137 Jung, Pauli, and the Pursuit of a Scientific Obsession

by Miller, Arthur I.

• ISBN13: 9780393338645
• ISBN10: 0393338649
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

Is there a number at the root of the universe? A primal number that everything in the world hinges on? This question exercised many great minds of the twentieth century, among them the groundbreaking physicist Wolfgang Pauli and the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Their obsession with the power of certain numbers'”including 137, which describes the atom's fine-structure constant and has great Kabbalistic significance'”led them to develop an unlikely friendship and to embark on a joint mystical quest reaching deep into medieval alchemy, dream interpretation, and the Chinese Book of Changes. 137 explores the profound intersection of modern science with the occult, but above all it is the tale of an extraordinary, fruitful friendship between two of the greatest thinkers of our times. Originally published in hardcover as Deciphering the Cosmic Number .

Author Biography

Arthur I. Miller is a professor emeritus at University College London. He has published many critically acclaimed books, including Einstein, Picasso, and writes for publications such as the New York Times. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Prologue	p. xv
Dangerously Famous	p. 3
Early Successes, Early Failures	p. 18
The Philosopher's Stone	p. 44
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	p. 51
Intermezzo-Three versus Four: Alchemy, Mysticism, and the Dawn of Modern Science	p. 64
Pauli, Heisenberg, and the Great Quantum Breakthrough	p. 89
Mephistopheles	p. 107
The Dark Hunting Ground of the Mind	p. 124
Mandalas	p. 148
The Superior Man Sets His Life in Order	p. 158
Synchronicity	p. 183
Dreams of Primal Numbers	p. 208
Second Intermezzo-Road to Yesterday	p. 227
Through the Looking Glass	p. 233
The Mysterious Number 137	p. 247
Epilogue: The Legacy of Pauli and Jung	p. 273
Notes	p. 277
Bibliography	p. 311
Illustration Credits	p. 321
Index	p. 325
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