444. The psychology of angel numbers

Angel numbers have a way of showing up just when we need them. 111 symbolises new beginnings. 444 means divine protection. Why does our mind pay such close attention to these numbers, what is the history, and what is their impact from a psychological standpoint? In today's episode, we break down: The ancient origins of angel numbers Why the founder of angel numbers now regrets them The meaning behind some of the most significant angel numbers Why our brain pays close attention to symbolism The emotional comfort of angel numbers Why people feel threatened by angel numbers When angel numbers can become harmful Happy listening! Watch on Netflix: HERE https://netflix.com/thepsychologyofyour20s Follow Jemma on Instagram: @jemmasbeg https://www.instagram.com/jemmasbeg/?hl=en# Follow the podcast on Instagram: @thatpsychologypodcast https://www.instagram.com/thatpsychologypodcast/?hl=en# Subscribe on Substack: @thepsychologyofyour20s https://substack.com/@thepsychologyofyour20s For business: [email protected] mailto:[email protected] The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Jemma Sbeg?

  I've been really trying to prioritize my health in a realistic way this year. And something that has kept me really motivated is my Whoop. I am such a data person, which is why I love Whoop. Because I can genuinely see why my body feels differently depending on the day, why I'm running differently, why I'm maybe less focused. Whoop effortlessly tracks my sleep, it tracks my strain, my recovery, my stress, and most importantly, my overall health. And it just gives me all that data and all those patterns. So I can make better decisions, which includes knowing when to go easy and knowing when to go hard. New members can try Whoop with a 30 day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join.whoop.com/psychology for your free month of Whoop.

• 0:49Jemma Sbeg?

  This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over 14 years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy. All of their stuff just looks good on and it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is, lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favorite gym clothing at gymshark.com.

• 1:26Jemma Sbeg?

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• 2:10Jemma Sbeg?

  But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? Health versus hype from the American Medical Association breaks it all down. Emmy nominated host Trace Dominguez talks to health influencers, real people, and most importantly, doctors, to separate fact from fiction. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to really matters. Listen to Health versus Hype wherever you get your podcasts. Growth isn't linear. There's no magic timeline or secret template. And no one understands that quite like Southern New Hampshire University. Because SNHU has online degree programs built for whatever path you are on. Tried college before? Transfer up to 90 credits.

• 2:55Jemma Sbeg?

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• 3:21Jemma Sbeg?

  Hello, everybody. I'm Jemma Sbeg and welcome back to the Psychology of Your 20s, the podcast where we talk through the biggest changes, moments and transitions of our 20s and what they mean for our psychology.

• 3:41Jemma Sbeg?

  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 Week Group. Basically, every week I send you an academic study broken down into simple English and simple findings. It goes straight to your inbox. We are doing 52 studies in 52 weeks to help make you smarter,

• 4:26Jemma Sbeg?

  to help give you interesting knowledge about human psychology to use at work, in your relationships with other people. And it's really easy to sign up. Just go to Substack, type in your email and subscribe and you get access every single week. It is also a great way to support me and my work independently if you feel called to do so. Okay, enough self, enough self-promotion for one episode. I always hate doing that. It's 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 apply to our 20s and beyond. And this episode is, these are just my favorite kinds.

• 5:07Jemma Sbeg?

  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. It is the 444 you see on the microwave in the morning. And then the $2.22 your soda costs you at lunch, the 1111 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. Why is that?

• 5:46Jemma Sbeg?

  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 always fascinating. So without further ado, let's get into it.

• 6:24Jemma Sbeg?

  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 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 two 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,

• 7:07Jemma Sbeg?

  like seeing three crows or five coins or six donkeys, whatever it is. An interesting part of this is the history of numbers 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 of the apicus and now the numerical system that we know of today, which was created by Indian and Arabic mathematicians. 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.

• 7:51Jemma Sbeg?

  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. 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 equals C, A squared, B squared, C squared. I don't know, I haven't done math in a while. But he was also the founder of a broader movement,

• 8:30Jemma Sbeg?

  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 tradition that numbers reflect the hidden order of things. They have this deeper, more interconnected overarching meaning that we can access through their presence. And they reveal something like basically beneath the surface of ordinary life. Now, the other strand of this beyond Pythagoras and his, his idea of mathematical,

• 9:11Jemma Sbeg?

  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 act as 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 be communicated through science. Those two things combined create angel numbers.

• 9:53Jemma Sbeg?

  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, seeing 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

• 10:36Jemma Sbeg?

  from angels or spiritual guides. She wrote this huge series of books about it. It made her a multimillionaire. She was on Oprah. It just blew up. It was like the big thing of the early 2000s. Something really interesting, though, an interesting twist, is that Doreen.

• 10:57Jemma Sbeg?

  Actually underwent a whole religious conversion in like two thousand and seventeen. Like ten or maybe like twenty years after she, I don't even know what the right word is, popularized 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 wanna go look that up, it's very interesting. 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.

• 11:38Jemma Sbeg?

  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 like completely distanced herself from the concept. 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. Uh, she obviously wasn't the sole inventor. This is a very old tradition. I just think it's an interesting part of this nonetheless, like. May it be a bit of a, a lesson about not leaning too heavily on spiritual gurus.

• 12:22Jemma Sbeg?

  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 and Instagram and in articles as these incredible things. The meaning around them circulates regardless of whether Doreen approves of them or doesn't, which she obviously doesn't. So what do certain angel numbers represent? If you don't wanna go back and read her book, there are so many different patterns. I'm just gonna 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,

• 13:06Jemma Sbeg?

  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 two two, 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 kinda see the outcome.

• 13:45Jemma Sbeg?

  Three three three, we're just gonna 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, is, was, they are directed to pursue. Four four four, another very common one, or the one that I think a lot of people lean towards is about protection, grounding, stability. Very comforting during times of tran- transition, very comforting during times of, of evolution and personal evolution because it says you are protected, you're gonna get through this, you're not alone.

• 14:27Jemma Sbeg?

  Five five five is usually associated again with, with change, with disruption, with transformation coming. Um, 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, of knowing. Eight eight eight is often associated with abundance, wealth, money, prosperity, success, maybe even energetic return. And nine nine nine is usually interpreted as completion.

• 15:07Jemma Sbeg?

  It's the end, it's the last one, kind of in that sequence. It's closure, it's release, it's, it's 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. 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 an Uber, twelve thirty four in the license plate. I literally cannot express to you how many ways I have seen this. I don't know what it fully believes. I think it means that you're

• 15:49Jemma Sbeg?

  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. 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 need, 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.

• 16:35Jemma Sbeg?

  Just like a poem can like 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 not fixed.

• 16:58Jemma Sbeg?

  They act as an emotional container and they give shape and they, 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 gonna dive into that after this short break.

• 17:37Jemma Sbeg?

  I've been really trying to prioritize my health in a realistic way this year, and something that has kept me really motivated is my Whoop. I am such a data person, which is why I love Whoop, because I can genuinely see why my body feels differently depending on the day, why I'm running differently, why I'm maybe less focused. Whoop effortlessly tracks my sleep, it tracks my strain, my recovery, my stress, and most importantly, my overall health. And it just gives me all that data and all those patterns so I can make better decisions, which includes knowing when to go easy and knowing when to go hard. New members can try Whoop with a thirty day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join dot whoop dot com slash psychology for your free month of Whoop.

• 18:21Jemma Sbeg?

  This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over fourteen years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy. All of their stuff just looks good on and it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is. Lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favorite gym clothing at gymshark dot com. Growth isn't linear. There's no magic timeline or secret template.

• 19:03Jemma Sbeg?

  And no one understands that quite like Southern New Hampshire University, because SNHU has online degree programs built for whatever path you are on. Tried college before? Transfer up to ninety credits. And if you're new to this, no worries. Every student gets a dedicated academic advisor. And here's the best part, there's no set class times, so school actually fits your life. Ready to get started? Visit SNHU dot E D U slash psych. That's SNHU dot E D U slash psych. These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health. And we've all gone down an internet rabbit hole exploring the latest health trends.

• 19:46Jemma Sbeg?

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• 20:28Jemma Sbeg?

  Listen to Health Versus Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 20:37Jemma Sbeg?

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• 21:57Jemma Sbeg?

  Angel numbers feel significant firstly because they often appear or we we are more likely to notice them at emotionally significant points in our life. 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.

• 22:36Jemma Sbeg?

  A useful 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 the frame of mental representations to organise our perception of the world. We have this deep need basically to experience the world as this coherent, meaningful, logical, organised thing that is important to us as humans. When that sense of meaning is is threatened, for example, when life feels confusing,

• 23:22Jemma Sbeg?

  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, 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.

• 24:00Jemma Sbeg?

  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 a sign? That brings us to the psychology of pattern recognition. One of my favourite, I love this, I 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, they, our brains wanna make sense of our surroundings to keep us safe.

• 24:43Jemma Sbeg?

  If they can predict what's gonna 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 recognise patterns are what helps us to do things like learn languages or recognise faces or understand social cues or predict when we might be in danger. It is a core, if not most critical, part of our brains and and our lives as humans. It helps us learn that if we do certain behaviours, certain outcomes are gonna happen. Dark clouds mean rain. If somebody treats you like this, then it's probably gonna end this way, you know? And our inability to interpret those patterns is often what gets us into trouble,

• 25:25Jemma Sbeg?

  not just in terms of survival, but in terms of emotional patterns as well. Pattern detection is life-saving, 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,

• 26:08Jemma Sbeg?

  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 a psychologist whose work has explored control and uncertainty and pattern 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 wanna say delusional, but just patterns in general. They were more likely to see, for example, images in visual noise. They were more likely to identify connections that were just objectively not there. When we feel in control, the world already feels organised enough.

• 26:54Jemma Sbeg?

  We don't really need to look for extra signs. When we feel out of control, the mind becomes more motivated to restore order. It searches for meaning. Now, this is the 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 like 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 of confirmation bias comes in.

• 27:39Jemma Sbeg?

  Confirmation bias is the tendency to notice, remember and give more weight to information 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 two two two 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, 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.

• 28:19Jemma Sbeg?

  You may not notice all the times you saw two two two and nothing obvious happened afterwards. Now, again, does this mean that angel numbers should be completely discounted just because the science has a 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. Um, you may, this is the best way to describe this is like you learn a new term or you learn a new word and suddenly like everybody is talking about it.

• 29:01Jemma Sbeg?

  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 or or remains critical for you. The world has not necessarily changed, but your attention has. Attention really sits at the core of of this and angel numbers again work in the same way. Once a certain number becomes meaningful to you, the way twelve thirty four is meaningful to me, your brain starts treating that number as important.

• 29:44Jemma Sbeg?

  You filter literally millions of pieces of information every single day, but once something has been encoded as significant, it's just gonna pop out from the background, right? It's like recognising the face of somebody that you know and 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 it's so insanely comforting, this is what I'm I'm saying, it's so, it's so comforting. It is a good feeling, it is beautiful.

• 30:29Jemma Sbeg?

  The idea that things are connected, that life has pattern and meaning is a great way to live. And that brings me to another idea that's connected to angel numbers, which is pronoia. Pronoia is described as the opposite of paranoia. Paranoia is the fear of belief that people, systems or forces are kind of conspiring against you. Pronoia, by contrast, is the sense that the world is conspiring in your favour. 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.

• 31:11Jemma Sbeg?

  He described pronoia as a positive counterpart to paranoia. A belief that others think well of you, a belief that events are favourable towards you rather than unfavourable, a belief that the social world is organised 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.

• 31:57Jemma Sbeg?

  It means that you are protected, angel numbers.

• 32:01Jemma Sbeg?

  Create this gentle form of pronoia and this greatest sense of responsiveness to life because we feel more confident that things are gonna 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 behaviour 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 gonna try and fill that gap. Often, it will fill that gap with anxiety and the worst case scenario.

• 32:47Jemma Sbeg?

  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. 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 gonna get the job. It doesn't guarantee that your relationship is gonna work out. But it does guarantee that your internal state is probably going to be a lot more regulated.

• 33:29Jemma Sbeg?

  It does kind of ensure that you're gonna 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. There was a really interesting twenty ten paper published in Psychological Science by the researchers Liz and Damish and Barbara Stoberok. 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,

• 34:12Jemma Sbeg?

  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. 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. 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, a self-fulfilling prophecy, of course that was gonna happen. I talked about it, I think in our superstition episode, I'm gonna say.

• 34:56Jemma Sbeg?

  For a little refresher, a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a belief influences behaviour 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 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 gonna finally start that project.

• 35:41Jemma Sbeg?

  You're gonna finally apply for that course, you're gonna send that email, you're gonna move cities. The, 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. They're just letting you lean into what you already know you are 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. I really wanna like emphasize this point.

• 36:25Jemma Sbeg?

  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 gonna have to change something and that things aren't gonna be the same. Or that there is an outcome that you can't one hundred percent predict. So we need a psychological boost, we need a psychological push. So we look for a sign. We look for a sign and if it's there, amazing, because we act. Same can be said for tarot cards, for reading horoscopes. We just wanna reason, but the, the fact that we're looking for a guide

• 37:08Jemma Sbeg?

  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 gonna find a sign. When you know you need to do something, you're gonna find something that's gonna confirm that. Let's talk about why angel numbers get a bad rap. Should we, including a little bit more about the, maybe more dangerous, the more dangerous mixings with psychology? Stay with us.

• 37:41Jemma Sbeg?

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• 38:24Jemma Sbeg?

  that have made me more intentional and meant that I make smarter decisions day to day about what I need, rather than just putting my foot on the gas and just going, going, going, going. New members can try Whoop with a thirty day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join dot whoop dot com slash psychology for your free month of Whoop. This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over fourteen years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy.

• 39:04Jemma Sbeg?

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• 39:23Jemma Sbeg?

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• 40:06Jemma Sbeg?

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• 40:48Jemma Sbeg?

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• 41:01Jemma Sbeg?

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• 41:46Jemma Sbeg?

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• 42:31Jemma Sbeg?

  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're irrational and they're sentimental. And it's really associated with this, like, Dalulu, 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 encouraging magical thinking or poor decision making or, again, a confirmation bias that allows people to do things that

• 43:14Jemma Sbeg?

  maybe aren't wise. 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 wanna criticize it. People just wanna make you feel inferior. I think the mockery around angel numbers, specifically from a certain group of people, comes from a bit of a superiority complex.

• 43:58Jemma Sbeg?

  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. I understand the science. You understand the science. You just listened 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, I don't think that's something to be scoffed at.

• 44:42Jemma Sbeg?

  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 tarot, like angel numbers, like birth charts, which are also typically associated with young women,

• 45:00Jemma Sbeg?

  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 of life is about hard work and and rationality and you believing in this shows that you don't believe in that. That's kind of an idea. 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 game by not doing a certain routine beforehand or doing a certain routine beforehand.

• 45:42Jemma Sbeg?

  People knock on wood. People say everything happens for a reason. All of these things involve emotion, they involve symbolism, uncertainty and perceived meaning. And those things are the exact same psychological root as angel 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.

• 46:27Jemma Sbeg?

  Feeling hopeful can be really vulnerable. 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 signs, 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. 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? Needing some fear in that as well. So is it actually all that bad to believe in angel numbers?

• 47:12Jemma Sbeg?

  In most cases, no, it's not. In fact, it's maybe 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 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 a an annoying part of human existence. This is especially the case, in my opinion, in online spiritual spaces where

• 47:54Jemma Sbeg?

  we're sold more and more and more reassurance and more and more comfort 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 and it's and it's fair work and it's important 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

• 48:38Jemma Sbeg?

  needing more reassurance, one more reading, one more spiritual download, one more video telling them what this number 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. 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 and the comfort 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

• 49:20Jemma Sbeg?

  of a dependency on external confirmation that some of these processes can create. 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 wanna 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.

• 50:05Jemma Sbeg?

  Like, it's okay. It's okay to not know. You know, also look at the example of of Doreen Virtue, who we spoke about earlier. Here is a woman who made millions and 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 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.

• 50:46Jemma Sbeg?

  Not for everybody, but as much as there are positive encouraging messages that come from angel numbers and seeing two two two or twelve thirty four or four 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 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. Is this the right decision? It, 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

• 51:28Jemma Sbeg?

  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 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 word, needs to make your life bigger.

• 52:14Jemma Sbeg?

  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 the say. You are conscious. 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 all, say all, end all of this situation. Again, I wanna say I love the concept of angel numbers. They have provided so much comfort for me during really difficult times. I went through a really terrible breakup. Angel numbers

• 52:56Jemma Sbeg?

  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, two and think that was a good choice. They made the ordinary feel less hard and they made, they made my life feel more meaningful and significant. And I think the science behind 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 wanted. 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. So

• 53:39Jemma Sbeg?

  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. 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 wanna see, I know I'm not the only one. So who else is out there? I wanna, I wanna hear from you. Thank you as always to our researcher Libby Cobit for her incredible help with this episode and, and her amazing research. We also have some fun additional

• 54:22Jemma Sbeg?

  pieces of research and further reading on the topic of angel numbers 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. 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.

• 55:06Jemma Sbeg?

  I've been really trying to prioritize my health in a realistic way this year and something that has kept me really motivated is my Whoop. I am such a data person, which is why I love Whoop, because I can genuinely see why my body feels differently depending on the day, why I'm running differently, why I'm maybe less focused. Whoop effortlessly tracks my sleep, it tracks my strain, my recovery, my stress, and most importantly, my overall health. And it just gives me all that data and all those patterns so I can make better decisions, which includes knowing when to go easy and knowing when to go hard. New members can try Whoop with a thirty day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join dot whoop dot com slash psychology for your free month of Whoop.

• 55:51Jemma Sbeg?

  This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over fourteen years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy. All of their stuff just looks good on and it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is, lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favorite gym clothing at gymshark dot com.

• 56:28Jemma Sbeg?

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• 58:23Speaker 00

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