I am sure we have all heard of the Rule of Three. It is a major principle of military organization. Maybe that is not what you were thinking. Maybe the first thing that came to mind was writing. Maybe it was statistics. In fact, there are a number of different subjects, spanning survival, math and even medicine that involve some form of Rule of Three. Now this could easily be written off as a coincidence, but in truth it is a pattern with deep meaning.
Take a moment, or even three, to examine the world around you. Given a little time, you will begin to see three popping up everywhere around you. From science to spirituality, three has is woven into the very fabric of the world around us.
Take science, for example. Sir Isaac Newton created an entire branch of physics surrounding the motion of objects. It is described at its core by the three laws of motion he defined. They play into and describe the most basic ways in which objects move and interact with one another.
Beyond that, at one of our most fundamental levels, there are three main particles that make up the atoms of almost everything around us: the electron, proton and neutron. On top of that, the majority of the matter we interact with on a daily basis is either a solid, liquid or gas.
Even a more spiritual outlook on reality will still reveal the pattern. While most religions and mythologies have various triads, many have fundamental trinities at their core. One of the most famous would be the father, son and holy spirit that comprise the Christian god. Hinduism also has a primary triad of deities known as the Trimurti, containing Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Even ancient Greek mythology was centered around the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.
Writing and rhetoric are also rife with the Rule of Three. Almost every list contained in a sentence is made up of three items; anything more than that can make the list feel longer than it should. There are countless examples of tripartite mottos, or mottos composed of three parts, such as the FBI’s motto of “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity.” Other examples include Ceasar’s “Veni, vidi, vici” and even “Reduce, reuse, recycle.”
Many companies also use slogans that are made up of three words, including Nike’s “Just do it,” McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it” and KFC’s “Finger lickin’ good.” Beyond just mottos and slogans, even most stories are structured using threes. The Three Little Pigs and the Three Musketeers are obvious examples of triads in stories. Goldilocks and the Three Bears not only includes three bears, but also has three instances of Goldilocks invading their space as she tries each of the bears’ porridge, chairs and beds.
While it might seem like three truly is fundamental to the very universe as we know it, the real importance of three is much simpler. Most of the examples above are surrounding human constructs or human explanation of the universe. The reason this is important is because our perception of the universe is filtered through human perception and the human brain.
The human brain loves the number three. The average person can hold about seven pieces of information in their short term memory, but when the information needs to be actively processed and worked with, the number drops to about three or four.
The brain also functions heavily off of patterns, and three is the minimum number required for a pattern. One instance can be explained as an accident, two can be explained as a coincidence, but three is the beginning of a pattern. Given that there are far more than three examples, I think it is safe to say that three appearing in every aspect of life is definitely a pattern.
It is a pattern generated by our brains as they try to break the world down into more manageable and easier to remember bits of information. So the universe as we know it, as we perceive it, is made up of groups of three because our minds intend to break it into triads.