I think alot of people seem to dumb down what Mckenna was really about and what he was saying.

yeah, but this is the Last place i would expect to encounter this...

So you reckon that the Nexus should be filled with Mckenna-type wackos?

Nothing will happen with galactic alignment. The entire idea is a myth. There is no single instant where we will be "perfectly" aligned with the center of the galaxy. Any astronomer will explain why this is not true. We are talking about huge distances our planet is a speck.

not exactly, but i would reckon that the wackos here would have more of a grasp at what mckenna was trying to say then most of the population. i.e. a bit "switched on". omg, have u read the invisible landscape?, or food of the Gods? ok, i admit it i may be a bit of a mckenna wacko

Not only that, but isn't some part of the galaxy always going to be "aligned" with the center, at pretty much every single second?

Why don't we see certain planets out there in the galaxy going through the upheaval of a "galactic alignment" constantly?
If this had any footing in the truth, we probably would have seen it happen at least once by now, somewhere else.
We are perfectly able to see other galactic events happening.


WS

the galactic alignment, as i understand it(no expert!!) happens for us earthlings only once in 26,000 years. it is when the sun passes directly between earth and the supermassive black hole at the center of the milkyway. the possibility of an astronomer witnessing this thru a telescope happening on another planet?? well, you do the math, because its beyond me.

I think the destruction of a planet happening out of the blue for any reason would catch a bit of attention.

Once again, if a galactic alignment is going to happen for Earth at a certain point, then before & after that point there would be an alignment of something else out in space with the galactic center.

They do....and they are telling you, that after reading his books & listening to his speeches over many, many years now, they have found he was just an enthusiastic story teller....not a fact finder.
Hell even he said that!!

I plan to be absolutely sober when the time comes: if something happens I want to be sure it's not some tryptamine-induced effect.

biopsylo I like where your coming from.

5. Conclusion

My conclusion is that a new period of 13 baktuns in the Long Count of the Maya probably begins on 21 December 2012, but that we should not expect any special phenomena in the sky that are tied to that beginning.

It seems unlikely to me that the Maya tried to design their Long Count in such a way that the new period would start on a southern solstice in the middle of the Milky Way in their distant future, though it is not impossible.

If the Maya did design their Long Count with that conjunction in mind, then I do not think that they had enough knowledge to be able to predict the correct day of the conjunction accurately to better than a few dozen years, so if any special phenomena could be expected on the exact day of the conjunction, then they would probably not be visible on (or not visible just one) 21 December 2012.

I think that the beginning of a new period in the Long Count of the Maya in 2012 is just as unimportant as the 6000th anniversary of the Biblical creation date (celebrated in 1996), or the planetary conjunction of May 2000, or all kinds of past dates for which the end of the world had been predicted. Someone who did not hear about the prediction in advance would not have noticed anything special on those dates, and I predict that December 2012 will be like that as well.

The only effects that can be expected associated with the conjunction of 21 December 2012 have to do with the attention that people draw to that conjunction and date. If people expect that unusual things will happen on a certain date, then on that date they'll behave differently than usual, and that in itself is already an unusual thing. In this way they can fulfill their own expectations.


6. Coincidence

I believe that it is but a coincidence that 65 baktuns are approximately equal to the period of the precession of the equinoxes and that it is coincidence that the coming date of 0.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count falls on a southern solstice in the middle of the Milky Way.

You might think that it would have to be a very great coincidence, because if you choose the length of 65 baktuns at random then the chances of it happening to be about equal to the period of the precession of the equinoxes would be very small, and if you fix the date 0.0.0.0.0 at random (without regard to solstices or the Milky Way), then the chances of it happening to fall on a southern solstice in the middle of the Milky Way are also very small.

However, the probability of getting three sixes when casting three dies is also very small, but if someone does cast three sixes then that is not evidence of design or foul play. After all, if you cast the dies, then you must get some result, and if the dies are honest, then any result is equally probable, with the same very small probability, so getting three sixes is then just as likely as getting, for example, a two, and then a four, and then a three. This shows that the improbability of an occurrence is not by itself proof of design or foul play.

The observation that 65 baktuns are roughly equal to the period of the precession of the equinoxes is by itself not evidence that the Maya knew the precession, and the observation that the real 0.0.0.0.0 falls on a southern solstice when the Sun is in the middle of the Milky Way is therefore by itself no proof that the Maya must have designed their Long Count with the solstice and the Milky Way in mind.

Without unambiguous evidence from the Maya themselves we'll never be certain why they designed their Long Count in exactly the way they did.

ok, this is just about as vague and unconvincing as everything else out there. is this supposed to be scientific? let me see... if i roll three dice, and get three 6's then 2012 is a sham.,,exactly.

i think their is more evidence that the Maya did construct their long count calendar based on the precession of the equinoxes(other civilizations were aware of this phenomenon), and the position of the sun on that particular day. have you seen the ruins os chitzen itza? complete with an observatory. they were obviously watching stars and celestial bodies. it probably took a few centuries, but they collected data. there is also heaps of evidence that they were keen on psilocibe mushrooms, toads, morning glories, etc. so they were getting loaded and taking notes, and they came up with a calendar that is said to run out in 3 yrs. these are exciting times indeed.

these ancients certainly believed something would happen, otherwise they wouldn't have put so much effort into sky observation, and calendars carved from stone. Maybe it is JUST a calendar, nothing more.

maybe this civilization has lost its appeal, culture is out of balance, we are looking for something dramatic to reset the clock, get us back into sync and harmony with the natural cycles and rhythms. and yes, of course, true change happens within.

If we all started waking up when the sun rose and going to bed when the sun set would that change the world?

The Precession of the Equinox.

It will be of great help in understanding all of this.

If your are to meet someone, daily, at 5 O'clock p.m. and your watch (unknown to you) gains 3.14 seconds a day, then after 100 days it will seem, according to your watch, that the person is showing up 5+ minutes late.

Our calendar mirrors a similar situation in that, daily, we are 3.14 seconds ahead of what is actually going on in the heavens (sidereal zodiac). So, as a result, once every 72 years, at the vernal equinox, it seems that the sun has backed up by 1 degree/day. So at the Vernal Equinox the sun is 1 degree away from where we think that its going to be. The 1 degree of 'backing up' is called The Precession of the Equinox and precession is measured at the calendar's annual Vernal Equinox (March 21st) and precession tells us how far along, within the present age, that we have come. So, on the Vernal Equinox of 2007 (March 21st) the sun was actually at (almost) 28 degrees of Pisces (my calculations) indicating that we have been in the Age of Pisces for 2,012 years, (See, images below).
(Note: It is not just the Sun that appears to be backing up, but the entire visible universe as viewed from the Earth).

An 'Age' will continue until there is a 30 degree difference between the Sun's actual position in the zodiac and the tropical (calendar's) Vernal Equinox. At that time (30 degree difference) the Sun will enter (backwards) the 30th degree of a new sign (Aquarius) and a new age will begin. After a new Astrological Age begins the span of degrees between 0° Aries and the Sun's actual position at the Vernal Equinox will continue to grow by 1° every 72 years.
2,160 years constitute an "Age" (30 degrees x 72 years each) and 'precession' is how we measure it.

The Roman Catholic Church's Gregorian Calendar (since 325 AD) ignores precession and has always tried to adjust the calendar to pretend that precession does not exist. As a result, most of us do not have a clue regarding where we are within the present age.

Our present calendar is a "patchwork quilt" that has evolved as Man's knowledge and measuring devices have evolved. The only creation of Man that has more patches than the calendar is the Windows Operating System .
Our calendar as it exists now is simply the most recent expression of what we think is true regarding the Earth's movement around the Sun. Today we are just as certain of our calculations as were the astronomers of "ancient times".
None of the adjustments to our calendar included any consideration regarding precession and the length of the age and the collective effect of all of the calendar changes has been to virtually scramble the zodiac and banish astrology to the comic's section of the daily newspaper.