Some ‘coincidences’ about pi.
There’s a scene in a movie that is somewhat close to representing what happened in this event that I’m going to write about. Mercury Rising has a scene in which an autistic boy opens a new puzzle book he’s been given. He turns to a page, which is shown on the screen and as he looks the numbers, letters and symbols seem to shift about. He goes to the telephone, dials a number and says: “You are a Stranger.” He had somehow observed or decoded a hidden message on the page and it was supposed to be written in an unbreakable code.
What I experienced happened several years before I saw Mercury Rising but when I did see that scene it gave me a way to describe what I had experienced myself, in a flash of time, one day when I read an article about pi. The ‘event’ that I experienced had the effect of exposing something hidden in the same way the boy had ‘seen’. Although by the time I had my experience I’d had very much exposure to the way my mind operates independently, not willed by me. The process of ‘exposing’ what was hidden had become familiar to me. There is always great surprise, because such ‘revelations’ are so unexpected. I felt a real shock, not a symbolic shock when it happened. I had a somewhat similar effect a few years later when I saw Fields of Dreams. I saw Kevin Costner do a 'double take' when he heard the words coming from the movie his daughter was watching on television, it was Harvey and the remark was about something invisible. By coincidence he had been thinking about the voice he'd heard in his cornfield.
(If coincidences of this kind mean what I believe they mean, the content is a reference to the experiencer, who in this case was me. The ‘self referential’ aspect is the bench mark, it creates ‘context’ that nobody else would ever experience. My name ‘Eldridge’ was a form of ‘Eldritch’ and that means ‘strange’. I learned about that tidbit only recently when my boss looked for the etymology of my maiden name. It is 'weird', 'uncanny', 'strange', literally. “You are a stranger.” identified me specifically; it ‘said to me’ a form of my name.) This incident was only one of several that I didn't recognize at the time the event occurred, I didn't know enough at the time.
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In 1992 I was transferred to Everett, Washington. After a few weeks I had to go to medical because I was affected by a chemical. While I waited I read one of two books I had with me. The doctor passed me and paused, then made a comment about the books: “We read the same books.” The one I was reading was History of Pi by Petr Beckmann, the other was Godel, Escher and Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. He asked me if I’d read the recent article in The New Yorker Magazine about two brothers who had calculated pi to 2 billion places. I had not but that evening I went to the library and checked out the magazine.
The article had several remarkable ‘coincidences’, which I noticed only because I’ve learned to recognize them over a period of the few decades since 1984. I don’t look for them. In fact when I became aware of C. G. Jung's ideas about coincidences I had experience that it’s very boring to be trapped into a mechanical mindset that seems to be constantly looking for ‘uncanny’ relationships, the way psychiatrists who practice Jungian type therapy do. If there’s a hidden meaning it ‘happens TO me’ automatically, sooner or later. I don’t believe “I” am the real observer of such events, some other eye within me or attached to me is trying to focus my attention. I'm a slow learner, I didn't get that knowledge until many perfectly timed events made it obvious. What I believe now is: there’s a factor at work through my mind and my personality that conveys something to me that ‘it’ sees, and even has been waiting for and it always knows where to look. I'm the one whose attention is required. “It” passes along something I could never recognize. Jung wrote that he experienced mental content that he did not originate but I became aware myself before knowing anything about Jungian thought.
This event actually built upon several previous events, a really big one had happened already in 1989, but this event exposed an unsuspected attribute of 'synchronistic experiences’. This attribute had become visible to me through actual experiences in which I became aware I could not have ‘foreseen’ them because someone else or even many people were involved in each of them: Such precise Timing cannot be explained by chance or randomly occurring events that ‘just happen’ and are truly meaningless and purposeless.
It was in the March 2, 1992 issue. That’s a magazine that I sometimes bought in thrift stores, to read the cartoons but it’s not often I read anything else in it.
At the end of the article there was an arrangement of the last decimals of pi these two brothers had calculated. I only glanced at it because what is there to see in a block of numbers? That’s when the shocking “inner event’ occurred.
In a flash of time that has to be a fraction of a second this ‘event’ flashed into existence. It involved a ‘highlighting’ of certain numbers and quite a long series of ‘shifts’ were involved as various combinations of what I saw in the printout were exposed. The most important detail was that not another person would ever have the background that generated instant recognition of what was exposed.
This is a sentence exactly in the form it appeared in the article in the New Yorker Magazine, Mountains of Pi , March 2, 1992
“Pi goes on forever and can’t be calculated to perfect precision:
3.1415926535897932384626433832
79028841971693993751…"
Notice that the last numbers in the first row in this sentence are ‘32’ and in the next row ‘751’ reminding me briefly that I was born in 1932. At that point 751 were just ordinary numbers except that I’d noticed a mirroring of those numbers in the first block of Petr Beckmann’s arrangement in the big 1989 event. The number 32 has been in the news in various stories, the OJ Simpson trial in particular, but my favorite Sonics player had been #32 also. I have not always had an awareness as I have now of even my daughters' birthdate 04-05-63 and mine which is 01-02-32, both are circular numbers. 1,2,3,2,1,2,3... and 4,5,6,3,4,5,6,4...
Below is a copy of an arrangement of the last decimals of pi that were calculated by the Chudnovsky brothers in New York. It’s at the end of the article.
00000 18820 54573 01261 27678 17413 87779
66981 15311 24707 34258 41235 99801 92693
52561 92393 53870 24377 10069 16106 22971
02523 30027 49528 06378 64067 12852 77857
42344 28836 88521 72435 85924 57786 36741
32845 66266 96498 68308 59920 06168 63376
85976 35341 52906 04621 44710 52106 99079
33563 54625 71001 37490 77872 43403 57690
01699 82447 20059 93533 82919 46119 87044
02125 12329 11964 10087 41341 42633 88249
43242 20100 43326 74069 33751 86349 40467
52687 79749 68922 29914 46047 47109 31678
05219 48702 00877 32383 87446 91871 49136
90837 88525 51575 35790 83982 20710 59298
41193 81740 92975 31……….
The last 2 numbers ‘31’ are mildly surprising. Gregory Chudnovsky notices that the last two numbers are the same as the first two numbers of pi. ‘The last shall be first.” he remarks.
Notice that the first five spaces are empty. The numbers that follow would be in different ‘neighborhoods’ if numbers were in the empty spaces and the same ‘number’ of numbers were used. I noticed as though they were highlighted, the numbers I’ve copied, in their location. The numbers 751 are the focus of this event. IAM 751 is the union I
belonged to when I was employed by Boeing.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx 7xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxx7 32xxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx x1575 357xx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxx75 31…
Some habits I’ve had most of my life exposed the division between 75 and 31 and the numbers above them, the numbers are ‘literal’ on one side, but ‘coded’ on the other side, i.e. 32 = 5, or 3 = 1, depending on the way one is looking at the arrangement. What I saw was this:
7
7 5
1575 157
75 11
The number 751 seemed to emerge, literally these 3 numbers were the only numbers I saw on the left side of the space. On the right side combinations formed the same numbers. 7, below it 32 which is 5, and below that is 357 and ‘3’ became 1 because counting by 3’, that is 1. This ‘rule’ exposed literal numbers, 157 on the left side. Counting by 7, 7 is 1, counting by 5, 5 is 1 so I saw 751 on both sides but one side was uncoded and the other coded. This is the same pattern I had noticed in the ‘pi quake’ that had happened in 1989.
This rule formed itself, it’s not one I thought about myself but it related exclusively to an experience I’d had with an impulse when I was about 9 years old. That’s when the ‘thought’ occurred to me to add the double numbers ‘across’ in each of the times tables. (2,4,6,8,10,12, 14, 16, 18, 20 = 2,4,6,8,0,2,4,6,8,0… . Each times table has a distinct repeating pattern and I noticed it with a kind of delight as a result of that impulse. Later in life there were other experiences that taught me different names for what I’d learned from an impulse that I experienced as a ‘thought. It had told me to do something I would not have thought of myself but at age 9, an ‘impulse’ would not be distinct. ‘Casting out nines’ is another name for what the impulse had said: ‘add the double numbers across’, but ‘cross summing’ was an ancient process also. Then in a mathematical encyclopedia I had read ‘modulo 9’ which gives the same results. I’d had an event happen two years prior to 1992, that involved Martin Gardener, pi and a book he authored, The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix.
The numbers on one side:
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxx1 xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx x1575 xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxx71 xx…
The numbers 751 on both sides in literal or ‘coded’ form stood out as though lit up. I was reminded at that point that my union lodge number is 751. I belong to IAM 751 but had not thought in the way I began to so then about IAM 751.
The thought formed itself and I had an impulse to see if the numbers 751 was anywhere else. I glanced upwards and noticed it, somehow the numbers 751 seemed to ‘gleam’ on the right side in a batch of 5 decimals:
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xx751xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx 7xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxx7 32xxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx x1575 357xx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxx75 31…
Then I noticed numbers above and below 751,
89 and 47
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxx89 xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xx751xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx 7xxxx xxx47 xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxxx7 32xxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx x1575 357xx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxx xxxxx xxx75 31…
The number 8 in that batch gleamed or ‘stood out’ then exposed the number 5 below it, then below that the number 4, then across the number 7, then the number 1 above the 7, then up to the number 9 above the number then finally back to the number 8 where the ‘gleaming’ had began.
This circle had generated: 8547198
The numbers 854 7198 clearly presented themselves. I recognized the telephone number we’d had for more than a decade by that time.
I had not paid attention to the fact that the ‘first number’ 8, in our telephone number is the same as the ‘last number’, but my history of tracing the ‘infinity symbol 8’ when I doodled was clearly brought forth along with an immense number of ‘strings’ of related memories.
There were as well the long, extremely mundane strings of every day experience that reminded me of the long march behind this ‘suddenly there’ exposure of a very personal and intimate detail that named me, pointed directly towards me.
I could not fail to see there was no personal intent of mine behind this event. There have been many times when I became convinced I had ‘imagined’ my experiences were important on a larger scale than my own life. This kind of ‘event’ forces me to trust in what may seem to be absurd interpretations of events.
This ‘event’ had been preceded by another ‘pi’ event, but it was much more explicit and complicated. There’s not a lot of chance it was ‘accidental or randomness’ that generated these events that resulted in an automatic revelation of a personal detail of my specific life.
IAM 751 is the union lodge name and number that I joined the day I became an employee of the company that used pi as their ‘Pride In Excellece’ Awards program logo. I had driven my car that day, ETW 651 when I saw the pi model they used as their logo: PIE.
My telephone number is different now, but 854 7198 has another 'strange fact' about it that I had not suspected until the Martin Gardener event which is much more complicated, exposed it. In 1989 I had 2 mindquakes, the last happened when I read Petr Beckmanns' History of Pi. I called him and wanted to talk to him, although he was dying of cancer and he talked about that. It was the same pattern built around 651, the numbers were familiar by that point in time.