the 23rd of September is the Spring/Autumn Equinox,depending which side of the Equator you live on,so there may be something in using the date in the show about that as well ?
Yes, a bunch of 23 stuff in lost! I envy you watching it for the first time. It remIns one of my favorite shows!
Here’s are HUGE 23s : September 11, 2001….the day the world came crashing in on us
and everything we’ve ever known shifted in one way or another….
9-11-2001 = 9+11+2+0+0+1=23.
WORLD = 9 TRADE = 3 CENTER = 11. 9+3+11 = 23.
And still, there are many who deny the significance of numbers and continue to say “numbers don’t matter” ?????
Today is 3-12-2015. 3+12+2+0+1+5=23. The root of 23 is 5. I’ve documented several hundred pages of research based on The Book of Numbers in the Old Testament. Using the Names of the Numbers of the Twelve Tribes, none of them EVER results in the reduced sum 23. No matter how many equations and variations of math workings I’ve used, 23 remains the only missing frequency. Curiously, CHRIST is 32….depending upon the manner in which it is written/read….and 23, again, depending upon the manner in which it is written/read. (From right to left in Hebrew, as an example.) Being completely obsessed by the lack of the 23, over a period of several years I spent probably a thousand or more hours trying to figure it out, and looking for the 23. It just isn’t there. It’s a mind-bending phenomenon that every other combination consisting of two numbers appears there except 23. We have 1234-6789 in our universal number system. 5 obviously is the “middle” number in our numeric alphabet. Weird stuff….endlessly fascinating….
Hmm was watching “Bruce Almighty” yesterday afternoon,,,, hmmm,,, funny movie, never realized so,,, “How come she didn’t share the big wooden (take turns in the water) door with Leonardo”,,, maybe he could of lived also!!! Morgan Freeman be right out!! like mentioned 23 is SPECIAL for one exact reason,, but like from the informed Mr. King,, “It’s all of piece…..blah …. blah….” maybe it fractals out… ” Sacred geometry” is for what reason?????
From Johnny Walsh: Captain Clark Welcomes You Aboard. Here’s one to add to that that I came up with on my own. The doomed space shuttle Columbia had a Captain Clark aboard–Navy Captain Laurel Clark. The ship’s mission number was STS-107 1+7=8. 8 is 2 to the 3rd power–23. A lot of the later Hollywood references to 23 (the article specifically mentions X-Files and Lost) I think can be attributed to creators/writers being aware of the 23 Enigma and inserting them in for fun.