So the people who decided the date that the world was going to end were on a magic mushroom trip?
We’ve been lead to believe that this December 21st will be the end of the world and it was the old Mexican wise guys the Mayans we were trusting, but now it’s been revealed that the ‘prophecy’ does not stem from the Mayans at all.
Instead the beliefs come from two New Age books in the Seventies and Eighties, a British academic has revealed.
The two books predict outcomes as surreal as an ‘upgrade’ to human consciousness predicted by a spirit from the seventh century. The date itself comes from a prophecy based on a magic mushroom trip.
“December 21st will be just another Friday morning,” said Andrew Wilson, Assistant Head of Social Studies at the University of Derby.
“A hippy guru called Jose Arguelles associated the date with the Mayan calendar in a book called The Mayan Factor in 1987. But it’s an obsolete form of the calendar, which had not been used since the year 1100AD.”
“He claimed to be channelling various spirits, including the spirit of a Mayan king from the seventh century. He predicted a ‘shift in human consciousness’, mass enlightenment.”
As the belief has evolved, the story has grown tails like any other. It has become associated with much wilder predictions, such as the idea that Earth will be hit by a ‘rogue planet’, Nibiru, or swallowed by a black hole.
“There is no central belief,” says Wilson, “It varies from the ideas that Earth’s magnetic poles might shift, to the idea of a ‘galactic council’ visiting Earth. There’s no one, definite idea – it mirrors the New Age beliefs from which it comes.
“What’s been popularised is the dramatic stuff, but I am definitely still doing my Christmas shopping as normal this year.”
Great stuff Wilson, us too!
