• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

The Orion Prophecy & 2012

Mephisto

Philosopher
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
6,064
I'm not normally a doomsayer, but someone recently introduced me to this doomsday prophecy that is supposedly based on mathematical calculations by the Maya, the Egyptians and even people from Atlantis.

They assert that the world will undergo a polar shift as a result of an upheaval of magnetic forces in the earth's core. It's an apocalyptic prophecy (wouldn't you figure) that "foresees" the death of millions of people and it's all supposed to happen in 2012 (not much time, huh?).

Apparently, interest in these "prophecies" have grown because of a new book, but I'm not familiar with the author nor the book.

I do, however, want anyone's opinion on the subject, especially if you're a mathematician or a physicist, or if you've read the book. I'm not one to subscribe to doomsday prophecies, but this one seems particularly interesting. Anyone familiar with it or opposing views?
__________

A little about the book

http://www.howtosurvive2012.com/htm/orion_01.htm
___________

A comprehensive review

http://www.diagnosis2012.co.uk/orp.htm
____________

From the author himself

http://www.crawford2000.co.uk/patrickg.htm
___________

Thanks in advance to anyone who posts.

Mephisto
 
In my book, The Orion Prophecy, I came to the staggering conclusion that the earth will be subjected to a huge disaster. The cause: the magnetic field of the earth will reverse in an instant, resulting in catastrophic consequences for humanity. Immense earthquakes will flatten all buildings on earth; while continents will shift thousands of kilometres and an all-demolishing tidal wave will leave billions of dead people behind.
Funny how these prophets of doom invariably practically orgasm over the death and destruction they are describing; they surely aren't looking forward to it, are they? They also can't spell:
It is a book based not on mirth or legend but upon hard scientific data...
, and they have terrible websites.
If we're all going to die in six years' time, why isn't this guy more worried about it?

I'm no scientist, but I can confidently state it's the usual load of hooey:
In the year 2012 the Earth awaits a super catastrophe: its magnetic field will completely reverse in one go. Phenomenal earthquakes and tidal waves will destroy our civilization. Europe and North-America will shift thousands of kilometres northward and end up in a polar clime. Nearly the whole Earth's population will perish in the apocalyptic events.

These predictions stem from the Maya and Egyptians. They are descendants of the legendary Atlantis, which is currently buried under the South Pole. The Atlanteans had highly evolved astronomical knowledge and were able to exactly predict the previous worldwide flood in 9792 BC. They built tens of
thousands of boats and escaped to South-America and Egypt.
If you want proof of how many previous end-of-the-world prophecies have been made - and not come to pass - take a look at A Brief History of the Apocalypse.
I see that we've just missed an Armageddon - it was scheduled for last Sunday - and there won't be another one along until at least 2007. Oh bother!

(Edited 'cos I can't spell either.)
 
Last edited:
I always thought that the 2012 date as just a gimmick they used on the last episode of the X-Files.
 
How, supposedly, were the Mayans any better at predicting the future than any other Woo out there?
 
So how did he learn about Atlantis being the source of Egyptian and Mayan knowledge? He used his astronomical knowledge.

Through his astronomical knowledge, he discovered a trace leading to a high-developed civilization that was destroyed by a polar reversal. The descendants of this civilization, the Maya and Old Egyptians, predicted a similar disaster for the year 2012.
 
I'm not normally a doomsayer, but someone recently introduced me to this doomsday prophecy that is supposedly based on mathematical calculations by the Maya, the Egyptians and even people from Atlantis.

Note that the so-called "Egyptian" calculations are actually done by modern persons who already know about the Maya calendar and can use that knowledge to twist the numbers occurring in Egyptian sources (writings, places, and items) to arrive at the same figures. There is no written Egyptian source for the supposed prophecies.
 
It's really just a roll-over of the odometer, so to speak:

From http://www.sacred-texts.com/time/cal/mayacal.htm :

There is a great deal of nonsense that has been written about the Mayan long count. It has been claimed (most egregiously, in a Discovery Channel TV series) that it will 'come to an end' in the near future, and along with it will arrive a Mayan apocalypse, a pole shift, earth change, cosmic convergence, whatever. Given the completely cyclic nature of the long count, this is an idiotic characterization. Once any given cycle ends, another begins, endlessly. The full long count is currently only at baktun 12; there are still 8 baktuns (or about three thousand years) before it turns over. The current Katun will increment about ten years from now (13.0.0.0.0 will be on December 21st, 2012). However, there is no reason that date should be any more cosmologically significant than the end of the common era millenium was!
 
Note that the so-called "Egyptian" calculations are actually done by modern persons who already know about the Maya calendar and can use that knowledge to twist the numbers occurring in Egyptian sources (writings, places, and items) to arrive at the same figures.

Here's an example from Cotterell's Terracotta Warriors [*] (page 256):

There's a photo of a necklace that was found in Tutankhamon's tomb. This neclace encodes, according to the author, the figures 144,000 and 666 that are, again according to the author, connected to the Book of Revelation as well as the Maya prophecies (and Inca prophesies and Chinese prophesies...)

The way he he arrives 144,000 is as follows: there are 398 beads in the necklace, but two are broken so the real figure is 397. The solar pole rotates 360 degrees in every 37 days so because 360 + 37 = 397 we take the 360 and multiply it by 400 that is the figure we get by adding 2 gold ignots of the necklace to the total number 398 beads to get the figure 144,000 that proves that the world will end in 2012.

The sixth bead row has 110 beads and when we multiply it with 6 (as in the row) we get 660 and then we add the row number we get 666 -- a certain proof that the word ends in 2012.

If that wasn't enough to convince you all, Cotterell also shows that the Egyptians knew the magnetic cycles of the sun: the Tutankhamun's tomb had 16 stairs of which 6 were repaired and 6 * 16 = 96 which is the number of magnetic cycles in one sunspot cycle. See it all fits in, the world ends in 2012.


[*] I ended with the possession of that book rather embarasssingly. I was on book shopping on the last day of the great january sale in Akateeminen kirjakauppa, the day when they sold rest of the discounted books with an extra discount so that the final price was about 30% of the list price. I was in the shop about 10 minutes before it closed and just made a mad rush through the aisles to grab whatever seemed interesting and I failed to note that instead of being a historical work about the First Emperor, it was actually belonged to rather alternative genre. But they had misplaced it and it was in the history aisle. Luckily it was only three euros. BTW, the greatest find was a book on old folklore about sexual matters.
 
I do, however, want anyone's opinion on the subject ...
The year 2000 for A-Day was good until, well, 2001 I suppose. 2012 was near enough to attract attention but good for a decade's sales. The next date will probably be in the 20's or 30's. And, oddly enough, some of the same woos that made a fuss about 2000 will be making a fuss about that one. Failure in this field is apparently infinitely forgivable.

2012 is the crtical year of the Olduvai Theory - Peak Oil and such - which, while not ironclad, doesn't draw on Mayan or Egyptian mythology. So there may well be disturbances that the woos can point to as confirmations of their predictions when those predictions are properly interpreted. For instance, "polar shift" could be an analogy for China's economy overtaking the US's.
 
From a physicist's point of view, I have to say, I don’t really see how the shifting of the magnetic pole is related to all the destruction. The pole reversing is a well known phenomena and is seen to happen on average about every 300,000 years, although the standard deviation from that number is huge, The last one occurred I think about 800,000 years ago, so we probably are due another one – but so what! There is no geological evidence that links such events to earthquakes or massive continental shifts.

There are two possible dangers associated with the pole reversal – i)Navigational equipment that uses magnetic fields will fail. ii)There may be a period of very weak or non-existent magnetic fields which puts us in danger from solar flares etc.

Sounds like lots more woo to me.
 
Thanks, Everyone!

Thank you all for your replies.

I'm not normally attracted to such prophetic drivel, and I'd spotted many of the "inconsistencies" myself but since I'm always overly biased and overly passionate, I thought I'd roll this turd onto the table for you all to poke at.

I suppose there will be a huge sale of books relating to these prophecies as the end of 2012 looms. I'm for doing as LW suggested and try (however inadvertantly) to find a book on sexual folklore - it'll make for better reading. :)
 
ii)There may be a period of very weak or non-existent magnetic fields which puts us in danger from solar flares etc.


So it is safe to say that the author is completely wrong when he claims it will happen "in an instant"?
 
But does it matter? The priests of the Temple of Syrinx will be caring for us all with their mighty computers by 2112.
 
To further support Maxwell's Demon's post, lets remember that there are several polarity reversals in the geological record. And there are no matches between the polarity reversals and mass extinction events...
 
To further support Maxwell's Demon's post, lets remember that there are several polarity reversals in the geological record. And there are no matches between the polarity reversals and mass extinction events...

And they are not reversed "in an instant" - it takes several thousand years to complete a pole shift. In the real world, anyway.
 

Back
Top Bottom