In the Cottonwood Ballroom at the Four Seasons in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the New York neo-shaman Daniel Pinchbeck sipped Fiji water and prepared to discuss the end of the world. The Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012, and Pinchbeck has built a multiplatform enterprise on the notion that something drastic will happen on that date—maybe.

But 2012 is also the name of a big-budget disaster movie based on the Mayan scenarios depicted in Pinchbeck’s books. To promote the film, Sony Pictures sponsored this junket, featuring the stars and director of the movie; three 2012ologists, including Pinchbeck; and a tour of Yellowstone National Park, which the film destroys.

But nobody in the Four Seasons seemed to believe that the end was near, least of all Pinchbeck, who was once described in the Times as “equal parts Jesuit and Jim Morrison” and is known for ingesting psychedelics in the Amazon. “I’m not a fundamentalist about the date,” Pinchbeck said, and his fellow 2012ologists nodded in agreement. Yet all three continue to publish alarmist books with 2012 in the title.

“Two thousand twelve is this date, you know, which there’s a lot of ideas about,” said the director Roland Emmerich, who demolishes the White House for the second time in his career with this movie. “And we chose the destructive one.”

After giving PowerPoint presentations, the 2012ologists were dabbed with makeup and subjected to a gauntlet of five-minute television interviews. They were asked countless variations on the same question: “Will the world really end in 2012?” The 2012ologists answered, patiently at first, “Actually, the Maya never predicted any doomsday scenario” …

Daniel’s best line was right at the end of the article:

When I asked the 2012ologists how they planned to sell books in 2013, Pinchbeck glanced up from his screen and offered, with a glint of hope, “1984 still sells well.”

I hope so too!

If you were watching television last night between 10:50 p.m. and 11 p.m. last night, chances are, you saw a new two-minute trailer for Sony Pictures’s upcoming disaster epic “2012.” In a huge commercial roadblock, 90% of all homes watching ad-supported tv — including ABC, CBS, NBC, and various cable, local tv, and Spanish-language networks — were exposed to the disaster-iffic scene, which featured John Cusack attempting to help Amanda Peet and several other actors navigate a crumbling Los Angeles (think airplanes swooping through collapsing buildings and cars zooming over a crushed highway.

Directed by Roland Emmerich, who also helmed “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow” and clearly has never met an explosion he didn’t like, the ensemble film revolves around the idea that the world will end in 2012, and co-stars Danny Glover, Oliver Platt, Woody Harrelson and a slew of others. “2012″ will be released Nov. 13. Check out the footage below: