Fear Of Numbers

[HyBriD54 0]

I know for a fact that some of my friends and family have a deep fear of certain numbers. 666 is considered to be the "number of the devil" and hence people seem to be afraid of it. Would you want to live on 666 Whatever Street? No, you probably wouldn't. But why not?Some people take it a step further, being reluctant to live in 6 Whatever Street either.There's also the fear of the number 13 (I believe it even had a long technical "-phobia" term) which I've never understood. Fear of 666, devil, sure. But what's wrong with 13? It's just a funny-looking prime number.In Chinese culture, there's a fear of the number 4, because it is pronounced similarly to the word "die" (as in death). This is similar to the fear of 6 or 666.Aren't these superstitions a huge practicality problem? Sometimes, it's taken too far. Some buildings don't have a 13th floor (or 6th or 4th) because of these superstitions. Why do we continue to fear these numbers? Is it because of some sort of social stigma, like the sleaziness that surrounds the number 69?On a related note - we have numbers we seem to see as "good" as well, like the number 7 (supposedly lucky) and even 42 (the meaning of life, the universe, and everything according to "The Hitchhicker's Guide To The Galaxy" by Douglas Adams).

[joeblogg 0]

well i think it is a little bit fun having these superstitions. 666 and that stuff. but i don't actually believe in it. but still i wouldn't live in a house 666 Whatever street. most people don't belive in ghosts but they are still scared by horror movies. we don't believe it but in the back of our brain we say: i still don't want to take that "risk" of living in 666 whatever street or having anything to do with 666. i have watched a lot of horror movies and i love them. and without superstitions things would be boring wouldn't they?

[gisellebebegirl 0]

i think the fear of numbers has to do with our acient civilation and fear that has been passed out;; similar to the whole 2012 wold ending theory, etc. in my opinion they are just numbers..and how can a building not have certain levels? haha no matter what they name them, they are still the same floor number;;

[Saint_Michael 3]

Well its not the numbers themselves but how they are interpreted as and that is in the form of letters and words or a combination of things like October 10th, 1010 at 10:10 AM or 10:10 PM and if you ever saw that Jim Carey Movie the Number 23 you have an idea how some people get about numbers. Of course, as to how this insanity with the fear of numbers begins in a person development is a mystery to me but it is obvious that it is very unhealthy when someone becomes like this.

[xpress 0]

Yes.....In my opinion also, numbers are just numbers...They have nothing to do with the fate or something of a person. For example some unlucky numbers(?) in western countries are lucky numbers in our culture(India). What does it mean? Will the person's fate change when he go to another country? So I don't believe in these superstitions. But some coincidences with numbers will happen in our life. For me it is 23. It is my birthdate(june 23). It was my graduation roll number, my mobile number ...even at Xisto its my membership number(66523) and in many more cases.....That is very fun for me. Of course its just coincidence.

[electriic ink 1]

There's also the fear of the number 13 (I believe it even had a long technical "-phobia" term) which I've never understood.

It's because Judas was the 13th disciple at the Last Supper (as in he was the last person to sit at the table). This turned into a superstition that if you have a table with 13 diners, one would die. In time people ended up believing 13 was unlucky generally.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Well you guys are bringing up the numbers that are based on supersititions, but there are others as well, like "187" I think it is - the Chinese mafia. I'm not completely sure if that's the right number but it's close, :)I don't really have a 'fear' of numbers, and generally am not even aware of them. To me they're just numbers.

[harrison858 0]

Lol, speaking about this, my number is xxx-666-xxxx :)I dont see any bad luck or anything.But about the number 13.. Some buildings may skip from 12-14 and skip 13 because of some dumb superstition. Thats just ridiculous. Whats gonna happen? Its not like the whole floor would disappear or fall or collapse or anything.

[Bluebear 0]

I fear numbers in math class, becides that I do not really think about it a lot. Well maybe I do but it is not like I do it on purpose. I always stop the microwave when it is 5 seconds left, or anything else that contain the number 5. I dislike the 6 - 7 - 8 numbers. I think 8 is an evil number, and I feel sorry for number 9 (do not know why), and as I feel sorry for it I try to be nice to it so I like it. Haha, I am weird yes I know. I do not like number 4 either, and 1 & 2 are kind of hard so I do not know about them. When I used to play handball I was number 12, that kind of sucked. Maybe that is the reason I always missed the penalties and never really managed to do anything at all?

[niklophiliac 0]

I personally feel you get what you believe in.If you let a fear take control of your mind - it will affect you in a manner you perceive.If you convince your mind that 666 might be a beneficial number to you - it very well might actually work out in your favour. But surely it will not make a devil supporter or a evil doer. It is out actions purely that determine what we are and who we are like. Numbers have little or no contribution to them besides giving us math and statistics.

[iGuest 3]

fear of numbersFear Of Numbers

For some reason I have a fear of the number 37. I started seeing that number eveywhere after my great-grandma died, and I don't know why. Not a lot of people have a fear of this number, so I'm confused.

-reply by Alyssa

 

[eInfiniti 0]

Why do we continue to fear these numbers? I personally am not superstitious and afraid of the numbers. But, sometimes I have to pay attention to what other people think. For example, I took a job in China and had to look for a place to rent. One of the subdivisions I went to was decorated in traditional Chinese style. I didn't particularly like it, but it looked ok to me. I went to see the house. It looked good to me. As I was finishing the tour of the house, my friend who went with me said its street number is 4-4 and that's probably why it hasn't been rented out. It didn't bother me to rent as I'd hand it back to the landlord when I move out. But, it looks like others chose not to rent it because of 4-4. I found a better place later on. So, I ended up not renting 4-4.In China, it is quite common for people to buy housing units in a big building or community at a very early stage, meaning that sometimes one had no idea at all what number would be assigned to the unit in the first place. If the developer doesn't avoid 4's, one could end up getting 4-4, 44, 444, and so on. That is also why some developers will not use 4 at all.

[inverse_bloom 0]

I think this largely has a lot to do with some peoples subjective veiw on external factors (not just numbers). What i mean by that is people choose to focus on one facet of something, they interpret it and form a belief about it (as a whole). For instance if a person who you have never met before is rude to you, then your belief maybe that they are an "ahole". The fact that they could just have had a really, really, bad day doesn't enter your belief's about that person (and thats normal). But in that way the mind has a very powerful hold on how it interprets objective reality. I'd imagine that perhaps "these" particular individuals are easily prone to stress and paranoia. What if their subjective view of the world has become askew?, far from any objective basis? More specifically, their mind is fixated on a very narrow facet of the external world; for which they believe represents danger to them. The risks of this occuring to some individuals would be compounded by the fact they exhibit strong traits of paranoia and obsessions within their personality, before this occuring. Depending on situational factors they may have worked up a state of mind where they are highly susceptible to illogical, innacurate thoughts. They may have become paranoid and fearful of many things and then something like these numbers enter the picture (just by co-incidence). Their mindset becomes fixated.Then from that point onwards they cycle along that path, their unhealthy obsessions increasing in severity.

Edited November 3, 2009 by inverse_bloom (see edit history)

[shadowx 0]

666 is NOT the number of the beast (despite the fact the "beast" doesnt exist and is simply a perversion of ancient gods by the Christian religion to sway pagans into thinking they are worshipping the "devil" and hence turn them to jesus for their only chance of salvation, lets just pretend the beast does exist...) the number is actually 616.666 was a false translation of a poor text, i think they just assumed it must be 666 as it was 6X6 where X was fairly unreadable. Hence those with a fear of 666 have no reason to fear it (theres no reason to fear 616 either... but fools will be fools) The saying "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" is very apt here. The numbers themselves arent scary, they have no scary or dangerous meaning (with exception to 4 in chinese) but if you put a block of fear behind the number all you will ever see is that fear, you are not scared of the number, you are scared of fear itself, the fear that *you* have given that number through belief in superstitions and social conformity.

[iGuest 3]

4, 9, 14, 24, and i believe 42 also can provoke a dangourous or deadly situation due to similar pronunciation in chinese/japanese language (one or the other)4 is death, 9 is a bit of a long shot, and starts the word suffering, 14 in cantonese is die for sure, 24 and 42 are (roughly) to death or die (comanding sense) in japonesethen again, i personally believe all numbers have their place, and that they should all be respected and feared in one sense or another, especially because of the growing population of people who are afraid of fractions