We’re half way through 2012. Many prophecies have hinted at this time as The Shift of the Ages and The Time of Transition. If you take a look at the shelves of any spiritual/new age bookstore, you’ll see dozens of books with 2012 in the title. It certainly has become a good marketing bit. There are many theories of what 2012 is supposedly all about. From the end of the world to global mass enlightenment. If you type “2012″ into Google, 25,270,000,000 results come up.
Much of it is based on the Mayan Calendar which is presumably ending on 12/21 2012. Many people seem to be fixated on this date. I don’t want to get into the technicality of the Mayan Calendar. Lies are mixed with truth and there are all kinds of theories from historians, experts, channeled material and authors who make various claims about this date and the Mayan Calendar, many of them contradicting each other. Instead, I’d like to look into some overlooked issues our world is facing, examining the possibility of a cataclysmic “end time” scenario or a “collective awakening” from a different perspective. But let’s backtrack first.
I first heard about the Mayan Calendar and the mystery of 2012 in 1998. The first book I read about it was Solving the Greatest Mystery of Our time : The Mayan Calendar by Carl Johan Calleman. I was intrigued to say the least. However, back then I wasn’t very discerning and much of my “research” was partly emotionally driven with wishful thinking and assumptions, lacking critical thinking. The more I read and took in information, the more I was also confused because there was so much conflicting data. It was hard to discern what was true and what was not. According to Calleman, the Mayan Calendar already ended on October 28th 2011. He also made predictions of ET disclosure and the mass awareness of the UFO phenomenon before that date. As we can see, none of that has happened.
Other books I’ve read were Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date by John Major Jenkins, The Mayan Factor by Jose Arguelles, and 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck, as well as countless articles on the internet and various other books that touch on this subject, including Terence Mckenna’s concept of the Timewave Zero. While insightful and interesting to a point, none of these works really satisfied my thirst for deeper knowledge. It seemed that something was missing.
At the same time I also got into more fringe topics, conspiracy theories, the UFO phenomenon as well as esoteric teachings and channeled material. What I’ve learned most from digging deeper is that there is a lot of smoke, disinformation and noise surrounding the topic of 2012. I learned about COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Programs) and about how much of the material about 2012 is infected with many lies, distracting the seeker on purpose. In fact, the “New Age Movement” and much of the distorted spiritual concepts we see these days seemed too have been created for that very purpose: to disinform, distract and vector anyone away from the truth. The reader is encouraged to check out my other articles which examine some of these New Age corruptions in more depth:
- Know Thyself
- All you need is Love!
- The Positivity of Objectivity and The Time of Transition
- Being the change you want to see in the world
Of course mainstream science and media also ridicules anything that doesn’t fit into the reality box of “official culture”. That is to be expected. But what was more disturbing for me was how many folks in the alternative media buy into so much disinformation, be it consciously or not. Everyone who started to question reality and embarked on the quest of truth has at one point in his/her life believed in lies and disinformation. We all deal with cultural conditioning and programming. As I’ve written before, I’m not exempt from it and there have been many times when I had to adjust my understanding of the world when new data came in and I had to admit that I was wrong about some things. I’m not interested in being right, but in truth, as it is, even if it doesn’t conform to my wishes and desires of how I’d like it to be.
I’ve said before that I didn’t “like” to find out the more disturbing aspects of our reality. My rose colored glasses were shattered in the face of a cold harsh reality where most people dream of being awake but are asleep. Waking up and seeking truth entails facing the lies we tell ourselves through sincere self-work and networking. For some time I was also blinded with wishful thinking, assuming that everyone who is seeking truth would do so sincerely, without an agenda, and be willing to look into certain topics more critically, neither with “blind belief” or “cynical debunking”, even if these subjects contradicted what they’d found out so far.
A big wake-up call in that regard was my interaction with Daniel Pinchbeck, author of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl and co-founder of the Evolver Social Movement. He gives talks around the world and festivals such as ‘Burning Man’ and ‘Lightning in a Bottle’. I thought he touched on some important subjects (although very superficially) in his 2012 book, such as the UFO phenomenon, alien abductions, crop circles and shamanism. It mostly dealt with his personal journey, infused by his psychedelic experiences. Pinchbeck’s claim is that we are in the final stages of a fundamental global shift from a society based on materiality to one based on spirituality.
In 2007 we connected on a 2012 forum at tribe.net, a social network. He initially liked what I had to say about the UFO phenomena and suggested that I write an article about it for his online magazine Reality Sandwich. This was the birth of my first draft of “UFOs, Aliens, and the Question of Contact” (which was the basis for the documentary of the same name I made with Humberto Braga, with 1.5 million views so far). He rejected the article, saying that “it’s unfortunate that you have such a negative view of this topic”. I purposely focused more on the overlooked aspects of the UFO phenomena, especially the darker side of alien abductions and hyperdimensional realities. Some of it was not in line with what he wrote in his 2012 book, which only covered the alien topic in a very generalized and philosophical way. I wrote him a lengthy response, asking him to be more clear about his assessment. He just answered that he has no time to get into it and that he resonates more with the ideas of Steven Greer (founder of the “Disclosure Project”). Anyone who has researched the UFO topic in more depth knows that Greer spreads a lot of disinformation, so I was actually surprised to hear that Pinchbeck “resonated” with his work. It clearly showed and proved that his research was off.
A couple of years later we connected again on Facebook when he came across an article I posted about Alex Jones being potentially COINTELPRO. Pinchbeck had a similar view and asked if I’d like to try to write an article again for Reality Sandwich. Before I even got to that he found another post of mine where I recommended the book The Controversy of Zion by Douglas Reed (since Alex Jones is known to avoid the topic of Zionism). He wrote to me, asking why I recommend this “conspiracy book” and if I’m holocaust revisionist (denier). I wrote him back stating I simply question everything, including the official story of the holocaust (not denying that it happened, but HOW it happened and how it has been used for social control and justifying the politics of the “victim” state Israel), considering that we’ve been lied to about virtually everything regarding our history. I supported my claims with articles and documentaries made by Jews who also took a more critical look into what had happened, which also ties into the subject of Zionism. This opened up a can of worms. He didn’t look into any of it and just responded with a passive aggressive and emotionally-driven insulting tone, telling me that I must have a “psychological disposition” because of my German heritage. He then stated that he lost family in the holocaust and didn’t want to work or communicate with me anymore in the future. While I had compassion for what happened to his family, I was still surprised that he wasn’t capable of remaining objective.
That was it and we never communicated again since then. Complete lack of critical thinking and objectivity on his part. He didn’t look into any of the information I sent him, but had already made up his mind, driven by his own conditioning/programming. Pinchbeck also advocates the use of psychedelic drugs and his work is very much influenced by it. It seems he trusts his psychedelic experiences more than he does research, study or empirical evidence, similar to the late Terence McKenna, who also put way too much importance on these drugs, resulting in lack of critical thinking and not fully grasping the dangers of these substances from an esoteric perspective.
The reason I mention this interaction I had with Pinchbeck is because I observed similar reactions in many self-proclaimed visionaries and truth seekers. There are certain topics that are usually automatically dismissed, ridiculed and debunked without any of the debunkers looking into them and researching them sincerely and unbiased.
“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.”
- Frantz Fanon
Most of these topics are also not mentioned by many 2012-ers or are highly distorted. Interestingly, the few who actively research these subjects sincerely and speak out about them are attacked or ignored. You don’t get to be on mainstream TV or have articles about you in the NY Times or Rolling Stone Magazine if you speak the truth and talk about taboo topics that go against the status quo of a deeply conditioned/programmed culture.
In that sense, Daniel Pinchbeck and others become like “useful idiots“, essentially supporting the system they claim to oppose through their denial and lack of critical thinking regarding certain topics, despite their well-meaning intentions and visionary approach. It also became clear to me how psychedelic drugs can impair one’s critical thinking abilities and how these substances are romanticized and have a darker side to them. Most “psychonauts” are either not aware of or simply deny this darker side. I fell into this trap myself when I was experimenting with them, deluding myself about many things. I know people who use these entheogens on a regular basis, but who still vote for Obama or believe the official 9/11 fairy tale and the phony war on terror. There is even a well-known healer who works with ayahuasca in my area, conducting medicine journeys throughout the country. He’s also an outspoken Democrat and constantly posts on Facebook supporting Obama, buying into the the illusion of choice through voting in this two party set-up. A “shamanic healer” who not only believes in but supports the political circus side show that is clearly used for social/cultural control and he even identifies himself with a country and political party? What an oxymoron! It shows that these mind expanding drugs are no “magic pill” that automatically pierce through the cultural conditioning and the lies we believe in.
“The Neo-Shamanism that is around today has distorted what Shamanism is truly about and rendered it into a hyped attraction where all you have to pay is some $ to have THE experience. While medicinal plants and herbs can undoubtedly be helpful as a physical healing aid, their use for so-called ‘accessing of higher realities’ usually serves to distract people from what deeper spiritual and esoteric work is about, even giving one the illusion that one has “awoken”. There are many dangers – energetically, psychically (spirit attachments) and esoterically – when forcing oneself to enter a higher state of consciousness through these drugs. This is a touchy subject that requires a careful approach, certainly a much more careful approach than what I’ve seen from Pinchbeck, McKenna and others, especially when considering “the topic of all topics” (more on that later).”
Interesting article thanks – I don’t yet know your ideas about certain things but I agree with your assessment of the principles under discussion