444. The psychology of angel numbers

0:04 Hello everybody. I'm Jemma Spake and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties, the podcast where we talk through the biggest changes, moments, and transitions of our twenties and what they mean for our psychology. Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast, new listeners, old listeners, wherever you are in the world before we get into it. Two things for you today. Number One, this episode and many others are now on Netflix, so if you want a video version of this very episode, you can go and watch it over there. It really helps us out. And Secondly, we have launched a really exciting new project on substack that I don't think many of you know about. It's called the Study of the

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1:34 I always hate doing. That is literally my least favorite part of making the podcast. But this is my favorite part, which is talking about the psychology of common phenomena that applied to our twenties and beyond. And this episode is these are just my favorite kinids. It's going to be so good because we are talking about the psychology of angel numbers. Angel numbers are these numerical symbols that guide us, direct us, comfort us during times of transition and sometimes pain and growth and uncertainty, but also just in everyday life.

2:08 It is the four four four you see you on the microwave in the morning, and then the two dollars twenty two cents your soda costs you at lunch, the eleven eleven on your uber's license plate. These numbers mean something to us, and we know that because our brains can't help but notice them and feel drawn to them.

2:29 Why is that? What is it about those numbers that presents us with so much psychological clarity and direction and what does the science support about the mystical spiritual side of this. That is what we're going to discuss, as well as some insane plot twists to do with spiritual gurus and the women and the woman I should say, who popularized angel numbers. This episode takes many, many strange directions, but the psychology and the science is a fascinating so without further ado, let's get into it. So, first and foremost, before the psychology of angel numbers, what is the history of angel numbers? Where do they originally come from? So, angel numbers in the way we talk about them now are actually a very modern spiritual concept. They are as

3:26 modern as the invention and widespread use of numbers, which has actually only been quite a recent thing in human history. But they draw from too much much older traditions, which is the belief that small things can act as messages from a higher power, and also the belief that groupings of certain things carry hidden symbolic meaning, like seeing three crows or five coins or six donkeys whatever. It is.

3:57 An interesting part of this is the history of nonumbers themselves, because it has evolved in stages from basic counting and tallying, where people would carve strikes into walls or wood to keep track of things, into the invention you know of the apicus, and now the numerical system that we know of today, which was created by Indian and Arabic mathematicians.

4:21 This led to the I wouldn't say creation, but the development of what we now have, which is numerology, the broader belief that numbers have divine, mystical or symbolic significance and they shape the structure of our reality. Now, numerology dates back centuries, and one of the earliest figures connected to this movement is Pythagoras. He's a very ancient Greek philosopher.

4:50 You have definitely heard his name before, probably in a high school math class. He's also the man who created Pythagorean theorem, his equation for triangles. I don't know if you remember it, like A plus B equal c A square b s C squad. I don't know, I haven't done math in a while. But he was also the founder of a broader movement, a broader movement that basically believed that the universe is governed by mathematical harmony. Obviously, Pythagoras wasn't talking about angel numbers at the time. I'm not going to reach that far. That wasn't his theory, but he was talking about this broader to tradition that numbers reflect the hidden order of things. They have this deeper, more interconnected, overarching meaning that we can access through their presence,

5:44 and they reveal something like basically beneath the surface of ordinary life. Now, the other strand of this, beyond Pythagoras and his idea of mathematical I don't know alignment, is the idea of angels, which show up a lot more in Western cultures, with Christianity, maybe Judaism as well Islam. This idea of spiritual beings that actors, intermediaries, or messengers from a higher power. In Christianity specifically, angels are often understand understood as these creatures that serve God. They offer protection, they appear at important moments in biblical stories. The word angel itself comes from the Greek word angelos, meaning messenger, and this again ties into this belief that guidance can

6:29 be communicated through science. Those two things combined create angel numbers. So this concept of angelic protection and guidance through numbers through anything that is a very ancient concept. It borrows from some very very old principles and religions, but angel numbers are just I guess, not even the newest, but a more recent kind of development. The idea of repeating angel numbers. Angel numbers is a very modern phenomena, primarily caused by the rise of New Age spirituality, specifically the work of an American author called Doreen Virtue. She popularized this idea that repeated number sequences could be interpreted as messengers from angels or spiritual guides. She wrote this huge series of books about it. It made her a multi millionaire.

7:28 She was on Oprah. It just blew up. It was like the big thing of the early two thousands. Something really interesting though. An interesting twist is that Doreen actually underwent a whole religious conversion in like twenty seventeen, like ten, maybe like twenty years after she I don't even know what the right word is popularize the idea, she like completely renounced it. She became a complete born again fundamentalist Christian, and she's publicly stated that she no longer believes in angel numbers. She doesn't think they're spiritually valid. She has this whole YouTube show where she talks about it. So if you want to go look that up. It's very interesting.

8:09 She literally did an interview with I don't know if you know the magazine The Cut where, which, by the way, one of my favorites. But she basically says, I regret this. I regret popularizing angel numbers. I've gone broke stepping away from these teachings. I don't want anything to do with it. I don't think many people know about that. It's so fascinating how these kinds of ideas can take on a whole life of their own, even though the person associated with them most in the modern day, the person who popularized them has since completely distanced herself from the concept.

8:46 And I don't think that means that you have to I don't think that you should no longer believe in it yourself. I don't think that we should discard it. She obviously wasn't the sole inventor. This is a very old tradition. I just think it's an interesting part of this. Nonetheless, may it be a bit of a lesson about not leaning too heavily on spiritual gurus today. Angel numbers exist beyond her right. They are their own thing. They are their own source of inspiration, growth, and comfort. To people, especially as they have emerged online and on TikTok, on Instagram and in articles as these incredible things, the meaning around them circulates regardless of whether Dooring approves of them or doesn't, which she obviously doesn't. So what do certain

9:33 angel numbers represent? If you don't want to go back and read her book? There are so many different patterns. I'm just going to talk about a few of the main ones today, the biggest one being eleven eleven or one one one now. This is often associated with manifestation, with new beginnings, with intention, and alignment. People often interpret it as basically a prompt to notice, what are you thinking about? Make a wish, focus on that, call this thing into your life. Eleven eleven means like it's coming for you, manifest channel that energy two to two two.

10:12 The next one is commonly linked to trust, balance, relationships, divine timing. It tends to be interpreted as a reassurance number or a symbolic reminder that things may be unfolding even if you cannot yet kind of see the outcome. Three through three, but just going to go down the list here often associated with creativity, encouragement, expression, support. Some people interpret it as a reminder that they are being guided or that they should express themselves that the idea they have is the one that is was they are directed to pursue. Four tour fur another very common one, or the one that I think a lot of people lean towards, is about protection, grounding, stability. Very comforting during

10:59 times of transition, very comforting during times of evolution and personal evolution, because it says you are protected, You're going to get through this, You're not alone. Five five five is usually associated again with change, with disruption, with transformation coming. I'm trying to think about a great example, but essentially, if you see it all the time, it's a sign that something is about to shift for you, you're about to enter a new phase. Seven seven seven is spiritual insight, luck, intuition, a deeper sense of knowing. Eight eight is often associated with abundance, wealth, money, prosperity, success, maybe even energetic return.

11:46 And nine to ninet nine is usually interpreted as completion. It's the end, it's the last one kind of in that sequence. It's closure, it's released, it's its endings. My favorite one though, and my personal angel number, if one can call it, that is one two, three, four, twelve thirty four. I am not kidding when I say I see this in some form every single day without fail like, literally every single day. I will wake up in the middle of the night. It will be twelve thirty four am.

12:16 I will order my breakfast. It will be twelve dollars and thirty four cents. I will read the word count for a script. It will be twelve hundred and thirty four words. Grab and uber twelve thirty four in the license plate. It literally cannot express you how many ways I have seen this. I don't know what it fully believes.

12:31 I think it means that you're building a good life. I think it means that you should stick to your goal. I think it represents progress and growth. That is definitely my favorite. The thing is, though with all those the meanings can be interpreted as one and the same, they also aren't necessarily universal. That is so important to know.

12:50 The woman who wrote this book obviously like had an idea, But it doesn't really matter. It matters what it means to you. It matters in many ways what it psychologically represents and what it needs to mean to you in this moment. And I think that's why They're so meaningful not because they have a universal meaning, but because they allow for a level of flexibility in their interpretation, just like a poem can mean different things at different stages of your life, or a song lyric feels like it was written just for you, even though thousands of people listen to it, even though you know. Like a religious passage can comfort different people from completely different life circumstances, angel numbers work in a similar way. Their meaning is

13:39 not fixed. They act as an emotional container, and they give shape and they take shape, and they are symbolic, and they are important, often based on things that we are already feeling, and they just become a way of externalizing something that we already know as a deep truth. So why do they feel so significant to us? Why is one one one a good sign? Why is three three three a positive thing? What does the psychology say about our attraction to these numbers? We are going to dive into that after this short break. Angel numbers feel significant firstly because they often appear or we are more likely to notice them at emotionally significant points in our life.

14:32 And this is not a coincidence, it's not an accident. It occurs because a core principle in psychology is that we interpret the world primarily through our emotional state. Our reality shapes our emotions, but it also happens the other way around as well. Meaning how we feel influences what we notice, what feels important, and the life that we have perception is everything. Way of understanding this is through what we call the meaning maintenance model. So in a two thousand and six paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the authors kind of made this suggestion that people have an inherent need for meaning. This is an old idea, they really were able to articulate it in this study. We need to perceive events through

15:25 the frame of mental representations to organize our perception of the world. We have this deep need basically to experience the world as this coherent, meaningful, logical, organized thing that is important to us as humans. When that sense of meaning is threatened, for example, when life feels confusing, when you've gone through a terrible breakup and you don't believe in love anymore, when you have no idea what you are doing with your life, when a sickness occurs, when something unfair happens, people often try to restore meaning in another way, such as through the guidance and presence of angel numbers. This helps explain why angel numbers become compelling during periods of transition like our twenties, like after a divorce,

16:11 like when you've just lost a job, like when you are moving through grief. These are all moments where life feels temporarily very unstructured and your brain does not like that. We are looking for anything that can provide emotional scaffolding and emotional meaning to life. This raises another question, why those numbers though? Why are our minds so ready to see meaning in repeated numbers in the first place, rather than just something else, like why are those things assigned?

16:44 That brings us to the psychology of pattern recognition one of my favorite I love this. I could talk about this all day. Our brains are constantly scanning the environment for things that are the same, for repetition, for connection, for rhythm, for signs. Basically, our brains want to make sense of our surroundings to keep us safe. If they can predict what's going to happen next, that gives them a better chance. It's one of the most important things that our brains do. The sheer fact that our brains are wired to recognize patterns are what helps us to do things like learn languages, or recognize faces, or understand social cues, or predict when we might be in danger.

17:25 It is ecre if not most critical part of our brains and our lives as humans. It helps us learn that if we do certain behaviors, certain outcomes are going to happen. Dark clouds mean rain. If somebody treats you like this, then it's probably going to end this way. Now, inability to interpret those patterns is often what gets us into trouble, not just in terms of survival, but in terms of emotional patterns as well. Pattern detection is life saving.

17:54 Not listening to it can also be life changing. The tricky thing is that a brain that is built to detect meaningful patterns will sometimes find meaning in places where the pattern is a little bit random. Psychologists sometimes refer to this as apophenia, which means perceiving meaningful connections between unrelated or random things. In simple terms, it's when the mind sees a pattern and gives it significance, even when the pattern doesn't have an external cause. Now, that goes against some of our beliefs about angel numbers, but it is a really important explanation for why our brains like angel numbers. There was a two thousand and eight study published in Science, the journal Science by Jennifer Whitson. She's

18:40 a psychologist whose work has explored control and uncertainty and patent perception, and it gives us a really useful way to understand this. Across a series of several experiments, Jennifer found that when people felt a lack of control, they were more likely to perceive illusory or I don't want to say delusional, but just patterns. In general. They were more likely to see, for example, images in visual noise.

19:07 They were more likely to identify connections that we're just objectively not there. When we feel in control, the world already feels organized enough, we don't really need to look for extra science. When we feel out of control, the mind becomes more motivated to restore order. It searches for meaning.

19:27 Now this is a critical thing, because does that mean the meaning isn't there. No, those numbers are still there. The guidance they provide is still real. It's just that you start looking for them more. Now, why are the numbers there? That's another question? Right, there is this deep intersection between spirituality and psychology when it comes to these things that you can't disentangle, and you can't completely ignore the fact that numbers do control the world, and that math is this wonderful thing, and that numerology is a very valid way of interpreting life. This is where the idea of confirmation bias comes in. Confirmation bias is the tendency to notice, remember, and give more weight to information

20:08 that supports what we already believe or suspect. Confirmation bias is something that we are all subject to. Again, it's part of our brains, hardwiring. There's no escaping it. It is an essential feature of human thinking. You may feel like seeing tou tou tou means you're on the right path. Then whenever you see the number two two two after making a certain decision, that just confirms it for you.

20:33 That is enough to feel like you must have been correct. But the thing is is that you may not remember all the times you made a decision and you didn't see the number two two two. You may not notice all the times you saw tou tou tou and nothing obvious happened afterwards. Now, again, does this mean that angel numbers should be completely discounted just because the science has another explanation for them. I personally don't think so. Like I don't think so, I still think they're meaningful. But it's just important to understand these illusions and these biases that also contribute to them being upheld. Another one is the frequency illusion. You may this is the best way to describe this is like you learn a new term,

21:20 or you learn a new word, and suddenly like everybody is talking about it, or you're thinking about buying a certain car, and then suddenly every single car you see is that car. It can feel like it's completely by chance, but it's just that your brain has started to filter for important information. It's just starting to filter for things that you have decided is critical, oh remains critical for you.

21:49 The world has not necessarily changed, but your attention has. Attention really sits at the core of this, and angel numbers again work in the same way to a certain number becomes meaningful to you the way twelve thirty four is meaningful to me. Your brain starts treating that number is important. You filter literally millions of pieces of information every single day. But once something has been encoded as significant.

22:16 It's just going to pop out from the background. Right. It's like recognizing the face of somebody that you know in love in a crowd. You notice it, you notice it, you clock it. It's something that's important to you. It's relevant to you. Each time you notice it, it feels even more significant because the fact that you're noticing it that obviously means something. And so that is the circular process of how an angel number becomes important to us and then continues to be something that we see that can be It's so insanely comforting, this is what I'm saying.

22:46 It's so comforting. It is a good feeling. It is beautiful. The idea that things are connected, that life has pattern and meaning is a great way to live. And that it brings me to another idea that's connected to angel numbers, which is pronoa. Pronoia is described as the opposite of paranoia. Paranoia is the fear of belief that people's systems or forces are kind of conspiring against you. Prona, by contrast, is the sense that the world is conspiring in your favor. Now, this term was introduced into psychological literature by this guy called Fred Goldner. He was a sociologist at Queen's College in New York, and he talked about it in this article he published in nineteen eighty two. He described pronoia

23:36 as a positive counterpart to paranoia. A belief that others think well of you, a belief that events are favorable towards you rather than unfavorable. A belief that the social world is organized more benevolently around you than negatively around you. This is psychologically remarkable, It is psychologically powerful, and it's basically a more scientific version of what you focus on expands if you focus on the good, that expands if you focus on the bad. If you let paranoia take over, the bad becomes your life. Pronoia means that there is benevolence in the timings of things, that things might be aligning, even if you do not fully understand how they are right now. It means that you are protected. Angel numbers

24:24 create this gentle form of pronoia and this greatest sense of responsiveness to life because we feel more confident that things are going to go our way. And this is the part of angel numbers that can't be dismissed, whether you think they're pseudoscience or not. They genuinely help people. They genuinely shape behavior in ways that do heal and do change lives and do spare growth. Uncertainty is emotionally and cognitively demanding, and it makes us hesitate, It makes us stay still, It makes us remain motionless. When we do not know what is going to happen, our minds are going to try and fill that gap. Often it will fill that gap with anxiety and the worst case scenario.

25:10 Angel numbers fill that gap with hope and fill that gap with promise instead of thinking like, what if everything goes wrong? Here is this thing that says, but what if I'm being guided? What if I need to trust and wait and see how this unwinds. What if I need to what if I need to just give it a go. That is psychologically powerful. That is psychologically powerful because deep down, you know the reality that you want.

25:33 The Angel number is just the boost, it's just the catalyst. It doesn't change the external outcome. Seeing a certain number doesn't guarantee that you're going to get the job. It doesn't guarantee that your relationship is going to work out, but it does guarantee that your internal state is probably going to be a lot more regulated. It does kind of ensure that you're going to feel more self assured and calm. And what is definitely a fact is that that emotional state does have an impact on an outcome and does have an impact on how you choose to behave.

26:07 There was a really interesting twenty ten paper published in Psychological Science by the researchers Lizen Damish and Barbara Stoberock. Their work basically examines superstition. It examines confidence and performance and what their experiments found, and this is so critical, is that activating good luck superstitions like using a lucky object or hearing a phrase associated with luck, could improve performance not by changing an outcome, but by changing confidence and changing participants levels of persistence because they felt like there was somebody on their side. Another study found something similar.

26:44 When you show people certain symbols or make certain coincidences occur before they walk into an experimental condition, and you say, hey, did you see that thing? Did you know that's lucky? It could literally be the most arbitrary thing. It literally could be nothing, and they perform better because they feel safer and they feel like something is on their side.

27:05 There is obviously a term for this in psychology. There's a term for everything in psychology. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. You've probably heard this before, self fulfilling prophecy. Of course, that was going to happen. I talked about it, I think in our superstition episode. I'm gonna say for a little refresher, a self fulfilling prophecy occurs when a belief influences behavior in a way that makes the belief more likely to come true. Is that a bad thing? No, If the belief is positive. If you believe something is a sign of your success, you are more likely to act in ways that bring about success. You are more likely to be audacious, you're more likely to be risky, You're more likely to put yourself out there. That is

27:46 a good thing. That is what changes the outcome with angel numbers. The self fulfilling prophecy is so apparent and so powerful, probably more powerful than many other things. If you keep seeing one one one, and you interpret it as a sign of a new beginning, guess what you're gonna do. You're going to finally start that project, You're going to finally apply for that course, You're going to send that email you're going to move cities. Then the number did not magically create the new beginning. It just helped you act in alignment with the one you already knew you wanted. You are the magic. That's what I'm trying to say. You. You are the magic pushing your destiny forward. The Angel number is just the security blanket.

28:28 They're just letting you lean into what you already know you were capable of. Whether that is growth, whether that is healing, whether that is peace, love, success, you name it. But you are the magic. They cannot change your reality for you. You change your reality through their psychological impact.

28:46 I really want to emphasize this point. Often we already know things before we are willing to admit them. You already know you're unhappy. You already know you are outgrowing something, You know that that relationship isn't right. You know that you want something more from life. But that sensation is really frightening, it's really scary, and it's uncertain when you know that you're going to have to change something and that things aren't going to be the same, or that there is an outcome that you can't one predict. So we need a psychological boost. We need a psychological push.

29:17 So we look for a sign. We look for a sign, and if it's there, amazing because we act. The same can be said for tarot cards, for reading horoscopes. We just want a reason. But the fact that we're looking for a guide doesn't mean that the motivation to change isn't already there, and doesn't mean that we wouldn't have done it. Anyways, when somebody is looking for a sign, they're going to find a sign. When you know you need to do something, you're going to find something that's going to confirm that. Let's talk about why angel numbers get a bad rap? Should we including a little bit more about there maybe more dangerous, the more dangerous mixings with psychology stay with us. So you know what I hate.

30:06 I hate when people yuck other people's yum when it literally does no harm to them, not even harm like it doesn't even influence them in the slightest. It really annoys me. It really annoys me. And I think people who believe in angel numbers often get a lot of yuck from other people, and I just don't think that's fair, And let's talk about it. I think people often make fun of angel numbers and people who believe in angel numbers, because there's this idea that they are rational and they're sentimental, and it's really associated with this like Delulu, like online spiritual culture of like luck and fate and destiny, and like how unscientific is that. I think sometimes this criticism comes from a genuine concern that maybe angel numbers are

30:51 encouraging magical thinking or poor decision making, or again a confirmation bias that allows people to do things that maybe aren't why, Like, if angel numbers can be a guide for positive things, they can also be a guide for things that maybe aren't what's best for you, like getting back with people you probably shouldn't, quitting jobs without a plan, that sort of thing. I think the concern can be fair, especially if somebody is making major life choices based on only the presence of numbers without a plan. But a lot of the time that's not why people are worried about it. A lot of the time, I think people just want to criticize it. People just want to make you feel infuri I think the mockery around angel numbers,

31:37 specifically from a certain group of people, comes from a bit of a superiority complex. It becomes this way of like performing intelligence and performing detachment. There's often this tone when people criticize angel numbers of like, I'm more intelligent than you. I would never believe in that. I understand the science. You're dumb. I'm not well, I don't know.

32:00 I understand the science. You understand the science. You just listen to thirty minutes of it. And I think that that science and that research makes angel numbers even more compelling in terms of the way that they psychologically guide people and the way that they emotionally provide courage that is needed for a human to act. Actually, in terms of the way that they enable agency and self belief.

32:23 I don't think that's something to be scoffed at. I actually think that is a remarkably powerful thing to have at your disposal. There's also a very gendered element here. Many forms of spiritual meaning making, like taro, like angel numbers, like birth charts, which are also typically associated with young women, often receive an additional unfair amount of criticism as being cringe or silly, or embarrassing or stupid. It is almost a trend to mock them, to think of them as like silly women's things, and emotional and not rational and ridiculous, and you know, the man's view of life is about hard work and rationality, and you believing in this shows that you don't believe in that. That's kind of an idea.

33:10 Humans engage in symbolic and irrational rituals all the time. Athletes wear lucky clothing, Students use lucky pens. Football fans believe they can jinx a gain by not doing a certain routine beforehand, or doing a certain routine beforehand. People knock on wood, people say everything happens for a reason.

33:29 All of these things involve emotion, They involve symbolism, uncertainty, and perceived meaning, and those things are the exact same psychological route as indeor numbers. It's just packaged differently. The branding is literally just different. It's like the difference between diet coke and coke zero. It's just the gender that they're marketed towards. So we're not really talking about a difference in rationality at all. The difference is actually more so in which rituals are socially legitimized, socially supported, and which aren't. I also think this mockery can come from and maybe this is a stretch, but I think it is a discomfort with hope. Feeling hopeful can be really vulnerable.

34:13 To believe that something might be working out for you is to risk disappointment, and cynicism protects you against that disappointment. If you never believe in science, you never have to feel foolish for hoping. You can give distance, You can remain detached from longing and from wanting, And I think that's a really critical part that people don't talk about.

34:38 It's easy to not believe in angel numbers because believing in them would mean that, like the possibility of something good is possible, and you could have some hope around that, and then what if you're disappointed. There's some fear in that as well. So is it actually all that bad to believe in angel numbers? In most cases, No, it's not.

34:59 In fact, it's made be even a good thing. I would make the argument that it is with anything, though, there are a few things to look out for, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention them. So I'm going to hear. I think the main things to be cautious of with anything in this kind of new age spiritual realm is exploitation. Any belief system that offers people comfort during periods of uncertainty and transition and confusion can also become something that is sold back to them and used to manipulate them, and that's just an annoying part of human existence. This is especially the case, in my opinion, in online spiritual spaces, where we're sold more and more and more reassurance and more and more comfort

35:42 packaged as personalized readings or intuitive messages from the universe, when it may just be a way for somebody to make money off of you, and you have to kind of be aware of people's human urges to exploit. A lot of people earn money through spiritual work in its fair work, and it's work. The issue is when certain people pry on people's vulnerabilities, pry on their anxiety in order to sell them a product, and their own belief in the product is not there and their own good intentions are not there. Someone may start with a harmless interest in angel numbers and slowly get pulled into this loop of needing more reassurance, one more reading, one more spiritual download, one more video telling them what this number

36:29 means for this specific situation, and often the language used is really persuasive and really general because it wants to speak to anybody who is in a place of emotional uncertainty. That's often all of us, you know. It wants to relate to everybody so that they can make more money and so that they can kind of manipulate a system.

36:49 And it is important to be aware of that and to be aware of the psychological power of angel numbers and what they can do in the company they can offer people. And just because we know that, it also means that people who have bad intentions know that as well. And we have to be aware as well of a dependency on external confirmation that some of these processes can create.

37:09 Instead of learning to sit with ambiguity, to tolerate uncertainty, to just like trust your judgment, sometimes we can get desperate in our search for angel numbers or a sign, and when it doesn't come, it can be awful. It can be awful. And I want to say again, a lot of people engage with spiritual practices in a very sincere, honest, helpful way and an ethical way and with an intention of really guiding people. But it's just worth being cautious and it's just worth knowing your source a little bit more, and also being okay with a little bit of uncertainty, like it's okay, it's okay to not know you know. Also, look at the example of Doreen Virtue, who we spoke about earlier. Here is a woman who made millions and

37:58 millions and millions of people and then basically reneged and said, oh, I actually I don't believe in that. And this article I was speaking about talks about these individuals who were just left like heartbroken, and they'd made major life decisions on this woman's teachings. They felt very scammed, they felt very misled, they felt even more confused because she's just a human. Humans are fallible, like it's difficult to put our hopes and fears at their feet. One more thing that I think we should be aware of is the fixation and anxiety that can come with our belief in angel numbers. Not for everybody, but as much as there are positive, encouraging messages that come from angel numbers and seeing two to two or twelve thirty four or four

38:37 four four everywhere, the opposite can also be true. If we start to fixate on good numbers, we can also start to fixate on bad numbers, maybe interpreting certain numbers as omens or warnings or signs that something is going wrong. We can also if we don't see our angel number every day or regularly, we can start to feel exceedingly unsure of a decision, like I'm not getting confirmation of this.

39:02 Is this the right decision? Maybe it is, even if there's not a number to support that. We can get into this trap of black and white thinking where we're trying to predict the future based on these neutral numbers that we notice. At that point, the practice can shift from being a source of courage and meaning making and motivation and magic to being a big component of disorders like anxiety and OCD. If you're waiting around to see if there is a numerical sign to make a decision about your life, or if you are being put off doing something you know you need to do because of a so called bad number or because you haven't seen a good number, then I think that is the point where not everybody gets here, but it is the point

39:47 where you might need to take a step back and just be like, is this belief making my life bigger or smaller? Belief? It's in the world needs to make your life bigger. I think I would take it back to that core message. At the end of the day, you are the magic and you are the decision maker. You are the one who has to say you are conscious.

40:09 You make things happen, You do the healing, You push your own evolution forward. If you need a sign, if you need encouragement, that is not a bad thing. Every human needs motivation in some form. Angel numbers don't do the work for you, though, and they aren't the final be or say or end all of this situation. Again, I want to say I love the concept of angel numbers.

40:33 They have provided so much comfort for me during really difficult times. I went through a really terrible breakup. Angel numbers played a great role when I moved cities and I felt really, really lonely. They were a guiding light for me when I wanted to quit my job. I'm not gonna lie and say I didn't you know see A two two too. I think that was a good choice.

40:51 They made the ordinary feel less hard, and they made they made my life feel more meaningful and significant. And I think the science and why they made me feel that way makes them even more important. To me because it confirms that what I'm searching for. If I'm searching for something, I obviously already secretly unconsciously want it. And so if I am looking for a sign, the fact I am looking for a sign is the sign. Does that make sense? Yeah? Again, I think it does. If you are looking for a sign, that is your sign.

41:22 So there you go. That is the psychology of angel numbers, a little bit of the history as well. That is why they are so compelling to us psychologically. I don't think that science undermines them. I think it actually contributes to them. So I hope that you've learned something. I hope it's made you feel more informed about this practice.

41:40 If you've made it this far and you're listening on Spotify, what's your favorite angel number? Leave a comment down below. If you also see twelve thirty four everywhere, let me know what does it mean for you. I want to see. I know I'm not the only one, so who else is out there? I want to I want to hear from you. Thank you, as always to our researcher Libby Cobbett for her incredible help with this episode and her amazing research. We also have some fun additional pieces of research and further reading on the topic of angel numbers.

42:09 In the description. You can also find out more on substack. You can join our Study of the Week group. You can watch an episode on Netflix. Everywhere you can find us. You can find us in the description. Just go down there, and there's actually so much interesting stuff that you can go down a whole rabbit hole with this even further if you want to. But again, yes, thank you for listening.

42:29 I love this episode. I love doing like these scientific episodes into like real common concepts, especially ones that are a little bit mystical. So I hope you enjoyed it as well. And until next time, be safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself. We will talk very very soon.