A piece exploring the myths around 2012, Mayan Prophecy, geomagnetic reversal, The Long Count, consciousness shifts, Hunab Ku, galactica alignment, the Precession Of The Equinoxes, rogue planet Nibiru, solar storms, pole shifts, timewave zero, the return of Quetzalcoatl and THE END OF THE WORLD December 21st 2012!
UPDATE 1 (8 Dec 09): There’s now a Portuguese version of 2012 (thanks Ricardo Vieira) and a French version DEUUUUXMIIIILLEDOUUUUZE (thanks to Olivier!)
Skeptical Sources: Wikipedia, Associated Press, Astronomical Answers: University of Utrecht, The New York Times, John Hoopes on Tribe.Net, Skeptical Inquirer, GSA Bulletin, NASA, Nature
Believer sources: Timewave Zero, 2012: Dire Gnosis, RealitySandwich.com, 2012:TheBook, Calleman.com, Institute For Human Continuity (fake website for 2012 film).
Explore the sources In this Google doc
87 Comments
The thing that worries me about all f these “spiritual change” 2012′ers is that they all, in one form or another, imply that those things that are “holding them back” or “don’t understand or want the new consciousness” must be removed or eliminated. THAT’S scary. I can just see 2012 rolling around and a bunch of earth transition fanatics running around either trying to MAKE the calamities they’ve been predicting come true, or “eliminating” those not adhering to their personal set(s) of beliefs!!
And i notice that certain authors have sicced their fans on your comments section, trying to sell more books no doubt. ;-)
Well presented. Sometimes things have to be put out there in a VERY BASIC form in order to reach those unable to think anything other than VERY BASIC thoughts…..
What a beautifully designed graphical representation of the developing meme. Well done, and thank you. You’re a genius!
Timewave Zero could not be pseudoscience because its creator despised the way modern rationalism despotically sterilizes human culture and psychology and really intended it as an antidote to science in regard to attitudes or visions about the future.
As the global warming is increasing day by day and the glacier
is melting so all the places like New york, Mumbai and some
other places will drown in the coming days. Even the movie 2012
is launched and we can see that the earth will be destroyed.
thus prepared 1800s serious
To prolong our earth is easy. Everyone has to be good hearted. Entrepreneurs must take care of the environment and not pollute it. We, every single humans must participate actively in protecting the environment. Stop all activities that can cause harm to our mother earth. If everyone take the responsibility and contribute with love, love our earth, love mankind, let go of selfishness, everything will be fine.
to my understanding, the end of the world is supposed to be caused by all the planets aligning, which will cause a gravitational pull on the earth and cause a great deal of havoc. Science has used computers to plot the trajectory of the planets, and they say that this will happen on that date. Who knows if it will have any affect on earth, but it is going to happen, so we’ll just have to see! I vote for stocking up on food, ammunition (and guns) and having a family plan. lets see whats in store for earth!
Aw… Terence McKenna was such a rogue. A lovable self-dribbling machine-elf of a man. Thoroughly lovely to listen to and absolutely bonkers. I wish I could have made a career smoking DMT and writing beautiful prose about all the visionary insights the poured through my mind.
Seriously. What a man. Pinchbeck could learn a thing or two.
Dear Sami, inserting the word “Science” into your comment doesn’t make it science. M’kay?
And aztec_x an “antidote to science” isn’t science either. McKenna knew what he was doing… selling books. Sure, rationalism has it’s failings, but anti-rationalism has it’s fans… middle-class, wealthy, idle, book-buying fans. McKenna was a hippy, through and through, the last of the great generation of men and women who knew it was all just a game and a ride.
Anti-establishment sells. Pseudoscience sells. To say “it can’t be pseudoscience because McKenna was against rationalism” is so bad it’s not-even wrong.
Unfortunately the believers collectively tend to believe just about anything, and the scientists tend to dismiss what they cannot predict, and use clever language in their dismissing. For example, the geomagnetic pole shift will take up to 5000 years and nothing will happen. That actually means it could take 100 or even 1 year (their scales of evidence aren’t that fine), and that they don’t know of anything bad that would happen. That is very different!
The truth will probably be somewhere down the middle.
My ten yr son came home telling me he believes in this prophecy because his friends at school do. Somehow I managed not to have my head explode for long enough to find your write-up. Your chart was incredibly helpful in explaining it to him in a non-judgmental way why the world is unlikely to end in two years.
Do you possibly have a printable version of this? I would like to counter the disinformation at his school by sending him back with visual aids. :-)
Imagine how boring the internet (or life itself) would be without imagination…
The mind is a wonderful thing.
We’ll Just Live Threw Til December 23,2012. See What Will Happend. Postively something will happen according to science fiction about the time how things change and will change.
Who knoes bout the time the date the hour , every second of our lives we lived threw. It could be just the normal thing of living life maybe theres no way living of time. it could be the year 2059 now or 3090. Wo knows maybe there was some people living when dinosaurs were still alvie. I dont think there no such thing as time. We were just givin life to expercince and be more mature. We dont need education to go to heaven we were givin life and more things to experince accompilsh with. just ell me to shaddup and go back to bed.
cant wait till december 12 2012 lauph at peoples faces and see what happens..maybe or maybe not ill live..
I predict my car will need another oil change when the odometer rolls over 100,000 miles.
‘Purposeful Universe’ by Dr Carl Calleman is a book which reveals the truth behind the Mayan Calendar and opens our eyes to how science and mythology are intertwined.
The world will not end in 2012, but we are going through a final stage of an evolutionary process which began with the creation of our Universe.
Find out more on Facebook group http://tiny.cc/a06ir
You need think about it. Despite the emails, the overwhelming evidence showing global warming is happening hasn’t changed.
“The e-mails do nothing to undermine the very strong scientific consensus . . . that tells us the Earth is warming, that warming is largely a result of human activity,” Jane Lubchenco, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told a House committee. She said that the e-mails don’t cover data from NOAA and NASA, whose independent climate records show dramatic warming.
The current prediction for our next solar maximum is now April or May 2013, and the next maximum is now predicted to be less energetic than the last one, so there’s an even smaller chance of solar storms burning up the earth .
See http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml
I like to think I have an open mind. I’ve read the authors in the left-hand column. But some 2012 fanatics annoy me the way they bang on about it when at the end of the day they can’t say any one thing in particular is certain to happen other than an increase in book or dvd sales. If you’re not sure.. then why preach it? Keep it to yourself and close friends/relatives.
It’s sad.. and its potentially dangerous physically and mentally to people all over the world that may get absorbed by this ‘meme bomb’
Humanity can always do with a wake-up call, but we get them every day in all corners of the world as it is — they may be smaller than global catastrophe.. but they all add up and change is gradual and incremental.
@Come to Australia’s summer of 2012 comment -> haha best comment i’ve seen in a very long time
sure, 2012 is presumably the biggest farce and conspiracy that’s now mind-numbing everyone on the face of the planet. wait, isn’t this a sequel to the 2000 death-clock with all the servers and computerized technology going down?
turbulence is bound to happen, species to dissipate, climate to change, it’s just natural selection. survival and adaption aren’t for everyone, although Emmerich’s New Noah’s Ark in the 2012 movie seemed like a cute and naive idea.
this so-called apocalypse has a more personal value methinks, whether individuals are prepared to overcome their mortal and ‘livable’ materialistic world and evolve into a spiritual phenomena.
I tend to agree with McKenna on this one for saying that the future is mental.
just my 2 cents
frode
hopenhagen, 2009
I think that all these are Rumours and nothing is going to happen in 2012.
It’s sad to see how gullible people are. McKenna isn’t even an acknowledged Mayan scholar and frequently took liberties with the language. He, and other 2012ers, have also often mistaken Aztec script for Mayan.
On December 21, 2012, there will be no rogue planet crashing into us, there will be no alignment of the galactic plane, there will be no mass surge in consciousness (if anything, these people prove that), all that will happen is that, in the northern hemisphere, the day will be pretty short and it will be long in the south. Just like normal.
Please, rational people are begging you, stop being idiots.
hey guys, who made this issu? I would like to ask those people who predicts that 2012 is the end on the world, how can you assure that it is true? just because of mayan calendar? and what is there in Mayan Calendar?
for me only god knows when will be the end of the world… according to the bible,. he will come today, tomorrow ar whenever, but nobody will know..
I only believe to God and not by anybody… because they are just human being like us.. they don’t any power to know about the future… only GOD knows….
What a great site. I love the visuals and the comparison concept. Great job!
2012 really is an interesting topic. I started my own site and a companion blog about it. I like the comments on this blog. Any feedback is welcome. I try to present an objective viewpoint and position it as a starting point for the topic. It can be found at http://www.2012endofdays.org. The companion blog is http://www.2012endofdays.com.
2012 is an interesting topic. For an objective starting point, go here:
http://www.2012endofdays.org
I honestly don’t know what to believe. It all sounds so convincing. I’ve heard so many things though. Like 6/6/06, I didn’t believe that, but that day really was a rotten day for me, I had too much bad luck, like with the whole Friday the Thirteenth stuff too. I always happen to have bad luck, but I never believe in the world ending. We’re still here, people even said the world would end this year, 2008. But it’s nearly over and we’re all still here, aren’t we? But the thing that had me wonder is when my friend asked the Ouija Board when he’d die out of curiosity and it said he’d die at the age of 21, but it never told him how or anything. He is 17 until February 2009. And when will he be 21? In the year 2012. I don’t believe those boards that much though, and really I just find it a coincidence. Though I am very superstitious. I don’t know much about that Calendar but as far as I know, it’s just another prediction on what may happen, just like all the other things I heard, and it’s all very convincing but who is to truly know? Who can be sure? It’s in the future. We have but to wait until that time comes to see what is to happen. We have the power to change our future. However, I do believe something will happen that day. I believe in some Golden Age. But look at where the earth is heading? The way people who live on it are taking care of it, whether or not the world will end that year, that date. The way we are taking care of it may be the destruction of it. Maybe not, I can’t be sure. The world may come to an end at some point, but I’d like to think it’ll go on forever. Look how far it’s gotten already? I’d like to look at it as it will start all over again if anything. But really my hope is there to be an afterlife, like Heaven, you know? I believe, but who can truly be sure? I just have hope. I hate thinking of death, of the end of humanity, the world. Because then what? What else? Everything would have been pointless if it is to all just go away just like that, leaving nothing but darkness. What would be our point? We are we even here to begin with? Because you know, we could have never existed, yet here we are. I just can’t help but think about it so deeply, you know? But I’m tired right now and honestly this has been eating away at me so badly considering I had a nightmare a few days ago about the world ending. And I got into all of this when my friend said something about 2012 to me again today, I had forgotten about all of this. Whatever is it come, in ways I dread it, in ways I have hope. I would, however, like to live my life longer than the age of 19. I want to live my life, get married, have kids, etc.. But I’d rather live my life to the fullest while I can rather than dread that date, though years fly by. You just have to make the best of it. I really don’t know what else to say, everyone has their own opinion on it. But really, I hope for the best, and not the worst. And I believe that we can all live longer than that date. I want to have faith, I’m trying to think positive and it’s hard, so don’t ruin this for me. Because as I said, I’d much like to live my life to the fullest while I can, but we all die at some point, I just want to live longer than 2012. I’ll stop my babbling now.
I really enjoyed reading this — great looking and great information. The only part I with which I disagreed was that on solar storms. NASA thinks there is a very real risk of a massive solar storm destroying modern power grids:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12507
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127001.300-space-storm-alert-90-seconds-from-catastrophe.html
When this happened last, in Victorian times, they unplugged the nascent telegraph system from their batteries and ran it with electricity generated from the local magnetic field from the lines themselves.
There is one factual error in your otherwise excellent presentation. The next solar maximum (insofar as it _can_ be predicted) is currently predicted by NASA to be of less than average strength and to take place around May 2013. Here is the link:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29may_noaaprediction.htm
Cheers!
The truth is you just don’t know for sure. There is a 99.99% chance that nothing will happen…but then again you can’t assume the Mayans didn’t know what they were talking about. A supervolanoe eruption, asteroid impact, deadly plague…all these things could happen. Look at how 9/11 came out of the blue. For many of us that was our first experience of a true disaster – not global but the shockwaves could be felt. I remember that morning was just like any other morning and then WHAM it just happened. We can’t take anything for granted. We all assume that the world will go on like it is for the rest of our lives, we find that thought comforting. I’m not saying anything will happen in 2012, but to sit back carelessly is dangerous. My advice is to try and do everything you’ve been meaning to do before 2012. For instance, if you are estranged from a family member try and build a bridge. You may never get another chance.
The Mayan calendar was complicated to produce. If the Mayan culture had survived, the Mayans would certainly have contemplated continuing to produce new calendars but would have done it with computers and printed it on paper instead of cutting it in stone. Who would believe that the world would end on december 31, 2012 just because the 2013 calendar has not yet been printed?
December 21, 2012 is not the end of the world folks, its the end of a 26,000 year cycle. Then December 22, 2012 will be day one of the next 26,000 year cycle. The alignment of the planets was marked as the end/beginning of the cycle to have some point of reference. So just because the calender end on that day does not mean out time will too. That would be like saying the world will come to an end at the end of December since there are no more pages on the office calendar after that month.
Why do ppl say the mayans are right and the worlds gonna end? i mean remember those other yrs other ppl say the world was gonna end? And guess waht happened…….. the world didnt end!! nombre! those ppl need brain sergury cuz savesque next thing ya kno their gonna say mars is gonna crash into the earth and evri1 has aids or something stupid like that!! God is the only 1 who knows when the world iz gonna end!! I mean the world can end in 2012 but i doubt it!! That stuff they’re saying bout planet-x and stuff, none of thats gonna happen!! theres gonna be fire and brimstone raining down! If u dont believe me then why dont u read the king james version bible and read revelations!! Its tells u all about how the earth is gonna end!! you can also see the movie called LEFT BEHIND!!!! But i’d rather read the bible first!!
Okay, so there was another thing that believers think means something, but in reality, it does not.
The Mayans would have celebrated December 21st, 2012, because itwas the day the Fifth Sun’s Cycle would end. That’s why people have come up with the nonsensical stuff about “World Destruction”. In fact, it would be an older version of “New Year’s Eve/New Year”.
lol
This is great…
Keep in mind, if I remember correctly, McKenna was calculating the ‘novelty’ that humanity clings to; his theory on it was that around 2012 everyone would realize they cannot eat all the plastic stupid shit they’ve spent years working on, and just walk back to the woods… Or something… He figured the same thing happened to the various ‘mysterious civilizations’ around the world…
Course those were also spiritually advanced cultures, quiet a bit not at all like ours.
okay, all thing in god grace.
Well done pointing out (on the Skeptic side) that the “Galactic Alignment” was actually at its most aligned in 1998 – and nothing happened! While some New Age 2012ers might say that 1998 represented the beginning of wonderful changes to human consciousness, plenty of other 2012ers will tell you the humans have been getting worse.
Robert Bast (author of Survive 2012)
It’s yin and yang people. Not ying and yang. Not a big deal but when something so simple is wrong it discredits the entire article.
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