Introduction

December 21, 2012: the end date of the sophisticated Long Count Calendar created by the ancient Maya in Central America. Countless books and websites, magazine articles and newspaper headlines debate its meaning, with enthusiasts in two camps: those forecasting apocalypse — the end of time — and those who see a coming renewal, a rebirth of consciousness.

Adding fuel to the debate, some scientists see the increasing number of natural disasters in recent years as evidence of a catastrophic climax of events in 2012.

Will the world really change forever on this date, the end of a 5,125-year calendar last used over a thousand years ago?

Certainly Hollywood would like you to think so. Indeed, a not-so-small industry has arisen around the date, hawking everything from t-shirts to teleseminars and survival supplies.

How much of what we’re hearing is science and how much is superstition?

In 2007 we started making a documentary film to answer precisely these questions, avoiding the hype from the likes of the History Channel and the Hollywood studios.

Two years later we felt we had a truly compelling film, in which the leading researchers, writers and scientists in the field tell us exactly what this date means to them, why it’s important, and what we should expect.

Featured in the film are Graham Hancock, John Major Jenkins, Daniel Pinchbeck, Alberto Villoldo, Anthony Aveni, Robert Bauval, Jim Marrs, Walter Cruttenden, Lawrence E. Joseph, Alonso Mendez, Douglas Rushkoff, John Anthony West and Benito Vegas Duran.

In the course of researching the 2012 phenomenon, we realized that despite the seemingly endless supply of books relating to the topic, none truly captured the broad spectrum of opinion, debate, research and myth regarding the most compelling “end times” prediction of the 21st century.

We asked author Alexandra Bruce to build on the film and create what we believe is a truly insightful, detailed analysis of everything 2012. As she writes in the book,

“The 2012 meme has evolved beyond any debates about the relevance of the Maya Long Count calendar to the lives of contemporary human beings. 2012 is about us on planet Earth at this time.”

Please check out the movie and the book and let us know what you think. Did we interview the right people? Did we cover all the important issues? Did we strike the right balance? We’d love to hear how we could do it better next time, if there is a next time … ;-)



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  • Hi to my friends at Disinfo,

    I will keep an eye out for the book, if review copies are going out let me have one an I will get an article posted.

    Loved the film, it was a shame that when Raymond and Austin (Disinfo Podcast) visited for the film showing over here it attracted so few people. Ah well perhaps next time.

    Thanks for the link to my Blog by the way.

    As for whether you interviewed the right people, well I did not see myself in the film ha ha

    Seriously though you should of had Geoff Stray for sure.

    All the best
  • Hi Bruce, thanks as always for the support, and we love your blog.

    The DVD will be out in the UK on November 9th, and hopefully UK iTunes at about the same time. Next time I come to the UK and have a day I'll try to bring a camera and interview you and Geoff for the next film, eh? I am actually English, if you didn't know.

    Very best,

    Gary
  • Wow that would be pretty scary but probably quite an interesting experience. I think Geoff has has a fair amount of experience being interviewed on camera, I might find myself freezing up like a rabbit in headlights!

    I did not know you were English. Do you visit friends and family over this side of the water on a regular basis?

    By the way i am sorry that in my erratic program of 2012 related work i never completed my intention to e-mail interview you for the article I posted on the 2012 Science or Superstition film production. Perhaps that would make sense to be done alongside the UK release date and a review of the new book.

    Glad to hear that my Blog is enjoyed.

    Peace

    Bruce
  • Hi Bruce, yes I'd be pleased to conduct an interview for your blog, and that goes for anyone else with a 2012 site too!

    Gary
  • johnlgillis
    Dear Gary,

    Last night, 10/9/09, I discovered Ms. Bruce's book at the legendary Kramerbooks in Washington DC.

    I'm a born-and-bred Washingtonian, and I predict that the commentary on Obama's Nobel Prize might even last past this Sunday's op-eds. I wonder who will win the Peace Price in 2013, if there IS a 2013! But seriously, Washington may need to take 2012 seriously, so it might not be a bad idea to approach a few Nobel scientists with all the evidence and see what they think. Their voices stand a greater chance of being heard than many of the 2012ers you interviewed for the film. (Apologies to all.) At the very least, can we find a respectable astrophysicist or two to warn us of solar flares and the short-circuiting of the global grid?

    And it goes without saying that We the People(s) also need to be more fully prepared -- for 2012, nuclear Iran, Siberian and polar thaws, the list goes on. I am now completing work on "A Prayer (and Our Resolutions) for the New Decade." Your work reinforces my conviction that the 2010s (twenty-tens) will be the "turning decade," in which the choices we make, or fail to make, will forever affect the world's future, more than any other decade in history.

    So, do you think it might be a good idea for the two of us to collaborate? I look forward to your comments and those of any other commentators who don't decapitalize "I"!

    John L. Gillis
  • Thanks John, I love Kramer Books and always visit when in DC. We discovered that virtually all mainstream scientists run a mile when asked about 2012. Believe me, we tried. If you can find one (or more) who will publicly talk about it please let us know.
  • Shaman
    I have not checked out the book or the movie. Yet. I can share my dreams. I am Shaman.
    Dream 1981 or 1982 I saw a coming time that great cataclysmic events will occur in the future (my lifetime). They would include volcanoes erupting, floods, war and great upheaval of the earth. The sky is red. Something happened. I look around and everyone I know is dead. I am crying because I do not want to be alone. I look in the sky and see beautiful male angels who come down to pick people up and take them to heaven. I want to go with them but they won't let me. I am told I have to stay to help rebuild that there is work to do. I am glad for those who get to go to heaven for they will not have to stay and suffer through what is left of earth but frightened and sad for those left on earth if I can find them for few people are left.
    Dream 2 1991 or 1992 Dec. 2nd.
    The warning and the time. I am taken to the sacred stone tablet that is in no physical place in the universe. Inscribed on this stone tablet is a record of all significant events in the universe. Past, present and future. There are so many wondrous things to look at I can hardly constrain myself but I know my time is short and I am going to learn something from it I will have to look at one thing and one thing only then try to figure it out. I decide to look in the 12:00 position. There I see what looks like two numbers 7's. But the stone starts to move and numbers start to move. I look again and the two 7's turn into two ears on a dog. The picture completes and it becomes a dog. A message is written above the sacred stone tablet. It says: "Dog = God = Dog". So I figure it is a puzzle I have to figure out because this is how the dream world works. In symbols and numbers. The Dog is now above the tablet and starts walking around the sacred stone tablet which is in the shape of a circle. The Dog walks walks around it 3 times. It does not complete the 3rd revolution. It stops in the 9:00 position. The message tells me "When the Dog walks round 3 times a significant event will occur". I wonder what this event is. Is it good? Is it bad? I do not know but I sense that it will change the world in a very significant way as only significant events are recorded on this sacred stone tablet.
    Dream 3. A pie slice or triangular shaped object appears in the 9:00 position of a wheel briefly. I look at it and it looks like dots. The dots line up in rows one atop the other. They are 4, 3, & 2 = 9 I don't know what it means.

    Fast forward to the present. I have been searching for the meaning to these clues and puzzles for 17 years and thanks to the invention of computers and being prodded to visit the library at certain times I have come to a conclusion what these puzzles might mean. I hope others will offer there input.

    Dog=God=Dog may refer to Dog Star, Dogon tribe, Sirius, Anubis

    Three revolutions around the universe may involve the revolution of the Dog Star and it's relation to another planet with much magnetic interference. It may be a visiting planet which revolves around the entire universe. It is possible that this visiting planet may effect Sirius which may effect earth and cause the cataclysmic events.

    Another clue to the timing is the dots. I believe they are geomantic dots and that if you match them to the 9:00 position on a sky chart or Astrological chart you will get a better clue as to the date or time to prepare and watch for this great event that will change earth and it's people forever.

    This is all I know for now other then the time is coming soon. It is time to apologize to all those you have wronged. You will not have another chance. It is time to evolve spiritually but to not oppress others with your choice of spirituality or religion. It is time to make peace. It is time to do things for the betterment of humanity and mankind and not for the purpose of aquiring more wealth and resources for your own benefit. It is time to see all others as yourself, equally and not less then. It is time to share your knowledge and your resources and everything you can to lift up and uplift those less fortunate. Most of all to remember that we are not one world so much as we are one people and we have forgotten we are one people. Once we put aside our silly urges to be king of the mountain will we truly all be the mountain. Love one another. That's all. Just that. More will survive whatever is to come if we just do that.
  • James
    Damn, definitely need to take a day off on that day.
  • markadams
    Why have you not spoken to Maurice Cotterall??? Saltash ,Cornwall, UK. Did he not bring this to our attentions many years ago and why has he as an authority on this subject been dismissed in preference to Graham Hancock? Is the date really correct? Look at Tutatis the date of a NEO, Minor planet centre? Can the predictions be accurate or did the carver of the calander just die or disappear like the rest of the Mayan race, knowing that in Mayan culture your date of birth decided your occupation, was there no one to take the place of the carver? Was the recorder of sun spots remiss on a few occasions and did not count the procession of the equinoxes correctly? So many questions, need to see the film I suppose or has it been doctored to appease the Hollywood money making machine??? Whatever the outcome no-one will really know until 2012 eh!!!
  • Sherberts
    In high school, I learned that the ancient Mayan calendar will began it's cycle again. I didn't hear about the end of the world stuff until recently.
  • READING ADVICE FROM THE INFORMATION MANIAC/AUTHOR OF THE COMPANION BOOK TO THE NIMROD EREZ-GARY BADDELEY FILM:

    If you're NOT an information maniac, please do NOT attempt to read my book from cover to cover. It's a reference book, not a how-to or a fantasy novel and perhaps we made a boo-boo by not coming right out saying that, off the bat. It's like asking someone to read an encyclopedia from cover to cover. Most people don't want to do that –– except for me and the many appreciators of my book.

    My advice to you, if you don't have the mega attention span is to go to the Index of the book, look up the stuff that you're interested in, read that section and then put the book down and move onto your next activity –– unless otherwise gripped to keep reading on.

    I took the "Science" part of the title quite seriously and surveyed the latest research about the manifold tangents in several scientific disciplines that spiral out of the 2012 meme. So, if you're into popular science, my book if for you.

    I have the opposite of ADHD but it appears that the majority of people are tending towards having a touch of the ADHD, whether they were born that way or not, as a way of coping with the Information Age. Or something. Hell if I know; I'm not one of them.

    My companion book to the film, '2012: Science or Superstition' goes somewhat deeper into the content of the film and then goes quite a bit further into certain areas. For example, I take the implications of a foundational book in the worlds of archeology and mythology, "Hamlet's Mill," the first ever to propose that ancient myths are a priestly coded language describing celestial events and knowledge in a pre-scientific epoch.

    I take the theories of "Hamlet's Mill" are taken to their ultimate conclusion; connecting historical impact events and the physical craters and lakes that they left behind with a rich legacy of global legends, ranging from the Graeco-Roman, to the Sumerian and the Biblical to the Rig Veda. It's just the tip of the iceberg of getting a handle of who we are and what are we doing on this planet –– or more importantly, what are the cycles of varying degrees of intensity of impact events and how can we avoid some and prepare for others? A lot of this is covered in my book, if this sort of thing piques your interest and this is exactly what the cross-disciplinary, emerging science of geomythology is all about –– and it is utterly fascinating to me and I would hope to others, as well because it truly demonstrates how much we have in common, as human beings on planet Earth.

    In the old days, the main purpose of the 'Guinness Book of World Records' was for someone to confirm a fact so they could win their $20 bet. Most people would never read books like 'The Guinness' from cover-to-cover.

    Not me -- and infomation-aholics like me (who love my books). I've been reading any and all reference books that I could get my hands on, cover-to-cover (including the Encyclopedia Britannica -- not all of them but around half of our collection because we moved to another country and I had heavy adjustments to make in my new life, in the 4th quarter of 8th grade!)

    Basically, I've been reading books like every new edition of the 'Guinness Book,' the Wallechinsky brothers' 'The People's Almanac' and their various 'Book of Lists,' 'The Shark Attack Files,' etc. since I was around seven or eight years old. Nobody ever told me to do this. I simply NEEDED to do this.

    Hence, I've wound up writing pop culture reference books, for lack of a better description -- and totally by accident, too. My writing career has been highly unusual. I have never written a manuscript and gone around, asking publishers or anybody else to buy it or option it -- only to later find myself slumped and bawling hopelessly over a stack of rejection letters, in the classic "struggling author tableau."

    No. Every single book that I have ever written was something that I was ASKED to write. So, I did. I'm currently 3/4 done with my 7th and the last 6 books I've written will have been produced since 2005, in a 5-year period.

    Would I ever have thought about writing the books that I've been asked to write on my own? I don't think so. But people around me knew that I would be capable of writing them, so they asked me if I would and I said, "Sure! that'll be fun! I'll get to learn all kinds of crazy stuff!"

    I've since worked with four publishing houses, three books have been for The Disiformation Company, all without an agent. (My first-time co-author on one book did have a bigtime strictly for that one project). The one book missing from Amazon Author's Page is the one I translated from European Portuguese (quite different from Brazilian) into English, which I don't think is very fair: I wrote the English-language version of 'Celestial Secrets: The Hidden History of the Fatima Incident' with original source documents never previously translated into English but there you are...

    So, while my books can't help but express something about me, the nature of the non-fiction format has made me be have to make myself somewhat invisible and impartial, even if there are moments when my passionate Brazilian side comes out and I have to make an ascerbic aside about something -- but in general, the goal has been to be as even-handed and as fair as possible; like a reference book or guide is supposed to be.

    Well, recently a disgruntled customer posted a very negative review of my book on Amazon, giving it one star, which had the enormously powerful effect of radically lowering my review average and an immediate plummeting of my previously healthy sales on that site.

    He said he didn't understand the first 100 pages and gave up but might try again if he gets bored (which is a state of mind that I find impossible to achieve). There are obvious clues about the way his brain works that tell me that he's the type of person who should be reading my book like a reference book - not as a cover-to-cover ordeal, which led me to the realization that we may have marketed it wrongly. Or maybe there's just something wrong with that guy...

    I still think facts are fun and I do my best to make them as fun as I can because I'm a party girl and this stuff is great for cocktail party banter. Deck the Halls with astrophysical chit-chat, I say!

    But if TMI is not your thing - just look up the factoid/s you're trying to locate in the Index at the back or in Table of Contents and my book will instantly become more fun for all the ADHDers in da house!

    Cheers ––
  • great, I find this also interesting http://www.dvd2012.com
  • Anyone interested in 2012 must read world renowned psychiatrist and author Stanislav Grof's new essay 2012 & Human Destiny - its the most interesting piece I've ever read on the subject, and I've read a fair bit...
    http://bit.ly/7OC4VG
  • I just finished reading your book and I really enjoyed it. I just gave it a positive review on my 2012 blog, http://2012endofdays.com. I appreciate how you objectively approach the topic. I did the same with my website http://www.2012endofdays.org (this site needs to be updated, content is about 4 years old). Thanks for the great book, it will serve as a great reference.
  • Hey thanks for the love, it means a lot!
  • Quality site - well done!
  • I'm just curious What would be a good use for this book, and the hundreds of other 2012 books, on 12/22/2012?
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