#dr sandra singh

Numbers, Math, and the Golden Ratio
Updated: 8/16/16

SPOILERS THROUGH 2x12

1. “Okay, so there are some numbers and symbols drawn on one of the walls. It looks like black crayon or chalk. But near the middle of everything, there’s something else. It looks like a pentagram in a double circle.” - Alex on Simon’s room (1x06)

2. “Trent handed me a book he had been reading at the time for an online course. It was DH Lawrence’s The Man Who Died. Someone had scribbled all over the pages. There were some dragons, knights, even a monster truck. But then, he turned the page and revealed a very different style of drawings. He flipped to the next page, and then the next. Every part of every page that wasn’t text was covered with arcane symbols and numbers. There were thousands of them. The pages looked almost like art. There was one symbol that appeared more than any other, the pentagram with the two circles. The same symbol found in Simon Reese’s cell. But in Trent’s book there were a bunch of numbers around it. They looked like equations, like a really serious math problem. But they were all over the place, not in neat rows like I was taught in school.”- Alex describing a book Trent hands her, which he says that he didn’t draw. More of the same were found on Trent’s wall after he was injured in the same episode. (1x06)

3. Simon: “Everything in this universe is measured. It’s all plus and minus, positive and negative. He knows where everything is down to the very last atom. But… I can hide things from him. From his sight, I practiced it. It was hard at first. There are mechanisms, you know. And even in randomness, even in chaos…” Alex: “Who are you talking about? Who is ‘he?’ God, is it God?” Simon: (snickers) “Not God.” (1x06)

4. “Those aren’t just numbers, doctor.” - Simon, to Strand, re: the numbers in his room. (1x06)

5. “It’s not really my field of study. But I did recognize some of those equations. The symbols are adapted from ancient Sumerian, but the equations are from the middle ages. Dark alchemy, a form of what you might call devil worship.” – Strand (1x06)

6. Numbers and equations are found all over the cabin where Sebastian Torres was recovered. Strand recognizes some as the golden ratio. “It’s a geometric ratio that’s been obsessed over by the greatest mathematical minds for thousands of years. Pythagoras.Kepler. And the rest. There are some who actually suggested that the golden ratio has occult properties. There was a widespread belief that God has built the universe according to mathematical principles- principles that he created. Everything works in a logic consistent with that, in perfect order. But according to certain facets of the Church, Satan’s one goal has been to usurp that mathematical order. To bring chaos to that order. And one of the ways he’s able to do that is by using or twisting the very mathematical principles God created. This equation, apparently, is folding the golden ratio over and over again, onto itself… by doing this within the context of the other equations below it, someone believes they’ll be able to create a… devil’s door.” (1x07)

7. There are numbers and arcane symbols all over the bottom of the demon board used in the Study at the University of Washington. (1x08)

8. Images Keith Dabic sent of Percival Black’s journals include repetitions of 1.01364335043922. Dr. Sandy Singh says this is a Pythagorean Comma. “It used to be that math could explain everything, but then things started to get smaller. We went subatomic, we started measuring things on the quantum scale, and suddenly our math wasn’t so elegant anymore. There were spaces in our equations, gaps, so now there are a large number of mathematicians who view the universe non-Platonically. They believe that math is a human construct: the language we use to describe the universe. But the Pythagorean comma fills in one of these blanks almost perfectly. So, maybe it’s time to rethink things again. The universe may have a code after all. Maybe it’s just a matter of using different kinds of equations to figure it out.” Alex asks, if the Pythagorean comma is a “missing piece in figuring out the universe.” Singh responds, “That’s definitely overstating it. If we’re lucky, it might just open up a small crack, just enough to glimpse a part of its design.” (1x09)

9. Later in the episode, Keith Dabic emails the TBT team a sound file. Dr. Pullman later reveals that it is the Pythagorean comma, ascending. (1x09)

10. Numbers, pentagrams, and sigils all appeared under Katie Yi’s bed. (2x01)

11. Regarding the myth of Tiamat, Strand says, “the number of arms, heads, animal parts and legs, are all significant. This mythology is really packed with… stuff.” (2x03)

12. Coralee leaves numbers for Strand on the back of a creepy painting in the room where they spent their honeymoon. It is a book cipher that Nic later decodes. (2x07)

13. There are numbers, circles, pentagrams, and upside-down faces in the room where “John” is exorcised. (2x07)

14. The walls of E. Hausdorff’s room are covered in numbers. Steve the Dungeon Master TL;DRs about them. “Uh, these are all expressions of the golden ratio, the equations here. Also known as the golden mean, or divine proportion. That is the golden ratio, or phi. It has very simple uses like computing the greatest common divisor of two integers. Real basic Euclidean algorithms and stuff.” He goes on to say, “the world, the universe, is ruled by mathematical principles. Those principles also point to other dimensions. And certain geometric patterns occur throughout nature in beautiful mathematical simplicity. This is one of those patterns. And don’t be fooled into thinking this is all obsolete, just ‘cause it’s ancient. We’re still using this kind of thinking to move us forward… I mean quantum mechanics. They’re both focused on the fringes with gateways, paths to other dimensions. We’ve been looking for these pathways for thousands of years.” He also mentions how math is integral to isosceles triangles, which form pentacles… and are useful for invoking demons. (2x08) 

15. Numbers and pentagrams within double circles are found at the scenes of the deaths of both Edward Lewis (in a jail cell in Los Gatos, CA), and the Brothers of the Mount (dead in a seeming suicide at West Waddell Creek State Wilderness).  (2x09)

16.  In 2x11, They discuss a section of the Gospel of Thomas, one of the Gnostic Gospels. In this Gospel, Greek philosophy, specifically that of Plato, is discussed. There are also references to the Gospel of Truth, a parable involving math. Strand says, it “describes Jesus being sent down to remove ignorance. It claims that Jesus was a teacher, and describes how it is knowledge, rather than faith, that grants salvation, which constitutes eternal rest, describing ignorance as a nightmare.” For more information, see The Cult of Tiamat.

17. The motif of five becomes more and more prominent towards the end of season 2. There have been mentions of the circle of fifths, the pentagram (a five pointed star), the Five Seals of the Gnostic Gospels, and the five totems of Urraca Mesa.

[Ed note: so, it appears that the entire mechanism to open portals to a demon realm is… math. Whether expressed in equations, music, or sacred geometry, math is the basis here, to pervert that perfect mathematical sense of the universe that God intended. Suddenly, I am not so upset I scored so much higher on my verbal SAT.]