Underwood Dudley, a mathematician rather than a numerologist or a historian of religion, examines what numerologists from Pythagoras and the Neopythagoreans through modern practitioners such as Cheiro and L. Dow Balliett have actually claimed and sold, checking their mathematical claims directly against mathematics itself, which is a distinctive and verifiable method rather than a claim resting on the learned society that published it. It was added specifically because the corpus otherwise held modern numerology only through its own practitioners' writing, all rated as the tradition's own account, with no outside critical history at all. This record has not independently traced a documented history of scholarly response to the book itself. It is the right source for a critical, outside assessment of numerology's history and claims; for what a given numerological system itself teaches, its own practitioners' writing remains the source, held at a lower tier for exactly that reason.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
A critical history of number mysticism published by a learned mathematical society, examining numerology from the outside as a subject of study rather than practicing it, which earns it the top tier ahead of the practitioner sources it surveys. NotesA critical history of number mysticism and numerology published by a learned society, with chapters on Pythagoras, Neopythagoreanism, Alphabets for Gematria, Mrs. L. Dow Balliett, Numerology Books and What Numerologists Sell. Added because the corpus held modern numerology only through its own practitioners, Cheiro, Balliett, Campbell, Jordan, Doreen Virtue, all Tier 3, and held no critical history of the subject at all.
Citation
AuthorUnderwood Dudley
PublisherMathematical Association of America (Spectrum series)
Publication Year1997
URLhttps://bookstore.ams.org/spec-19
Source TypeScholarly work
Claims Backed By This Source (2,274 claims)
This source backs 2,274 claims across the atlas. As facts: 1,887 well-attested, 3 popular myth - corrected. As cited relationships: 135 holds. Plus 249 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Numbers, 1,193 claims: 1,074 well-attested, 119 general references.
- Alphabet Letters, 322 claims: 241 well-attested, 81 general references.
- Numerology Positions, 307 claims: 259 well-attested, 11 holds, 37 general references.
- Articles, 283 claims: 282 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Disciplines, 120 claims: 119 holds, 1 general references.
- Numerology Systems, 22 claims: 11 well-attested, 2 popular myth - corrected, 4 holds, 5 general references.
- Esoteric Texts, 12 claims: 11 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.
- Organizations, 2 claims: 1 popular myth - corrected, 1 general references.
- Sacred Geometry, 2 claims: 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Scripts & Magical Alphabets, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Historical Figures, 1 claims: 1 general references.
Well-attested
1,887Showing 1 to 50 of 524 entities carrying this claim. Next
Popular myth - corrected
3General References
249Showing 1 to 50 of 249 entities carrying this claim. Next
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