|  2012:
Opportunity to change civilization
February 28, 2008
Four years, nine months and three weeks may be
about all the time we have left on Earth. Why?
Dec. 21, 2012, marks the end of a 5,000-year cycle
by the Maya Long Count calendar. To some, this
spells doomsday (disaster scenarios include earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions caused by solar storms, cracks
forming in the earth’s magnetic field and
mass extinction brought on by nuclear winter).
To others, it carries the promise of a new beginning.
And to still others, 2012 provides explanations
for unsettling developments (e.g., the disappearance
of bees) that seem beyond our control.
While all this has largely been a hot topic within
alternative cultures, the 2012 phenomenon is slowly
trickling into the mainstream. At least four new
books on 2012 have appeared in bookstores in the
wake of the 2006 success of Daniel Pinchbeck’s
“2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl.”
This month, Sony won a bidding war for disaster-movie
king Roland “Godzilla” Emmerich’s
apocalyptic script “2012.” And this
Saturday, 2012-ers will converge on Hollywood
for a day-long conference devoted to the subject.
“There’s a real hunger for this kind
of knowledge,” says 2012 Conference producer
Christian John Meoli. Meoli takes a more optimistic
view of the date, referring to it as “the
Shift” (the conference’s slogan: “Shift
Happens”). “It’s easy to manipulate
people with fear,” he says. “I wanted
to stay away from the gloom and doom.”
Among those appearing at the conference will
be “Return of Quetzalcoatl” author
and psychonaut Pinchbeck, who describes 2012 as
“a window of opportunity to change civilization.”
Says Pinchbeck: “At the moment, global
civilization is unsustainable. . . . According
to many scientists, 25% of our species will be
extinct within 30 years. We need to re-center
our world view away from materialism. My hope
is that by 2012, there’s a fundamental redirection
of focus, and we start projecting the universal
dream.”
Other futurists scheduled to appear at the 2012
Conference include Alberto Villoldo, a Cuban American
medical anthropologist and psychologist who has
studied and practiced shamanism for more than
two decades, John Major Jenkins, author of “Maya
Cosmogenesis 2012,” and filmmaker Sharron
Rose, whose documentary “Timewave 2013?
will kick off the conference.
“I’m also flying in a shaman from
Peru — you should see his rider!”
Meoli laughs. “Do you have any idea where
I can get some yuk-yuk?”
Meoli plans to produce a total of 12 conferences
in various cities around the globe.
“The grand hurrah will be on Dec. 21, 2012,
at the Mayan pyramids,” he says. “This
is just the beginning.”
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