What is the 2012 phenomenon? At its broadest conception, it is just a meme and, perhaps, a focal point for anyone’s hopes, fears and anxieties about the near-future.

The formal definition, such as it is, relates to the Mayan calendar, which represents time as a series of cycles. One of these cycles, known as the Maya Long Count, consisted of more than 5,000years. In our calendrical system it began in August 3114 B.C. and is due to end on December 21^st 2012. One separate piece of Mayan text has been ambiguously interpreted by Maya scholars as possibly predicting an ominous event. Over time, this has become a specific prophesy identifying some kind of major cataclysm. At one extreme, some theories suggest Earth’s collision with a black hole or another planet, or a shift in the Earth’s magnetic poles. At the other is the belief that humankind will achieve spiritual transformation and / or consciousness expansion, either as a result of its own accelerated evolution, or by external intervention.

A non-exhaustive list of 2012 predictions is provided below, most of which are highly suspect, a few downright moronic and some pretty hilarious. If you choose to believe that one or more of these are likely, then surely *any* kind of high weirdness is possible, right? Hence the last two predictions, which most folks should recognise.

• The end of the Hindu stage of Kali Yuga – the Age of Vice
• The assertion that ‘Armageddon will overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation on the final day of the 13th b’ak’tun’ (Mayan unit of 394 years)
• Completion of a Great Year – the cycle of precession which records the gradual shift in the orientation of Earth’s axis of rotation, lasting approximately 26,000 years
• Alignment of the Sun with the band of dark dust clouds in the Milky Way – allegedly known by Mayans as Xibalba or Black Road (hence the name of this site)
• The point at which the acceleration of invention, information transfer and knowledge exponentially increases at an instantaneous rate – known as the Singularity – giving rise to a sudden leap in human evolution
• Gravitational disruption caused by Sagittarius A – the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way
• Disruption as a result of planetary conjunction within our solar system
• Mass extinction caused by geomagnetic reversal – a shifting of the Earth’s polar caps – the last occurrence of which was 780,000 years ago
• Collision with Planet X, also known as Nibiru
• Destruction as a result of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse undergoing supernova
• Alien invasion or emergence of / contact with extraterrestrial intelligence
• Economic meltdown / collapse of capitalism
• Mob rule and the mass overthrow of government / global revolution
• Ecological catastrophe from flooding / mega-tsunamis / volcanic eruptions / earthquakes
• Global conflict – invasion / nuclear strike / co-ordinated terrorism
• Fulfilment of Biblical prophesy – emergence of the Anti-Christ / second coming of Christ
• Emergence of the Noosphere – evolutionary step-change as a result of human collective consciousness
• Sub-atomic chaos as a result of Large Hadron Collider activity
• Emergence of a stargate / wormhole
• Cyber terrorism / collapse of the Internet
• Stay Puft Marshmallow Man manifests on the physical plane
• Humanity simultaneously realises that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration – that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There’s no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we’re the imagination of ourselves

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