dying by numbers 1/37 Pauli/Rälph3
In 1958, Pauli fell ill with pancreatic cancer. When his last assistant, Charles Enz, visited him at the Rotkreuz hospital in Zurich, Pauli asked him: “Did you see the room number?”
It was number 137.
Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung were obsessed with the power of the number 137, ––the atom’s fine-structure constant, a dimensionless fundamental constant in physics,, and ‘von der Natur vorgegeben’ has a value nearly equal to 1/137.
The ‘Cosmic Number’ also has great Kabbalistic significance 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. 137 is the archetypal number, it is of key symbolic significance to Jung’s depth psychology and the history of alchemy.
Pauli died in room 137, on December 15, 1958.
In the physics community they say, after his death, Pauli was granted an audience with God. Pauli asked God why the fine structure constant has the value 1/137. God went to a blackboard and scribbled equations at furious pace. Pauli watched God with great interest, but soon began shaking his head: “Das ist ganz ganz falsch!”
