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“Arthur I. Miller is a master at capturing the intersections of creativity and intelligence. He did it with Einstein and Picasso, and now he does it with Pauli and Jung. Their shared obsession with the number 137 provides a window into their genius.” – Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein
From Deciphering the Cosmic Number
“When the hard-boiled rationalist…came to consult me for the first time, he was in such a state of panic that not only he but I myself felt the wind blowing over me from the lunatic asylum!” – Jung on Pauli
“[I contacted] Mr. Jung because of certain neurotic phenomena which are connected with the fact that it is easier for me to achieve academic success than successes with women. Since with Mr. Jung rather the contrary is the case, he appeared to me to be quite the appropriate man to treat me medically.” – Pauli on Jung
Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung
In Deciphering the Cosmic Number I explore how Carl Jung analysed the dream imagery of one of his most famous patients, the ground-breaking physicist Wolfgang Pauli. Pauli’s unconventional and wild life brought him to the brink of a mental breakdown. He obsessed over how he had made his greatest discovery, feeling that he had tapped into something beyond physics.
It’s the story of two mavericks – Pauli, a scientist who – unlike his peers – was fascinated by the inner reaches of his own psyche and not afraid to dabble in the occult; and Jung, the famous psychologist who nevertheless was sure that science held answers to some of the questions that tormented him. Both made enormous and lasting contributions to their fields. But in their many conversations over dinner and wine at Jung’s Gothic mansion on the shores of Lake Zurich, they went much further, striking sparks off each other as they explored the middle ground between their two subjects.
They deliberated at great length over whether there was a number that everything in the universe hinged on, that explained everything – a primal number that provided insight into the equations of the soul. Might it be three as in the Trinity? Or four as argued in alchemical texts? Could it be the weird number 137, which on the one hand described the DNA of light and on the other is the sum of the Hebrew letters of the word “Kabbalah”?
Deciphering the Cosmic Number is a tale of an extraordinary friendship between two equally brilliant yet very different men. Jung’s and Pauli’s was a truly unique meeting of the minds. It was, as Jung wrote, to lead both of them into “the no-man’s land between Physics and the Psychology of the Unconscious…the most fascinating yet the darkest hunting ground of our times.”
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Please click on thumbnails below to scroll through the gallery:
- Jung 1930
- Squaring the Circle
- Pauli's Passport 1940
- The Divine and Mundane Triangles
- Uroboros the serpent
- Pauli's World Clock, his mandala
- Jung's first mandala
- Pauli on vacation, 1931
- Page from Jung's Alchemy books
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Why two geniuses delved into the occult
New Scientist, 24 April 2009. Interview with Amanda Gefter
In his latest book, Deciphering the Cosmic Number, historian of science Arthur I Miller investigates the bizarre friendship between quantum physics pioneer Wolfgang Pauli and famed psychoanalyst Carl Jung.
Together, the two great thinkers delved into mysticism, numerology and alchemy in their quest to understand the universe and themselves. Miller tells New Scientist about his experience writing the book. [...] Read full interview on line
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Cosmic numbers: Pauli and Jung’s love of numerology
New Scientist, magazine issue 2705, 24 April 2009. Review by Dan Falk
On the surface, Arthur I. Miller’s latest book is a joint biography of two great minds of the 20th century: quantum physics pioneer Wolfgang Pauli and psychoanalysis master Carl Jung. This two-in-one approach has served Miller well; his 2001 book Einstein, Picasso attracted wide acclaim. But whereas Einstein and Picasso never actually met, Pauli, we learn, met Jung on numerous occasions. They grew to be close friends, and Pauli became one of Jung’s regular clients [...] Read full review on line
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Deciphering the cosmic number
Plus magazine, June 2009. Review by Marianne Freiberger
[...] despite the lofty, and sometimes downright crazy, ideas covered by Jung and Pauli (even UFOs make an appearance), this book won’t give you headaches. Miller’s account of their adventures is captivating, succinct and accessible. You don’t need any previous knowledge of physics or psychology — or alchemy for that matter — to enjoy it. The two personalities are central to this story and Miller provides plenty of personal detail to keep you smiling, even in the face of some heavy physics, which Miller expertly condenses into digestible chunks accessible to novices. Miller’s explicit descriptions of Pauli’s dreams and their analysis by Jung paint a visceral picture of the two men’s approach not just to treating Pauli’s emotional troubles, but also to unravelling the archetypes that underly science. [...] Read full review on line
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La fisica, il diavolo e il numero di Dio
Repubblica.it – Bookowski Blog. Review by Dario Olivero of the Italian edition of Deciphering the Cosmic Number – L’equazione dell’anima - translated by C. Capararo and S. Galli, published by Rizzoli.
[...] Questo libro è la storia di Pauli, degli uomini che cambiarono la fisica, di Jung, della Germania in guerra, del pensiero moderno da Keplero ad Einstein, della psicologia dinamica. E del numero 137. Read full review on line