Truth behind 2012

The story began with the claims that a planet NIBURU,an alleged planet discovered by Sumerians is channelised towards the earth.This calamity was at first anticipated in may 2003, but when nothing occurred the end of the world date was moved ahead to dec 2012. The last time the world got all aroused over the mysterious turning of a calendar was the assumed Millennium of Jan. 1, 2000. No matter the actual Y2K computer-date bug. True-believer authors brought out scary and/or hopeful articles about the moment's prophetical potential to catch an huge cosmic wave and alter everything for either good or ill.

MAYAN CALENDER END IN DEC 2012
Just as calendars on our kitchen walls doesn't end in dec 31st, the mayan calendar doesn't cease to end in dec 2012. This date stamp is the close of the Mayan long-count period on the other hand -- just as your calendar begins once again on January 1 -- another long-count period sets out for the Mayan calendar.

PLANET X
There are no terrestrial alignments in the following few decades, Earth won't cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if this conjunctions were to occur, their consequences on the Earth would be negligible. You may have already heard something about planet X . The idea of planet X, and the hunt for the evasive planet, began in the midst of the 19th century after Neptune was discovered, since a lot astronomers believed there was some other planet beyond Neptune’s orbit . When Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930, it was believed to be planet X, affirming the conjectures of Percival Lowell and many other astronomers. However, in 1978, astronomers discovered that Pluto could not be planet X as it was too small to affect the orbits of the gas giants.This led scientists to conclude that no planet X, at least Percival Lowell’s version, exists. One of the many theories as to how human race will be abolished in 2012 is by planet X barging in Earth . To further elaborate matters, some people who believe in 2012 have also associated planet X as being the same as Nibiru. The Nibiru hypothesis says that an alien race came to Earth thousands of years ago and genetically altered beings into humans so as to serve them. Nibiru is supposed to return in 2012 to cause havoc and destruction is nothing but rubbish.

TRUTH BEHIND POLAR SHIFT THEORY
A reversal in the rotary motion of Earth is out of the question. There are slow movements of the continents, but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational magnetic poles. However, many of the calamity websites pull a bait-and-shift to befool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly, with a magnetic reversal happening every 400,000 years on the average. A magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia. Now let's distinguish between geomagnetic reversal and polar shift. Geomagnetic reversion is the change in the magnetic field of the Earth, where the compass north pole shifts to the South Polar Region and the south magnetic pole shifts to the compass north Polar Region. Once this action is complete, our compasses would point toward Antarctica, instead of northern Canada. Polar shift is considered to be a less likely event that occurs a few times in the evolutionary timescale of the Solar System. Many sources (including the doomsayers themselves) frequently mention both geomagnetic reversal and polar shift as being one of the same thing. This isn't the case.Though there seems to be a current downward trend in magnetic flux density, the current magnetic field is still regarded as above average when compared with the fluctuations measured in recent history.

SOLAR STORMS PREDICTED FOR 2012
Although a solar flare from out Sun, aimed like a shot at us, could cause secondary troubles such as satellite damage and harm to unprotected cosmonauts and blackouts, the flare itself isn't powerful enough to ruin Earth. In the far future when the Sun begins to run out of fuel and swell into a red giant, it could be a bad era for life on Earth, but we have a few billion years to wait for that to occur.Doomsayers point to the Sun as a imaginable Earth-killer source, but the reality remains that our Sun is a very unchanging star. It does not bear a binary star partner (like II Pegasi), it has a predictable cycle (of around 11 years) .Even if a big flare did hit us, it will not be an extinction event. Yes, satellites may be damaged, causing secondary problems such as a GPS loss (which might disrupt air traffic control for example) or national power grids may be overwhelmed by auroral electro jets, but nothing more extreme than that. Satellites may malfunction and migrating birds may become confused.

2012 Examined

It's always been my philosophy that the most rational approach to anything is to safety and emergency preparednessbalance reason with readiness. So when the murmurs about 2012 began to grow into grumblings, and the grumblings grew into shouts, and the shouts grew into hysterical ranting, I figured it was about time to look into the matter and see if I couldn't find out what the facts on 2012 really were. Should we be worried? Should we stock up? And whose opinion should we trust? There are an awful lot of crisis-mongers out there, willing to pass along any terror-inducing hype as a means of parting you from your bucks. If there really IS anything we should know about December 21, 2012 that's significant to our safety or peace of mind, then it would be a shame to lose the message because we got too tired of listening to the tinfoil-hat-wearing New Age crap-peddlers.

So, what are the facts? 2012 does, after all, seem to present a unique confluence of multiple prophecies, events, predictions, mythologies, and cosmologies. It's arguable that no prior period in history has seen such a merging of so wild a variety of belief systems and prophecies. There's the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar, and biblical prophecies of the End Times. The predictions of the I Ching, and Timewave Zero. The Sybil, Nostradamus, Isaac Newton, Edgar Cayce, and Mother Shipton all weigh in, among others. The Hopi have tossed a hat into the ring. Even science - or at least pseudoscience - gets a toe in the door, what with the statistics of the Bible code, the Web Bot Project, the Solar Maximum and threatening Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), predictions of a possible geomagnetic reversal (incorrectly referred to as a "polar shift"), the Precession of the Equinoxes, and the potentially deadly Planet X flyby. What isn't debated is that there will be a rare galactic alignment on that day, one that only appears every 26,000 years or so, which in itself is enough to make even the skeptics pause for thought. As we finally, truly enter the Age of Aquarius, 2012 has become the byword for futurist phobias. But is it just Y2K on steroids?

There is simply too much out there on 2012 to get away with ignoring it completely. It's only a matter of time before the media latch onto it and hype the living hell out of the subject - the History Channel has certainly taken the lead there. But when you really dig in and read the literature and hit the blogs, trying to nail down the facts on 2012, you're pretty likely to end up both fascinated and befuddled, and even run the risk of joining the collective obsession and succumbing to the scare.

Any research on 2012 has to start with the Mayan Long Count Calendar. The Mayans actually were (and are) brilliant mathematicians, astronomers, and time keepers. Their calendric system, which is based largely on astronomical observances, has a degree of accuracy and a depth of symbology that puts our Gregorian system to shame. Two thousand years ago, at a time when the majority of the world didn't question the idea that the world was flat and earth was the center of the universe, the Mayans came up with a cosmological view that could make astronomical predictions that were accurate to within mere seconds. No mean feat, to say the least. I certainly can't go into even a fraction of detail about this fascinating topic in this short article, but I encourage you to read more about it, as it's one of the most interesting angles to the whole 2012 topic.

But possibly the most interesting thing is that the Mayan faith and mythology, their systems for keeping time, and even their design and hieroglyphs, are very like those of other traditional civilizations, such as the Egyptians, with whom they were unlikely to have had contact. This odd synchronicity becomes tough to explain, until you consider the one thing they did have in common - the sky. Is it really possible that multiple cultures and civilizations, divided by vast distances in time and geography, could divine similar meaning and draw the same conclusions from the same astronomical observances? And if so, does this lend greater credibility to their philosophy of time and how it is to unfold? Anthropologists attempt to answer this question, with varying degrees of success.

In our solar system, the Sun and the planets share roughly the same plane of orbit, known as the plane of the ecliptic. From our perspective here on Earth, the Zodiacal constellations move along or near the ecliptic, and over a span of time, appear to recede counterclockwise by one degree every 72 years. This movement is attributed to a tiny wobble in the Earth's axis as it rotates. The result is that, approximately every 2,160 years, the constellation visible early on the morning of the spring equinox changes. In Western astrological traditions, this signals the end of one astrological age (currently the Age of Pisces) and the beginning of another (Age of Aquarius). Over the course of 26,000 years, the precession of the equinoxes makes one full circuit around the ecliptic.

Just as the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere is currently in the constellation of Pisces, so the winter solstice is currently in the constellation of Sagittarius, which happens to be the constellation intersected by the galactic equator. Every year for the last 1000 years or so, on the winter solstice, the Earth, Sun and the galactic equator come into alignment, and every year, precession pushes the Sun's position a little way further through the Milky Way's band.

New Age proponents of the galactic alignment hypothesis argue that, just as astrology uses the positions of stars and planets to make claims of future events, the Mayans plotted their calendars with the objective of preparing for significant world events. However, the alignment in question is not exclusive to 2012 but takes place over a 36-year period, corresponding to the diameter of the Sun, with the most precise convergence having already occurred in 1998.

Nostradamus much-quoted 16th century physician and prognosticator with his cryptic quatrains has been the most respected seer in history. A number of his quatrains are believed by scholars of prophecy to pertain to our time, and warn of dire events. It's estimated that about 50% of his prophecies have come true. While this passes in some circles as a staggeringly huge number of hits, it's worth keeping in mind that it's an equal number of misses, too...and even the hits are open to interpretation. Never, anywhere, does he specifically mention the year 2012. In fact, he goes on to claim that his visions extend as far as the 38th century, so apparently humanity doesn't meet its gory end any time soon after all. And with no concrete dates to point to, we are forced to wait and see - in retrospect - whether or not Nostradamus had any real insight into current events.

Surely there must be some biblical passages that dovetail with the Mayan prediction of the end of days. Fundamentalist Christians are loud in their warnings that the rapture is imminent and those who miss it are in for a crapload of trouble. But wait - many doomsday dates predicted by theologians have come and gone, leaving their followers wondering what "didn't" hit them. And the bible itself assures us that nobody, not even Jesus or the angels, knows the exact date that anything is going to go down. That's a secret God is keeping to himself, we're told. Did He change His mind and decide to leak the info after all?

Well then, isn't there a rogue star out there - Nibiru, or Planet X - that's due to make a pole-reversing, 1,000-foot wave-creating flyby of the earth? Both sides of THAT argument lay their case in front of the public, and we are free to take an open-minded look at it. As for Nibiru, latest thinking on that subject - at least by astronomers, who are in some position to know - is that it doesn't even exist, much less plan to drop by - or drop on us - in 2012. According to them, Nibiru=fake. End of story. As expected, detractors abound.

What about the aliens, the ones that seeded humanity and keep coming back to steal cow parts and human fetuses? Those who claim to be in contact with these extraterrestrials are supposedly being assured that they will finally make their landing on the White House lawn on December 21, 2012. Unfortunately, we're forced to take the word of the contactees, with no way of verifying the information for ourselves. And why these contactees consider beings who behave the way these ETs apparently do as "space brothers" who should be welcomed with open arms is beyond me, but that's a discussion for another article!

Finally, and most encouraging of all, is the idea that - far from disaster and ruin - the new age is going to bring enlightenment and a sorely-needed raising of the human consciousness to a higher and more spiritual level of existence. This will include everyone being able to engage in telepathy, levitation, and the ability to speak with the angels. Great as this sounds, again - best to examine whatever passes for evidence that this is what's going to happen.

It seems to me that the information (or misinformation, as the case may be) that is making the rounds is being served up to the public as if it were a sort of stew...a particularly inedible one. You might love peanut butter, peach ice cream, asparagus, chocolate sauce, and liverwurst. But if you jam them all in a blender and try to swallow the result, how yummy would it be? Personally, I'd rather eat the contents of my cat's litter box. While it might seem logical to take a lot of really good-sounding ideas, each worthy of consideration on their own, and simmer them all together in a single pot for a tasty combo of intellectual flavors, the recipe really doesn't work. And that's what's happened with 2012. So many favorite non-secular ideologies, traditional (and poorly accepted) mythologies and mysteries, conspiracy theories, belief systems, fears, pseudo-scientific conclusions, and just plain wishful thinking, all being tossed into the 2012 crock-pot. The true importance of this date, assuming there is one, is in danger of being utterly lost in the stew. Every doomsday scenario ever concocted, brilliant or barmy, is being forcibly linked to this single date.

It's weird, but it seems that every generation since the beginning of all those biblical begats has looked forward to the world ending during their own time. Apparently we all understand at a deep and depressing level just how far off course we've drifted, spiritually and emotionally. We are desperate for change, even if it means a gigantic dieback of humanity itself. And if there's any truth to the theory that, by our concentrated thoughts and intentions, we create our own reality, then we have some reason to be frightened for this particular generation. There's a traditional zen proverb that sums it up: That which you are looking for, is always looking for you. There's an emergent awareness of this possibility that events can be influenced by a collective will. It's a phenomenon known as "collective manifestation." In brief, it suggests that the more people believe a thing, the more influence they will have - consciously or unconsciously - in bringing it about. If this is true, then we are on track for SOMETHING significant to happen in 2012, simply because we decided amongst ourselves that we really, really wanted it to.

No Doomsday in 2012

I’ve been busy compiling two new articles about the 2012 doomsday scenario. This time I’ve investigated why Planet X is not the same thing as the Sumerian planet “Nibiru”, and why a “killer solar flare” will not be possible in the year 2012. This brings the 2012 series up to its fourth edition, and the feedback has been very interesting. Probably the most important thing I want to emphasise about this whole 2012 prophecy stuff is that I am not trying to stamp on anyone’s beliefs. There are many reasons why 2012 may hold significant spiritual or religious meaning, and I am not disputing this in any way.

I want to present the science facts, not the science “facts” that seem to overwhelm many of the end of the world scenarios. Alas, I suspect that I’m fighting a losing battle. I got it wrong, debunking the doomsayers who are doing this for financial gain are not concerned whether their evidence adds up, they are using one tool that I cannot influence. Fear. Sometimes I feel as if I’m beating a dead horse. When planning the next 2012 article, I think “aren’t people getting a little tired of this?“, but then I scan the web to find another 2012 doomsday video on YouTube, another blog talking about the end of the world in four years time. Each one draws on the hysteria behind the possibility of mass death and destruction.

So I feel motivated again, I suddenly want to counter-argue these outrageous claims. This is why I posted two articles in quick succession in the last few days, one about Planet X (again) and another about a flare the Sun could never generate. At the end of most doomsday trails there’s usually book for sale. In principal I have no problem with a publication based on factual claims (they don’t even need to be scientific), but when science is being moulded to fit in with doomsayers beliefs, that is when I feel anger. Fair enough, tell us why the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world, tell us why the ancient Chinese foretold our fate, even pull out the Bible and tell us why the book of Revelation is “right on” (after all, the Bible talks about the “Great Flood”, why not predict the “Great Fire”?). All this I have no problem with, as long as it is based on facts.

Personally, I don’t believe it, and I don’t believe in prophecies predicting the future with any accuracy (prophets, after all, kept their predictions general, leaving us to fill in the details after the event). But these are my beliefs and opinion, I’m not going to go out of my way to prove, with science, that the Bible is wrong, that the Mayans didn’t have a clue, this would be me stamping on ground that shouldn’t be touched unless I were some expert in archaeology or mythology (all very fine and very interesting fields I might add). So, when the likes of  Marshall Masters compiles the complete works of the 2012 Planet X scenario in a series of videos and a book entitled “Surviving 2012 and Planet X,” is it little wonder people might be a little uptight. After all, this guy is a former CNN science feature producer; surely he checks the facts behind his publications? Unfortunately, all his years immersed in science didn’t teach him to verify the facts he claims to have such authority over. For more information on this, see “2012: No Planet X” and make a note on why the 1983 and 1992 “discoveries” cannot be the same thing (and this is just using the evidence Masters provides in his articulate rendition of the Planet X conspiracy!).

In response to this example (and others), I try to pull up the scientific reasoning behind all this hype. “Reasoning” is the operative word. It’s usually a case of grabbing at any science study that might fit and cannibalizing it to re-enforce a very bizarre theory. So why do these Doomsday theories have such stamina? Surely people can see through the hype by now? Actually, this can be hard. On watching a History Channel documentary about the 2012 prophecies, I could see why people might be worried. Being from the UK, I haven’t experienced US docs quite like this. Between the powerful (and a little frightening) theme tunes, bright imagery and atmospheric cross fades of actors dressed as Nostradamus and ancient Chinese philosophers, this documentary felt more like a blockbuster movie than anything factual. I found myself thinking, “hold on, they might have something here, perhaps the world is going to end! What a fool I’ve been!”, but I quickly recovered and realised that is the power of these prophecies: Fear.

No amount of science articles or reasoning or logic can fight off the air of fear that surrounds the question “What if?” Doomsayers will continue to use this powerful ally to argue 2012 is the end, they will also use it to argue that 2013, 2020, 2030, and the year 3000 will be the end of life as we know it. And the worst thing is, the guys at the end of the doomsday trail will still be making money from book sales and there won’t be a thing science can do about it…

Tsunami stupidity of 2012

The growing harmonic convergence of apocalyptic stupidity that goes under the rubric 2012 or "the Mayan Calendar Prophecy" has not yet reached Y2K proportions. And while it's broken out of the New Agey cult status where it's been fermenting for some years, there are still many in the chattering classes who haven't heard about it. "The end of the world in 2012?" my friend Stanley said. "You mean I have to wait that long?"The cult around the date Dec. 21, 2012—the supposed apocalyptic final day on something referred to knowingly as "The Mayan 'Long Count' Calendar"—has been the subject of fevered fantasies on the net and the free New Age "magazines" given away at health-food stores. But last week Newsweek gave it serious attention, and there's a metastasizing web of 2012 sites, including at least one anti-2012 site, which has a section devoted to debunking the apparently limitless number of gullible airheads who have become 2012 believers.

Even within the web of believer webs there are bitter mini-schisms already: Some believe that Dec. 21, 2012, will mark the end of the world in some kind of fiery apocalypse, planetary collision, gravitational reversal, black-hole disappearance, spontaneous combustion, or planetary rotational reversal of some sort. Then there are those who believe that the end of the old Mayan calendar will be something to look forward to: a transformational moment in the history of creation that will be all good for earth's peeps—a "harmonic convergence"-type thing. (Remember that from the '80s, when a bunch of planets lining up were supposed to work wonders on Earth?) In 2012, human nature will undergo a rebirth, the beginning of a New Age.

And, of course, there's at least one major motion picture of the cataclysm school, Roland Emmerich's 2012, due this November. And, needless to say, the New Age section of your local chain bookstore is bursting with 2012 titles. There's the literate Daniel Pinchbeck's 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. I was an admirer of Pinchbeck's brave first book, Breaking Open the Head, about his search for shamanic experiences, and must admit I'm disappointed that he seems to have reduced all that mystery and wonder to a single number in 2012—although I'm sure that's not how he would put it.

And, finally, there's the frankly exploitive: everything from Beyond 2012 to (I swear) The Complete Idiot's Guide to 2012 (a bit redundant). Then there are the "2012 survival kits," a 2012 iPhone app, an "official" 2012 store, and other foolishness—the whole Y2K survivalist huckster aspect of 1999 replicating itself.
It's a harmonic convergence all right, a harmonic convergence of ignorance and superstition—a tsunami of stupidity—worthy of the millennial cults of the 19^th century most enjoyably anatomized in Leon Festinger's famous study, When Prophecy Fails, a look at the way end-of-the-world cults grow even stronger after their prophet's end-of-the-world date flies by and the world confoundingly continues to exist.In addition to 2012 the date, 2012 as a concept has its harmonic convergence (or maybe cataclysmic convergence) with an ever-widening spectrum of New Age idiocies. It's like a magnet for mindlessness. There's the literal convergence with "Planet X," for instance.

Apparently, Planet X (aka Nibiru) was spotted by astronomers in the early 1980s in the outermost reaches of the solar system. It has been tracked by infrared observatories; seen lurking around in the Kuiper Belt, and now it is speeding right toward us and will enter the inner solar system in 2012. So what does this mean to us? Well, the effects of the approach of Planet X on our planet will be biblical, and what's more, the effects are being felt right now. Millions, even billions of people will die, global warming will increase; earthquakes, drought, famine, wars, social collapse, even killer solar flares will be caused by Nibiru blasting through the core of the solar system. All of this will happen in 2012, and we must begin preparing for our demise right now.

Sounds scientific to me. I hope I have flashlight batteries for when Nibiru comes "blasting through" the solar system. (As far as I can tell from a brief survey of the subject, "Planet X" is an artifact of some infrared anomalies that may or may not have "planetary" reality. Scientists disagree, but few have formed apocalyptic cults around it.) Of course, this summary leaves out the various UFO versions of Planet X (and 2012) theories in which space aliens are going to manifest themselves, maybe hopping off Planet X during a flyby as either Wise Teachers or Sadistic Destroyers. Spiritual idiocy doesn't afflict only the ignorant, of course. See this recent account of how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the great rationalist detective Sherlock Holmes, got taken in by spiritualists.

Maya empire

Maya calendar associated with the seasonal agricultural cycle central to the survival of the ancient. Planet X on Collision Course With Earth some say that's out there: the mysterious Planet X, aka Nibiru, on collision course with the Earth-or at least disrupt the flyby. Could such an unknown planet really going into our road in 2012. 

There are no objects out there, said NASA astrobiologist. That's probably the easiest thing to say. The origins of this theory really ahead of broad interest in 2012. Popularized in part by a woman who claimed to receive messages from extraterrestrials, that Nibiru doomsday originally estimated for the year 2003. If there is a planet or a brown dwarf or anything that would be in the inner solar system three years from now, astronomers will learn about it for decades and will be visible to the naked eye now. 

In 2012 several disaster scenarios, our own sun is the enemy. Our stars are environmentally friendly, it was rumored, would produce deadly eruptions of solar flares, turn on the heat in the Earth. Solar activity waxes and reduced in accordance with the approximately 11-year cycle. Large flares can indeed damage the communications and systems of other mundane, but scientists have no indication of the sun, at least in the short term, will issue a storm powerful enough to fry the planet. It turned out that the sun did not fit the schedule, NASA astronomers said. Hope that this cycle may not reach its peak in 2012, but one or two years later.