The Enigma of Numbers
ISBN: 978-88-95604-00-8
Price: £17.99
Format: paperback, 234 x 156 mm, 560 pp
Available worldwide.
Synopsis
Are numbers the great archetypal forces that power ourselves and the cosmos?
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.
- Origins of number
- Rational and irrational numbers
- Transcendental and complex numbers
- Infinity
- The archetype of number
- The Kabbalah
- The void (zero)
- Music of number
- Synchronicity
- Divination
- Parapsychology
- Chaos of number
What people have said about the book
“In The Enigma of Numbers, Lance Storm challenges our obsession for organising and quantifying our world with an absorbing exposé 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.
In the Jungian genre, The Enigma of Numbers ranks with von Franz's seminal study, Number and Time, for its scope and profundity, while exceeding it in accessibility. Lance Storm combines sober analysis, wonderment and scholarship in a landmark work.”
Barry Jeromson PhD, has taught Jung Studies and Philosophy at the University of South Australia, where he completed his doctoral thesis, Jung and Mathematics in Dialogue.
“The Enigma of Numbers offers a tour de force through the infinitely fascinating world of numbers. Transcending disciplines the “number archetype” is brought to life for us in its cultural, historical, symbolic and scientific aspects in Lance Storm's book. A valuable addition to the Jungian literature which seeks to explore the links between the scientific and the symbolic worlds.”
Joe Cambray, President-elect of the IAAP (the International Association for Analytical Psychology); Consulting editor for the Journal of Analytical Psychology; faculty member at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University.