The 23 enigma is a belief in the significance of the number 23.[example needed]
Robert Anton Wilson cites William S. Burroughs as the first person to believe in the 23 enigma. Wilson, in an article in Fortean Times, related the following anecdote:
I first heard of the 23 enigma from William S Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, Nova Express, etc. According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an ac...