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November/December 2007 Featured Stories
Choice Point 2012

by Gregg Braden

Gregg Braden

Does the ancient Mayan calendar hold the secret to an epic event that will occur within our lifetimes? If so, does that event hold the key to our future, and perhaps even our very survival? A growing body of evidence suggests that the answer to these questions is, Yes. Now we must ask ourselves, Why?

Now we have the information, and the language, that may answer our question as to the significance of December 21, 2012. From the 8,000-year-old Hindu Vedas and the 5,000-year-old Hebrew calendar to the indigenous prophecies of Asia and the Americas, ancient traditions suggest that something really big will happen during our time in history. It is important to note that there is nothing in any of the prophecies that tells us unconditionally that the world itself will end on this date. What they do say is that the world as we have known it will enter a time of change on this date. How we respond to that change will define how we experience it and our lives in the next age of our existence.

What sets the Mayan prophecy apart from the general predictions of other cultures is that it has an expiration date that occurs in our lifetime. The last cycle of the intangible Mayan calendar corresponds to a series of tangible events, some of which are already happening today. Here is what we know for certain:

• The end of the Mayan Great Cycle marks a rare alignment of our planet, our solar system and the center of our galaxy - one that will not occur again for another 26,000 years.
• On March 10, 2006, a cycle of solar storms ended and a new cycle began. It is predicted to peak in 2012, with an intensity of 30 to 50 percent greater than previous cycles.
• Scientists agree that Earth's magnetic fields are weakening quickly, and some suspect that we are in the early stage of a polar reversal.
• Correlations between the magnetic fields of the Earth and human experience suggest that it is easier for us to accept change and adapt to new ideas in weaker fields of magnetism.
• Recent validation of quantum principles proves that the way we perceive our world - our beliefs about our experience - strongly influences our physical reality.

With these facts in mind, the December 21 solstice of 2012 appears to be a great cosmic window of opportunity. The opportunity is for us to benefit from our individual and collective experiences of the last 5,000 years of history, while releasing the destructive beliefs that have created disease in our bodies and limited our lifespan, led to the differences that have separated us, justified the great wars of history, and destroyed portions of our world. Such a possibility exists only when all the parameters needed for such a change converge into a single window of time. The 2012 end-date appears to be just such a time.

If (1) the presence of low magnetic fields primes us to adapt to change and accept new experiences, (2) the loss of Earth's magnetic shield allows the direct influence of high-energy fields that are normally deflected to bring change, and (3) both are happening in the general time of the 26,000-year galactic alignment, then it is as if the cosmos has conspired to shower us with the power of what Jose Arguelles called the galactic "synchronization beam." What a rare and bizarre opportunity. How we receive this opportunity is the choice that we are making today.

In 2005, Scientific American published a special edition titled Crossroads for Planet Earth, which identified a number of scenarios that, left unchecked, hold the potential to end life on Earth as we know it today. The point of the issue was that while any one of the scenarios is catastrophic, they are all happening today. Clearly the choices of war, depletion of resources, genocide, technology abuse and fossil fuel technology are not sustainable for another millennium. To change the way we live, we must change the way we believe. Such a change can only come from a powerful and holistic view of who we are in the universe. Of the many things that 2012 represents, it may offer an unprecedented window of precisely such an opportunity.

Are we heading toward a time of unprecedented catastrophe, 1,000 years of peace, or both? No one knows for sure. While the solar cycles and magnetic reversals are very real, and have definitely happened in our ancient past, they have never happened while 6.5 billion people lived on the planet, and certainly not with the majority of those people dependent upon the technology of power grids, communications, computers and global positioning satellites. Just as uncertainty accompanies any birth, we simply don't know what our birth into such a monumental experience may mean to life, technology, our emotions and our bodies.

We do know, however, that ancient humans may have experienced similar, though less-intense cycles, some that may have even occurred as recently as 10,000 years ago. While biblical and oral traditions suggest that such a time is certainly not "business as usual," the fact that people lived to record these cycles tells us that such events are survivable. The new discoveries linking the physics of belief with reality also tell us that how we feel about our experience has a direct effect upon what we actually experience. For our date with 2012, this suggests that if we live life focused upon all of the bad things that may happen, we will miss the joyous experiences that may actually keep those bad things from happening.

Today, when you ask the Mayan descendants what happened to their ancestors, they will tell the story of the generation of time-keepers who, one day, left their temples, observatories and pyramids, walked into the jungles and simply "vanished," returning to the place from where they had come. Regardless of what their story means to us, it is clear that whoever those original Maya were, they knew something in their time that we are just beginning to understand in ours. The key to their message is that their secret was more than the precise representation of time on a stone slab. The one piece of their wisdom that they could not inscribe into their hieroglyphic message is precisely the piece that gives meaning to the end of their cycle. The piece of their wisdom is us and whether we can embrace the fact that we are a family in this world, very possibly part of a greater family in the cosmos, and that the "gestation" that Jose Arguelles describes as our experience in history is complete.

From these perspectives, the solstice of December 21, 2012, becomes a powerful window for our collective emergence into our greatest potential. Such a moment is so rare that we have been preparing for it for over 5,000 years, and it will be another 26,000 years before the same opportunity cycles around again. As the source of our light, our sun, moves into perfect alignment with the center of our galaxy, are we ready to receive the greatest gift of all - the gift of our true selves? The stage is set, the choice is ours, the cosmos is waiting. Do we have the wisdom to marry science, history, tradition and belief into the miracle that awaits us on December 21, 2012?

Excerpted from Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies & Possibilities with permission by Sounds True, www.soundstrue.com. New York Times best-selling author Gregg Braden is internationally renowned as a pioneer in bridging science and spirituality. Braden presents "The Divine Matrix: Re-Writing the Reality Code" on Dec. 7-8 in Portland. Visit www.greggbraden.com.