For those of you that have read the Illuminatus trilogy...

Wow, it’s been far too long since I’ve visited this forum, but…

I’m about 200 pages into the trilogy my first time. I’m home from college for thanksgiving break, and am just taking it easy…I spent a good chunk of today reading the book. And I’ve been noticing ALL kinds of weird coincidences involving the Law of Fives and the numbers 23 and 17. I’ll just list them…

-I’m home for five days for break.
-I hung out with five of my friends tonight
-Some of us went to Wal-Mart. I bought the two towers extended edition - extended edition has 15 letters and Lord of the Rings has 17.
-One of my friends bought the video game Sanitarium. Ten letters.
-Four Lord of the Rings discs plus one Sanitarium disc = five discs
-I drove my mom’s Buick. Five letters. My car is an Oldsmobile. 10.
-We randomly watched Raiders of the Lost Ark. Five words. Additionally, it’s about Hitler being obsessed with religious relics and things - one speech makes him out a lot like he seems to be made out in Illuminatus
-Indiana Jones has five syllables.
There were more but I have forgotten them.

“I find the law of fives to be more evident the harder I look” - from Principia Discordia

The book is quite a fun read, and looking for other coincidences or “synchronicities” as I read it is entertaining. Make of it what you will.

Did anyone else notice that the number 42 is present throughout the book, in street names and other things? In fact, it’s about the only other number mentioned besides 2, 3, 5, 17, and 23. And, of course, 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, as is presented in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books.

Another random, fun number thing - 23, of course, is 2 + 3. W is the 23rd letter of the alphabet. Our president’s nickname is “Dubya”. 2 / 3 = .666 and therefore, George W Bush is Satan.

I’m feeling exceedingly crazy right now and apoligize for the possible incoherence of the preceding post…

I only read two of the three books, but I liked those a lot.
The author wrote it (intentionally) in a very confusing, yet amusing way, which gave often gave me something to think about. Not so much wether what he writes is true, but he gives you interesting new points of view.
It´s facts mixed with a lot of fiction, which should make everyone who is seriously trying to decide which parts are the real and wich fictual go mad g

About those number things:
Try chosing any other number you like and start searching for synchronizities… I am sure you´ll find a lot :wink:

tapir

That’s my kind of algebra. :smile:

Yes those number things happen with lots of small numbers. now if you said that everything you mentioned had one property having five (like all words having 5 letters) then that would be more startling.
Did you also notice that those numbers are prime except for 42? I have not read the trilogy but it sounds interesting.

I’m gonna go check tose books out.

[quote=“Inherent()Disarray”]
Another random, fun number thing - 23, of course, is 2 + 3. W is the 23rd letter of the alphabet. Our president’s nickname is “Dubya”. 2 / 3 = .666 and therefore, George W Bush is Satan./quote]

Nuh-uh, it’s 0.6 recurring. If you’re gonna go for the really obscure, stoopid mathematical proofs as to why George Bush is Satan, you could at least make them correct. :grin:

[edit - 250 posts. I have an extra star now! And I’m an astral explorer!]

Robert Anton Wilson co-wrote the trilogy.

RAW writes about mental models. models made up by and reinforced by selective inclusion or selective exclusion. noticing some data and ignoring others.

the law of fives and 23 appearing has to do selective inclusion and how we make up maps based on those inclusions.

if you pick a number as small as five by which to multiply or divide you include a lot of field. same with two, three, four, six, seven or eight.

I just thought of a RC based on this and started a thread on that in the Quest for Lucidity forum. you could do a RC each time you notice a particular number or that same number multiplied or divided.

I’m sorry, I know this is disgraceful, but I can’t seem to find out.

What is FNORD?
My friend always spoke of it, and it is graffitti-ed on our school walls outside. What is it. People always ask me and I say “Like I know?”.

Thank you much.

I have seen the FNORDs…

Before scrolling down, this might be a (minor) spoiler if you want to read the books:

All people are conditioned in their childhood not to see the word FNORD if it is written somewhere. Instead, it only reaches their subcounciousness, and it makes them feel unhappy and frightened. When the gouvernment wants to spread fear, to justify the production of new “defense weapons” or something like this they print a lot of FNORDs in the papers. The only textes without FNORDs are puplicity ads, which makes everyone read them since people subcounciously fear to read more FNORDs when they read the other texts.

… THANKS!
^.^ Wooooooow. Very very niiiice. ^.^
Thank you MUCH!