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Tuesday, March 22, 2011
ALL ABOUT DEC21, 2012 WILL THE WORLD END
1:22 PM | 
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AT YOUR SERVICE |
What will happen in 2012 when the Mayan calendar ends? Will December 21, 2012 mark the end of the world as we know it? Is there any evidence that the Mayan Prophecy will come true? Or have we just misinterpreted everything?
The whole Mayan 2012 debate seems like complete misinformation, and it is actually causing a lot of people serious distress about the future. I decided to shed a little more light on the Mayan civilization and the Prophecy therein.
Who Were The Mayans?
The Mayan civilization thrived in Central and South America from around 3,000 BC. Their dynamic and intelligent culture survived for thousands of years but finally collapsed during an intense 200-year drought, not long before Christopher Columbus landed on America's shores in the 15th century.
The Mayans are known for their advanced written language, as well as their art, architecture, maths and astronomy. They used a base 20 and base 5 numbering system and independently created the concept of zero by 36 BC.This capacity for numbers produced highly accurateastronomical observations, charting the movements of the moon and other planets. That much was based on science. However, based on their own astrological interpretations, the resulting Mayan calendar was one of prophecies, and supporters of the 2012 theory point to seemingly accurate predictions to date. In response, critics argue that these predictions are far too general and open to interpretation.
So it's difficult to say that any future predictions will come true without appearing a touch over-zealous...
What Is The 2012 Mayan Prophecy?
So what does the 2012 Mayan prophecy actually predict? Contrary to popular belief (we can blame the doomsday media for that), the Mayan Prophecy does not predict widespread death and destruction or the end of the world on December 21, 2012. You can stop losing sleep over that.
Firstly, neither Mayan technology nor our own more advanced technology enables us to predict such a catastrophe to the day. If we could do that, we would have saved more than 300,000 lives when the Asian earthquake and resulting tsunami struck on Boxing Day 2004. The Mayans weren't able to predict that catastrophe, and I guarantee they can't predict the next one either.
Secondly, the Mayan prophecy marks the end of an astrological era, and this has nothing to do with real life events here on Earth. (Don't bother reading your horoscope either; this methodology has been rigorously scientifically analyzed in statistical studies and every single one of them failed to show any correlation with real life.)
But why December 21, 2012? That's awfully specific in astronomical terms, isn't it? Actually, it's the beginning of the winter solstice so it's a very significant time for Earth-bound skygazers. The following three days are when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky, when the days are at their shortest (if you live in the Northern hemisphere). This date has been chosen by many religions to mark new beginnings, and the Mayans didn't miss the importance of this phase either.
As for the year, 2012 marks the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar because it's the year we will finish our current 5,125-year cycle and enter the Age of Aquarius. It does not coincide with any physical Earthly destruction. Layering any kind of esoteric interpretation onto the Mayan Prophecy is just silly. It is based on New Age believers making their own second-hand interpretations of what will happen when we transition through one sign of the Zodiac to the next.
Ask one New Age believer what the Mayan prophecy predicts, and they'll tell you Yellow Stone National Park is going to erupt. Ask another, and they'll say the stock market will collapse. Ask another yet, and they'll say nothing physical is going to happen, but we will enter a new phase of spiritual consciousness. Making such catch-all predictions will not even help them save face when December 21, 2012 comes around and it's just another day. We have such a specific date to target now. Even Nostradamus was not that stupid...
The Truth About Planet X – Nibiru
Something else that has been considered is the belief that the 2012 end of the world will come to Earth not through some planetary force outside of our galaxy, but through the power of our own sun. Some who have studied the timing of the 2012 prophesy and combined this knowledge with an understanding of the solar system believe that the end will come via a large solar flare. This flare will come about because of the infiltration of the orbits of the planets in our solar system by an outside orbiting planet that the Sumerians and the Babylonians referred to as Nibiru, and is sometimes referred to by modern scientists as Planet X. Those who subscribe to this theory believe that Nibiru only orbits through our system once every three thousand six hundred years.
In addition to this, these cultures believed that there were a race of people who lived on Nibiru that were known as the Anunnaki. According to their creation mythology this superior race of beings came to Earth and genetically engineered human beings. They did this because they needed to get gold ore from our planet in order to help save their own environment. The humans that they created helped them by mining the gold from Africa. The basis for this mythology was found in ancient writings that were recently uncovered in relation to the ancient Sumerians, and they documented this creation in detail in their writings. If they are correct, then the end of the world 2012 that is depicted in the Mayan calendar will also coincide with the return of the Anunnaki. In essence, it would be the return of our creators, and this is also something that is closely linked in with the belief that the Mayan calendar signals the forthcoming Apocalypse.
According to this 2012 end of world philosophy, when this planetary body re-enters our system it will cause massive disruptions in the orbits of Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, and Earth. When Nibiru crosses our orbit they believe that it will cause the gases in Jupiter to ignite because it will get too close to the sun and the precarious balance that keeps its gas structure in check will be lost, therefore causing Jupiter to turn into a secondary sun. In combination with this, the solar flares that are released from the sun on a naturally reoccurring cycle are set to peak during the year 2012. It is believed that this occurrence in combination with the cycle of Nibiru will cause a massive amount of damage to the planet on a level that has never been seen before.
Planetary Alignment on December 21 2012
However, there are others who contend that the end of the world 2012 prophesy actually refers to a very rare planetary alignment that will occur during the winter solstice on december 21 2012. At this time the entire Milky Way (including the earth and the sun) will align at a point that is known as the galactic equator. This alignment is so rare that it only happens every twenty five thousand years. It is thought that this rare planetary alignment could signal a shift in the magnetic poles. This polar shift has happened before in the distant past, and if it were to happen now it would cause massive destruction across the globe. Some claim that the reason the Mayan long calendar ends on this exact date is that something is going to happen in combination with this alignment, the introduction of Nibiru, and the solar flares. It can’t be a coincidence that all of these things are scheduled to happen at the same time that the Mayan calendar is set to come to its conclusion, can it?
Hollywood, The Media and 2012
The media has whipped us into as frenzy over 2012, and as the date draws closer, some people are becoming genuinely afraid of what might happen. This is so sad. I've had one teenager write to me saying she doesn't want to die young because of 2012. Even my own family have talked of their need to flee England when the time comes "just in case". What on Earth are we doing to ourselves?
Personally, I love a good doomsday movie, so I don't blame Hollywood. I like the special effects and to see what would happen if... But we have to draw the line somewhere. The first lesson of lucid dreaming is learning to differentiate fantasy from reality - and this is a major concern for people who are actually planning their lives around December 21, 2012. So in an attempt to shed a little more light on 2012 and separate the fact from fiction, I'd like to highlight some of the biggest doomsday hits and why they are so UNlikely to happen on this date.
Solar Storms
In the last few years, the sun has been getting a bit hot and bothered. Despite being in the stable part of it's natural cycle, the sun has given off some unpredictable solar flares which even took out our Earthly satellites. Notably, these solar flares may also be responsible for the current bout of climate change. Check out Knowing starring Nicholas Cage for a depiction of the damage a massive solar storm would cause (and ask yourself what kind of "collective consciousness" could exist after that). But don't go thinking this has anything to do with your horoscope - it's a massive nuclear reaction in space and completely unaffected by our position against the constellations millions of light years away. Could the Mayans predict a single massive solar storm? Are you kidding me?Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is famous for its hot springs and geysers. It's also a major focal point of the special effects bonanza, 2012, starring John Cusak. This is because it's sitting atop the worlds biggest volcano, which has a habit of erupting every 650,000 years - or so. We are roughly due for another eruption, which would fill the entire atmosphere with ash, blotting out the sun around the world and plunging Earth into a 15,000-year winter. Now let's be realistic: geologists at the park are monitoring the geysers closely and would be able to give a considerable advanced warning of such an eruption. I'm not denying that it would be a massive deal if Yellowstone erupted, but in geological terms the scale of it is mind blowing. It could happen this year or in 50,000 years. I don't think we should spend the rest of our lives worrying about it.Magnetic Field Reversal
Our planet is surrounded by a magnetic field that protects us from most of the sun's radiation. It undergoes a massive reversal - north switching poles with south - on average every 250,000 years. Right now we're about 30,000 years over that average. The poles are drifting apart by 30kms each year, pointing to an imminent reversal. But fear not: "imminent" on this scale means sometime between the years 3,000 and 4,000 AD.Of course, Mayan enthusiasts reckon we have our numbers wrong. Interestingly, the magnetic field would disappear entirely for up to 100 years during the transition, which would directly expose all life on Earth to the sun's UV light, turning us to crisp in a matter of seconds. Not to mention the effects it would have on artificial pacemakers and satellite navigation, as depicted in the sci-fi movie, The Core, starring Aaron Eckhart. I guess if you're already a pile of ash, you don't care much for SatNav.
Meteor Impact
The object, 433 Eros, named after the Greek God of Love, is one of the few Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) over 10km wide that is actually close to posing a threat to us. In fact, it is thought to be larger than the impactor that created the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico, which has been linked (in part) to the extinction of the dinosaurs.If you can't imagine what an asteroid strike would look like, Hollywood presents: Deep Impact, starring Tea Leoni. However, Eros is calculated to pass by Earth at 70 lunar distances in 2012, which is a heck of a long way.
Particle Accelerators
While physicists are colliding hadrons in Switzerland in the hope of finding the Higgs Boson (aka The God Particle), doomsday fearmongers are convinced they are going to destroy the Earth with their pesky scientific meddling.I'm delighted to say the first collisions at the LHC have taken place and it seems the fearmongers were getting themselves awfully worked up about... nothing. What's more, experiments like the Large Hadron Collider are telling us more about the components of the very building blocks of the universe, as well as creating major advances in technology and medicine. That's a very good thing.
In 2009, I had the amazing opportunity to take a guided tour around CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The take-home lesson as far as 2012 is concerned is that when atoms collide, tiny bits of energy fly off in all directions and are measured by precise detectors. But even the whizziest ones run out of steam before they reach the surface some 100 meters up. Furthermore, we are constantly bombarded by cosmic rays like this from outer space every few seconds, so if the collisions really were harmful to us, we'd know about it.
What of black holes? What indeed. "So when are you going to destroy the Earth with a black hole?" we asked our physicist tour guide. He laughed at us incredulously.Nonetheless, fear mongers have twisted the Mayan prophecy to predict that in 2012, the LHC will crush Earth into the size of a marble. Of course, they would know, wouldn't they? Or maybe they've been watching too many movies. I've featuredAngels and Demons as our 2012 Hollywood representative. It features a cool anti-matter plot straight out of CERN.
What Will Happen in 2012?
I think it's fascinating that doomsday movies are so popular. It strikes a chord in all of us; we love to fantasize about it all going wrong. It's a nice bit of drama to distract us from our otherwise boring lives, isn't it? Perhaps this is why so many people want to believe the world will end in 2012. It's in our nature.
There will always be natural and man-made threats and we should be reasonably prepared for these. Fortunately for you, the fact that you are reading this suggests you live in a relatively stable environment with clean water and a roof over your head. You are already thriving in a way that billions of people don't. You have a good life. Now, go make the most of it.
Oh, and stop worrying about 2012. It'll be just fine.
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