What's So Special About the Date 11/11/11???
In medieval times, numerologists — those
who searched for the mystical significance of numbers — believed all
numbers had both positive and negative aspects … except for 11. In the
words of the 16th century scholar Petrus Bungus, 11 "has no
connection with divine things, no ladder reaching up to things above,
nor any merit." Stuck between the divine numbers 10 and 12, 11
was pure evil, and represented sinners.
That doesn't bode well
for Nov. 11, 2011, the date when three 11s will align for the first time
in a century. A new horror film, "11/11/11," has even
been made for the occasion, and it plays on (or perhaps plays up)
people's fear of coincidences surrounding the number. Film characters
experience the so-called "11:11 phenomenon," a
tendency to look at the clock more often at 11:11 than at other times of
the day.
Indeed, the 11:11 phenomenon is widely reported in
real life, with entire online discussion forums dedicated to figuring
out what the number means. People say they feel haunted by 11s, which
appear to them eerily often. To them, the impending date is bound to
seem ominous.
On the flip side, some modern-day numerologists
have deemed 11/11/11 auspicious, and according to local news sources
around the country, an unusual number of couples have planned to marry
on the day. The number 11 is also a favorite of gamblers — particularly
blackjack and Keno players. So, amid all these alternative perspectives,
what's the real deal about repeating 11s? Is there anything special
about the numbers lining up?
IIndeed,
the 11:11 phenomenon is widely reported in real life, with entire
online discussion forums dedicated to figuring out what the number
means. People say they feel haunted by 11s, which appear to them eerily
often. To them, the impending date is bound to seem ominous.
On
the flip side, some modern-day numerologists have deemed 11/11/11
auspicious, and according to local news sources around the country, an
unusual number of couples have planned to marry on the day. The number
11 is also a favorite of gamblers — particularly blackjack and Keno
players. So, amid all these alternative perspectives, what's the real
deal about repeating 11s? Is there anything special about the numbers
lining up?
No. With regards to the 11:11 phenomenon, rather than
being a supernatural warning sign, psychologists say it is a classic
case of "apophenia," or the human tendency to find
meaning or patterns in randomly occurring data. This condition feeds on
itself, because the more conscious you are of something — such as
repeating 11s — the more often you'll notice it in the world around you,
and thus the more certain you'll become that the pattern is real.
In
online forums about the 11:11 phenomenon, people often say they didn't
notice how many 11s appeared to them until hearing about the phenomenon
from someone else. This is a tell-tale sign of apophenia: When they
found out about the phenomenon, they subconsciously started keeping
track of all the 11s they saw, with each new sighting seeming more
significant than the last.
Just as there is nothing to fear about 11/11/11, there is no reason to be optimistic about the date, either.
According
to Alan Lenzi, professor of religious studies at University of the
Pacific who studies biblical numerology, seeking meaning in numbers is a
natural human tendency. "Cognitive scientists have
demonstrated that the human brain is hard-wired to look for meaningful
patterns in the sensory data it collects from the world," Lenzi
told Life's Little Mysteries.
In most situations, this cognitive
wiring helps us: It enables us to pick important information out of a
background of random noise. But sometimes we overdo it by finding
patterns where they aren't — from faces seen in the clouds to numerical
coincidences. Once found, these patterns "are easily imbued
with imaginative meaning," he said.
There is nothing
unusual about the time 11:11 or the date 11/11/11, but our brains can't
help noticing the repeating digits, and see them as meaningful.
"Numbers that are already significant to us, such as calendar
dates that also coincidentally fall into an obvious pattern, become
doubly significant," Lenzi said. "11/11/11 is another
example of people doing what people are cognitively prone to do: find
significance.
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