The ability to recognize patterns is a crucial part of what makes us human. Indeed, it is believed to be a significant driver of our success as a species and one of the difference-makers that helped us evolve from apes. It’s not very complex when you think about it: early humans recognized patterns in everything from the weather to food sources to societal behaviors, and then adapted to them.
Yet, our ability to recognize patterns is also a flaw. Or more precisely, our brains are wired to find patterns in areas where they do not exist. This is especially true with numbers, as well as related areas like probability. Numbers give us the impression of certainty. It’s one of the first things we learn as infants – one and one make two – but it also causes us to start seeking patterns in random numbers. At times, we might even notice a number “following us around,” and it may become personal to you, perhaps even becoming your lucky number.
We put importance on certain numbers
We then start to use these numbers in different activities. With a lucky number, you might put it into use when playing the lottery or casino games like roulette, or you may incorporate it into a password or some other meaningful identifier. Yet, what can occur is a type of confirmation bias: We can see that number more frequently, ignoring others.
Critics of numerology and related activities tend to pour scorn on the pursuit of trying to find meanings in numbers where no discernible patterns exist. Yet, we would argue that there is something undeniably human in that pursuit.
Randomness can be unsettling. Life often feels chaotic, unfair, and difficult to predict. When numbers appear to form a pattern, they can give us the feeling that there is some kind of order for us to find beneath the surface. This is why numerology, lucky numbers, superstition around dates, and other rituals have existed across so many cultures, and they grew up independently of each other.
We are not satisfied with randomness, so we, as humans, don’t read numbers – we try to interpret them.
And even outside of the realms of spirituality, there is merit in pursuing the impossible. The history of science and mathematics is littered with examples of those people who were ostracized by their peers for going against conventional wisdom, but who were ultimately proven to be correct.
There is also a difference between saying that numbers have no meaning and saying that numbers have no fixed, universal meaning. A critic may look at a repeated number sequence and see a coincidence. Someone with a spiritual outlook may see a message as a reminder or a moment of spiritual alignment. Neither response is unusual. In fact, the difference often lies in what the person believes the universe is like: random and indifferent, or connected and communicative.
For many people, numerology does not have to function like hard science to be valuable. But it can get you to ask, what am I noticing? What am I being drawn toward? Is there a pattern in my behavior? And that’s arguably the rub. When we see numbers, we are undeniably asking what they mean in relation to ourselves.