2012: A Mayan Odyssey

During the last few years, I have heard from time to time, mostly on the nationwide late-night radio show Coast-to-Coast AM, that there is supposedly an old Mayan calendar that is said to “end” some time in the year 2012. So what, you might say. And so what, I say as well! But apparently, there are some who say that this portends momentous changes in the Earth and for humanity as well. All kinds of cataclysmic events may end up running amuck around (and within) us because some ancient Central Americans got tired of counting the years. To me, if anything, they overshot “the end” quite a bit, since one day their civilization suddenly and mysteriously went “poof!” and reverted to the surrounding jungle (although the people still remained, but in a decentralized mode of existence). But nowadays, there are some people who are willing to sacrifice themselves as talk show guests in a supremely altruistic effort (and they have books and seminars you can buy from them to help spread the important word) to rescue our collective humanity from this fate. And what is the fate? It could be anything from a massive solar coronal ejection hitting the Earth to our poles reversing themselves to other planes of dimensional reality dipping into ours (although I’m not really sure what that’s supposed to mean). The problem that I’ve been wondering about all this is: what’s going to happen to these people and their great predictions when 2012 comes and goes with nothing of consequence occurring?

Certainly those setting a firm date for something to happen are putting their own reputations, as well as their economic futures, on the line. Most likely nothing will happen, right? So, imagine my delight when I happened to be tuned in on my radio to Coast-to-Coast AM one night recently when George Noory was hosting. He had as guest a David Wilcock, who apparently studies and makes money selling books about “higher consciousness” types of things such as chakras, energy fields, multiple dimensions, and galactic consciousness. During the segment I listened to, Noory brought up 2012. Wilcock said something to the effect that those attuned to a higher level of consciousness will then experience all sorts of phenomena, such as telekinesis, levitation, telepathy, and time travel. But what of the average Joe in the street? Well, according to guru Wilcock, it’ll be something like in the movie Matrix, when people just went about their own business, thinking that they operated in reality but actually lived in a manufactured illusory reality. Only with 2012, according to Wilcock (who obviously is planning on having all the “expected” cool mind-expanding experiences associated with 2012), those who are out-of-tune will simply invent their own realities and go on living as if nothing happened. Only Mr. Wilcock and his ilk will be there to assist those (for a reasonable price, no doubt) who want to join them in this great consciousness-raising opportunity. So in 2013, when skeptics like Michael Shermer or James Randi (or me) say, “A-ha, you’re wrong, nothing happened, now admit it!”, they can just reply, “You poor pitiful little creatures, it is you who are living in a false reality of your own making!” So, this 2012 “story” will by no means end in 2013. As a matter of fact, it will only have just begun!

I will admit that David Wilcock was one of Coast-to-Coast’s more interesting and entertaining guests, in spite of everything I’ve just said. Some of his far-out claims seem, at least to me, to resonate with Native American Red Elk (a frequent guest in the past on the same show) and his stated views. His attempt to justify spiritualism in scientific terms, though, rings hollow with me. And host George Noory just sits there gobbling up anything he says uncritically, no matter how preposterous it sounds. But I forget: this is entertainment!