2012

___________(2007) The mystery of 2012, predictions, prophesies, and possibilities, Boulder, Colorado: Sounds True Publications

You may have suffered from the Cuban Missile Crisis, Y-2K, 9/11, Global warming, but there is another day of destiny that supposedly should arrive fairly soon… It is December 21st, 2012. That means a big day of change in or around that date that may dramatically alter the world.

This amazing book is a collection of essays and one of the ways to get through it, is to read it from the perspective of the author. A number of articles are authoritative, and others may be challenged as pseudo science, pre-modern tautologies or New Age fog.

However, the genius of the book is that few perspectives are left out. If you want an outline of a possible future event, you go every where. In doing so, you get so many responses that are valid to some and questionable to others.

2012 is divided into 4 parts; each will be shortened because of time and space. In the first section basically, the Mayan calendar is constructed from a civilization that prospered and then diminished some 1500 years ago. It is the basis of the 2012 prediction. This is the methodology of the Mayan culture and technology prediction. For some, they would stop reading here. However, others with a broader mind will at least entertain that ancients may have something. The Mayan calendar predicts big changes during 2012.

The numerous strategies include chaos theory, perfect storms and outliers of math. Others are wishful trend casting and Biblical prophecies… Finally, some are from astrology, alchemy, Taoist I-ching and other lost arts.

The second section was the most interesting to me because it dealt with business and commerce where there is a demand for something like modernist social sciences and some postmodernism. John Petersen’s section is clear, uses cautious terminology, and draws heavily on already conducted forecasting and scientific alternatives. Not once does he say 2012 will happen, but how it might happen. In his earlier life, he was a consultant to Al Gore and now a President of a futurist think tank. Petersen provides the kind of knowledge and syntax that one would find in refereed scientific journals or upscale periodicals. As a member of an exclusive 500 member World Academy of Arts and Sciences founded by Albert Einstein and others, he demands the most respect. Peterson outlines a possible future world recession, environmental downturns, and huge populations with many under 25 year olds. All this spells trouble.

Following the first two sections, part 3 is based on ancient holy books and texts generally called religion. The Christian Armageddon is described where only a handful of Christian fundamentalists survive. Christian moderates, other world religions, and secularists suffer. Other material drawn from Eastern religions are more hopeful for many of us.

The last section is the one of the aftermath of 2012. Most describe the event as very hopeful. Nearly all of us gain a new more enlightened perspective and we become more cooperative. We may encounter something horrible and tragic, but most don’t see it that way. Rather, the pole axis of north and south will shift and something very subtle will impact us all.

After years of being both an academic and futurist, I can say concretely that I appreciated the book, but have no idea if 2012 will be just another day in another year. There have been too many black swans and chaotic butterflies to suggest that I or others can predict with such certain accuracies. That is the genius of the book, there is a wisdom of the crowd of academics, futurists, business forecaster, astrologers and other of which most included in this book suggest that you will like the change.

I can’t say.

Prof. Joel Snell

Kirkwood College

jsnell@kirkwood.edu