2012: Final approach to end times?

From Planet ponders perilous prediction

Melissa Garcia is certain that the planet will suddenly die. She doesn't know when, but she's ready.

"In the blink of an eye, the world won't exist some day," said Garcia, 33, of Pharr. "It could be four years from now or many years from now."

Others expect something much more exact.

What appears to be a misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar has left people all over the world pondering Earth's destruction in December 2012. Dozens of Web sites dedicated to the apocalyptic event also reference historical figures such as prophet Michel de Nostradame, known as Nostradamus, claiming that he predicted the third world war would be preceded by many large-scale natural disasters.

One Web site - www.december212012.com - even references Albert Einstein, quoting him as saying: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

The site offers viewers survival tips and a "disaster watch" with links to news articles about the 2012 phenomenon.

As the world swiftly approaches the date, people's fear is fueled by Hollywood productions such as Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto," a film about Mayan civilization, and "2012," due for release July 2009. December212012.com even features a list of celebrity believers with names like Janeane Garofalo, the Smashing Pumpkins, Lil Wayne and Montel Williams.


From Earth changes based on Mayan prophecies

This cosmic event which will occur on Dec. 21, 2012 is known as “galactic synchronization.” This means that the earth and solar system will be in line with the plane of our galaxy, the Milky Way. According to the Mayan calendar, this astronomical synchronization marks the end of the present world age or cycle and the birth or beginning of a new one.

The Mayan prophecy does not say nor does it imply that it would be the end of the world. But certain unprecedented changes would take place on planet Earth that will affect all its inhabitants. Planet Earth is on the last 5,126 years of its present cycle which, according to the Mayan calendar, began on Aug. 13, 3114 BC and will end on Dec. 21, 2012.

“The Maya,” according to Gerald Benedict, in his fascinating and important book, “The Mayan Prophecies for 2012,” were able to work with vast periods of time and calculated that it would take a cycle of approximately 26,000 years for a constellation to reappear over the same observation point on earth. Modern astronomy has confirmed this period as 25,800 years.

According to Benedict, “What will actually happen is that at sunrise on Dec. 21, 2012, the sun forms a conjunction with the galactic center of the Milky Way at the constellation of Scorpio. Because of the precession of the equinoxes the winter Solstice sunrise has been moving toward that point of the Milky Way known as the 'galactic center.' Thus, the planet Earth and the solar system will come into galactic junction with the rest of the universe.”

And what, according to the Mayan Prophecies, will happen to our planet at the end of this present earth cycle?

1. “There will be violent sunspot activity that will cause a radical change in the Earth's magnetic fields, perhaps amounting to a reversal of the poles.”

According to Benedict, even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has confirmed this. NASA has predicted that there would be very intense solar storm in 2012, and the sun would reverse its magnetic poles because of the ending of the 11-year sunspot cycle. This would cause disturbances in the Earth's magnetic fields.

2. “The end of each Mayan age, or sun, is marked by extreme natural catastrophe. The Earth will experience violent earthquakes and volcanoes together with the side effects these produce.”

3. Although the Earth will be at risk, it is prophesied that as we move toward 2012, “it will become increasingly apparent that the various races, religions and classes that divide us, mask an essential unity and despite the conflicts, people will be drawn closer together. The prophecy emphasizes that only by realizing our inherent unity can the problems now facing both our planet and our civilization be solved—it points to a more outward-looking interfaith dialogue and mutuality.”

4. According to a Mayan priest, “The Earth will not end on Dec. 21, 2012. It will be transformed.”
And Pacal Vocan, one of the most widely known Mayan leaders and prophets, foresaw that “human beings will develop a universal telepathic facility, a considerable heightening of our senses and a more perfectly focused self reflecting consciousness.”


From Five Nuggets of Knowledge about December

1. Let's get ready to rapture

Mark the date Dec. 21, 2012 on your appointment calendar. What do Jack Van Impe and Smashing Pumpkins have in common? A belief the date 12-21-2012 signals the world as we know it will end. Well yee-haw, rally round the survivalist groups hoarding food and supplies in anticipation of the end.

The evidence? (a) The ancient Mayan calendar portends the catastrophe. (b) The sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in 26,000 years (Oh my!). (c) The energy flow to the earth will be disrupted causing the sun to rise in the west.


From This Could Be the Book that Ushers in the New Age, Author Says

RICHMOND, Va., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mayan Calendar predicts it. The I Ching says it's coming. Mystics, metaphysical thinkers, seekers of truth and the Web Bot agree ... SOMETHING is happening on or about December 21, 2012 ... a catastrophic event or, as many leaders of the New Age movement believe, a shift in consciousness which, if we're not prepared, could leave us behind in, well, we don't exactly know where. Perhaps the proverbial end of the world is heralded by the systematic destruction of the global economy, bit by bit, nibbling at our collective heels, chipping away at our past and forever changing our future. If that's the case, we may be just about there.

It's been 40 years since the musical Hair first introduced "the Age of Aquarius" and a loose knit group of individuals emerged seeking spiritual awareness and expecting the dawn of a New Age that will be accompanied by a higher level of awareness among humans. Now that it may actually be upon us, a new book entitled THE TRUTH: What You Must Know Before December 21, 2012 (The Oaklea Press, $14.95) may be the vehicle that helps the rest of us understand. Drawing upon research by impeccable mainstream scientific sources, author Stephen Hawley Martin connects the dots to overturn the twentieth century scientific tenet that awareness and thought are products of the brain. A strong case is then made that the human body, including the brain, is actually a vehicle to transport nonphysical, spiritual beings into three-dimensional, physical reality.

"There is plenty of research available today to support the hypothesis," according to Martin. "All I've done is bring it together in a way that presents a case that's hard to refute. It is often said that we are not physical beings who have spiritual experiences, but spiritual beings having a physical experience." The author went on to say that once this is fully known and understood, readers of The Truth can find themselves closer to a state of enlightenment attained in the past by only a select few.

Author Stephen Hawley Martin is an Internet talk show host of a top-rated program for seekers called The Truth About Life. His nonfiction books and novels have won a total of six national awards for excellence.

SOURCE The Oaklea Press


From The best of times, the worst of times, or the end of time?

A young check forger -- a bum rap, to be sure -- unexpectedly whispered to me "What do you think of the twenty-twelve thing?"

I scratched my head and, trying to reassure the young man, carefully replied that a sentence of 20 years to 12 would be highly unusual, particularly for a first-time forgery defendant.

"Normally," I explained pedantically, "the sentence would start at the low end and go to the high end. Besides, you'd have to forge the Magna Carta and sell it to the state of Rhode Island before you got twelve years on a first-time forgery rap."

With a sigh of barely suppressed exasperation, the young man explained that he wasn't talking about prison time, but Mayan time.

"No, no, no -- not twenty twelve, 2012. The year of the Mayan calendar prophecy," he explained patiently, as if speaking to a slightly backward fourth-grader.

(Funny, the judges sometimes speak to me in much the same way.)

The prophecy, he explained, with growing excitement, revolves around the complex calendar created by the Mayans, a highly advanced people who
Advertisement
Vacaville Nissan
flourished in parts of Mexico and Central America from roughly 250 to 900 AD.

Although the Mayan civilization had kind of tanked by 1,000 AD, it left behind lots of pyramids and a calendar that surpassed any of those in use throughout Europe and North Africa at the time.

There is, however, one catch with that calendar, my courthouse informant related. It ends rather abruptly in 2012.

"What does it mean?" he asked rhetorically. "The end? The beginning? Is everything going to come crashing down? Will it be the end of time?"

Before I could reply, the young man's attorney arrived and whisked him away.

Unfortunately, I was hooked by the Mayan calendar mystery.

What to do? What to do? My Seattle Seahawks calendar never gives me these kind of problems, despite the fact that their civilization also seems to have tanked.

In researching the Mayan calendar prophecy, I found that its abrupt end in 2012 has a lot of people rather concerned for the future.

Some experts have narrowed the end of time down to Dec. 21, 2012 -- exactly four short years from today, amigos. Others theorize that the date might be slightly different due to anomalies in the Mayan calendar's "long count" cycle, but the cataclysmic result remains the same -- don't bother buying any 2013 calendars.