Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Awakening?: A Complete Guide to End-Of-Time Predictions by Geoff Stray, John Major Jenkins (Foreword by)

From the Publisher

MAYAN STUDIES / NEW AGE

“If there is one book you need to read about 2012, it is this one. Don’t believe a thing until you do. The facts, the fiction, and the reality--it’s all here, Made easy. Essential reading.”
--Andrew Collins, author of From the Ashes of Angels and Gods of Eden

“I support and encourage serious discussion of 2012, and the current level of the discussion--in quality and cogency--must be raised. Beyond 2012 does this with admirable comprehension and comprehensiveness, inviting us all to engage with this topic in deeper ways.”
--John Major Jenkins, author of Tzolkin, Maya Cosmogenesis 2012, and Galactic Alignment

In December of 2012 the Mayan Calendar’s Great Cycle will come to an end. Opinion remains divided as to whether apocalyptic scenarios of worldwide destruction or utopian visions of a spiritually renewed humanity will prevail after this key date has passed. What is certain, however, is that a rare galactic alignment will occur, one so unique that it is found at the core of many wisdom traditions from around the globe.

Geoff Stray has been collecting the vast amounts of data relating to the 2012 phenomena since 1982. Far from confining his research to the Maya, who provide the most prominent predictions indicating this date will herald significant changes for humanity, he has studied the prophetic traditions of other cultures--including the Tibetan, Chinese, Jewish, Ethiopian, and tribal cultures from around the globe--to show the kind of convergence of cosmic purposes happening along a number of parallel tracks. This bookoffers an extensive study of many modern theories, including Terence McKenna’s Timewave Zero and Maurice Cotterell’s sunspot research as well as anomalous phenomena such as near-death experiences and crop circles. Sifting through all the scientific research and speculation that the year 2012 has inspired, Geoff Stray provides an encyclopedic look at what we might really expect on this pivotal date.

GEOFF STRAY, an international speaker who has been researching the subject of the year 2012 since 1982, is the author of The Mayan and Other Ancient Calendars and 2012 in Your Pocket. He maintains the website Diagnosis 2012, the most comprehensive database available on 2012. He lives in England.

Product Details

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Table of Contents

Read an Excerpt

ANALYSIS

THREE QUESTIONS

In part 1, we saw that as well as the 13-baktun cycle of the Maya, other calendars such as the Tibetan, Vedic, and Jewish calendars all indicate 2012 as the end of a long-term cycle. We also saw how many indigenous people from North, Meso, and South America, and even Africa and New Zealand, have recently been saying that now is the time to reveal their ancient prophecies, and that they invariably mention dates that correspond to the Western year 2012 as the time of either catastrophic Earth changes and/or a spiritual leap for humankind. These prophecies seem to validate the conclusions from studying the calendars, but how reliable are the prophecies?

In part 2, we looked at theories in which researchers have tried to find a possible cause for the prophesied changes. A lot of the interest shown in the year 2012 has originated from two bestselling books. These are The Mayan Factor by José Argüelles and The Mayan Prophecies by Maurice Cotterell and Adrian Gilbert. As we have seen, despite some good points, both books contain errors that have resulted in confusion about the Maya calendars, and this confusion has infected the theories of several researchers who have been influenced by these books. A third bestseller, Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints of the Gods, has further confused matters by quoting a defunct 2011 end-date for the 13-baktun cycle. The problem here is to sift out the infected parts of the theories, plus other errors--we don’t always have to throw the whole theory out, but how much is left at the end of this process?

In part 3 we looked at modern sources ofconfirmation about 2012, including sacred plants, near-death and out-of-body experiences, UFO contact experiences, remote viewing, prophets, visionaries, and magic(k)ians. The question here is: How many of these sources have also been infected, whether consciously or subconsciously, by existing prophecies and theories?

ARE THE PROPHECIES RELIABLE?

If we look back through the prophecies quoted, we notice that some of them say there will be a catastrophe of huge proportions, with just a handful of survivors, while other prophecies play down this element, just emphasizing the changes to humankind. Many versions include the concept of a period of purification or purging prior to 2012, but the starting dates vary as follows: 1985 (Patricio Dominguez, see note 3); 1987 (Senecas, Cherokees, and Carlos Barrios); 1989 (modern Aztecs such as Ehekateoti Kuauhtlinxan); 1990-1993 (Q’ero); 1991 (Quetza-Sha); 1991-2001 (Gerardo Barrios); 1998-2000 (the Pueblo); 2000 (Q’ero, interviewed by Alberto Villoldo2). Others have said that the last katun of the 13-baktun cycle is the “time of purification” but have then given 1992 as the year in question, repeating an error in The Mayan Factor. A katun is twenty tuns of 360 days, totaling 7,200 days, or approximately 19.72 years. The final katun started on 12.19.0.0.0, which was April 5, 1993. So the prophecies agree that there will be a period of purification lasting anywhere from 27 years to 11 years before the end of the final katun in December 2012.

If we filter out the prophecies that are infected with New Age dogma, we are still left with some impressive predictions. The Seneca medicine man Moses Shongo, for example, made his prediction around the year 1925 of a 25-year period of purification before 2012. I recently had an e-mail from my friend Len Stevens, who has been living at a meditation retreat at a temple in Thailand, in which he told me of the predictions of his teacher, who lives in Northern Thailand. He has three times received detailed information, while meditating, concerning forthcoming acts of war:

[These events culminate] in a pole reversal in 2012--the destruction of everyone who isn’t at least partially enlightened or in the presence of an enlightened one. I really don’t think these people are aware of the other prophecies regarding 2012.

The Maori prophecy (see chapter 2) is instructive here, showing how a misinterpretation can arise. The “fall of the curtain” was interpreted as the end of the world following the final scene of the play, but on further investigation it actually means the “dissolving of the veil.” In fact many people are worried that in 2012 the world will end. They are right! The world will end; it will be the end of the Fourth World of the Hopi and Maya and the start of the Fifth World. It is a World Transition, or the end of a World Era, and perhaps the end of the world as we know it.

This is the same as the end of the Fifth Sun of the Aztecs and the start of the Sixth Sun. The Earth changes have begun, and there is a general agreement in the prophecies that the purification period will be a time in which humankind will have the opportunity to evolve and in which we can consciously help the process by visiting sacred sites to “strengthen our energy bodies” or to do exercises to “engage our energy bodies.” Some say that the progress we make on ourselves and on lessening our ecological impact on the planet could lessen the Earth changes. Phrases like “destruction of unenlightened ones” may be due to the insidious percolation of the Christian concept of the Judgment Day, but they may also be a warning to clean out our cerebral closets before the locks are broken open and we are confronted with our own suppressed complexes. Judging by the effects of various self-help therapies in exorcising personal demons, this could be like all hell breaking loose in the mind before equilibrium is achieved.

Read a Sample Chapter

ANALYSIS


THREE QUESTIONS

In part 1, we saw that as well as the 13-baktun cycle of the Maya, other calendars such as the Tibetan, Vedic, and Jewish calendars all indicate 2012 as the end of a long-term cycle. We also saw how many indigenous people from North, Meso, and South America, and even Africa and New Zealand, have recently been saying that now is the time to reveal their ancient prophecies, and that they invariably mention dates that correspond to the Western year 2012 as the time of either catastrophic Earth changes and/or a spiritual leap for humankind. These prophecies seem to validate the conclusions from studying the calendars, but how reliable are the prophecies?

In part 2, we looked at theories in which researchers have tried to find a possible cause for the prophesied changes. A lot of the interest shown in the year 2012 has originated from two bestselling books. These are The Mayan Factor by José Argüelles and The Mayan Prophecies by Maurice Cotterell and Adrian Gilbert. As we have seen, despite some good points, both books contain errors that have resulted in confusion about the Maya calendars, and this confusion has infected the theories of several researchers who have been influenced by thesebooks. A third bestseller, Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints of the Gods, has further confused matters by quoting a defunct 2011 end-date for the 13-baktun cycle. The problem here is to sift out the infected parts of the theories, plus other errors--we don’t always have to throw the whole theory out, but how much is left at the end of this process?

In part 3 we looked at modern sources of confirmation about 2012, including sacred plants, near-death and out-of-body experiences, UFO contact experiences, remote viewing, prophets, visionaries, and magic(k)ians. The question here is: How many of these sources have also been infected, whether consciously or subconsciously, by existing prophecies and theories?

ARE THE PROPHECIES RELIABLE?

If we look back through the prophecies quoted, we notice that some of them say there will be a catastrophe of huge proportions, with just a handful of survivors, while other prophecies play down this element, just emphasizing the changes to humankind. Many versions include the concept of a period of purification or purging prior to 2012, but the starting dates vary as follows: 1985 (Patricio Dominguez, see note 3); 1987 (Senecas, Cherokees, and Carlos Barrios); 1989 (modern Aztecs such as Ehekateoti Kuauhtlinxan); 1990-1993 (Q’ero); 1991 (Quetza-Sha); 1991-2001 (Gerardo Barrios); 1998-2000 (the Pueblo); 2000 (Q’ero, interviewed by Alberto Villoldo2). Others have said that the last katun of the 13-baktun cycle is the “time of purification” but have then given 1992 as the year in question, repeating an error in The Mayan Factor. A katun is twenty tuns of 360 days, totaling 7,200 days, or approximately 19.72 years. The final katun started on 12.19.0.0.0, which was April 5, 1993. So the prophecies agree that there will be a period of purification lasting anywhere from 27 years to 11 years before the end of the final katun in December 2012.

If we filter out the prophecies that are infected with New Age dogma, we are still left with some impressive predictions. The Seneca medicine man Moses Shongo, for example, made his prediction around the year 1925 of a 25-year period of purification before 2012. I recently had an e-mail from my friend Len Stevens, who has been living at a meditation retreat at a temple in Thailand, in which he told me of the predictions of his teacher, who lives in Northern Thailand. He has three times received detailed information, while meditating, concerning forthcoming acts of war:

[These events culminate] in a pole reversal in 2012--the destruction of everyone who isn’t at least partially enlightened or in the presence of an enlightened one. I really don’t think these people are aware of the other prophecies regarding 2012.

The Maori prophecy (see chapter 2) is instructive here, showing how a misinterpretation can arise. The “fall of the curtain” was interpreted as the end of the world following the final scene of the play, but on further investigation it actually means the “dissolving of the veil.” In fact many people are worried that in 2012 the world will end. They are right! The world will end; it will be the end of the Fourth World of the Hopi and Maya and the start of the Fifth World. It is a World Transition, or the end of a World Era, and perhaps the end of the world as we know it.

This is the same as the end of the Fifth Sun of the Aztecs and the start of the Sixth Sun. The Earth changes have begun, and there is a general agreement in the prophecies that the purification period will be a time in which humankind will have the opportunity to evolve and in which we can consciously help the process by visiting sacred sites to “strengthen our energy bodies” or to do exercises to “engage our energy bodies.” Some say that the progress we make on ourselves and on lessening our ecological impact on the planet could lessen the Earth changes. Phrases like “destruction of unenlightened ones” may be due to the insidious percolation of the Christian concept of the Judgment Day, but they may also be a warning to clean out our cerebral closets before the locks are broken open and we are confronted with our own suppressed complexes. Judging by the effects of various self-help therapies in exorcising personal demons, this could be like all hell breaking loose in the mind before equilibrium is achieved.

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Excerpted from Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Awakening? by Geoff Stray Copyright © 2009 by Geoff Stray. Excerpted by permission.
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