What is your opinion on Gematria?

[EvanF]

Here's a little wiki article if you don't know what gematria is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gematria

 

 

Even though this is a topic usually associated with the bible in modern times, in reality it predates the bible and I have absolutely no religious intention behind this thread.

 

I was going to make this thread in the mathematics section, but this is something a bit deeper than simple equations.

 

Gematria is a system that gives the letters of an alphabet numerical value. It originates in Babylon and Greece, (who of course used mathematics and algebra.)

 

Anyways, there are certain strange synchronicities between words and their numerical values.

For example:

 

Ocean=38...tide=38

 

Germs=62...disease=62...plague=62

 

guilty=94...innocent=94

 

trade=48....buy=48

 

hawk=43...fly=43

 

Newton=91...Gravitation laws=191

 

the moon landing=151...one small step=151

 

Puritans=118...Mayflower=118...Atlantic Ocean=118

 

 

Indo European=137...West Germanic=137

 

 

 

There are also even consecutive values for certain related words:

 

human= 57, beings= 56

sun=54, shine= 55

witches=87, cauldron=88

 

 

 

 

You can type these words in yourself or mess around with the English gematria calculator here http://www.gematrix.org/

 

 

 

Now these are just a few examples of the strange nature of gematria, but it seems like the chance that all these words would just happen to numerically relate to each other is almost astronomical.

 

For anyone who is versed in the 'mathematics of the universe' and theoretical physics, what is your opinion on this?

Edited March 9, 2017 by EvanF

[Daecon]

It's just numerology. What would be really impressive was if these words and numbers synchronize in every language, not just English.

[Bender]

In the examples given, the values for single words range from 38 to 94. Even if we assume homogeneous distribution that gives a chance of 1 in 60 for two random words to have the same value, or 1 in 20 if you include consecutive values.

It isn't difficult to come up with thousands of pairs of related words, 5% of them will either have the same value or consecutive values. In reality, the chances could be even higher. Now put the words in groups of 10 related words. I'm too lazy to do the math right now, but the chance of two of them having the same value is going to be close to 100%. You'll even find triplets and perhaps quadruplets.

 

In conclusion: there is absolutely nothing strange or peculiar about this. It is simple statistic certainty that a lot of these combinations exist.

[Strange]

 

Anyways, there are certain strange synchronicities between words and their numerical values.

 

 

I think the words you are looking for are "coincidences" and "cherry picking".

 

Of course, if you reduce words to a number (whether by this method or any other equally bogus scheme such as counting letters) you can find "related" words that match. Especially if your definition of "related" is sufficiently broad.

 

For example, you have synonyms, antonyms, things that remind you of other things, and carefully selected phrases. Who says "gravity laws"? There is only one, but the more normal "law of gravity" or "law of universal gravitation" or even "gravity law" don't work.

 

And then you do the usual numerological trick of not even requiring the number to be the same, just similar in some way: nearly equal, having some digits in common, etc.

 

Basically, using these tricks you can find anything you want.

 

Other reasons why it is crap: why would numbers correspond to an arbitrary ordering of letters? Why does it work in English but no longer work if you translate the words to another language? (Obviously you can find a different set of "matching" words in another language - further evidence it is bollocks.) What about differing spellings in, say, USA and UK?

 

What about punctuation? Why do sentences with completely different meanings have the same number; for example: "Let's eat, Grandma" vs "Let's eat Grandma"?

 

And why doesn't upper or lower case make a difference?

 

The whole idea is just insanely stupid.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Strange

[mistermack]

It's a bit like rhyme. No reason why words that rhyme should have any more significance than those that don't.

But they catch something in the human brain. Poetry and song rely on it, and can be very powerful.

Politicians come up with a good rhyming slogan, it can swing an election. And people see something in poetry that absolutely baffles me.

 

We look for links all the time, trying to make sense of our environment. Evolution made us that way. Our brains take a mass of random information and try to link it up.That's how conspiracy theories work. You find all sorts of meaningless coincidences, and make a false story out of them.

Like the moon landings that "never happened". A shadow, a ripple in a flag, put them together and make a hoax in the desert rather than people walking on the moon.

 

There's nothing in the words and numbers. It's all in the human brain.

[EvanF]

 

For example, you have synonyms, antonyms, things that remind you of other things, and carefully selected phrases. Who says "gravity laws"? There is only one, but the more normal "law of gravity" or "law of universal gravitation" or even "gravity law" don't work.

 

 

 

Well I didn't put in "gravity laws" I put in "gravitation laws"... People usually call them Newton's laws of motion...

 

That was the only one that wasn't an exact equivalent, being 91 and 191, so it's not the best example.

[swansont]

 

For anyone who is versed in the 'mathematics of the universe' and theoretical physics, what is your opinion on this?

 

 

!

Moderator Note

It's numerology, and decidedly not physics.