Dr. Roy Hanu Hart (1929-) graduated from Ohio University with a B.A. in Chemistry and a Phi Beta Kappa key. He began his
medical education at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and received his M.D. from McGill University in Montreal. After serving his internship in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he completed specialty training in
psychiatry at Lousiana State University-Charity Hospital, New Orleans, and the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. He has traveled widely, internationally, and practiced psychiatry in New York, Arizona, Guam, and Louisiana. He is known for his extensive writings on medical practice and on substance abuse. He explains that this work, "The Numbers of Heaven," (published in 1997 by Menta Publications, Box 5484, Sun City West, AZ 85376-5484, ISBN 0-935688-01-3) is the second of a trilogy. The first, written under the name of Yitzhak Hanu, was "Far Journey: A Psychiatrist's Chronicle" (Old Rugged Cross Press, 1160 Alpharetta Street, Suite H, Roswell, GA 30075, 1993, ISBN 1-882270-03-7), and we still await the third. In "The Numbers of Heaven," Dr. Hart elaborates on two cultural traditions of letter-number associations. The first of these, very old, is that of "gematria" from the Jewish Kabbalah. He uses the gematria as one of the bases of what he calls "noetic" (spiritual) thought, relating the spiritual realm in diverse ways to modern scientific and medical thought. The other tradition is that of the more modern "Mnemonicists," (like Bruno Furst and Harry Lorayne) who use specific letter-number correlations to aid their memories and serve as behavioral reminders. Three "case presentations" are given in which Dr. Hart uses these letter-number correlations to aid his patients in coming to a better understanding of their personal dilemmas. These presentations are narrated in dialogue form with interspersed commentary by Dr. Hart. As you read, your attention is captured as much by the commentary--on religious history, on literature, on current events and personalities--as on the numerical-alphabetical strategies of therapy. Dr. Hart is wonderfully erudite and astonishingly acute in his commentary. It's a most fascinating book to read, filled with expressive relation of arcane aspects of religion and history, both ancient and recent, as well as with a novel strategy for psychiatric therapy.