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an inscription in Mayan characters set into yellow stone
A date inscription for the Mayan Long Count

The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21, 2012,[1][2][3] which is said to be the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mayan Long Count calendar. Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae related to this date have been proposed.

A New Age interpretation of this transition posits that during this time Earth and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era.[4] Others suggest that the 2012 date marks the end of the world or a similar catastrophe. Scenarios posited for the end of the world include the Earth's collision with a passing planet (often referred to as "Nibiru") or black hole, or the arrival of the next solar maximum.

Scholars from various disciplines have dismissed the idea of catastrophe in 2012. Mainstream Mayanist scholars state that predictions of impending doom are not found in any of the existing classic Maya accounts, and that the idea that the Long Count calendar "ends" in 2012 misrepresents Maya history.[3][5] The modern Maya do not consider the date significant, and the classical sources on the subject are scarce and contradictory, suggesting that there was little if any universal agreement among them about what, if anything, the date might mean.[6]

Additionally, astronomers and other scientists have rejected the apocalyptic forecasts as pseudoscience, stating that the anticipated events are contradicted by simple astronomical observations.[7] NASA has compared fears about 2012 with those about the approaching millennium in the late 1990s, suggesting that an adequate analysis should preclude fears of disaster.[7] None of the proposed alignments or formulas have been accepted by mainstream scholarship.

Mesoamerican Long Count calendar

Main article: Mesoamerican Long Count calendar

December 2012 marks the conclusion of a b'ak'tun; a time period in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, which was used in Central America prior to the arrival of Europeans. Though the Long Count was most likely invented by the Olmec,[8] it has become closely associated with the Maya civilization, whose classic period lasted from 250 to 900 AD.[9] The writing system of the classic Maya has been substantially deciphered,[10] meaning that a corpus of their written and inscribed material has survived from before the European conquest.

Unlike the 52-year Calendar Round still used today among the Maya, the Long Count was linear, rather than cyclical, and kept time roughly in units of 20: 20 days made a uinal, 18 uinals (360 days) made a tun, 20 tuns made a k'atun, and 20 k'atuns (144,000 days) made up a b'ak'tun. Thus, the Mayan date of 8.3.2.10.15 represents 8 b'ak'tuns, 3 k'atuns, 2 tuns, 10 uinals and 15 days.[11][12]

Apocalypse

See also: Fifth World (Native American mythology)

There is a strong tradition of "world ages" in Maya literature, but unfortunately the record has been distorted, leaving several possibilities open.[13] According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the K'iche' Maya of the Colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fourth world.[14] The Popol Vuh describes the first three creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fourth world, where men were placed. In the Maya Long Count, the previous world ended after 13 b'ak'tuns, or roughly 5,125 years.[15][b] The Long Count's "zero date"[a] was set at a point in the past marking the end of the third world and the beginning of the current one, which corresponds to 11 August 3114 BC in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar.[16][c] This means that the fourth world will also have reached the end of its thirteenth b'ak'tun, or Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0, on December 21 2012.[1][c]

In 1957, Mayanist and astronomer Maud Worcester Makemson wrote that "the completion of a Great Period of 13 b'ak'tuns would have been of the utmost significance to the Maya".[17] In 1966, Michael D. Coe more ambitiously asserted in The Maya that "there is a suggestion ... that Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation on the final day of the thirteenth [b'ak'tun]. Thus ... our present universe [would] be annihilated [in December 2012][d] when the Great Cycle of the Long Count reaches completion."[18]

Objections

Coe's apocalyptic interpretation was repeated by other scholars through the early 1990s.[19] In contrast, later researchers said that, while the end of the 13th b'ak'tun would perhaps be a cause for celebration,[3] it did not mark the end of the calendar.[20] "There is nothing in the Maya or Aztec or ancient Mesoamerican prophecy to suggest that they prophesied a sudden or major change of any sort in 2012," says Mayanist scholar Mark Van Stone. "The notion of a "Great Cycle" coming to an end is completely a modern invention."[21] In 1990, Mayanist scholars Linda Schele and David Freidel argued that the Maya "did not conceive this to be the end of creation, as many have suggested."[22] Susan Milbrath, curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, stated that "We have no record or knowledge that [the Maya] would think the world would come to an end" in 2012."[3] For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Florida. To render December 21, 2012, as a doomsday event or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in."[3] "There will be another cycle," says E. Wyllys Andrews V, director of the Tulane University Middle American Research Institute (MARI). "We know the Maya thought there was one before this, and that implies they were comfortable with the idea of another one after this."[23]

Mayan references to b'ak'tun 13

The present-day Maya, as a whole, do not attach much significance to b'ak'tun 13. Although the Calendar Round is still used by some Maya groups in the Guatemalan highlands, the Long Count was employed exclusively by the classic Maya, and was only recently rediscovered by archaeologists.[24] Mayan elder Apolinario Chile Pixtun and Mexican archaeologist Guillermo Bernal both note that "apocalypse" is a Western concept that has little or nothing to do with Mayan beliefs. Bernal believes that such ideas have been foisted on the Maya by Westerners because their own myths are "exhausted".[25][26] Mayan archaeologist Jose Huchm has stated that "If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn't have any idea. That the world is going to end? They wouldn't believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain".[25]

What significance the classic Maya gave the 13th b'ak'tun is uncertain. Most classic Maya inscriptions are strictly historical and do not make any prophetic declarations.[27] Two items in the Maya historical corpus, however, may mention the end of the 13th b'ak'tun: Tortuguero Monument 6 and, possibly, the Chilam Balam.

Tortuguero

Vase illustration in which the god Bolon Yukte is seen in profile, kneeling with his head back and his mouth open. He wears an elaborate feather headdress.
The Tortuguero monument connects the end of the 13th b'ak'tun with the appearance of Bolon Yokte' K'uh, shown here on the Vase of Seven Gods.

The Tortuguero site, which lies in southernmost Tabasco, Mexico, dates from the 7th century AD and consists of a series of inscriptions mostly in honor of the contemporary ruler Bahlam Ajaw. One inscription, known as Tortuguero Monument 6, is the only inscription to refer to b'ak'tun 13. It has been partially defaced; Sven Gronemeyer and Barbara MacLeod have given the most complete translation:

tzuhtzjo:m uy-u:xlaju:n pik
It will be completed the thirteenth b'ak'tun.
chan ajaw u:x uni:w
It is 4 Ajaw 3 K'ank'in
uhto:m il?
and it will happen a 'seeing'[?].
ye'ni/ye:n bolon yokte'
It is the display of B'olon-Yokte'
ta chak joyaj
in a great "investiture".[28]

Very little is known about the god Bolon Yokte'. According to an article by Mayanists Markus Eberl and Christian Prager in British Anthropological Reports, his name is composed of the elements "nine", 'OK-te' (the meaning of which is unknown), and "god". Confusion in classical period inscriptions suggests that the name was already ancient and unfamiliar to contemporary scribes.[29] He also appears in inscriptions from Palenque, Usumacinta, and La Mar as a god of war, conflict, and the underworld. In one stela he is portrayed with a rope tied around his neck, and in another with an incense bag, together signifying a sacrifice to end a period of time.[30]

On the subject of the future events being prophesied, Gronemeyer and MacLeod note that "[t]he popular adage of Murphy's Law now comes into play, as this statement is badly eroded," but using modern Maya ceremony to supplement the fragments, they claim that it refers to a celebratory ritual where a person portraying Bolon Yokte' K'uh is wrapped in ritual garments and paraded around the site.[31] They note that the association of Bolon Yokte' K'uh with the 13 b'ak'tun date appears to be so important on this inscription that it supersedes more typical statements of future celebrations such as "erection of stelae, scattering of incense" and so forth. They furthermore assert that this event was indeed planned for 2012, and not the 7th century.[32]

Chilam Balam

The Chilam Balam are a group of post-conquest Mayan prophetic histories transcribed in a modified form of the Spanish alphabet. Their authorship is ascribed to a chilam balam, or jaguar prophet.[33] The Chilam Balam of Tizimin has been translated four times in the 20th century, with many disputes over the meaning of its passages. One passage in particular is relevant to the interpretation of the 13th b'ak'tun:

lic u tal oxlahun bak chem, ti u cenic u (tzan a cen/ba nacom)i (ciac/cha') a ba yum(il/t)exe

Maud Worcester Makemson, an archaeoastronomer, believed that this line referred to the "tremendously important event of the arrival of 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau 3 Kankin in the not too distant future",[34] Her translation of the line, runs:

Presently B'ak'tun 13 shall come sailing, figuratively speaking, bringing the ornaments of which I have spoken from your ancestors.

Her version of the text continues, "Then the god will come to visit his little ones. Perhaps 'After Death' will be the subject of his discourse." Makemson was still relying on her own dating of 13.0.0.0.0 to 1752 and therefore the "not too distant future" in her annotations meant a few years after the scribe in Tizimin recorded his Chilam Balam.[35] The more recent translation of Munro S. Edmonson does not support this reading; he considers the Long Count almost entirely absent from the book, since the 360-day tun was supplanted in the 1750s by a 365-day Christian year, and a 24-round may system was being implemented.[36] He translates the line as follows:

...like the coming of 13 sail-ships. When the captains dress themselves, your fathers will be taken.[37]

Other Chilam Balam books contain references to the 13th b'ak'tun, but it is unclear if these are in the past or future; for example, oxhun bakam u katunil (thirteen bakam of k'atuns) in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel.[38] Bolon Yokte' K'uh appears in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel to signify an apparent battle and victory over Spanish invaders.[39]

Dates beyond b'ak'tun 13

Mayan inscriptions occasionally reference predicted future events or commemorations that would occur on dates that lie beyond the completion of the 13th b'ak'tun. Most of these are in the form of "distance dates" where some Long Count date is given, together with a Distance Number that is to be added to the Long Count date to arrive at this future date. On the west panel at the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque, a section of the text projects into the future to the 80th Calendar Round anniversary of the Palenque ruler K'inich Janaab' Pakal's accession to the throne (Pakal's accession occurred on 9.9.2.4.8; equivalent to 27 July 615 CE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar). It does this by commencing with Pakal's birthdate of 9.8.9.13.0 (24 March 603 CE Gregorian) and adding to it the Distance Number 10.11.10.5.8.[40] This calculation arrives at the 80th Calendar Round since his accession, which lies over 4,000 years after Pakal's time—October 21 4772 AD.[21][40][41]

Another example is Stela 1 at Coba, which gives a date of 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, or twenty units above the b'ak'tun, placing it either 4.134105 × 1028 (41 octillion) years in the future,[22] or an equal distance in the past.[42] Either way, this date is 3 quintillion times the age of the universe, demonstrating that not all Mayans considered the 5,125-year cycle as the most important.

New Age beliefs

Many assertions about 2012 are a form of Mayanism,[e] a non-codified collection of New Age beliefs about ancient Maya wisdom and spirituality. Archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni says that while the idea of "balancing the cosmos" was prominent in ancient Maya literature, and some modern Maya affirm this idea of an age of coexistence, the 2012 phenomenon does not present this message in its original form. Instead, it is bound up with American traditions such as the New Age movement, millenarianism, and the belief in secret knowledge from distant times and places.[43] Established themes found in 2012 literature include "suspicion towards mainstream Western culture", the idea of spiritual evolution, and the possibility of leading the world into the New Age by individual example or by a group's joined consciousness. The general intent of this literature is not to warn of impending doom but "to foster counter-cultural sympathies and eventually socio-political and 'spiritual' activism".[2] Aveni, who has studied New Age and SETI communities, describes 2012 narratives as the product of a "disconnected" society: "Unable to find spiritual answers to life's big questions within ourselves, we turn outward to imagined entities that lie far off in space or time—entities that just might be in possession of superior knowledge."[44]

In 1975, the ending of the b'ak'tun became the subject of speculation by several New Age authors, who believe it will correspond to a global "consciousness shift". In his book Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth Age of Consciousness, Frank Waters tied Coe's December 24, 2011[c] date to astrology and the prophecies of the Hopi,[45] while both José Argüelles and Terence McKenna (in their books The Transformative Vision[46] and The Invisible Landscape[47][48] respectively) discussed the significance of the year 2012, but not a specific day. In 1987, the year in which he held the Harmonic Convergence event, Argüelles settled on the date of December 21 in his book The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology,[49][50] in which he claimed on that date the Earth would pass through a great "beam" from the centre of the Galaxy, and that the Maya aligned their calendar in anticipation of that event.[51]

Galactic alignment

In the mid-1990s, esoteric author John Major Jenkins asserted that the ancient Maya intended to tie the end of their calendar to the winter solstice in 2012, which falls on December 21. This date was in line with an idea he terms the galactic alignment.[52]

In the Solar System, the planets and the Sun share roughly the same plane of orbit, known as the plane of the ecliptic. From our perspective on Earth, the ecliptic is the path taken by the Sun across the sky over the course of the year. The 12 constellations which line the ecliptic are known as the zodiac and, through the year, the Sun passes through each constellation in turn. Additionally, over time, the Sun's annual passage appears to recede counterclockwise by one degree every 72 years. This movement, called "precession", is attributed to a slight wobble in the Earth's axis as it spins.[53] As a result, approximately every 2,160 years, the constellation visible on the early 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, precession makes one full circuit around the ecliptic.[53]

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 is the zodiacal constellation intersected by the galactic equator.[54] Every year for the last 1,000 years or so, on the winter solstice, from the surface of the Earth, the Sun and the galactic equator appear to come into alignment, and every year, precession pushes the Sun's position a little way further through the Milky Way's band.

a photoraph of the Milky Way, rotated 90 degrees
The Milky Way near Cygnus showing the lane of the Dark Rift, which the Maya called the Xibalba be or "Black Road"

Jenkins suggests that the Maya based their calendar on observations of the Great Rift, a band of dark dust clouds in the Milky Way, which the Maya called the Xibalba be or "Black Road."[55] Jenkins claims that the Maya were aware of where the ecliptic intersected the Black Road and gave this position in the sky a special significance in their cosmology.[56] According to the hypothesis, the Sun precisely aligns with this intersection point at the winter solstice of 2012.[56] Jenkins claimed that the classical Mayans anticipated this conjunction and celebrated it as the harbinger of a profound spiritual transition for mankind.[57] 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.[58] Jenkins attributes the insights of ancient Maya shamans about the galactic center to their use of psilocybin mushrooms, psychoactive toads, and other psychedelics.[59] Jenkins also associates the Xibalba be with a "world tree", drawing on studies of contemporary (not ancient) Maya cosmology.[60]

Astronomers argue that the galactic equator is an entirely arbitrary line, and can never be precisely determined because it is impossible to say exactly where the Milky Way begins or ends. Jenkins claims he drew his conclusions about the location of the galactic equator from observations taken at above 11,000 feet (3,400 m), which is higher than any of the Maya lived.[51] Furthermore, the precessional alignment of the Sun with any single point is not exclusive to a specific year, but takes place over a 36-year period, corresponding to its diameter. Jenkins himself notes that, even given his determined location for the line of the galactic equator, its most precise convergence with the centre of the Sun already occurred in 1998.[61][62]

There is no clear evidence that the classic Maya were aware of precession. Some Maya scholars, such as Barbara MacLeod, Michael Grofe, Eva Hunt, Gordon Brotherston, and Anthony Aveni,[63] have suggested that some Mayan holy dates were timed to precessional cycles, but scholarly opinion on the subject remains divided.[21] There is also little evidence, archaeological or historical, that the Maya placed any importance on solstices or equinoxes.[21][64] It is possible that early Mesoamericans had an emphasis on solstices which was later forgotten,[65] but this is also a disputed issue among Mayanists.[21][64] The start date of the Long Count is not astronomically significant.[66]

Timewave zero and the I Ching

a greyscale graph with multiple, jagged peaks and troughs and an overall descending pattern, set amidst complex virtual instrumentation
A screenshot of the Timewave Zero software

"Timewave zero" is a numerological formula that purports to calculate the ebb and flow of "novelty", defined as increase in the universe's interconnectedness, or organised complexity,[67] over time. According to Terence McKenna, who conceived the idea over several years in the early- to mid-1970s while using psilocybin mushrooms and DMT, the universe has a teleological attractor at the end of time that increases interconnectedness, eventually reaching a singularity of infinite complexity in 2012, at which point anything and everything imaginable will occur simultaneously.[67]

McKenna expressed "novelty" in a computer program, which purportedly produces a waveform known as timewave zero or the timewave. Based on McKenna's interpretation of the King Wen sequence of the I Ching,[47] the graph appears to show great periods of novelty corresponding with major shifts in humanity's biological and sociocultural evolution. He believed the events of any given time are recursively related to the events of other times, and chose the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as the basis for calculating his end date in November 2012. When he later discovered this date's proximity to the end of the 13th b'ak'tun of the Maya calendar, he revised his hypothesis so that the two dates matched.[68]

The first edition of The Invisible Landscape refers to 2012 (as the year, not a specific day) only twice. It was only in 1983, with the publication of Sharer's revised table of date correlations in the 4th edition of Morley's The Ancient Maya, that each became convinced that December 21, 2012, had significant meaning. McKenna subsequently included this specific date throughout the second edition of The Invisible Landscape, published in 1993.[2]

Other New Age ideas

In 2006, author Daniel Pinchbeck popularised New Age concepts about this date in his book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, linking it to beliefs about crop circles, alien abduction, and personal revelations based on the use of entheogens and mediumship.[69][70] Pinchbeck claims to discern a "growing realization that materialism and the rational, empirical worldview that comes with it has reached its expiration date...[w]e're on the verge of transitioning to a dispensation of consciousness that's more intuitive, mystical and shamanic."[71] Aveni dismisses all these authors.[72]

In India, the guru Kalki Bhagavan has promoted 2012 as a "deadline" for human enlightenment since at least 1998.[73][74]

Frank Joseph's Atlantis and 2012: The Science of the Lost Civilization and the Prophecies of the Maya, published in 2010,[75] links supposed Maya prophecies about December 21, 2012 to mythology about the lost continents of Atlantis and Lemuria, claiming that knowledge of a past cataclysm was carried to the ancient Maya and to ancient Egypt. Joseph connects this knowledge to stories of the Ark of the Covenant, which he claims was stolen from the Great Pyramid by Moses, brought from Jerusalem to the Americas by the Knights Templar, and now lies hidden in a cave in Illinois, awaiting its prophesied discovery in 2012. The discovery of the ark and the knowledge it contains will usher in a New Age.

Beginning in 2000, the small French village of Bugarach, population 189, began receiving visits from "esoterics"; mystic believers who have concluded that the local mountain, Pic de Bugarach, was the ideal location to weather the transformative events of 2012. In 2011, the local mayor, Jean-Pierre Delord, began voicing fears to the international press that the small town would be overwhelmed by an influx of thousands of visitors in 2012, even suggesting he may call in the army.[76][77]

Doomsday theories

A far more apocalyptic view of the year 2012 has also spread in various media, describing the end of the world or of human civilization on that date. This view has been promulgated by many hoax pages on the Internet, particularly on YouTube,[78] and by the History Channel, with such series as Decoding the Past (2005–2007), 2012, End of Days (2006), Last Days on Earth (2006), Seven Signs of the Apocalypse (2007), and Nostradamus 2012 (2008).[79] The Discovery Channel also aired 2012 Apocalypse in 2009, suggesting that massive solar storms, magnetic pole reversal, earthquakes, supervolcanoes, and other drastic natural events may occur in 2012.[80] Author Graham Hancock, in his book Fingerprints of the Gods, interpreted Coe's remarks in Breaking the Maya Code[81] as evidence for the prophecy of a global cataclysm.[82]

Other alignments

An apocalyptic reading of Jenkins's hypothesis has that, when the galactic alignment occurs, it will somehow create a combined gravitational effect between the Sun and the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy (known as Sagittarius A*), creating havoc on Earth.[83] Apart from the fact noted above that the "galactic alignment" predicted by Jenkins already happened in 1998, the Sun's apparent path through the zodiac as seen from Earth does not take it near the true galactic center, but rather several degrees above it.[84] Even if this were not the case, Sagittarius A* is 30,000 light years from Earth, and would have to be more than 6 million times closer to cause any gravitational disruption to Earth's Solar System.[85][86] This reading of Jenkins's theories was included on the History Channel documentary, Decoding the Past. However, Jenkins has complained of the fact that a science fiction writer co-authored the documentary, and went on to characterize it as "45 minutes of unabashed doomsday hype and the worst kind of inane sensationalism".[87]

Some suggested alternate alignments relate to a very different "galactic alignment" proposed by some scientists to explain a supposed periodicity in mass extinctions in the fossil record.[88] The hypothesis supposes that vertical oscillations made by the Sun as it orbits the galactic center cause it to regularly pass through the galactic plane. When the Sun's orbit takes it outside the galactic plane which bisects the galactic disc, the influence of the galactic tide is weaker; as it re-enters the galactic disc, as it does every 20–25 million years, it comes under the influence of the far stronger "disc tides", which, according to mathematical models, increase the flux of Oort cloud comets into the Solar System by a factor of 4, leading to a massive increase in the likelihood of a devastating comet impact.[89] However, this "alignment" takes place over tens of millions of years, and could never be timed to an exact date.[90] Evidence shows that the Sun passed through the plane bisecting the galactic disc only three million years ago, and is now moving farther above it.[91]

A third suggested alignment is a planetary conjunction on December 21, 2012. However, there will be no alignment of planets on that date.[92]

Geomagnetic reversal

Another idea involves a geomagnetic reversal (often incorrectly referred to as a polar shift by proponents of this hypothesis), perhaps triggered by a massive solar flare, one with energy equal to 100 billion atomic bombs.[93] This belief is supposedly supported by observations that the Earth's magnetic field is weakening,[94] which could precede a reversal of the north and south magnetic poles. Critics, however, claim geomagnetic reversals take up to 5,000 years to complete, and do not start on any particular date. Also, NOAA now predicts that the solar maximum will peak in 2013, not 2012, and that it will be fairly weak, with a below-average number of sunspots.[95] In any case, there is no scientific evidence linking a solar maximum to a geomagnetic reversal.[96] In particular, the planet's magnetic fields are caused and regulated by the spinning of the solid inner core inside the molten outer core, and so cannot be changed by something external to the planet such as a solar flare. A solar maximum would be mostly notable for its effects on satellite and cellular phone communications.[97] NASA's David Morrison attributes the rise of the solar storm idea to physicist and science populariser Michio Kaku, who claimed in an interview with Fox News that a solar peak in 2012 could be disastrous for orbiting satellites.[78]

Planet X/Nibiru

Main article: Nibiru collision

Some proponents of doomsday in 2012 claim that a planet called Planet X or Nibiru will collide with or pass by Earth in that year. This idea, which has appeared in various forms within New Age circles since 1995, initially slated the event for 2003 but abandoned that date after it passed without incident. It originated from claims of channeling of alien beings and has been widely ridiculed.[98][99] Astronomers calculate that such an object so close to Earth would be visible to anyone looking up at the night sky.[100][101]

Alien invasion

See also: Alien invasion

In late 2009, rumours began circulating in UFO forums on the internet that SETI had detected several city-sized spacecraft headed towards Earth, often citing a particular image from the Digitized Sky Survey as evidence.[102] In December 2010, an article appeared in examiner.com, again citing the photograph, and stating that a high-ranking SETI researcher named "Craig Kasnov" had reported that three "flying saucers", each tens of kilometres long, would arrive in Earth orbit by December, 2012.[103] This article was referenced in a number of mainstream news outlets, including the English language version of Pravda.[104] Although no-one named Craig Kasnov could be located at SETI, Craig Kasnoff, a computer programmer who co-conceived the SETI@home project with David Gedye,[105] stated that he had never made the reported claims.[103][102] Astronomer and debunker Phil Plait noted on his blog that the supposed UFO photograph bore more resemblance to a bit of grit or a defect in the photographic plate.[103] Also, he noted that by using the small angle formula one could determine that, were the object in the photo as large as claimed, it would have to be closer to Earth than the Moon, which would mean it would effectively have already arrived.[103] In January 2011, Seth Shostak, chief astronomer of SETI, issued a press release debunking the claims.[106]

See also

Notes

  • ^ The Mayan calendar, unlike the Western calendar, used a zero.[10]
  • ^ The number thirteen plays an important role in Mesoamerican calendrics; the tzolk'in, or sacred calendar, was divided into thirteen months of 20 days each. The Mayan may cycle consisted of 13 k'atuns. The reason for the number's importance is uncertain, though correlations to the phases of the moon and to the human gestation period have been suggested.[107][108]
  • ^ Most Mayanist scholars, such as Mark Van Stone, Michael D. Coe and Anthony Aveni, adhere to the "GMT (Goodman-Martinez-Thompson) correlation", which places the date at December 21.[16] This date is also the overwhelming preference of those who believe in 2012 eschatology, arguably, Van Stone suggests, because it falls on a solstice, and is thus astrologically significant. Some Mayanist scholars, such as Linda Schele and Marc Zender, adhere to the "Lounsbury/GMT+2" correlation with the Long Count, which sets the end date of b'ak'tun 13 at December 23, 2012. Which of these is the precise correlation has yet to be conclusively settled; [109] however, in Breaking the Maya Code, Coe stated that, "In spite of oceans of ink that have been spilled on the subject, there now is not the slightest chance that these three scholars (conflated to GMT when talking about the correlation) were not right."[110]
  • ^ Coe's initial date was "December 24, 2011." He revised it to "11 January AD 2013" in the 1980 2nd edition of his book,[111] not settling on December 23, 2012 until the 1984 3rd edition.[112] The correlation of 13.0.0.0.0 as 21 December 2012 first appeared in Table B.2 of Robert J. Sharer's 1983 revision of the 4th edition of Sylvanus Morley's book The Ancient Maya.[113]
  • ^ The term "Mayanism" is distinct from "Mayanist"; a Mayanist is an academic scholar of the Maya, whereas Mayanism is a mystical, New Age phenomenon.

Citations

  1. ^ a b Sitler 2006
  2. ^ a b c Defesche 2007
  3. ^ a b c d e G. Jeffrey MacDonald (March 27, 2007). "Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse?". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  4. ^ For a sample of views see discussion and interviews in New York Times Magazine article (Anastas 2007).
  5. ^ David Webster (September 25, 2007). "The Uses and Abuses of the Ancient Maya" (pdf). The Emergence of the Modern World Conference, Otzenhausen, Germany: Penn State University. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  6. ^ Aveni 2009 32–33, 48–51
  7. ^ a b "2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?". NASA. 2009. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
  8. ^ Jorge Pérez de Lara and John Justeson (2006). "Photographic Documentation of Monuments with Epi-Olmec Script/Imagery" (PDF). Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
  9. ^ Andrew K. Scherer (2007). "Population structure of the classic period Maya". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 132 (3): 367–380. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20535. PMID 17205548.
  10. ^ a b Joyce Marcus (1976). "The Origins of Mesoamerican Writing". Annual Review of Anthropology. 5: 25–67. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  11. ^ Schele and Freidel 1990 246
  12. ^ Vincent H. Malmström (March 19, 2003). "The Astronomical Insignificance of Maya Date 13.0.0.0.0" (pdf). Dartmouth College. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
  13. ^ Gregory M. Severin (1981). "The Paris Codex: Decoding an Astronomical Ephemeris". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 71 (5): 75.
  14. ^ Schele and Freidel 1990 pp.429–430
  15. ^ Freidel, Schele and Parker 1993 63
  16. ^ a b Michael Finley (2003). "The Correlation Question". Maya Astronomy. Archived from the original on December 7, 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-11.
  17. ^ Maud Worcester Makemson (1957). "The miscellaneous dates of the Dresden Codex". Publications of the Vassar College Observatory. 6: 4. Bibcode:1957PVasO...6....1M. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. ^ Coe 1966 149
  19. ^ Carrasco 1990 39; Gossen and Leventhal 1993 191.
  20. ^ Milbrath 1999 4
  21. ^ a b c d e Mark Van Stone. "2012 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)". FAMSI. Retrieved 2010-03-02.
  22. ^ a b Schele and Freidel 1990 81–82, 430–431
  23. ^ Ryan Rivet (2008). "The Sky Is Not Falling". Tulane University. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
  24. ^ David Stuart (October 11, 2009). "Q & A about 2012". Maya Decipherment. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  25. ^ a b Mark Stevenson (2009). "Next apocalypse? Mayan year 2012 stirs doomsayers". Associated Press. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
  26. ^ Rory Carroll (2009). "The end of time: Maya calendar runs out soon, but don't panic". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-10-22.
  27. ^ Houston and Stuart 1996
  28. ^ Gronemeyer and MacLeod 2010 8
  29. ^ Eberl and Prager 2005 28
  30. ^ Eberl and Prager 2005 29–30, citing Hieroglyphic Stairway E7-H12 at Palenque, plate 104 in Karl Herbert Mayer, Maya Monuments: Sculptures of Unknown Provenance, Supplement 4 [in which the Sajal Niil is depicted in his costume], and Stela 1 from La Mar.
  31. ^ Gronemeyer and MacLeod 2010 11, 36-37
  32. ^ Gronemeyer and MacLeod 2010 24, 35
  33. ^ Wright 2005 165–166
  34. ^ Makemson 1951 219
  35. ^ Makemson 1951 30, 217
  36. ^ Quote: "The b'ak'tun or Long Count dating system does not appear directly in the Tizimin." See Edmonson 1982 xix, also 170, 195.
  37. ^ Edmonson 1982 191–192
  38. ^ Roys, 1967 111; Luxton, 1996 274
  39. ^ Eberl and Prager 2005 33–34
  40. ^ a b Schele 1992 93–95
  41. ^ Schele and Freidel 1990 430
  42. ^ Aveni 2009 49
  43. ^ Aveni 2009 32–33, 156–157
  44. ^ Aveni 2009 161
  45. ^ See in particular, chapter 6 ("The Great Cycle: Its Projected Beginning"), chapter 7 ("The Great Cycle – Its Projected End") and the Appendix, in Waters 1975 256–264, 265–271, 285
  46. ^ Argüelles 1975
  47. ^ a b McKenna and McKenna 1975
  48. ^ (the more specific date of December 21 appeared in the 1993 revision of The Invisible Landscape (McKenna&McKenna 1993)
  49. ^ Philip J. Hilts, Mary Battiata (1987). "Planets Won't Attend Astronomical Celebration". New York Post. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
  50. ^ Argüelles 1987
  51. ^ a b "The Great 2012 Doomsday Scare". NASA. 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-27.
  52. ^ John Major Jenkins. "Introduction to Maya Cosmogenesis". Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  53. ^ a b "Precession". NASA. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
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  55. ^ Brian Stross. "Xibalba or Xibalbe". University of Texas. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
  56. ^ a b "What is the Galactic Alignment?". alignment2012.com. Retrieved 2009-05-11. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |name= ignored (help)
  57. ^ John Major Jenkins (2005). "The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness". alignement2012.com. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
  58. ^ For an in-depth look at this subject, see Coe 1992, Miller 1993, Pinchbeck 2006
  59. ^ Jenkins 1998 191–206
  60. ^ Aveni 2009 62
  61. ^ John Major Jenkins (1999). "The True Alignment Zone". Retrieved 2009-10-14. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  62. ^ Meeus 1997 301–303
  63. ^ Jenkins 2009 215
  64. ^ a b Aimers, J. J., and Rice, P. M. (2006). "Astronomy, ritual and the interpretation of Maya E-Group architectural assemblages". Ancient Mesoamerica. 17 (01): 79–96. doi:10.1017/S0956536106060056.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  65. ^ Aveni 2009 54–55, citing Aveni and Hartung 2000
  66. ^ Aveni 2009 83
  67. ^ a b Art Bell (May 22, 1997). "Terence McKenna with Art Bell". archive.org. Retrieved 2009-09-22. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  68. ^ Ralph Abraham and Terence McKenna (1983). "Dynamics of Hyperspace". Santa Cruz, California: Ralph Abraham. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  69. ^ Pinchbeck 2006
  70. ^ Kurt Andersen (2006). "The End of the World As They Know It". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
  71. ^ Anastas 2007
  72. ^ Aveni 2009 17-27 (see detailed analysis here)
  73. ^ Jagmeeta Thind Joy (2006). "The Power of One". Express India. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
  74. ^ Vasudha Narayanan (1998). "A "White Paper" on Kalki Bhagavan". American Academy of Religion. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
  75. ^ Joseph 2010
  76. ^ Maïa de la Baume (2011). "For End of the World, a French Peak Holds Allure". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  77. ^ "No end in sight for villagers". The Financial Post. 2010. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  78. ^ a b "David Morrison: Surviving 2012 and Other Cosmic Disasters". FORA.tv. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
  79. ^ "Armageddon series". The History Channel. 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
  80. ^ "2012 Apocalypse". The Discovery Channel. 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
  81. ^ Coe 1992 275–276.
  82. ^ Hancock 1995 499, ff. 27.
  83. ^ E. C. Krupp. "The Great 2012 Scare" (PDF). Sky and Telescope. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  84. ^ Geoff Gaherty (2008). "Starry Night looks at doomsday". Starry Night Times. Retrieved 2009-10-23.
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  86. ^ Christopher Springob (March 28, 2003). "What would happen if a supermassive black hole came close to the Earth?". Cornell University. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  87. ^ John Major Jenkins (July 28, 2006). "How Not to Make a 2012 Documentary". Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  88. ^ "Questions Show: Alignment with the Galactic Plane, Destruction from Venus, and the Death of the Solar System". Universe Today. October 10, 2008. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  89. ^ Michael Szpir. "Perturbing the Oort Cloud". American Scientist. The Scientific Research Society. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
  90. ^ Fraser Cain (May 11, 2009). "Galactic Plane". Universe Today. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
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  93. ^ Ian O'Neill (June 21, 2008). 2012: No Killer Solar Flare "2012: No Killer Solar Flare". Universe Today. Retrieved 2009-10-14. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  94. ^ Jeremy Hsu (August 18, 2008). "Sloshing Inside Earth Changes Protective Magnetic Field". space.com. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  95. ^ "New Solar Cycle Prediction". NASA. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  96. ^ Ian O'Neill (October 3, 2008). "2012: No Geomagnetic Reversal". Universe Today. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
  97. ^ Tony Phillips (March 10, 2006). "Solar Storm Warning". NASA. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  98. ^ Schilling 2008 111
  99. ^ David Morrison (October 13, 2008). "Nibiru - Armageddon planet or astronomical baloney?". discovery.com. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
  100. ^ Phil Plait (2003). "The Planet X Saga: Science". badastronomy.com. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
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  102. ^ a b Alan Boyle (2011). "Alien Invaders vs. The Truth Squad". msnbc.com. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
  103. ^ a b c d Phil Plait (2011). "Giant spaceships to attack December 2012?". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
  104. ^ "Three giant spaceships to attack Earth in 2012?". Pravda. 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
  105. ^ Robert Sanders (2000). "SETI@home teams with The Planetary Society and Project Voyager to continue search for intelligent signals from space". UC Berkeley. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  106. ^ Seth Shostak (2011). "NO Spaceships Headed for Earth". SETI. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
  107. ^ Rice, 2007 44, 59
  108. ^ Duncan McLean Earl and Dean R Snow. "The Origin of the 260-day calendar: the gestation hypothesis reconsidered in light of its use among the Quiche Maya" (PDF). State University of New York at Albany. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  109. ^ Mark Van Stone. "Questions and comemnts". FAMSI. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
  110. ^ Coe 1992 114
  111. ^ Coe 1980 151
  112. ^ Coe 1984. This correlation, which differs two days from Sharer's, is repeated in subsequent editions of Coe's book
  113. ^ Morley 1983 603, Table B2

References

Further reading

This is an incomplete bibliography of books on the subject of 2012, written from New Age and other points of view:

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