In the late '80s, paranormal interest in crop circles (geometrical formations of flattened crops) reached a fever pitch, but after a few pranksters admitted they were behind "the hoax," the mainstream media brushed crop circles aside for good. Fast forward to 2007.
There is a word for someone who studies crop circles: a cereoligist. And these experts will tell you that 80% of crop circles are manmade, but the other 20% are absolutely mysterious and, as cereologist Colin Andrews says, "bear no trace of a human hand" and are created "possibly by an energy we've never met." Those who have continued to follow crop circles have witnessed increasingly complex geometric patterns and hidden symbols that would be very difficult if not impossible for any humans to create overnight.
For instance, consider the crop circle found in Etchilhampton, England, in August '97. The Etchilhampton crop circle was a 150-foot-long grid made of 26 rows of thirty squares. According to the book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, by Daniel Pinchbeck, the total number of squares within the grid equaled the number of weeks remaining from the date of its appearance until the end of 2012. So what?
Whether you believe that paranormal crop circles are a reality or a hoax, there's no denying the importance of the year 2012 in the Mayan calendar. The Mayan culture flourished in southern Mexico and Central America as many as 3,000 years ago. The Mayans had a different perspective on time. They believed that rather than going from point A to point B, time goes in a spiral pattern. Human beings are beginning to experience a quickening on the spiral as we move toward, as Pinchbeck puts it, "an open door to the cosmic center, in a sense an arrival of the cosmic source into local-space time…a renewal by returning into the central fire!"
The best way to get a sense of this open door to the cosmic center is to think about a peak experience. In yoga, it's a deep and amazing rest at the end of class. If you're a runner, it's the ultimate endorphin high. If you're a mom, it's watching your child take her first step. Peak experience tears through your sense of time and enables you to lose yourself in an all-encompassing sense of joy. Imagine if once and for all, you could release yourself from the clock and enjoy a perpetually present moment.
Well, that's what the Mayans have predicted. Every time a human being around the world enjoys a peak experience, they tear a little hole in the fabric of consciousness. Ultimately, if we poke enough holes in it, the fabric will tear to form one giant hole and anything resting on the fabric will spiral down and through the hole. The Mayans predicted that this will happen in 2012. Some kind of major breakthrough will happen and affect all of humanity.
This doesn't have to mean UFOs will land on your front lawn or even that a prophet will descend from the skies. Many believe it will be a defining point where we put down the cell phones and acknowledge that constant advancement, hard work, and struggle are not a necessary ingredient to life. We will shift from a sense of lacking to a sense of fullness. As one yogi said, "the world and the self are one and perfect. Only your attitude is faulty and needs readjustment."
