The Truth About Nikola Tesla's 369 Method

Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-born scientist and engineer, is remembered as much for his inventions as for his eccentricities. He gave the world the alternating current, still widely used today, but also contributed to lighting, robotics, lasers, wireless communications, and x-rays, according to National Geographic. Tesla was the classic odd genius. Today his behavior may be attributed to social anxiety disorder, autism, or obsessive compulsive disorder, but in his time he was just considered kinda odd. 

In many ways Tesla was ahead of his time. He lived from 1856 to 1943, coming to the U.S. when he was still a young man. National Geographic reported he was an environmentalist who was concerned about humanity's use of Earth's resources, and said that we should be sticking with renewable fuel sources. Many of his inventions were classified after he died, and he is said to have wanted his inventions to be free for all in order to improve quality of life for the masses. 

According to Good Reads, it is said that Telsa once stated, "If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have the key to the universe." Tesla is also quoted as saying, "If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration." Is there some kind of link there? Do the numbers 3,6, and 9 have special meaning in regards to energy, frequency and vibration? Some people certainly think so.

Naturally, a simple Google search will find correlations between those numbers and their significance in the universe. Likely it's going to have to do with things like numerology and sacred geometry. But the idea that the universe and everything in it is mathematical is also a theory that physicists like M.I.T. professor Max Tegmark consider plausible. 

According to Scientific American, in his book, "Our Mathematical Universe" Tegmark argued, "our universe isn't just described by math, but that it is math in the sense that we're all parts of a giant mathematical object, which in turn is part of a multiverse so huge that it makes the other multiverses debated in recent years seem puny in comparison." 

So, there is that simple, headache inducing answer, but Tesla was not a mathematician. However, he was concerned with energy and magnetic fields, and his mind was somewhat of an anomaly, so it's intriguing to think he had some sort of cosmic insight. The American Association for the Advancement of Science reported that he had an eidetic memory, creating groundbreaking inventions from his mind without even sketching them out. He is said to have had "blinding" visions in which he would get ideas for his inventions. His proclamation about the numbers 3,6, and 9 may have come from such a vision.

Still, another possibility might come from Tesla's obsession with the number three. The American Association for the Advancement of Science reported that Tesla had obsessive compulsive disorder, always staying in hotel rooms with numbers divisible by three, requiring three folded napkins at every meal for himself, plus 18 on the table. He walked around a block three times before going into a building, per OCDUK. When he swam laps at a public pool, it was 33 laps. He worked within the hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., stopping for dinner specifically at 8:10 p.m., then often back to work until 3 a.m, and various other quirks having to do with performing actions three times or making sure whatever the numbers were, they included a three, or were divisible by three. 

Whether Tesla's 3,6,9 theory was the insight of genius or just a spillover from his OCD, today some say they are using a formula involving those numbers to try to manifest things they want in life, Distractify explained. The theory has even gone viral on TikTok. People write down the thing they want to manifest three times in the morning, six times in the afternoon, and nine times at night, believing that the numbers correlate with the laws of attraction, according to The Manifest Collective. Hey — it's worth a shot. Or three.