Pi (1998) -- Number Theory vs. Numerology

The psycho-science thriller Pi, directed by Darren Aronofsky, has a fantastic scene where mathematician Maximillian Cohen (Sean Gullette) insists to his mentor Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis) that the answer to everything has something to do with the number 216. The number in Kabbalistic tradition is called the Shemhamphorasch, an epithet for a 216-letter name of God derived by medieval kabbalists from the Book of Exodus (chapter 14: 19-21) by reading the letters of three verses in a specific order using a Boustrophedon transform. The name is composed of 72 groups of three letters, each of these triplets being the name of an angel or intelligence. As I’ve continued work on the following ToE ( ), this scene has served as an excellent reminder that if we’re to read qualities in to numbers that we must do so with rigor not arbitrary declarations of truth based on little more than assumptions.