2012 - Science Or Superstition?/Segment/5

It's the Sun, stupid!

Narr: Unprecedented activity on the Sun and increasingly frequent natural disasters on Earth have led some scientists to predict an ominous climax in or about the year 2012. Author Lawrence Joseph has single-mindedly forged an understanding of the scientific data and the perils we may be facing.

LEJ: Solar storms will climax in 2012 and the global satellite system is, therefore, at risk. Let's examine what the global satellite system means to us: telecommunications, funds transfers, military, climate - everything bounces off a satellite. The fact of the matter is that a lot of these satellites are not "hardened" sufficiently against increased solar output. Moreover, I found out that a lot of our military communications had been, for reasons of budget - and I'm not sure why else - fobbed off onto commercial satellites, which are not hardened. So a lot of the basic military security that we rely on in the satellite system is open to solar attack.

Now what does that mean - solar attack? It's not that the Sun doesn't like us and is after us, there's no paranoia in this, it's simply that when the Sun has storms, it shoots out million-ton blasts of protons and other radiation. Most of it goes off in other directions, but a certain percentage of it will hit the Earth - it's just the law of averages.

Recently, we have found strange occurrences: usually it takes about 2-3 days for a coronal mass ejection - a CME, which is the term used for this blast - to travel from the Sun to the Earth. But in January 2005 there was one that made it in 30 minutes! Unless I'm suddenly seriously mistaken, if that thing had cut another 22 minutes off of its travel time - went down to eight minutes, which would be the speed of light, we would have been completely obliterated.

California-sized cracks are opening up in the Earth's magnetic field. The magnetic field is our shield against these coronal mass ejections and solar radiation, and when the crack opens up, our shields are down, Scotty. [Talk]

Narr: Not all scientists agree with Joseph's findings. Colgate University professor of Astronomy and Anthropology, Anthony F. Aveni is skeptical that external forces are creating most of the changes we are experiencing on Earth.

AFA: If a stream of solar particles can cause radio fade-out, it can also affect satellite communications. But I don't think that it's going to have any large-scale geophysical effect on the Earth. And I suppose you could, if you really want to push it, you could connect with weather, but we have to remember that the bulk of the effects it produces - hurricanes, tornadoes - is entirely encased within the Earth. It's got a lot more to do with rotation and circulation of air than it does with these outside effects. But I would admit that it could have a meteorological effect. [Talk]

LEJ: There are a number of theories as to why the Sun is acting up in this way, and why in 2012 will be the next climax of such activity. I have become familiar with the world of a Dr. Alexey Dmitriev, a Russian geophysicist who for about a decade [as of 2008], has contended - in a nutshell - that our entire solar system is moving into an interstellar energy cloud. And this cloud is responsible for exciting the atmospheres of the planets, including the Earth, and particularly, the Sun. And the reason why the sunspots are growing stronger and more frequent is because we are moving into this cloud.

He based his findings on a lifetime of esteemed work and particularly, his team meticulously analysed Voyager satellite data. And we're seeing things we've never seen before. And he believes, and has devoted a good fifteen years to proving, that we've entered an energy cloud that we will remain in - probably, he guesses and cannot verify this - for about 3000 years, and this energy cloud is simply shaking things up. It's having its strongest direct effect on the Sun, which in turn, has effect on all the other planets, including the Earth.

So that's the most well-researched theory as to why the Sun is behaving strangely. Most scientists, I think, will give you that it may well be the most active that the Sun has been since the end of the last ice age. So we can't really infer reliably from earthbound data, which is all we have, how the Sun acted before the end of the last ice age. But it appears that since then, this is the wildest it has been. Virtually everyone well agree that 2012 is the next year of solar climax. [Talk]

GH: This planet has at its heart a ball of molten iron with enormous mass, which is also spinning inside the Earth itself. Is it possible that there is some interruption in this spin - perhaps to do with magnetism, perhaps to do with solar magnetism - which literally capsises the Earth? I wouldn't rule it out entirely. There's much that has come down to us from the past that suggests that. [Talk]

JMJ: I tend towards the metaphorical interpretation here. I think that if we're due for any kind of pole shift, it should be a pole shift in our collective consciousness. We have to steer clear of that 'pole' that wants us to live in a world of dualism, you know, to be fixated to that mode of culture that seeks to dominate other cultures around the world, and instead, shift our minds to emphasise a partnership society. [Talk]

WC: 2012 - Science Or Superstition?/WC/5 [Talk]

JM: The thing that fascinates me about 2012 is just the totalityof the information - not only do we have ancient prophecies, of course the Mayan calendar, and it all seems to culminate in 2012. We all know that there are Earth changes taking place, polar caps melting, global warming. What most people don't realize is that this is a solar system-wide phenomenon. The polar caps on Mars are melting, the outer planets are more luminescent, meaning they're heating up. So something is definitely happening. [Talk]

JAW: 2012 - Science Or Superstition?/JAW/2 [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]

AM: The Long count cycle, which we understand as one of the grand cycles of the Maya. It was conceived as a creation moment and a completion of a cycle. These eras, as we might call them, lasted a grand number of 5,125 years. This great tally of years comes to its completion in December of 2012. Curiously enough, it also coincides with the winter solstice. This we thought was quite interesting and profound, and probably not accidental in any way for the ancient Maya, being that these two solar stations bracketed the creation to the completion. [Talk]

AV: The Inca, the Hopi, the Mayans, were all shamanic cultures. And they entered into altered states of awareness in order to access this body of wisdom, which is infinite. So to do that, they had to step outside of ordinary time, which is the opportunity we all have today as we come to the "end of time," to step into infinity, to step into this body of ancient wisdom. [Talk]

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2012 - Science Or Superstition?/Segment/6