---
aliases:
- Wolfgang Pauli
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
tags:
  - Person
summary: "Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) was an Austrian-American theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his pioneering work on quantum mechanics, particularly the Pauli exclusion principle."
born: 1900-04-25
died: 1958-12-15
location: "Vienna, Austria"
relations:
  - type: partner_of
    with: "[[Carl Jung]]"
    role: "correspondent and collaborator on synchronicity and the archetypes; 80 letters, 39 by Pauli, exchanged 1932 to 1958"
    start: 1932
    end: 1958
    fn: 3
updated: 2026-10-15
---

Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) was an Austrian-American theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his pioneering work on quantum mechanics, particularly the Pauli exclusion principle. He is also famously associated with the "Pauli effect," a phenomenon where technical equipment inexplicably malfunctions or breaks in his presence[^1].

The Pauli effect was coined after numerous instances were noted where Pauli was present and technical equipment malfunctioned, fell, broke, or sustained unusual damage. For example, in February 1950, during a visit to [[Princeton University]], the cyclotron Pauli had come to observe inexplicably caught fire[^1].

### The 1948 letter to Jung

Pauli's own account of the phenomenon is a letter to Jung dated June 16, 1948. It opens: "When that amusing 'Pauli effect' of the overturned vase occurred, on the occasion of the founding of the [[C. G. Jung Institute]], I had the immediate and vivid impression that I should 'pour out water inside'."[^2] The letter says that the connection between psychology and physics in Jung's talk made clear "what I was to do," and that "the outcome of all this is the enclosed essay."[^2] The appendix of the letters edition prints an unpublished essay, "Modern Examples of Background Physics" ("Hintergrundsphysik"), which [[Engelbert Schücking]] described as found with the correspondence and as addressing its main theme.[^3]

Pauli, along with psychiatrist [[Carl Jung]], had a lively conversation about [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]], discussing a paper by physicist Robert A. McConnell titled "ESP - Fact or Fancy?" Jung remarked on how some age-old mysteries never change, and that attempts to explain away seemingly miraculous results often fail against the facts[^1].

Pauli wrote an article on the subject titled "Background Physics," in which he discussed the relationships between physics, the conscious, and the unconscious[^1]. The appendix of Atom and Archetype (2001 English edition) prints the essay as "Modern Examples of Background Physics" ("Hintergrundsphysik").[^3] His association with Jung and his interest in the unconscious aspects of reality highlight a unique intersection of physics and parapsychology.

### Death

Pauli died of cancer at the [[Red Cross Hospital]] in Zürich on December 15, 1958, aged 58.[^4] The stomach pains began during a lecture on December 5, and on December 6 he was taken to the Red Cross Hospital on Gloriastrasse. On the Monday evening Pauli asked [[Charles Enz]] whether he had seen the room number: "137!" Enz replied that it must mean good luck, and Pauli "was not convinced."[^5] The papers passed to his widow, [[Franca Pauli]], who with Enz, his last assistant, began sorting and administering the collection.[^4]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[^2]: C. A. Meier, ed., Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters, 1932-1958 (Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 33-34, letter of Wolfgang Pauli to C. G. Jung, Zollikon-Zurich, June 16, 1948.
[^3]: Engelbert L. Schücking, review of Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters, 1932-1958, Physics Today 55, no. 9 (September 2002), DOI 10.1063/1.1522220, https://physicstoday.aip.org/article/55/9/62/757315.
[^4]: CERN Archives, Archives of Wolfgang Pauli (CERN-ARCH-WP), fonds description, https://archives.cern.ch/index.php/cern-arch-wp.
[^5]: Charles P. Enz, No Time to Be Brief: A Scientific Biography of Wolfgang Pauli (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 533.