Balloon boy hoax based on fears of 2012

Source: www.examiner.com

In the latest bizarre twist in the Colorado balloon boy story, an associate of Richard Heene revealed that Heene believes the world is going to end in 2012. Because of that, he wanted to get rich quick from a publicity stunt so he could afford to build an underground shelter, where he and his family could be safe from an exploding sun.

Apparently, Heene didn't watch the doomsday movie Knowing, in which the scientist hero, played by Nicholas Cage, declares that underground shelters wouldn't protect people from the searing radiation of an exploding sun. Neither did he watch the trailer for next month's movie, 2012, which shows a tidal wave washing over the Himalayan Mountains. If he had, he would have saved his helium balloon for an escape plan.

But I don't think either scenario is likely in 2012. The suggestion that the world will come to an end in 2012 is based on a misinterpretation of the ancient Mayan calendar. Mayan elder Apolinario Chile Pixtun of Guatamala is fed up with people saying the Mayans predicted the end of the world on December 21st, 2012. He says that the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan, ideas about an Apocalypse.

The Maya civilization, which reached its height from the year 300 to 900, had a talent for astronomy and calendars. Its Long Count calendar began in 3114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Maya, and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012.

"It's a special anniversary of creation," said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin. "The Maya never said the world is going to end, they never said anything bad would happen necessarily, they're just recording this future anniversary..."

But author John Major Jenkins says his two-decade study of Mayan ruins indicate the Maya attached great importance to 2012. "If we want to honor and respect how the Maya think about this, then we would say that the Maya viewed 2012, as all cycle endings, as a time of transformation and renewal," said Jenkins.

In my article on 2012: Doomsday or New Day, I pointed out that the increased solar activity during the solar max of 2012 may destroy some satellites and disrupt power and communications, but the spiritual effects of the increased intensity of sunlight with all its enlightening and healing factors, could propel mankind into a golden age.

So I'm not worried about 2012, but looking forward to it. Nevertheless, I have a stockpile of food, water, medicine and supplies in case we're without power for awhile.