The Enigma of Numbers

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This eminently readable book explores the symbolic and psychological aspects of numbers. The author shows that numbers are far more than the symbols we use for counting, for they are founded on a deep psychic structure which underlie many of our thoughts and behaviours. Numbers also give shape and meaning to our socially constructed world. Enigma reads like a mystery novel as it traces the first appearance of number in Palaeolithic times through Eastern and European countries and Meso-America. And while the author does consider the mathematical properties of numbers, the book is aimed at the intelligent layperson with an interest in the more esoteric and psychological aspects of mathematical ideas. It will also have a strong appeal to those interested in popular science and in Jungian ideas. Each of the numbers, from zero to ten, is given its own chapter and there are also chapters on number symbolism in the Kabbalah, divination, music, religion and mythology. In The Enigma of Numbers, Lance Storm challenges our obsession for organising and quantifying our world with an absorbing expose? of the shadow side of quantity-number as quality. In Storm's hands, qualitative numbers are mysterious symbols, giving rise to puzzling patterns and uncanny coincidences. His journey takes us from Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician and mystic, through philosophy, arcane religious symbolism and pre-science to the number archetype of the psychologist C G Jung, which grounds this work. Measured and authoritative, yet intriguing and always eminently readable, Storm's narrative amplifies the archetypal qualities of the numbers 1 to 10 and their manifestations in an assortment of fields-numerology, synchronicity, chaos theory and modern physics. This captivating journey reaches a crescendo in a beguiling stanza on archetypal number in music.

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Lance Storm Ph.D., is Research Fellow in psychology and parapsychology at the University of Adelaide and a professional photographer.He has received the Laurence T. Schneider Prize in Art History and the D. Scott Rogo Award for Literature. His books include The Survival of Human Consciousness and Parapsychology in the Twenty-First Century.