The 2012 Doomsday

For many years now, the year 2012 has been highlighted as the one by the end of which the earth, as we see it at least, will cease to exist. There is a certain basis for it, definitely. But that basis does not directly talk of annihilation of the Earth, to say the least. This article is an attempt to put things in perspective as a practical person would see them.

The Maya civilisation has been long projecting the “End of Days” as the 21^st of December, 2012. And of course, for most calendars that have relied on the stars to keep track of the days, the Winter Solstice sun will be a very significant one, in 2012. The Sun will rise directly in front of the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, thus eclipsing it from the Earth’s view. This is a very rare event, because it occurs once in about 26000 years. And yeah, the most significant events in the planetary history have been marked in a period of time this long. The last most significant event being the last ice age (forget the movie series; this time marked the end of the Neanderthal man and the advent of the Cro Magnon man). Things have happened at such times that cannot be neglected. Well, so much for history, let’s move on.

There are very complex phenomena arising from eclipses. These have nothing to do with superstition. For once, in each eclipse, the tides create havoc. Generally, ports get so affected that their operations are required to be paused for three to four hours. Such an effect is observed for eclipse by small bodies like the moon. And the galactic centre is obviously much bigger. The effects, if not overwhelming, will definitely be very intense obviously.

In this article, to elucidate the Mayan concern of the date 21^st December 2012 (which we shall henceforth call as the predicted doomsday), we shall quote the work of an independent researcher, John Major Jenkins, who has worked throughout his life to decipher the Mayan prophecies. In this context, it turns out that:

a) The time has arrived when our local Milky Way galaxy is interacting with our local star system and the most dramatic changes ever to impact on human destiny are now taking place. Humanity is currently being transformed beyond anything ever imagined. All of the Mayan priests knew of this end date as the renewal and rebirth of a new world age resulting from the solar meridian crossing the galactic equator, and the earth aligning itself with the centre of the galaxy.

b) All ancient cultures were aware that alignments to the galactic centre do periodically occur, and that these alignments offer spiritual renewal for humanity --- not catastrophe and destruction as is commonly promoted by modern-day interpretations of the end time.

c) Precession has the same ratios of frequency and cycles on the quantum levels of existence as it does on the macro levels of our solar system in relation to the galactic centre. The changing field dynamics of the electromagnetic fields emanating from galactic centre are linked to biological evolution. A scientist Dr. Oliver L. Riser states that ". The coil of life (DNA) which supplies the architectural pattern for the fabrication of all organisms has something to do with the earth's rotation and its magnetic polarities, and the cosmic ray showers which originate in our own spiral galaxy."

d) The Maya not only understood precession, but that their 2012 end-date predicted a special happening in our universe. Our galaxy has a centre which all the stars take millions of years to revolve around, and it is located in the starriest part of the Milky Way, as seen from Earth. On four occasions within the 25,800-year cycle our galactic centre aligns with the sunrise of a solstice or equinox. The last time it occurred was on a fall equinox 6,450 years ago, approximately the dawn of Old World civilisations. On Dec 21, 2012, which is a winter solstice (Northern Hemisphere) this centre will align with our sun once more. Jenkins presents a mass of astrological, monumental and mythological evidence to show the importance of this event for the Maya, and how their calendar runs out on this day for a reason. Unfortunately he is not sure what that reason is.

Well, so much for the Maya prophecies. Now we take a quick peek at what logic has to say. I am sure you’ll appreciate this viewpoint if you have an open mind.

a) For once, celestial events of this big a scale do not occur on one precise date. They are more of a long-term event as far as human timeline is concerned. Even a lunar eclipse lasts for a few hours. For bodies that are so large and moving at such low relative rates, it is very difficult to locate the time of maximum influence. There might be a tolerance of 50 years either side of 2012, if only gravitational and electromagnetic effects were to be considered.

b) As 2012 approaches we have a growing list of what "experts" feel might occur. Despite the sincerity and long-winded explanations, it's all just guesswork. There is no scientific evidence that anything untoward will happen in 2012. All we have to suggest that 2012 will be any different to 2011 or 2013 is that the Mayan Long Count calendar ends on Dec 21, 2012. The Mayans themselves had almost nothing to say about what the end of the calendar held for humankind, and this suggests that they merely inherited the calendar from an earlier culture. Maybe the Maya culture hadn’t expected to live through 2012, and thus had made the calendar only that long.

c) There might be a host of calamities that might hit the Earth in and around the predicted doomsday

Ø Asteroid/Meteor/Comet - ancient, advanced civilisations have one distinct advantage over us - they may have observed the skies for longer, and may have spotted an orbit that will culminate in a collision with Earth in 2012. This is easily the most predictable disaster for 2012. With recent discussion of "dark comets", we have become aware of the possibility of our planet being struck with little or no warning.

Ø Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from our Sun - a CME was behind the solar storm of 1859. It occurred in September of that year, causing the failure of telegraph systems across North America and Europe. Accompanying the storm were auroras that are normally only seen in the Arctic and Antarctic, but were visible as far south as the Caribbean. Typically we would expect a storm of 1859's magnitude cause power blackouts and wreck satellites. But do we really know how big they can get? In 2009 NASA told us to be wary of solar storms, and warned of the dangers to America's ancient overloaded power grid. Being without power for a few months, in the developed world, is a lot more serious than most people realise.

Ø Magnetic Pole Shift - pole reversals have been happening on average once every 400,000 years, with the most recent one being 730,000 years ago - so we are well overdue. Not only do we not know much about reversals, scientists are still unsure about how our magnetic field is generated. Long thought to be a by-product of the movements of liquid iron in our planet's core, recent studies are suggesting that our salty oceans might be the cause. Scientists suggest a geomagnetic reversal takes thousands of years and does no harm. They are wrong - it could just as easily happen overnight. No mechanism is known for the cause of the magnetic poles swapping places. Our magnetic field is known to be rapidly declining (10% in the last 150 years), and the magnetic North pole is moving around at an accelerating pace - it has been predicted it will move from Canada to Siberia in the next 50 years. These changes could be indicating an imminent reversal.

Ø Religious Apocalypse - or rapture, or "judgement day". Most religions predict such a day. Conspiracy theorists suggest that many world leaders have apocalyptic beliefs, and may even be attempting to cause Biblical prophecy to be fulfilled in 2012 via their actions. If it helps, the Bible says “But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.” But then again, maybe God changed his mind since the Bible was written, and told some people the date of the apocalypse? Maybe he told the ancient Mayans? Possibilities could be argued ad infinitum.

Ø Ice Age - right now the buzz is about "global warming", yet a mere thirty years ago we were worried about an impending Ice Age. There is evidence that parts of our climate system work more like a switch than a dial, and if a certain level of temperature is reached, it may cause what is known as "abrupt climate change".

Most of these above calamities may strike the Earth on the predicted doomsday, but there’s no denying that they may not occur on other days as well, say, today!

Most people are of the belief that whatever disaster might strike the Earth whenever, it’s not worth making much of a fuss. Let’s face it, we might not be able to do much of a preventive “Armageddon” stuff, because nature shows its worst side sometimes. The dinosaurs couldn’t take it. We too might not. Or, we can, in sense, become cockroaches of the world, lying underground, safe from most calamities. But that sort of sustaining technology isn’t available either.

My advice to the wuss – “Take each day as it comes by. ‘Kya pata, Kal Ho Na Ho...’”. Live life to the fullest each day and take all doomsday discussions as a sort of time pass.

A more pertinent question, though, is whether such a fuss and hype and so much business (look at the bulk of money invested in the movie) should be made on an event that is so uncertain. Yeah, the movie was great, and it was fictitious too, but I'd like to bet that quite a lot of children will have sleepless and nightmarish nights, all that just for a date like the Y2K, but only, by analogy, occuring in the Maya calendar, which has far too less influence on our daily lives anyway!

I'd like to see what you people say...