Statistics, Mathematics, Numbers…
Statistics sometimes suggest much more precision than the facts are. If you have a look at “Worldometers“, you find world statistics updated in real time. At the moment I’m writing this the statistics give the following numbers, which are continuously increasing:
You get the impression, that a horde of brownies is running around all over the planet collecting data, even in the far-off jungles and deserts. At the bottom of the site, however, there is the warning: “Please note that demographics data is based on census data reports and projections. Do not use for exact calculations.” But where does the projecting of data lead us? It appears like magic, with the semblance of great precision.
Another mathematical “magician” must have been Leonhard Euler, (1707-1783) who is celebrating his 300th birthday today. He is one of the greatest mathematicians who ever lived. I yesterday read an article in the “Bund” about this “totally normal genius”. In the average he has done an important discovery every week. He had a tremendous overview and immediately saw the inter-relations. In everything he directly saw a mathematical structure. He solved many problems, not only mathematical ones, and he created the basis for the sudokus people like to solve nowadays.
In spite of losing most of his children at an early age, losing one eye with 31 and losing sight at a later age, he was very content. Born in Basle, Switzerland, he later lived in St. Petersburg and Berlin and was tremendously productive until the end of his life. A colleague, Dieudonné Thiébault, wrote about him: “With a child on his knees and a cat on his shoulders he wrote his immortal works” – by dictating them, because he was getting blind. He must have been one of the rare cases who can concentrate on difficult subjects while playing with children.
You find his portrait on several stamps and it was for a while even on a Swiss bank note. Here is a stamp just published on the occasion of his birthday:
Numbers are strange phenomena. They are considered to be creative forces by the ancient seers and used by some people for meditation. They are innate parts of our being. The embryo inherits the numerical potency and germinates the parts of the body in terms of number. You find more about this in the book on Spiritual Psychology by Dr. E. Krishnamacharya.
