Mayan Prophecy: Is the World Coming to an End in 2012?

Mayan Prophecy: Is the World Coming to an End in 2012?
BY DEREK RODRIGUEZ

Ancient Knowledge Revealed


The Mayan empire, which dominated Central America for nearly 2,000 years, was one of the most advanced in history. Its mastery of astronomy, mathematics, architecture and engineering rivaled even that of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans of antiquity. The Maya developed a sophisticated calendar made up of 18 months of 20 days each, plus a five-day period called uayeb added at year's end to equal 365 days. When researchers finally cracked the Mayan language and calendar, however, they found one thing peculiar: It ends on December 21, 2012.

Did this civilization, so attuned to the cycles of the universe, know something we don’t? Is that the date the world ends? Or is it just that they saw no need to calculate dates any farther into the future at that time?

Strangely, 2012 does correspond with anticipated major solar activity that has the potential for affecting all life on the planet in profound ways. One need only look at another example of how solar storms disrupted human activity—at a time when we were much less dependent on electronic devices for banking, communications, defense and nearly everything else. Extrapolating from that event, it’s not difficult to anticipate a disaster of major proportions occurring in 2012, as the Maya may have predicted.


The Carrington Event

In September 1859, the largest geomagnetic storm in recorded history took place. Known as the Carrington Event, this solar storm was preceded by a tremendous amount of sunspot activity and solar corona flares—that is, the sun was belching forth a white-hot geyser of solar plasma made up of electrons and protons—all headed right at the Earth. These coronas normally reach our planet in three or four days, but in the case of the Carrington Event, the corona ejection journey here was a blazingly fast 18 hours.

When the solar storm hit the Earth, the results were astounding—as if a gigantic magnetic hammer had struck the planet like a gong. All over the globe, telegraph machines malfunctioned and burst into flames; even when unplugged, they would continue to whirr on, spitting out gibberish. The feedback was so great in some cases that telegraph operators were electrically shocked into unconsciousness. Other sensitive equipment like compasses whirled around uselessly. The telegraph systems in Europe and North America were rendered unusable for days.

In the sky, the aurora borealis from the supercharged magnetosphere lit up far beyond its normal northern home. From as far south as Cuba, Panama and Hawaii came reports of dazzling auroras that lit up the sky with such vivid greens and golds that a newspaper could be read by their light even in the dead of night. These northern lights were so strong that miners in the Rocky Mountains woke at 1 a.m. and ate their breakfast—thinking it was the dawn of a cloudy day.

Though the Carrington Event had a terrible effect on the Earth's nascent electronic grid and communication systems, it could have been far worse. The world had yet to become fully dependent upon electricity and instantaneous communication, and could recover with a minimum of effort. But what if a solar storm of a similar caliber were to hit the Earth now?

Are the rumors and mysteries surrounding the 2012 doomsday prophecy nothing but new-age mumbo-jumbo and fodder for bad disaster movies, or a real and deadly threat to human civilization—perhaps related to a catastrophic solar event? Our research suggests that this prospective menace is based not on dusty folktales, but on verifiable fact.


Earth's Shields are Down

The THEMIS Satellites were launched on February 17, 2007. Named after the Greek Titan Themis, the goddess of truth and natural order, the five satellites settled into orbit above Earth to study the planet's magnetic field, the energy surges that surround it (known as substorms) and the magnetic field's interaction with solar gusts of energy. Just as large thunderstorms on Earth's surface are often accompanied by rain and hail, large space stormsare often accompanied by substorms. THEMIS's purpose is to predict powerful substorms.

As the THEMIS satellites orbited Earth, they transmitted back to the surface a chilling discovery. Their scientific instruments reported that there was a giant tear in the surface of Earth's protective magnetic shield. Scientists were aware that the shield may have a hole, but this was a chasm much larger than they had anticipated. Any breach would have allowed in solar particles, but when the satellites measured the depth of particles that had broken through the shield, they found it measured nearly 4,000 miles thick—creating a greater breach than previously hypothesized.


Aurora borealis are caused by charged
particles in the Earth's atmosphere
(DPA/Landov)
A hole in the magnetic field means that, essentially, the shield that protects Earth from the onslaught of solar and other space storms is compromised. As science writer Larry Joseph described it, "The Earth's magnetic field protects us from blasts from the sun. Its job is to repel them and spin the blasts around so they don't hit the surface of the Earth. It's like, 'The shields are down, Scotty.' They're supposed to be up, but they're down."

The Earth Is in Imminent Danger

With the planet's defenses lowered, the Earth is now more vulnerable than ever to a solar storm, like the Carrington Event of 1859. That solar attack was enough to partially cripple a society that had just begun to explore the use of electricity and mass communication. And now the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has warned us that the Earth is due for another massive solar hit in just a few years.

The NAS released a study entitled "Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts." Its catastrophic message: that the Earth is in imminent danger. The sun's coronal output comes in 11-year cycles and the NAS predicts that 2012 is when the next solar strike will hit. Whether this is precisely what the Maya were predicting in their end-of-days prophecy or whether it is merely a coincidence is immaterial. In 1994, a low-level solar storm caused major malfunctions to two communications satellites, disrupting television and telephone signals. A solar storm of similar strength caused the HydroQuebec power grid in Canada to go down for more than nine hours; the resulting damages and loss of revenue were estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The solar storm that the NAS has predicted for 2012 will be considerably stronger than those two, more on the scale of the Carrington Event.

Riding the Storm Out

A Knockout Blow to Modern Civilization?

The intense solar storm due for 2012 will blanket the Earth with waves of energy that might disrupt the magnetosphere, sending wild surges of vast electrical current through high-voltage transformers and short-circuiting energy grids. And due to the interconnected nature of these grids, when one fails, it would knock out the others surrounding it, like tumbling dominos. It would also kill or severely disrupt satellites orbiting the Earth, leading to blackouts in communication, navigation and more. The NOA estimated that the damage would cost "$1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year," but "full recovery could take 4 to 10 years." The human toll, they add, would be extreme:

Impacts would be felt on interdependent infrastructures with, for example, potable water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in 12-24 hours; immediate or eventual loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, transportation, fuel resupply and so on. Emergency services would be strained, and command and control might be lost.

In addition, financial markets could shutter and trade between countries might halt for years until the electrical grid is repaired. All of human civilization could come to a screeching halt thanks to a supercharged bolt of energy from the sun.

Given that all of this is public knowledge—it comes from agencies run or funded by the government—why hasn't our country done more to publicize the dangers of the oncoming storm? And, more importantly, what has the government done to try to prevent this possible catastrophe? It would not take much to prepare and solar-proof the U.S.'s electrical grid, according to Larry Joseph. He believes that retrofitting 5,000 transformers with special resistors to protect them from geomagnetically induced currents that flow into the grid could cost as little as $200 million in total. But, Joseph warned, immediate action must be taken—for time, he says, is running out.

Surviving 2012, Silo-Style

Scientists are unsure what the full spectrum of reactions may be to the 2012 storm event. Problems with the electrical grid are expected, but some say the polarity of the Earth may switch; others say that massive typhoons, tidal waves and tsunamis will sweep the globe; and still others predict that the planet will be rocked by cataclysmic earthquakes. But whatever destruction may come in 2012, there are some very concerned citizens taking steps to ensure that they survive the onslaught.

One of those is architect and engineer Brian Camden. He has been retrofitting abandoned missile silos throughout the country into designer survival condos. They once held intercontinental nuclear missiles capable of reaching the Soviet Union. Now they're six post-apocalyptic condos. They have wind turbines and photovoltaic batteries for power. Each even has a gym and theater. Camden assures that the residents would be safe from whatever dangers 2012 might bring: "The 2012 bunkers we build now are designed to be completely submerged under water for 100 hours and to withstand fires of the surrounding area to 1,200 degrees for six days."

Camden says he's not done: "The U.S. government, for the last 10 years, has been on a massive shelter-building program from coast to coast." Why?

The Secrets of the Denver International Airport

All veterans of air travel in this country have experienced airport delays

Denver International Airport (Landov)
that have felt like the end of the world, but Camden seems to feel that in Colorado, the two may be more connected than anyone had previously suspected. Denver International Airport has had rumors and mysteries swirling around it since opening in 1995. Conspiracy theorists posit that it is sitting on top of one of the largest and most secret underground bunkers ever constructed. Many unusual circumstances were involved in the construction of Denver Airport, including:

The airport has a fiber-optic communications core made of 5,300 miles of cable that could stretch from New York City to Buenos Aires. The airport also has a copper-cable communications network that measures some 11,365 miles.
The fueling system can pump 1,000 gallons of jet fuel per minute through a 28-mile network of pipes. There are six fuel hold tanks that each hold 2.73 million gallons of jet fuel—much, much more than any airport currently has or would ever need.
To build the airport, 110 million cubic yards of Earth were moved, roughly a third of the amount moved to create the Panama Canal.
There are more than 19 miles of underground tunnels that move baggage and goods. They're so huge that you can drive trucks through them, and some remain unused.
The fact that Denver Airport's construction went nearly $2 billion over budget, with a final price tag of more than $4.8 billion, certainly could mean that something shady was afoot. When confronted with the disturbing murals that line the airport walls—with images of children and minorities being burned to a crisp—noted 2012 expert Jay Weidner makes an attempt to decipher the strange art: "That's the mother of all solar flares…. The world will be destroyed by fire, and there it is. Right here, this explains it. This is a place for the elites to escape from it, is what this is."

Is this well-trod international airport secretly housing a clandestine bunker to protect the wealthy and elite? The airport seems to be much larger than it need be, and the $2 billion building-cost overrun could have easily constructed a comfortable survival space for the select few. Denver International Airport would certainly not be the first government-built superbunker designed to shield the powerful while leaving ordinary citizens out in the cold and the chaos. There are more than a few; the most important and highest classified of which may be Mt. Weather.

The Masters of Mt. Weather

Little was known about Mt. Weather until December 1974. That is when TWA flight 514 crashed into the mountain, killing all 92 people on board. When reporters hurried to the crash site to cover the story, they discovered a fenced, heavily policed government facility nearby. All enquiries into the name or nature of the facility were met with silence by the government. The Washington Post quoted a Department of Defense spokesman who said he could not "comment on what Mt. Weather was used for or how long it has been in its current use." According to the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights hearings in 1975, Congress had almost no awareness and no oversight whatsoever on Mt. Weather. Retired Air Force General Leslie W. Bray testified to the subcommittee that he was "not at liberty to describe precisely what is the role and the mission and the capability that we have at Mount Weather, or at any other precise location."

But after much digging and investigation by reporters from the Progressive and Time, further details came to light. Mt. Weather was the means for the federal government to ensure that its authority would continue even through a civilization-threatening calamity—such as nuclear war, or now, the worst solar storm in history. But this steel and concrete-reinforced life raft only has space for the elite few.

Secret Government Bunker

Mt. Weather, located in Loudon County, VA, is the civilian command center used as the base of operations for FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Also known as the High Point Special Facility, it's roughly 48 miles from Washington, D.C., and is the main relocation site for high-level, high-ranking civilian and military leaders, to be used in the case of national disasters in order to maintain a continuity of government and authority. After the attacks of September 11, most congressional leaders were taken to Mt. Weather by helicopter as a precautionary measure.

Designed and completed in 1958, the year after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, Mt. Weather was insurance against a possible Russian nuclear strike. The rock of the mountain was exceptionally strong and dense. It was reinforced with iron, steel and concrete. Contractors built a solid steel door five feet thick, 10 feet high and nearly 20 feet across. The facility is designed to withstand a direct nuclear hit.

Mt. Weather is a city in miniature, with sleeping quarters to accommodate hundreds of Congress members, a broadcast studio so that the president can assure American citizens that the government is still in control, a cafeteria to feed all of those within the mountain and a full-service hospital. The facility is staffed with scientists, computer programmers, engineers, firefighters, craftsmen and security guards; as well as bureaucratic mainstays like branch chiefs, financial managers, supply officers, secretaries and stenographers. An underground power plant ensures that Mt. Weather stays in working order, no matter what.

Bring "Absolutely Nothing"

A few months after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the inner enclave of Mt. Weather was expanded by an additional 150 acres. The onsite 90,000 gallon-a-day sewage treatment plant and two 250,000 gallon above-ground storage tanks can support a population of 200 for up to 30 days. The facility is designed to accommodate several thousand people (with sleeping cots for 2,000), though only the president, his cabinet, and the Supreme Court are afforded their own private sleeping quarters. Yet, although Mt. Weather can house the population of a small town, it is who is left behind that shows the weakness of the facility.

In every drill, those lucky enough to be granted passage into Mt. Weather were instructed to drop everything, to come to the facility and bring "absolutely nothing" with them. As Time's Ted Gup put it:

Mount Weather's greatest vulnerability, however, may lie not with nuclear weapons but with human nature. The government officials designated to be evacuated in case of an emergency are not permitted to take their families with them, and many former officials say they would find it unimaginable to abandon husbands, wives or children. The issue has dogged the doomsday planners from the beginning. "I never took it very seriously," says Alexis Johnson, who was Deputy Under Secretary of State during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. "It was an unrealistic thing, it seemed to me, that we'd all pick up at the ringing of a bell and run for the hills, leaving our families behind."

Could the federal government be so cruel as to split up families to ensure the continuance of governance? And, to magnify the issue, how would the government decide who may board these 21st-century arks and who would get left behind to reap the whirlwind? Would celebrities and the super-rich join politicians at the top of the invite list? These facilities—Mt. Weather, Denver International Airport and all the many, many other bunkers—will be heavily protected by armed guards. Will these guards fire upon their fellow citizens who only want the chance to survive whatever cosmic maelstrom is wending its way to Earth in 2012?

The Mayan calendar that ends in 2012 could be an uncanny prophecy, or just the end of an era so far in the future that Mayan calendar makers saw no need to extend it. But hard science tells us that something terrible may be on its way in 2012, a solar storm of a magnitude not seen for more than 150 years. This cosmic wave of annihilation could take advantage of a large hole in the Earth's protective magnetic field and then wreak havoc on the planet's interconnected electrical grids. As a result, might the world be thrown back to the Dark Ages? We'll find out very soon.
http://www.trutv.com/conspiracy/phenomena/mayan-prophecy/masters-mt-weather.html