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2012 Doomsday: Science or Superstition?
A debate is raging over whether December 21, 2012, the end of the Mayan calendar, heralds a doomsday of apocalyptic proportions — or the dawning of a golden age in consciousness. In the documentary 2012: Science or Superstition, scientists and experts present both the science behind the Mayan calendar as well as a positive message that we will be ushered into a new age of elevated consciousness and increased awareness.
One of the experts featured in the film is Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., a medical anthropologist who has researched the healing traditions of the Andes and the Amazon for over 20 years. Founder of The Four Winds Society and author of more than 10 books including Courageous Dreaming, The Four Insights and Shaman Healer Sage, Dr. Villoldo is dedicated to bridging ancient wisdom with modern medicine and psychology. He recently shared with us his perspective on 2012.
Q. What are the 2012 prophecies?
A. They are indigenous prophecies of the Americas. You find them among the Hopi, Maya, Inka (the traditional spelling used by tribe elders) and Apache. Dec. 21, 2012, is an astronomical alignment that is going to be the beginning of a new era of a new age. These prophecies are very optimistic. They’re not the apocalyptic prophecies of Christianity about the end of the world. They’re really the beginning of the world. According to the Maya, humanity first appears in the planet on December 21, 2012. So we’re still proto-humans. We’re still half cooked.
Tell us about the isolated group of Inkas in Peru that you work with.
They are part of the lineage of wisdom keepers that’s found throughout the Americas. They came across the Bering Strait originally from the Himalayas around 32,000 years ago. At the time of the conquest, they fled and settled in very high mountain tops where neither the church nor the state could find them. They observed and foresaw the end of the conquistador looting, raping, pillaging, devastating the land and polluting the rivers.
One time, one of them said to me, “Alberto, we’re going to miss our white brother.” They saw the end of a predatory time on the earth and the beginning of a millennium of peace.
How did you come to meet these isolated shamans who live at 18,000 feet?
They were the stuff of legend, and 20 years ago, an old Peruvian archaeologist I knew introduced me to them. I went to their villages and brought Western medications with me because they had been in contact with other Indians who had been in contact with diseased Westerners. They had babies with dysentery and things that their local herbs and nature pharmacies could not heal. I developed a close relationship with their medicine people.
With these people, I learned about luminous medicine where they healed at the level of the luminous matrix that surrounds the physical body. The matrix organizes the body in the same way a magnet organizes iron filings from a piece of glass. These people are able to look at your luminous matrix and tell you how your grandmother died, how you might live, how you would heal and how you might die, because it is all encoded in this information matrix. They are able to also read the matrix of the earth, and that’s where they read the prophecies.These shamans differentiate between information and knowledge.
To them, information is knowing that water is H2O, but knowledge is being able to make it rain. The prophecy was the information as to what could happen, what might happen. They saw us growing a new consciousness, downloading the information codes for a new human into our luminous energy field.
What “signs” or evidence support the predictions of the Inka elders?
They have definitive signs that they look for to mark the setting into motion of the great upheaval. One of them was the disappearance of the condor, which almost became extinct around 25 years ago. They talk about the drying of the high mountain lagoons and the melting of the glaciers, among other signs, all of which have begun.
Should we view 12/21/2012 as a potential doomsday?
If you suddenly have a billion people disappearing from the planet overnight, that’s a gigantic cataclysm. If you have it happening naturally and gradually, over a 100-year period, then it’s nature resettling and readjusting itself. I see it as both.
Do you believe there will be a pole shift?
I don’t think it's a “matter of belief.” Off the coast of Chile, there are areas in the ocean where the compass points to Antarctica and tells you that it’s north. There are eight or 10 of these spots, the size of Australia, in the ocean where the poles, the direction of the compass, have already shifted.
What is the opportunity in 2012 for individuals?
It is happening today. We have the possibility to break free from the nightmare of our past of violence and exploitation — to clear the slate both individually and collectively. We can quantum leap into new humans. We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for who can fully utilize our entire brains and not just our stomachs, reproductive organs and mouths. We can have the fullness of the human experience and be fully in the mystery of the human experience. I think this is happening now.
Arielle Ford is a founding partner of Spiritual Cinema Circle and bestselling author of The Soulmate Secret: Manifest The Love of Your Life With The Law of Attraction.