2012: Apocalypse Or Enlightenment?

Leos 1 Chris Leos Professor Scott Whitington English 1020 1 December 2009 2012: Apocalypse or Enlightenment? What is thought of when one considers the end of the world; pandemonium, chaos, destruction? What about a revelation of knowledge or a spiritual transformation? The year 2012, marked by many as doomsday, has been a very controversial and debatable topic for the human race. Some believe that this year will bring to humans a positive physical or spiritual transformation, which may usher the beginning of a new era. On the contrary, others believe that the year 2012 marks the beginning of the apocalypse. This upcoming transformation is not about doomsday but rather a rebirth, a beginning of a new cycle of logistical thought. Both of these theories have been documented and published in various books and TV documentaries, spreading the word around the globe through Internet propaganda. So does the year 2012 mark the creation of a golden age or does it indicate the end of all, as we know it?

A Galactic Alignment

Thousands of years ago the Mayans had settled on the Mesoamerican land known as Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize. It is known these indigenous people lived on the ancient sunken land known as Atlantis. According to John Jenkins, author of Maya Cosmogenesis 2012, their writings date all the way back to the beginning of the first

Leos 2 century B.C. This ancient civilization created a precise group of calendars, one that is named the Long Count. These precise calendars pinpoint the rare alignment with the Milky Way Galaxy, sun, Earth, and moon which will occur on December 22nd, 2012 A.D; written as 13.0.0.0.0 for the Long Count calendar. The Popul Vuh, known as the “Mayan’s Bible“, depicts the alignment as global transformation of world rebirth (105). This world rebirth is what our civilization will call the golden age.

Our New Mindset: A New Age

The Mayans have predicted that there will be a time where the human race will undergo a shift in consciousness called the golden age. This race will experience both a higher spiritual and humane potential. Humans will become attuned to mind, body and spirit. This connectivity with the self will also assist with connectivity to the other, allowing us to consciously realize we are one separate entity. Regarding this oneness, Jose Arguelles, author of Time and the Technosphere, explains: We must enlarge our lens of perception to encompass the whole Earth as one single being. In relation to this single being on Earth, the individual human is hardly even a speck. The dimensions and proportions by which we commonly measure reality must also expand to accommodate the vast dimensions of the Earth as a single entity, a planetary geocosm within the solar field, the heliosphere (124). If the human race experiences more of the self then life will be easier explained. When the realization sets upon each and every one of us, it has been told synchronistic events

Leos 3 within our day will naturally occur. Arguelles describes that through the use of a natural calendar we can see these synchronicities: The mental interactions, or field of mind, exist as a great unconscious medium, inseparable from the Law of Time. That is, if all life and the phenomenal world of the biospheric medium are synchronized by the Law of Time, then the programs of the organization of life, from the periodic tables to the DNA code, will also be synchronized by and embedded in the mathematics of the Law of Time (122-123). Synchronicity is a phenomenon that occurs while remembering meaningful events. An example would be seeing someone whom was just thought of, or meeting another that held an answer to a burning question. Synchronicity is thought to be a sign by the Mayans that one is walking on the correct path. This does not however, mean that the journey traveled will be an easy one. Synchronization asks one to notice change in life. It is said that this will occur more often as the year 2012 approaches, birthing a new golden era of constant similarities. How will synchronization bring us into the new age? More and more people are finding out how to properly count time with one of the ancient Mayan calendars named the “Tzolkin” which is now known as the 13 Moon Natural Time calendar. It seems more proper to follow cycles of the sun and moon, rather than using leap years and odd number of days within the months of the Gregorian calendar. By using a correct timing mechanism, we can see this synchronicity much more clearly, becoming attuned with what is above.

A Wrong Time Module… Can It Be Fixed?

Leos 4 The Gregorian calendar was decreed 427 years ago in 1582. Named after Pope Gregory the XIII, this calendar was a modification of the Julian calendar because too many leap days are added with respect to the astronomical seasons. On average, the astronomical solstices and the equinoxes advance by about 11 minutes per year against the Julian year. Over time, the calculated date of Easter gradually moved out of phase with the March equinox. Easter started to fall on inappropriate days. This was the main outcome of the whole reform movement to the Gregorian calendar. After what had seemed to be fixed, the new calendar still had its fair share of issues. In Mapping Time by E.G. Richards, E.G. states: The Gregorian calendar is not a regular calendar in the proper sense since the leap days are not intercalated at strictly regular intervals and there is no well-defined intercalation cycle (Richards, 317). Over the course of time, our calendars have become more and more out of sync with the true cycles of planets and stars. He also states the loss of the lunar aspects within our Gregorian calendar: Perhaps because they did not want to burden themselves with 30 different almanacs, Lileo and Clavius abandoned the use of the lunar almanac as employed in the Dionysian Canon (Richards, 370). There are much more that meets the eye when it comes to the chaos of the Gregorian calendar. How do we find physical proof that a calendar is real? It so happened our tribal ancestors of the Indian, Hindu, Egyptians and Mayan as well as the Hebrew and Chinese used the true lunar cycles of the 13 Moon within their calendars. In Time and the Technosphere, Arguelles describes to us the definitions of the names of each month in the

Leos 5 Gregorian calendar: January is derived from the God of the doorway; February is an obscure word referring to an animal divinatory rite; March refers to Mars, the planet and the god of war; April and May refer to goddesses of the spring; June to the wife of Jupiter; July and August are named after the two most prominent Roman Emperors, Julius and Augustus Caesar. As for the remaining months, September, the ninth month, means seven; October, the tenth month, means eight; November, the eleventh month, means nine; and December, the twelfth month, means ten (Arguelles, 201). With Julius and Augustus Caesar having their own months of July and August, is it enough credible evidence of being a natural calendar? That answer should be a definite no. A calendar that tries to depict time by the celestial bodies above should not take names of months after humans of cultural importance. Pope Gregory the XIII also got his own two cents in by naming it the Gregorian calendar. Mentioned earlier, Lileo and Clavius abandoned the lunar aspects of the Julian calendar in the reformed Gregorian calendar. The 13 Moon calendar steps out of the boundaries of the Gregorian calendar by not only using lunar and solar cycles, but by using numerology as well. This numerology works with the 13 Moon day cycle. Whichever moon number you were born on, is supposed to explain who you are and how you work. This number is called a tone. This is also your “special” number, which is a more thorough formation of your own zodiac. In the actual 13 Moon Natural Time Calendar, it describes the tones and use: Each tone presents qualitative and numeric meaning in itself, and in relationship to the other tones…the 13 Tones portray the movement of creation, showing the

Leos 6 progression of life in interconnected stages. These universal energies govern the unfolding sequence of the recurring 13-day cycle, as well as the 13 moons of the year, and also correspond to the 13 major joints, which allow our body movement (2 ankles, 2 knees, 2 hips, 2 wrists, 2 elbows, 2, shoulders, and 1 neck/spine) (5). After December 21st, 2012 (known by uneducated people as our doomsday), marks the 1st day of our new golden age. The golden age will mark the 1st day of Spiritual Enlightenment, caused by the energies of the Galactic Alignment with the Earth, moon, sun, and Milky Way that was explained earlier. As stated by Synthia and Colin Andrews from 2012: An Ancient Look at a Critical Time, 2012 is meant to bring us back into alignment with natural time (154). According to the book The Maya by Michael Coe, the Mayan 13 Moon calendar is still being used in Mexico by indigenous peoples (62). It is also active in over 90 different countries, mostly used in eastern Asia and Japan. More and more people are becoming aware and making the shift to the 13 Moon calendar, following a constant cycle of 28 day months; rather than the jumbled uneven months within the Gregorian. This shift is one of the main gateways in the forefront of global enlightenment.

The Sun, the Source of All Energy

It is fact that the sun powers the Earth. Electricity, food and vitamin D all stem from this source of energy. When there is too much energized heat on the surface of the sun, sunspots naturally form. These spots have electro-magnetic poles at each side, much like the ones from our planet. Once a sunspot forms they create loops of magnetic energy

Leos 7 that formulate around the sun with thousands of other sunspots. When the energy from each pole erupts, the giant force creates a solar flare. This increases the ions within the ionosphere on earth, which formulates a yearly night watch for humans called the aurora borealis. When you think of the sun and the earth, imagine two magnets next to each other with a positive and negative side. As one energizes, energy greatly increases, the other will scatter. This scattering can be compared to as the aurora borealis, which is also known as a magnetic storm. When the flares on the sun increase, our suns magnetic fields also cause radio interference and other technical problems. This is called a solar maximum. As time moves on and the sun creates more spots and flares, the energy not only causes electronic issues within earth’s magnetosphere, but extreme weather patterns as well. Both Andrews state in 2012 that disasters such as Katrina, La Nina, and El Nino are the happenings from the suns agitation (122). As time moves on, we can expect more of these disasters to occur. As nature’s sheer force rises, we should not assume the doomsday persuasion but concur the adversity is joined hand in hand with the enlightenment of 2012; both which are apart of nature’s natural time cycles.

Earth’s Pole Reversal Caused by the Sun?

It has been speculated that we have been waiting for a “geomagnetic reversal” (Andrews, 123-124). This is when our north and south poles completely switch, from the deterioration of the worlds magnetic field force. Once opposing poles shift, the strength recovers quickly back to its previous state. Scientists are unable to estimate how rapid the readjustment occurs since the last reversal was 780,000 years ago. Though we aren’t

Leos 8 able to calculate the speed of this process we do have the evidence of reversals happening from the magnetic imprints in the magnetized volcanic rocks beneath the ocean. Scanning the ocean floor tells us reversals happen every 250,000 years, which confirms the validity for being long overdue: 530,000 years to be exact (123). Talking about sunspots and sun flares earlier, it is quick to say a magnetic pole reversal can be from the suns celestial body. This reversal will not only cause the major cataclysms explained, but even interference within animal’s sense of direction, which can disrupt migration routes and other nature cycles. Our own navigational system such as satellites and radar will also be affected, altering our everyday necessities of cell phones, TV’s and computers. It becomes clearer solar flares will be accountable for the earth’s pole reversal.

Letting Go of the Media Illusion; What is Really Right?

With these cataclysms and disruptions in our magnetosphere, one can immediately assume the doomsday theory our media propaganda has shed on the people. Our government controlled media uses persuasion to convince the population of television watchers to become fearful and to succumb into the government’s ploy. They use the persuasion techniques of cognitive dissonance and negative motivation. In Public Speaking: An Audience Centered Approach by Steven and Susan Beebe, they describe these methods: Cognitive dissonance: Telling listeners about existing problems or information that is inconsistent with their currently held beliefs or known information creates psychological discomfort…Negative motivation: People seek to avoid pain and

Leos 9 discomfort. They will be motivated to support what a speaker advocates if they are convinced that bad things will happen to them unless they do (Beebe, Beebe, 364). Using fear to cause pain and discomfort. Many people have no idea how to solve these crises’ talked about in this paper and in a propaganda film such as 2012. They don’t show us solutions to these global problems, rather it seems like they want us to wait for something to happen. As much as there will be fear-ridden citizens due to the media’s threats on humanity, there will be just as many people already enlightened. Much, much, more people will be enlightened; knowing the truth, about a true solar calendar named the 13 Moon Natural Time calendar described previously. They show us these films of apocalyptic fear, and also tell us to “search 2012” as said on a 2012 movie poster.

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How will enlightenment be achieved? As much as the media’s persuasive fear techniques

Leos 11 occur on millions of websites along the web, there are just as much more websites explaining the enlightenment of 2012. So when they tell us to “Search: 2012”, we will not only know the media’s exaggeration on future disasters, but the next step of enlightenment, describing to people around the world how accurate the Mayan calendar is depicting the Galactic Alignment in 2012. This will convince millions to follow this ancient Tzolkin calendar, now appropriately named the 13 Moon Natural Time calendar. So as thousands of people learn the use of a correct calendar by the hour (gradually achieving their enlightenment), the additional people unaware will become aware after the future date of 2012. How? The forging energies of the Galactic Alignment will cause solar flares, then disrupting our magnetosphere which will cause the polar shift; not only altering birds migration routes but our perception of thinking as well. The last of humanity will finally be familiarized with a correct time module. Andrews and Arguelles were both correct about 2012 being an alignment with natural time. Now we simply wait and see, consciously aware of the upcoming shift of vast spiritual information, and not an apocalyptic doomsday.

Weighing out Doomsday Possibilities.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), we have been in the lowest solar maximum in a century. 2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days: plot. Prompted by these numbers, some

Leos 12 observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008. Maybe not. Sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of the year's 90 days (87%). It adds up to one inescapable conclusion: "We're experiencing a very deep solar minimum," says solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This is the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century," agrees sunspot expert David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. It has become clear that the earth has not encountered increases in sunspots since Katrina. NOAA concludes in a future article on the NASA website that the solar maximum peaks in 2013 and will be fairly weak, with a below-average number of sunspots. It has become clear sunspots and solar flares are the reasoning behind a geomagnetic reversal, which will drastically alter the weather. Since the solar maximum does not even peak in 2012, surely we will not be seeing any catastrophic events until after 2012. This credibly rules out a doomsday involving the sun for 2012; thus eliminating multiple doomsday prophecies regarding the year. What other doomsday theories can come to mind that do not regard the sun? Think about global warming, but the doomsday event that will end all from global warming would absolutely come from the sun, by the melting of polar ice caps. How about getting hit by a comet, asteroid or any other celestial objects within the sky? In an article in Universe Today about comets, Ian O’Neill states: Objects such as 2007 VK184, a 130 meter-wide asteroid may cause problems in the distant future, but the probability of impact is still extremely low. Astronomers from the Catalina Sky Survey estimate a few possible impact dates for 2007 VK184, but the odds never exceed a 0.037% chance of hitting Earth in the next

Leos 13 100 years. Other asteroids are currently being tracked and they may cause some concern over a century from now (although none surpass a Torino scale of Level 1, and if they do, all tend to fall back to the "normal" Level 0). In short, the skies are clear from any imminent (certainly within the next 4 years) impact from an asteroid. Comets do not feature as a significant risk either. There is no astronomical evidence supporting otherwise (O‘Neill, No Comets). What other doomsday theories come to mind? A nuclear holocaust? One can imagine the destruction of our own species would not make sense to our globalist leaders. A global pandemic doesn’t seem plausible within the next three years. Super volcanoes? The film 2012 portrayed that the eruption of the Yellowstone volcano was the apocalyptic event that killed millions. In Andrews’s book, it is explained that the last super volcano erupted in 3500 B.C.E. in Greece (127). Why do they erupt? In Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization's End, Lawrence Joseph explains, “A growing number of scientists are coming to believe that the likelihood of volcanic eruptions is increased by global warming” (68). Stated previously, global warming is caused from the sun melting the polar ice caps. Since Earth won’t be having a solar maximum until around 2013, which will be weak, having a below average number of sunspots, it is doubtful 2012 will be ended by volcanoes. Though we are 530,000 years overdue for a magnetic pole reversal, there has been no recent activity of solar flares. We have been in a solar minimum for a number of years. Earthquakes seem to occur more often then usual. Andrews explains how earthquakes are also from global warming: According to the USGS study, retreating glaciers are changing external versus

Leos 14 internal pressures in the earth’s crust. Apparently the weight of the glacier stabilizes the plates underneath them. With the rapidly melting ice caps, shifts in weight distribution are increasing the likelihood of earthquakes (211). If earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are caused by global warming, then what about tsunamis? Andrews describes the correlation with earthquakes and volcanoes: Tsunamis are the result of underwater activity such as underwater earthquakes, landslides, or volcanoes…Increases in tsunamis happen with increased earthquakes and volcanoes…Scientists claim that today’s increase in Earth activity is a matter of increased attention, reporting, and technology (212, 213). If all of Earth’s previous disasters prove to be directly correlated to the sun in this argument, what other doomsday theories can be debunked? Out of the many described in this paper, the last one that could come to ones mind is an on edge bogus theory of being engulfed in a black hole. There is only one way for us to be engulfed in a black hole, and that is by physically making one. The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland has been speculated to form multiple miniature black holes. In a New York Times essay by Dennis Overbye, Overbye describes the odds of a black hole: Some physicists, who have been waiting 14 years for the new collider, have proclaimed in papers and press releases increasingly ambitious and unlikely hopes, including proving a long-shot version of string theory by producing microscopic black holes. Inevitably, these black holes have taken center stage in the latest round of doomsday alarms. Most theorists will say the version of their theory that predicts black holes is extremely unlikely — though not impossible. But the chance that such a black hole would not instantly evaporate according to a

Leos 15 theory famously propounded by Stephen Hawking in 1974 is even more weirdly unlikely, the theorists say (Overbye, “Gauging a Collider’s Odds”). The only evidence we can give of having a doomsday in 2012 is if the Large Hadron Collider makes a big enough black hole to eat us whole. Does it sound probable that this Large Hadron Collider will make a big enough black hole to swallow us? Extremely unlikely says doomsday theorists. Where is 2012 going to take the planet?

The Last Call

In closing, with natures disasters occurring at their natural cycles, how is it plausible that this is the end of civilization, as we know it? A NASA frequently asked question (FAQ) article on the NASA website says: Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012...For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012 (“2012: Beginning of the End“). This future year is not about doomsday but rather a renewal, a beginning of a new cycle of logistical thought. The ultimate question is do you believe the media’s persuasive fear techniques of exaggeration, living day by day in a illogical, uneven time module, or

Leos 16 become a part of the early-bird group of enlightened people following a natural solar and lunar calendar? Either way, this transformation of spiritual energy will grasp upon the Earth after the galactic alignment. One can either be apart of the solution now by spreading this knowledge, or apart of the problem by either doing nothing, or refusing what’s logical. Fear; an overwhelming emotion caused by the uncertainty of what’s known.

Works Cited

Leos 17 2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End? NASA, 6 Nov. 2009. Web. 5 Dec. 2009. Andrews, Synthia, and Colin Andrews. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to 2012: An Ancient Look at a Critical Time. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print. Arguelles, Jose. Time and the Technosphere: The Law of Time in Human Affairs. Rochester: Bear, 2002. Print. Beebe, Steven, and Susan Beebe. Public Speaking: An Audience Centered Approach. Pearson, 2006. Print. Coe, Michael. The Maya. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2005. Print. Jenkins, John. Maya Cosmogenesis 2012. Rochester: Bear, 1998. Print. Joseph, Lawrence. Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization’s End. New York: Morgan Road, 2007. Print. O’Neill, Ian. 2012: No Comet. Universe Today, 21 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 Dec. 2009. Overbye, Dennis. Gauging a Collider’s Odds of Creating a Black Hole. New York: New York Times, 15 April 2008. Web. 4 Dec. 2009. Phillips, Tony. Deep Solar Maximum. Science@NASA, 1 April 2009. Web. 5 Dec. 2009. Phillips, Tony. New Solar Cycle Prediction. Science@NASA, 29 May 2009. Web. 5 Dec. 2009. Richards, E.G. Mapping Time. Oxford: Oxford University, 1999. Print. The 13-Moon Natural Time Calendar. Skytime, 2009. Print.

Image: Columbia Pictures, 2009. Web. 5 Dec. 2009.