2012 - Science Or Superstition?/Segment/10
A new cycle, a new age
Narr: Ultimately, no one can be sure of what 2012 will bring - cascading crises, climaxing in some sort of apocalyptic event, or, advancement into an enlightened era of human existence. However, most researchers who have studied ancient mythology carefully, bring back a message of hope, albeit, one that requires us to participate, and help bring about a new, golden age.
JMJ: I think that the core teachings are there, and present, in the Maya creation myth, and it does relate to the galactic alignment, it relates to this opportunity that we have to reconnect with our true selves, with the unity consciousness through which we can solve the intractable dilemmas of the world. We have to get back to that unity consciousness and awareness of how we, as individuals, fit into the whole. This is not a call to annihilate the ego or to annihilate our sense of individuality. It's really a call to be aware of our individuality at the same time that we are aware of the larger picture. But it does require that we choose to be actively engaged in the process. It's not something that's going to happen automatically - that's the interpretation of a cop-out or something... We really have to understand that we do have a choice, but we can choose to close down in fear and succumb to the forces of limitation that seek to keep us limited... stuck to our egos. Or we can open up in trust and respect for what is possible. [Talk]
DP: For me, part of the essential shift in consciousness that we may be undergoing is this integration of empirical, rational, scientific thought, and intuitive, shamanic, and mystical knowledge systems. And for me, it's really as those two aspects come together, this next level of human consciousness is beginning to be formed and then to recognise itself. That's what I see as the archetype of Quetzalcoatl also indicating or representing as an archetype is the meaning of bird and snake - the feathered serpent, the meaning of Heaven/Earth, Spirit/matter, or it could be seen as the meaning of materialist-empirical thrust of western culture with the esoteric-mystical framework of indigenous cultures and eastern cultures. So for me, one thing that's really important that's been happening lately - in the last 50 years - is the integration of Eastern metaphysical thought into the Western psyche. You know, everywhere you go, in every airplane, people are reading [?], the Dalai Lami, Eckhart Tolle - the Power of Now, you know, that's philosophy re-expressed for the for the European/Western mindset. So people still tend to think of spirituality as a trend, in a way - I don't like the word 'spirituality' very much but I think it's much closer to being a profound, transformative shift in our psyche. So now, I think there's a second stage in the initiatory process that's going on for the Western psyche, but it's happening on a much more foundational level, because so many more people have made those kinds of connections and have had those kind of experiences and have integrated to a much deeper level. [Talk]
BVD: According to the Mayan world, the Mayan beliefs, this cycle is the cycle of death. So probably they traced this exact date, December 21, 2012, because this is a time when all the death is going to stop. And it's going to start another cycle of rebirth... peace. But it can represent a lot of things. I'm sure that the world is not going to end on that specific date. Another cycle is going to begin. [Talk]
AFA: Worrying about some unfounded cataclysm that going to take place in the year 2012 is not a part of my world view. I just don't get it. And so I would advise you not to worry. Invest your time in feeding the homeless, helping the poor and being green. I mean, invest your time in that - not in joining some far out cult where we'll all stand at the top of the north pole on our heads to wait for the coming. Because I don't think it's going to happen - it ain't gonna happen. How's that for being specific? [Talk]
DR: I just don't think that there's a moment in 2012 where like Jehovah's Witnesses, we, the psychedelically enlightened few are going to have to walk civilisation down off its bad trip. I think that time is already here. So yeah, it is up to us to take each other down off the bad trip, it's just that I don't think it's four or five years from now, I see it every day. [Talk]
AM: The concept that this end date or completion date of the Mayan calendar has some relevance to the world in a global sense, I think is a fallacious thought because this system was particularly developed for and by Maya for their particular ideology for their place in the world. It would be unsafe to rally around a philosophy that has its place in history and its world and appropriated as something that belongs to a global sense. [Talk]
AV: As we come to the end of the calendar, we're going to be emerging into a millennium of gold, a millennium of opportunity, a time of living in peace with each other - of clean rivers and clean air. Our challenge today is to embody the prophecies - to become that human after 2012 that I refer to as homo luminus. But that's not guaranteed. We think that we can postpone making the tough choices - well, the time is today. [Talk]
JM: I'm very much aware of all the prophecies and discussion about 2012, but then I also lived through 'the Russians are gonna kill us next week' in the cold war, the harmonic convergence, and Y2K and my first piece of advice to people is don't sell your house and move to the mountains because I think that there is every likelihood that in 2013 your bills will still be coming in. [Talk]
RB: There is a rift between East and West that is increasing at exponential speed. I see it every day. I'm living in the middle east and I see it growing every day. It's based on a total misunderstanding of each other. And this misunderstanding stems from the way that we have developed our cultures. We do not use the common denominators anymore. Ultimately, we're all children of this planet, we belong to the same planet. What we have done is segregate this, we've separated these beliefs through religious orders, though nationalistic orders. We're in dire need of a message; we need a visionary who will make us see things in the right way, we need to realign ourselves into a common theme. We need to remove the differences between us. We need to remove the strong religious rifts. We need to remind ourselves that even if we are to have religion, that it springs from the same source - which is ironic because the three major semitic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are literally from the same source - the Old Testament. And yet, we've slaughtered each other for centuries. Why? Because we've taken that common denominator and isolated it to create different power bases. Somehow we need to realign all this. [Talk]
AFA: Is there going to be a cataclysm? Is it bad news for us? Or is it more like by getting together and bringing ourselves together so we can somehow make the world change. It's the latter part that appeals so much to people when they read about the Maya, because the Maya developed a participatory cosmology. It's all about human action and what you must do as a human being - to perpetuate the status quo in the universe, or to change it - it's up to you. You can do it. And here we sit with 2012 approaching and not being able to do a damn thing about the big bang or evolution. And that bothers us. We want a cosmology in which we can participate - the Maya had it. And so we look to them and say maybe we can learn something from them. And I'm all for it. I think there will be a positive outcome from the 2012 hype and mania, as I characterised it, because perhaps it will make us take our cosmology a bit more seriously - look into it a bit more, think a little bit more about the collective human consciousness, think a little bit more about what we can do to make the world a better place. That's a great message, and if that's what comes out of all this, I'm a happy camper. [Talk]
GH: I think we have gone through, and are going through the final stages of a very dark age. But I also see glimmers of hope everywhere I look. I see people no longer willing to have their thoughts and consciousness patrolled and controlled by others, who seek direct spiritual contact, who recognise that the established monotheistic religions, whether Judaism, Christianity, or Islam - while they might have been instruments of liberation at some time in the past, they are now primarily instruments of oppression, and hold down and suppress the human spirit. And I see everywhere around me people reaching out to bypass that monolithic block of established religion and make their own contacts and connections with the spirit realm. I do see a new birth of human consciousness underway. When these things happen, they can happen very, very fast, so I do not rule out a all the possibility that all of us are going to be looking at the mystery of the meaning of life in a very different way, very soon. And that date, 21st of December, 2012, sticks in my mind as one that is really worthy of consideration. [Talk]
