2012 and the Annoying Persistence of Time

It's rather like Pascal's wager.

A would-be prophet has a vested interest in predicting that the end of the world will not take place at any given time. Why? Because if it doesn't happen, he will be right. If it does, no one will be around to congratulate him for his foresight.

Of course, it doesn't really work that way. If you predict that the world is not going to come to an end soon, as likely as that is, it's not very exciting news, and no one is going to be terribly interested.

Hence the thirst for apocalyptic. "Apocalyptic" is the term theologians use for the genre of apocalyptic writings – that is, those purporting to reveal the secrets of the end of time. It got its start in Judea in the second century B.C., when an anonymous author wrote the book of Daniel to predict an evil end for Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Hellenistic king of Syria who set up an altar – and possibly a statue – to Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem. To the Jews, this was an unthinkable abomination.

The book of Daniel, which made its way into the Bible, proclaimed that this "abomination of desolation" (Dan. 11:31, 12:11) portended the end of time and the coming of a Messianic kingdom. It didn't. What happened was that the Jews rose up under the priestly clan of the Maccabees, drove out Antiochus, and set up an all too human kingdom in Judea that lasted for about 200 years. Nevertheless, the book of Daniel kicked off a genre that has remained extremely popular up to our time.

Probably the greatest example is the book of Revelation (not "Revelations," by the way). In fact its Greek name, Apokalypsis (which simply means "revelation"), bestowed its name on the whole genre. The origins of Revelation are rather vexed, but the theory that makes the most sense to me is one advanced by a British biblical scholar named Margaret Barker. She says the book was written, probably in Aramaic, around 68-70 A.D. (What we have in the New Testament is a Greek translation, in extraordinarily bad Greek; the Aramaic original is lost.) Taken literally as a prophecy, Revelation suggests that the Jewish rebellion against Rome, begun in 66 A.D. under the Emperor Nero (by far the most likely candidate for the "Beast" whose number is 666; Rev. 13:18), would bring about the end of time. Revelation was thus a commentary on, and prophecy about, events that were unfolding as it was written.

Jesus seems to be making a similar prediction in what is known as the Apocalyptic Discourse or the Little Apocalypse in the Gospels (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21). Here Jesus appears to be prophesying that the Romans will invade Judea and that this will bring about the end of time.

Did Jesus really say these things? Any number of books have been written and Ph.D.s earned in the endless and ultimately frustrating discussion of what in the Gospels Jesus really did or didn't say, and it would be impossible to go into this issue here. I'm simply saying that this is the most literal and unprejudicial reading of the texts as they appear.

At any rate the biblical prophecies did not come true. The rebellion ended in complete disaster for the Jews – the Temple in Jerusalem was sacked in 70 A.D. and the victorious Romans practically depopulated the entire area-and time itself continued to march along more or less as usual.

Apocalyptic predictions were not limited to the political fate of Judea. After Christ's resurrection, his disciples were convinced that he would return imminently. In the first book in the New Testament to have been written, 1 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul attempts to reassure his pupils who are worried about what happens to their loved ones who die before Christ returns. Paul tells them, "The dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:16-17). This, incidentally, is the source of the notorious Rapture theory. But Christ did not return, and the church grudgingly had to accommodate itself to the world around it.

One could go on in a more or less continuous chain from the first century to the present. There is no generation, practically no year, for which the Second Coming has not been forecast. As the Christian world approached the portentous year of 1000 A.D., expectations of the Second Coming were so rife that some property deeds were written to remain in force only to that date. Seventeenth-century Judaism was convulsed by the appearance of a figure named Sabbatai Zevi, who had much of the Jewish world convinced he was the Messiah until he was captured by the Turks; the sultan threatened him with death unless he converted to Islam. Sabbatai converted, proving to most (though not all) of his followers that he was not the promised redeemer. In 19th-century America, a New York farmer named William Miller made elaborate and highly factitious calculations from Daniel and Revelation to prove that Christ would reappear between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. The faithful gathered on the hilltops waiting for the Lord to appear, but he didn't. The disappointed followers regrouped and eventually gave rise to several denominations of Adventists. Later in that century, a Pittsburgh haberdasher named Charles Taze Russell produced a somewhat better date – 1914 – and his followers, known as International Bible Students, greeted the outbreak of World War I in that year as sign that their leader's calculations were correct. But despite the quasi-apocalyptic horrors of the war and its aftermath, time did not end. Russell died in 1916, and his followers, who renamed themselves Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931, have since had to come up with other dates that seem likely to them, if not to anyone else.

Late in the 20th century, prophecy-mongers fixed on this verse by the 16th-century French magus Nostradamus:

"The year 1999, seven months,

From heaven will come the great king of fright,

To revive the king of the Angolmois,

Before, after March, to rule with happiness."

Here are some samples of what Nostradamus's interpreters said about this prophecy: "gloomy prediction of the coming of the Third Antichrist in July, 1999"; "a King of Terror descending from the skies in July 1999"; "1999, the seventh month (July 1999), a great frightening chief will come by the path of the skies." But July 1999 passed without any great event. If one wants to be excruciatingly generous to Nostradamus, one might interpret "seven months" to mean after seven months have passed, which would bring us to August 1999, but the only major disaster to happen that month was a severe earthquake in Turkey. As grievous as it was for its victims, it didn't involve any "king of fright" coming down from the skies.

Presently the date of choice is 2012. The concept of 2012 as a crux in human history owes its popularity to José Argüelles. He is best-known as the chief herald of the Harmonic Convergence of 1987, an event in which millions of people received or attempted to receive galactic energies that, Argüelles contended, were streaming to the earth and awakening a higher consciousness. But 1987 was only a prelude, said Arguëlles. The key date is 2012 – specifically December 21, 2012, the end of the Mayan Long Count. According to John Major Jenkins, author of Mayan Cosmogenesis 2012, the Mayan calendar, with its numerous and almost incomprehensible reckonings of cycles within cycles (including a "Long Count" spanning 1,872,000 days or some 5,129 years), points to a key juncture: the time when the point of the December solstice aligns precisely with the center of the galaxy. Another figure who pointed to 2012 (for quite different reasons) was the late psychedelic guru Terence McKenna. (For more details on these predictions, keep an eye out for my article on 2012, to appear in the March-April issue of New Dawn magazine.)

What is going to happen in 2012? Since these prophecies are not Christian, there is no talk of the Lord's return. One view is that there will be a mass awakening of consciousness that will take humanity to a new level. One researcher into things Mayan, Carl Johann Calleman, author of The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness (who, for various reasons, puts the date a year earlier, in 2011), contends, "It will simply not be possible not to be enlightened after October 28, 2011, or at least from a certain time afterward when the new reality has definitely manifested." Others hint that the actual fabric of time will mutate into a newer, higher, 2.0 version of itself.

What is one to say to this? As we've seen, predictions of the end of time are practically as consistent and reliable as the calendar. And yet if science is any remotely plausible guide to the truth, the universe has been chugging along for some 13 billion years and does not show any immediate indication of changing its tune. It's true that philosophers sometimes point out the problems of reasoning about the future on the basis of the past. As Bertrand Russell wrote, "the man who has fed the chicken every day throughout its life at last wrings its neck instead, showing that more refined views as to the uniformity of nature would have been useful to the chicken." Even so, philosophers, like the rest of us, usually seem to act on the premise that tomorrow will come just as today has.

The usual riposte to these objections is that we are living in unique times, that the pressures and challenges that humanity faces are unlike those human beings have ever had to face. So they are. But so they are for every generation. Every generation faces new challenges and pressures. Every age believes it is a new age, and every age is right.

Despite the jocular tone of this essay, I do have a serious purpose in mind. For several generations now, there has been a call for a new religious impulse, one that is faithful to the human experience of the sacred while cognizant of advances in human knowledge, one that retains the central ethical values of the human race while discarding those that are merely the result of superstition and prejudice. I too believe that unless such an impulse comes into play on a large scale, we face, not the end of time, but a dismal future in time as we know it. But in order to reach this goal, the first thing we need to discard is the habit of apocalypticism – the belief that we can sit around and wait for the end of the world to solve our problems for us. This belief has caused much of what has been most specious and baleful in Christianity and Judaism (and no doubt Islam) from their earliest times to the present, and we hardly stand to gain by importing it into a new spirituality, whether or not this importation seems to be sanctioned by the Mayans or other indigenous cultures.

And yet the belief in – or rather the need for – an end to time is not wholly false or misguided. In fact, I would argue, it has a core of truth in the spiritual aspirations of the human mind. Each of us does have an urgent and pressing need for an end to time. But it is not an end in literal sense, as if we could say, "December 21, 2012 will be the last day in history." (Indeed? What comes next?) The need lies in the urge to transcend time, to overcome it, not in the false eternity of endless time but in transcendence. Practically every mystical tradition alludes to this state. One description of it that I've recently come across is in Man: A Three-Brained Being, a study of G.I. Gurdjieff's teachings by Keith O. Buzzell. Buzzell writes: "From this [transcendent] perspective, consciousness in its most ‘pure' or elemental state, has no specific content (there are no images imbedded or appearing within the awareness). It is simply a state of awareness, not of ‘awareness-of anything.'"

As paradoxical as this description may sound, most people with any extensive experience of meditation will find it familiar enough. This freedom from awareness of "specific content" would of course include the awareness of time. I strongly suspect that the human mind has a basic need to make regular contact with this state, whether the person in question is a Buddha or a businessman, and that much of the discomfort and disaffection in modern life comes from our failure to do so. For those who can free themselves in this way, time not only can end but does end in the genuine timelessness of eternity, even if such experiences eventually subside, leaving us to immerse ourselves again in the stream of events. Waiting for a literal end of time may be nothing more than a muted and unconscious longing for this liberation.

SOURCES

Barker, Margaret. The Revelation of Jesus Christ: Which God Gave to Him to Show to His Servants What Must Soon Take Place. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2000.
Buzzell, Keith O. Man: A Three-Brained Being: Resonant Aspects of Modern Science and the Gurdjieff Teaching. 2d ed. Salt Lake City: Fifth Press, 2007.
Pinchbeck, Daniel. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. New York: Tarcher Penguin, 2006.
Russell, Bertrand. The Problems of Philosophy. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004 (1912).
Smoley, Richard. The Essential Nostradamus. New York: Tarcher Penguin, 2006.

Image by Reynard Karman, used via a Creative Commons license.

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Comments

Six Six Six and other thoughts

Submitted by biroz on Fri, 01/11/2008 - 13:12.

If you put 666 into Roman numerals, you get DCLXVI, which Robert Graves held to be the titulus of the AntiChrist, just as INRI was the same for the Christ. It stands for a Latin phrase which essentially means 'Domitian Caesar basely killed the envoys of Christ', which could refer to either Domitian Caesar or Nero, whose (rather plebeian) family name was Domitian...

Somewhere at the start of Revelation it says 'The time is Now', meaning, presumably: when it was written. I'm always amazed that people can read it today and think, yes, that directly relates to modern events... It's clearly a complex code to describe a situation which passed almost 2000 years ago, rather as if I began my latest apocalyptic vision "I saw a Bush who was the son of a New World Order standing astride the world..." etc etc.

For a completely alternative view of the whole 2012 phenomenon which owes nothing to the New Age movements or recent psychedelic movements, visit www.biroz.net/houseofsky - yes it's my own essay and this is disgusting and blatant self-promotion, but what the hey!! :-)

Bruce

Well If Bruce can why not Bruce?

Submitted by VajraGuru on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 20:50.

Just happened to write an article on 21-12-2012 not being a prophecy at all and this would seem the most fitting place to mention it. Also the fact its two Bruce's promoting their artcilces on prophecy does seem rather syncronous ha ha

http://2012rising.com/article/21-12-2012-prophecy-or-not

Bruce Fenton: WebMaster @ www.2012rising.com

Apocalypse When?

Submitted by agnosticdeity on Fri, 01/11/2008 - 15:49.

In the context of this doomsday laundry list it's clear that, in many traditions, the end of the world has always been in vogue. This seems rather self-destructive. As Walt Kelly said through Pogo and Albert: "We have seen the enemy and he is us." Why would a species hard-wired for survival be so drawn to predictions of its own demise? While this question is largely rhetorical, one reason is clear: An imagined future built on the rubble of the past allows the ongoing, low-grade apocalypse of the present moment to be ignored. In order to break this cycle we must stop waiting for some future event that exists only as thought forms in our heads. As Daniel Pinchbeck points out so well in 2012, only through conscious action now can we hope to have any say in what is to come. Fortunately this is happening right here on Reality Sandwich. Thank you all. Also in 2012, the insightful Mr. Pinchbeck sums it all up with the Hopi saying: "We are the ones we are waiting for."

Dates in Time

Submitted by shamanana on Fri, 01/11/2008 - 22:29.

Thank you for your article. It caused me to stop and think, and to risk sharing a few of my own thoughts. Perhaps the Book of Daniel and the Revelation of Saint John the Divine were literally speaking of specific people and times and places. Trying to match the prophecy to an exterior event, or else to 'disprove' it would make sense. There are other possibilities of course. Edgar Cayce suggested that The Book of the Revelation was really pointing to an awakening of consciousness. Th "Seven Seals" the "Seven Churches" etc may refer to the Seven Chakras of the spiritual body. Far from "New Age," these have been written about for at least 6,000 years by the Hindus of India, and described by mystics, saints and seers of all faiths and religions of all ages and cultures. The Apocalypse referred to is that of the movement of a specific energy up along the spine to the Brain, resulting in the achievement of transcendence or enlightenment. The Bigger news is that as more and more 'ordinary folks' find themselves a part of a larger awakening, a "tipping point" may be passed where it becomes the "new normal" and the entire race of man evolves into a state of clairvoyance and prescience(sp?). Those Saints, Seers, Mystics Sages and Shamans will have been the harbingers of what was to come. Except that I suspect the talents /gifts and abilities they possessed were not so much of a "leap," as they were simply a cessation of repression of an entire half of the Human Psyche. While I salute and respect the erudite scholars of Reality Sandwich, they are perhaps good examples of the result of total intellectual suppression of the feminine for so long (millennia,) that it becomes difficult to to even imagine a world where everyone was christed and man(woman) was fully and completely human for the first time(again,) since "The Fall," (the fall in consciousness, aka The Garden Mythos.) Lennon sang; "Imagine no religion, its easy if you try..." I can imagine a Gaia Consciousness that literally redeems the planet and everyone on it in an instant, (the twinkling of an eye.) Many years ago I was trained in cryptology and I think that the key to deciphering some of these "predictions" is that they are describing "states of mind," not "dates in Time." The exciting thing is that I may just live long enough to find out! I am grateful for each author who takes the time to share here on this wonderful E-zine! You keep the rust from turning my mental gears to dust!

The Kundalini Energy

Submitted by Seeker on Fri, 03/14/2008 - 23:54.

I believe your as close to the truth as we could get because when I experienced this rising energy without any knowledge whatsoever about ancient hidden wisdom, I almost lost my life in the process. After my transformative experience I attempted to explain what I had been going through and I expressed it as, " I had an earthquake in my mind and I almost drowned." This would be a very strange explanation for something which is difficult to put into words that can be understood and certainly the person I was speaking with felt lost, but I understood what I was saying. Stranger still, these words are in the bible so are universal expressions.

Why are we so special?

Submitted by Enoch2012 on Sat, 01/12/2008 - 13:21.

As we sit here and ponder the wisdom of the ages, passed down in texts, rituals, calendars, and myths, are we truly on the edge of transformation, or is our ego blinding us to the hard facts of physical existence?

The Eastern philosophies are held in high regard, as their esteemed rituals and insights are held as panacea to the coming onslaught of real-world challenges. But, as these ideas gain popularity in the west, let us not forget that the eastern peoples have been diligently practicing these techniques for thousands of years. They have not, as of yet, experienced any 'evolution' in the common experience of man. Yet, we seem to think that a critical mass of practice is just around the corner, spearheaded by the west, in the 21st century.

The Buddhist monks of Burma, hardly a trivial group of hippie shamans, may represent the pinnacle of transcendental human experience. But, does their steadfast commitment to alternate realities, and relinquishment of material goods provide them any more protection against the bullets of ignorance than a common, materialist westerner? In fact, our commercialized culture of materialism has provided far more protection against the evils of other men than enlightenment and meditation could ever provide. This isn't because the capitalist system has some grand moral plan to provide salvation to humanity, it is because the system urges people to become educated in order to succeed in the system, while at the same time keeping people in the system occupied protecting their social standing. Therefore, it is much safer in our society to stand up and say, "Bush was responsible for 9/11", than it is for a Burmese monk to cast off the shackles of an ignorant, and despotic military regime. The Buddhist monks are some of the most spiritually advanced humans on the planet, and yet their admired stoicism provides no protection against the realities of physical existence. The idea that we can enlighten every member of the planet, and somehow transform humanity, stands in stark contrast to the historical precedent of "might equals right", or that "one bad apple can spoil the bunch"

I think to a certain extent, we are deceiving ourselves with the idea that as soon as enlightenment reaches a critical mass in western society, that it will somehow save us from our destructive physical nature.

I see two ways that the human species evolves. In one direction, our species as a whole evolves over time as our physical makeup responds to a changing environment. This process takes place over great spans of time, and is almost imperceptible from the vantage-point of a single individual within the species. The other direction we evolve is individually, through death, as our true nature becomes a new singular reality. The first evolution, that of the species, is imperceptible to an individual, while the second evolution, that of the individual, is imperceptible to the species, as it takes place upon death. This second evolution has been described by many a seer, sage, mystic, tripper, monk, and saint, while the first evolution has been described by many a scientist, or similarly intellectual being. Outside of these two evolutionary realities, the idea that mass-consciousness change can take place in the physical realm, collectively among billions of individual, is simply without precedent.

With this being said, we can look at the 2012 date through a more restrictive lens. There is no doubt that our species is creating a physical environment where the normal processes of biological evolution may be unable to keep pace, at which point we will be forced to evolve ourselves through the pioneering use of modern technology in order to survive. This achievement, that of a species designing the bio-physical mechanisms for which it will survive in the real world, is a major shift in the evolution of man, even as this evolution is not widely, or consciously embraced by the individuals. Could this have been the shift described by the ancient Mayans? A shift from the human species' reliance on the physical world for survival and a connection with the natural processes of our planet, to that of a species that creates it's nature through the application of intellect and technology. A shift such as this, while not altogether exciting or obvious to many individuals within the species, is undoubtedly profound when examined through the eyes of a species that existed for millenia completely reliant on the whims and bounty of the natural world.

The second possible explanation for the evolution of 2012, represents the second type of evolution mentioned above, that of the individual. If this evolution were to occur, it would entail the relatively-simultaneous deaths of millions of people, as their evolution and true-nature manifests itself in a mass-evolutionary event. The remaining individuals who do not undergo this 'transformation' will once again, be blind to the transformation that has taken place, and will either lean on current religious explanations, or be left to devise new myths and interpretations, to describe the event that is beyond their realm of individual understanding.

These two evolutionary possibilities, from the standpoint of historical precedent and critical analysis, stand in stark contrast to the Utopian-evolution theories gaining popularity in our existentially-starved western culture. In terms of sophistication, the western world is indeed slightly more advanced than more traditional cultures, but does this advancement entail anything more than a more comfortable physical existence? Does this slight advantage provide the catalyst that will allow our people's to transcend physical reality in a few years, what the true mystics are unable to achieve after thousands?

When examining the possibilities of human evolution in the 21st century, let us not forget that just because an idea or thought is new to an individual or culture at large, does not mean that it has any more inherent value or power for the new student, than it does for the elder practitioner of faraway lands. Before we go espousing the benefits of meditation and existential reality, let us turn to the pages of record for current events, and see that meditative power alone are no protection against the natural laws and processes that have given rise to our current physical existence. If mass-evolution is to take place in our time, who's to say that it doesn't all take place in India, or among Monks, or some obscure indigenous tribe in a remote corner of the world.

Let us not let our ego blind us.

P.S. One of things I think is great about this site is that it allows us to explore the outer-realms of our existence through all the modern devices of communication. At the same time, I see most contributors and visitors examining the evidence with critical thought and pragmatic optimism, so that what is ultimately contained on these pages is a true and honest exploration of our place in the cosmos. Cheers to the reality sandwich team for creating such an accessible and stimulating, while not outlandish and speculative, place for us to share such interesting ideas.

Cake, Both Possessed and Eaten

Submitted by Richard Smoley on Sat, 01/12/2008 - 14:51.

These comments are all fascinating, and bring up any number of possible responses and directions for response. Personally, I don't think you can have it both ways. I don't think that you can argue BOTH that the times require urgent and immediate practical solutions AND that we will be saved from ourselves by a mass awakening of consciousness that will happen in 2012. If the latter is true, why bother to do anything now? After all, if we all become enlightened in 2012, everything will become much clearer and the solutions can all be worked out in a jiffy. My own perspective is that the issues of the current moment--violence, discord, environmental stress--are serious and deserve serious, practical solutions. I don't think we can afford to wait or hope for a mass shift in consciousness that may or may not come. Nor, for that matter, may a mass shift of consciousness be necessary. If everybody--and by this I mean even and especially the powers that be--were simply to live by the basic ethical principles to which everyone now gives lip service, many of our current problems would vanish by magic. But maybe that itself would require a mass shift of consciousness. It makes me think of an old Andy Capp cartoon in which Andy is at the doctor. The doctor says, "There's nothing wrong with you, Mr. Capp. Just lay off the booze for a few days and you'll be fine." To which Andy replies, "Isn't there a simpler solution? Like an operation?"

Carl Sagan

Submitted by Enoch2012 on Sat, 01/12/2008 - 15:57.

From the article,

The phrase, Secular Humanist, comes to mind, as well as Carl Sagan's groundbreaking series, "The Cosmos", a 14-hour journey through the evolution of man and our place in Universe. Hardly a cheesy, cult-documentary from the 80's, this film has the power to do more for the human psyche and awaken unknown consciousness in individuals than anything else I can think of. It's certainly had a profound influence on my thinking.

A time for a change.

Submitted by Nate D. on Sun, 01/13/2008 - 09:43.

I do not see the 2012 date as the end of time or as the date of some single great appocalypse. It represents a moment in time where our total human group conciousness will be being "born" so to speak. It's gestation began long agao. We entered the final trimester when our massive population explosion began. Little more than half a century agao our population hit one billion for the first time in any recorded history. Since than it has multiplied by over a factor of six. With each one of us being a cell in a greater brain. Our group mind has become large and developed enough to become self aware in it's own right. When that happens it will be sudden. Like being born. After that things will change, albeit slowly at first, to a point where we don't think or communicate the same way we do today. It will be the end of life as we know it and the beginning of a new life, or rather, a new age.

Strange new changes

Submitted by Brian Duffy on Sun, 01/13/2008 - 21:15.

When talking about 2012, I tend to see explanations referring to pole shifts and meteors and cosmic radiation from the center of the galaxy, or some other such calamities to jump-start this new reality-whatzit that's on the way, but when I permit myself a bit of idle speculation on the matter, I find more inspiration in the process of life on earth rather than a sort of "tough love universe" that suddenly smacks us across the face with disasters to wake us up into Utopia. When I turn my attention to more naturalistic possibilities, I find it easy to see the entire planet as a single individual, an individual life form that is reaching maturity. Gaia is a 13 year old kid, apprehensive of the new changes coming, and resorting to violent desperation and woeful atheistic nihilist-materialism as coping mechanisms. But a child cannot help turning into a mature adult, much in the same way trace elements in primordial soups can't help turning into single celled organisms.

The process of life on earth is a process of convenient inevitability. Animals quickly evolved from plants, and found their way onto land where there just happened to be trees waiting for them. When we climbed the trees to get the food, we needed a more advanced mind and more dexterous appendages to navigate the branches. Throw in a few million years and maybe some mushrooms if McKenna was right, and you've got yourself a self-reflecting, choice-making individual human being, a neuron in the mind of Gaia. These neurons start talking to each other and forming more complex societies. Social movements are akin to the rapid-fire thoughts of the brain. Gaia decided to think about empire, then she changed her mind and thought about democracy. This series of changes, from amoebas to monkeys to government, is a rapidly accelerating process, and I find it a bit naive that such fantastic events such as molecules turning into dna, fish crawling out of the water, and monkeys harvesting crops are all done with, and we're stuck with these whiny, confused egos and our endless feats of mass fear, hatred, and self-destruction. I think we're destined for more.

A society made of only children would find the idea of a mature adult preposterous, much like our society finds the idea of a noosphere preposterous. So what will we mature into? We must examine what holds us back, and what developments we would require to overcome it. I feel our biggest obstacle is our fear. How do we overcome it? Communication seems to be the best mechanism for promoting peace and mutual understanding. A staggering majority of our technological advances have been our desperate attempt to communicate with each other. What form of communication goes beyond our current advances of the Internet and cellular phones? It's dangerous to drop the word telepathy, and it's even more dangerous to talk about people who experience various kinds of telepathy under the influence of certain chemicals, but to me it seems like a natural progression beyond spoken and written word. If we could read each others' minds, we would have nothing to hide from each other, and no reason to be a afraid of each other. A human society where everyone is everyone else's best friend could accomplish a great deal beyond what we're up to these days.

Gaia has evolved incredibly rapid yet semantically limited communication between her neurons. Is she destined to make the rather small leap into instant communication? How will this development come about? How does sexual maturity come about? Hormones released on a time delay by the brain. We can explain that process, but can we explain the more esoteric process of the development of a self-reflecting mind? Sure we can, the more connections a brain has, the closer it gets to self-awareness. So, what process will bring about a telepathic human race? Will it be our scheduled dose of fairy dust from the center of the Milky Way? Will it be a meteor that crashes into our planet carrying spores of a strange new form of edible plants that activate our latent X-genes? Will it be a process so simple, elegant, and hilariously unexpected that we can't even fathom how it will work? Did the molecules sit around and theorize about their eventual synthesis into self-replicating chains?

I'll admit that it's dangerous to depend on some 2012 scenario that will solve all our problems for us, but I'd like to think whatever event that occurs on 2012 will be less of an event and more of a coincidence. Humanity's greatest strength is its technological prowess. Is Gaia using this strength of ours to gradually compel us towards the new devices that will enable us to live together in peace or advance us to some sort of manufactured yet inevitable singularity? "Hmm. Google's debuting their augmented reality system in Q4 2011...how will that go?" "MIT is on the verge of true AI within the next 5 years. What will that mean?" "Nano-fab shops are the fastest growing industry in history, with many analysts predicting that due to new advances in solar power, and the self-assembling aspect of the machines will allow a new Fab in every home and community around the world within the decade" To what will these headlines point us towards?

Apocalypse, now...

Submitted by ST Frequency on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 01:49.

I agree with technoshaman's above comment -- it reflects much of what I was thinking in response to this piece.

Harper's ran a really fascinating piece from Bryant Urstadt called "Imagine There's No Oil: Scene from a Liberal Apocalypse" that explores the chronicles of apocalyptic prophecy, ending with the modern Peak Oil theory. His conclusions are very reasoned and cogent, claiming that despite a storied history of failed End Times predictions, there are many reasons to feel that our modern circumstances face insurmountable challenges.

You can hear an interview with Urstadt here. If you're a Harper's subscriber, definitely hit up the web archives for the issue with his excellent article, August 2006.

mixed metaphors vs reality

Submitted by GalaxyRay on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 20:08.

... sorry on astronomical confirmation about Sun aligning with galactic center once every 26,000 years, etc., as it IS NOT ASTRONOMICALLY possible. Astrologically, yes, but not until the 23rd century ... works well as metaphor ... not to be taken literally.

no "time"

Submitted by Daniel Pinchbeck on Mon, 01/14/2008 - 14:32.

I have been seeking the time to write a critique of this piece - though in a sense my entire "2012" book is a critique of this perspective. Unfortunately I am enmeshed in writing something else right now, and don't know if I will get there "in time." I wish the author had taken the "time" to examine my thesis directly, as it would then be much easier for me to respond.

People interested in this topic might enjoy the following essay, which offers a cogent thesis on how an accelerated transition might take place:

http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/SoundsTrue2012.php

"Will the transformation."-Rilke

L O V E over W I L L

Submitted by Mark Sklawer on Mon, 01/14/2008 - 22:26.

"Waiting for a literal end of time may be nothing more than a muted and unconscious longing for this liberation."

This is a thought i have been sitting with since 1999. We want a certainty to our existence that a specific date in the "future" will provide. But life does not work that way. One of the greatest Prophets of the 20th century Edgar Cacye would say that his predictions would be effected by the consciousness at any given moment.

So I will put out, to us all, the vision of LOVE. Who cares if we have a singularity of events if we do not master the one most important energy at our disposal. And that is LOVE. All the ages of Man are lacking that one ingredient to bring Heaven on Earth. So all the new thought,machines whatever will devolve us without basic Love and respect. I am no Luddite in wishing a Golden Age. Hey I want my promised spaceship and telepathic music studio. And wether or not 2012 will bring a New Age or more linear growth, without Love it is all just a mind masturbation game. Right now we are just clever monkeys. EGO needs to be of service to the Heart. Then we will have it all!

how about here and now

Submitted by stephen a on Thu, 01/17/2008 - 13:50.

The issue for me is that the apocalyptic texts and the coming dawn or evening put us into the future and relegate the present, instantly, to the past. Now is a great time to be fully here, in this body and in this place. Transcendence, that process that seeks to have me out of this experience as a human in this body/time, cheapens the definition of humanity. Waking up can occur for any human who is sleeping and does not require a time in the future or the past. Nor does it require meditating out of my body. In fact, waking up is a very physical as well as spiritual act. Try to wake up tomorrow without the use of your body. I write all this because it saddens me to hear us discard our current experience for a hoped for experience that comes when each of us is ready--our personal apocalypses are the best we hope for, daily, now.

Agreed

Submitted by Thom Kennet on Thu, 01/17/2008 - 14:52.

Yes, by being fully present and alive in all senses, focused in the moment, the sensual moment, we are inhabiting a spaceless and timeless realm, which is perhaps all that has ever existed. Everything else is fun and games in bardo realms that usually pop like bubbles soon after they are created. Some are sustained because we collectively choose to believe in them - ideas like money and neccesity of government spring to mind.

In fact I am very sympathetic to the Nietzschean idea that there is only the body. However, I'm also teased by Aurobindo's notion of the Overself, which is definitely independent of the body. This is something I'm puzzling over occasionally - can the two views be reconciled or is one or the other mistaken?

Also, it is perhaps only from the spaceless timeless moment that we can articulate truth - if one were to somehow be fully present in the sensual moment of the five sense, then a mysterious sixth sense kicks in, instinct, intuition, which is a form of steady ecstacy and we can choose to express it.

dancing constellation

Submitted by Thom Kennet on Mon, 01/21/2008 - 04:49.

cj, your post reminded me of this strange little riddle by Vasko Popa; from his sequence, "Games"

The Wedding

Each takes off his skin

Each uncovers his constellation

Which has never seen the night

Each fills his skin with stones

Each starts dancing with it

By the light of his own stars

He who doesn't stop until dawn

He who doesn't blink doesn't drop

He earns his skin

(This game is rarely played)

Inflexion point...

Submitted by ayajoss on Sun, 02/03/2008 - 16:24.

May be 2012 is a kind of ''inflexion point' (remember your geometry...) where a majority of human beings will understand the true meaning of existence...? I dream that, after this point, spirit will be, at least, politically free... May be , for example, the UN will declare that ALL PLANTS MUST BE LEGAL...! It can be a MAJOR turning point for humanity... As a psychonaut, I consider myself as a ''dream-specialist''...and, you know, the power of dreams is the most powerful power of all. We can transform the whole world. 2012 can be the start of a world where WE, free spirits, will know complete liberation. LOVE P.S.: SEE ALL OF YOU IN BASEL (SWITZERLAND) FOR THE WORLD PSYCHEDELIC FORUM (march 2008)

fragile

Submitted by Gaiabreeze on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 19:27.

I would hope, as humans, we are more than our body since those carcasses are so very fragile and can be damaged or destroyed so easily. They depend on so much grace; air, water, food and protection from the elements. I don't suspect that an apocalypse would be an end to the earth as easily as it might put an end to mankind. Species are disappearing daily and on that day in December, it might be the end of the timekeepers rather than the end of time...

Prophecy of a Prophet

Submitted by DoubleHead on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 05:38.

In the article Mr. Smoley writes: "What is going to happen in 2012? Since these prophecies are not Christian, there is no talk of the Lord's return." Then he goes on to talk about the transformation of consciousness that seems to all the rage among 2012 experts. But what about "the return of Quetzalcoatl"? It seems to make sense that if the ancient Mayans predicted the return of person that they in fact meant a person and not a change in overall consciousness. I for one am looking for a human being to fulfill the 2012 prophecy. And I'll tell you, I'm not the only one of the cape crusader fan club watching the skies for mankind's friend. The Christians, the Muslims, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Hindus and the Pathists (a follower of Matrixism) they're all doing it. They've all got their prophecy of the One that will make us one. Why so arbitrarily take the Prophet out of the prophecy?

2+2=4

Submitted by GalaxyRay on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 09:33.

Is there some way to make this clear:

The Solstice DOES NOT align with galactic center in 2012 !!!

Repeat 12 more times:

The Solstice DOES NOT align with galactic center in 2012 !!!

PLEASE wake up people ...

GALACTIC ALIGNMENT

www.fieldwerks.com/galactic_alignment.htm

2012

Submitted by Symmetrical-Spacemonkey on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 02:59.

The Bible clearly states that no one except for God knows when the end is going to be. If that is true then its hard for me to believe that 2012 prophecies are reffering to the apocalypse. If we parallel the prophecies contained in the book of Revelations with other prophecies we can find two possible correlations. The fist being the Mayan prophecy telling of the return of the god Quetzcoatl. This is mirrored in the Bible with a prophecy describing the loosing of the Great Dragon and his subsequent return to Earth. The second is the prophecy describing the return of Niburu to near Earth orbit. It is not that much of a stretch to link Niburu to what the Bible calls Wormwood. Maybe wormwood is the result of Niburu's return. Another possibility is that 2012 is associated with ancient stargate technology. It seems logical that the stargates are used during distinct celestial events. These celestial events would serve the purpose of marking an exact point in space/time. The reactivation of stargates would certainly lead to the drastic changes in conciousness that underly the 2012 enigma.

There is no rhyme, sense or reason.

Submitted by shadowofthewaxwingslain on Thu, 11/05/2009 - 00:17.

The universe has been here, what?, 15 billion years. And the earth, about 5 billion? And we humans, how long have we been here? Roughly, what, 10 thousand years, 25 thousand? So, we arrived here long, long after the earth was born. And we will be gone long before this planet says bye-bye. We aren't here forever--we are going to end, the question is when?

Of course it is not the fantasies created by our human collective consciousness. I am fairly certain the more popular a belief is about the future, the less likely it is to be true. History, as this well documented article points out, is on our side on that. Yet, I am fairly certain of some other things: that we can point to examples of many dominating, prosperous civilizations that came to an end--the Mayans, the Romans, the Egyptians. And I believe in the cyclic nature of earth time and events: for the new to be born, old things must die. Processes go on, and one must adjust one's vision to SEE them. "There is no rhyme, sense or reason. It just happens to be the season." With these feelings and concerns in mind, I have constructed a half-jokingly-made list: "Dave's Top Ten Ways to Save the Human Species from Extinction" and posted it on our web: www.circleoftheearth.org.

I don't know if this is the end of us for sure, but I do know we are in deep shit and will have to do a lot of heavy slogging and wading until we get a less defecated area.