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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

State of the 2012 Phenomenon


We have all heard the prophetic speculation about some great event occurring on December 21 of this year. 

First, it was the theoretical “end” of the Mayan Calendar, something that seems less likely in the light of evidence found by William A. Saturno on May 11 of this year. He discovered the oldest - a 1,200 year old - Mayan calendar in Guatemala that clearly goes way beyond 2012, and even to the year 3500 C.E..[1]


William A. Saturno in Guatemala, May 2012
Source: Wikipedia


Of course no one has wondered publicly why an older Myan calendar would be taken as more accurate than a newer one. (?) It is something like trying to get people to go back to the non-leap year calendar over the western one we use now. Still Saturno is a very well respected “archaeologist and Mayanist scholar” [2 ] and I have been very impressed with his work in the past. He is probably right about the Mayans planning for times passed 2012.

Another great promoter of this 2012 date was Terence McKenna. Famously he formulated a mathematical model which incorporated recurring patterns in the King Wen sequence of the 64 hexagram I-Ching, creating what he called a “time wave.” He believed this wave represented a struggle between the forces of “novelty” (see Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality—progressive change and increasing connectedness; increasing complexity) and “habit.” (the opposite of novelty—stagnation, and entropy). When the wave rose up habit was increasing, and when the wave fell novelty was increasing. He called this “Novelty Theory.”[3] He and some friends plotted out the “wave” (which did not infinitely repeat, but was rather asymptotic—in other words it had an end point) and even wrote a computer program that would overlay the wave against any time period in history.

He chose to place the last cycle upon important 20th Century events, such as the Hiroshima bombing. With a little manipulation he eventually concluded that the wave would reach the pinnacle of novelty on November 16th 2012.[3] But after learning that the Mayan calendar supposedly ended just over a month later, he changed his date, figuring the Mayans were probably right.[3]


Terence McKenna
Source: Wikipedia


Terence passed away in 2000. And in the last few years of his life, he tended to pull back a bit from even taking his own theory very seriously. In the years since, his brother Dennis and many others have downplayed Terence's part in the 2012 phenomenon.[4]

Now here we are only days away from the auspicious date. Yet, haven't we always been here? Even when we humans are told that original information might be inaccurate (as happened with the Mayan calendar and Time Wave Zero), we still not only want to believe, but we BELIEVE.

It seems to be a natural human urge to have faith in our greatest desires. It does not matter if people are religious or not, whether they are atheists or fundamentalists, faith in their own beliefs can trump all other factors. I have myself as my greatest proof of this.

I have to admit riding on the 2012 train. For years I loved listening to Terence's many talks and I had a great interest in Mayan astronomy, mathematics and use of visionary plants, completely aside from any interest in the “ending day” of their long count calendar. Nevertheless, like so many people in the world I want to see dramatic changes, and was happy that so many other people want to see them too—so much so, that I have been willing to be open-minded about what they feel will be a significant day.

Even Nostradamus is said to have referred to something in this year. But I have a hard time buying the Nostradamus thing. I've never really gotten into it, for the same reason I don't take newspaper astrology very seriously; vague words can be bent and manipulated to suit just about anything.

My wishful thinking has subconsciously created in me a burning faith that some event will change everything—transform it, or at least end some of the negativity resident in the cycles of our destructive human behavior. I'm less certain when it will be. My mind says “Don't be silly. We can not rely on outside forces to correct what we humans have been doing wrong. It is our fault, and so it is our responsibility to find our way out the mess we've created.” My heart pretty-much agrees, but my soul aches to see improvement in the lives of my sisters and brothers all over the world...NOW, rather than later. Thus, I too want to believe in December 21st, 2012. But I have a little bit different point of view about it than most believers. Let me try to explain...

Remember I asked: “...haven't we always been here?” Soon after Jesus was crucified in the 1st Century C.E., the young Christian church was a fellowship of apocalypse believers. They took Jesus quite literally about his return and believed it would be “any day now.” Sadly, for all of the rest of us, Jesus did not return. Instead, his followers ended up creating the most divisive and deadly institutions in human history—the Christian Church. More human beings have died throughout history in the name of a church Jesus never even wanted, than by any other one religious influence.

Over and over again in the history of this church groups would splinter off and claim that the “Second Coming is at hand.” And time after time they were disappointed. There have been at least 242 predictions about the “End of the World.”[5] One of these times that really stands out in American history is appropriately called, “The Great Disappointment of 1844”...

Based on his interpretations of the prophecies in the book of Daniel (Chapters 8 and 9, especially Dan. 8:14 "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed"),William Miller, a Baptist preacher, proposed that Jesus Christ would return to the earth during the year 1844. The more specific date of October 22, 1844, was preached by Samuel S. Snow. Thousands of followers, some of whom had given away all of their possessions, waited expectantly. When Jesus did not appear, October 22, 1844, became known as the Great Disappointment. [6]


William Miller
Source: Wikipedia


As far as I know, no Christians of high repute are claiming Jesus' return this year. But, how will we generalized, mongrelized believers in the “whatever” of December 21, 2012 handle the probability that nothing at all will happen on that date? I, for one, will be disappointed, but I will not be surprised. This is an important distinction to make.

We - humanity - have an addiction to desiring heavenly, mystical, magical, alien or otherwise “outside” intervention in our affairs. But this is not a shortcoming of our species. In my opinion, we should have had some celestial personage interacting with us for our entire history. According to the Urantia Book this earth is different from other similar worlds by not having a superman and/or superwoman to guide us and comfort us. Instead we make up heroes – that is what our obsession with celebrities is – and we expect from them superhuman abilities and moral behavior. But, hey, talk about great disappointments!

I was at the bank the other day depositing $1.90 to keep my business savings account from becoming overdrawn. Embarrassing, but true. Anyway, I have become friends with Amy, the Customer Service Manager there. She and I were joking around. I said that I was hoping I could make it through to the end of December and avoid a service charge, due to the “end of the world.” She laughed. We agreed that this idea of a great transformation or celestial revelation-thing had been over-predicted in history. I said, “Someday though, something really will be coming to our world.”

But she rightly replied, “Yeah, but how will we ever know the difference ahead of time?” She had a good point. Terence used to ask, “how can we tell shit from Shinola?” And in the context of this year, how do we know?

Well, obviously we don't “know” at all. Knowing requires hard evidence that can be accepted by a majority. I'm not a big proponent of relying on “specialists” (especially in this particular field), but if Richard Dawkins (probably the best known skeptic in the scientific world) suddenly woke up and claimed that he received a message directly from Zeta Reticuli (where the “Greys,” a group of aliens in popular media come from[7]) that the UFO's would be landing at 11:11 Universal Time (or 6:11 am EST), on December 21, I might be more likely to sit up and listen. I think we all would. But it looks like it's not happening. And, if nothing happens on the 21st of December, Richard Dawkins [8] will have a little laugh to himself, presumably knowing that he was right all along.


Richard Dawkins
Source: Wikipedia

Here is my proposal...

IF there is a higher power; something that exists above humanity, outside of it, this date (December 21, 2012) would be the IDEAL time to do “something.” It may not have been part of the celestial plan, at first. Yet, I tend to think that the simple fact that millions of people are paying attention to the date makes it even that much more likely that something will happen. Why would any supermortal agency let this opportunity slip by without a little bit of magic becoming manifest?

Technically, it is most likely that nothing will happen at the end of this month. But, I am very sure that if that is the case, no-one will ever promote a date again for celestial intervention in human affairs. Why would they? Inaction on this 2012 date would mean that all bets are permanently off in this regard. This might be a good thing. People would no longer suffer from unrealistic expectations, only to be periodically “disappointed.” And, if there is a heaven, it will reinforce the concept that “God [only] helps those who help themselves.” By this philosophy, we are brought back to the celestial “tough love” perspective.

I certainly don't presume to be able to see around this corner, myself. I've told you what I want, personally, and what many want collectively. But, what I ask fellow believers in the 2012 phenomenon is this: If you are like me and you want a major change in the world, something that might only be able to come from outside, focus your thoughts on that. MAKE the change if you are an atheist or FORCE the attention of Higher Powers if you believe in such a thing. REQUEST their attention.

There will not be another opportunity as clearly-defined in popular culture as we have right now. Maybe we can use this time to project a collective self-fulfilling prophecy, or a cry for assistance.

If there is no Higher Power, then none of this really matters anyway; my beliefs should be discounted, and the electromagnetic forces that are slowly ripping apart all of material reality (see, entropy) will eventually leave our universe a cold and eternally dark place where no mind will function and no life will exist. That is OK too. What is TRUE is REAL. And if no Primal Person rules truth or reality, so it shall be. I respect that perspective even if I don't believe it myself.

For now, though, here is a human prayer to the Universe and for humanity: At this point, let us just sit back and relax. Let us eat, drink and be merry. Let us be born and let us die. Let the skeptics find peace and/or let the believers find reason. Nothing will change what is about to happen now. Take this time until the 21st of December to reflect on all that has come before, all the might transpire and all that we desire and expect from existence.

Online Sources

[1] Alternate Mayan Calendar 

[2] William A. Saturno 

[3] Terence McKenna 

[4] Dennis McKenna 

[5] List of Predictions about the End 

[6] The Great Disappointment 

[7] Zeta Reticuli

[8] Richard Dawkins



Published on the World Wide Web
December 18, 2012

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