Top-10 Failed Doomsday Predictions of All Time

Well said Frank!!

I wonder if the last of the Mayans passed on December 21.

In every moment of every day that passes, somebody steps off of this mortal coil. So, in that moment of that day, somebody's doomsday prediction is correct! Should we live our lives in panic? No. However, until it's our turn to step off said coil, lets be entertained by doomsday sayers!

Thanks, Karen, for another level-headed take on past and future doomsday threats. The more time I spend on this site the better I'm liking it. I've been doing a little "layman's" research on 2012. Here's my personal take on the subject.

December 21, 2012 – What Can We Expect?

With the excitable media, pop-culture, and the trendy marketplace clambering over some sort of doomsday event, I'd like to offer an alternative take. Many misguided theories and predictions are based on the Mayan Calendar ending on 12/21/2012. What the majority fails to understand, partially because it is being ignored by sensationalists, is that the Mayan Long Count Calendar is cyclical, unlike our Gregorian Calendar which is linear. The so-called "end date" is simply when the Long Count Calendar rolls back to zero, much like an odometer. However, the end of the current World Age (13 Baktun)* does indicate a cultural change. A paradigm shift toward transformation and renewal. A time when the Perennial Philosophy** is revisited. It's no accident that this end of cycle date falls on the winter solstice, symbolizing a rebirth of The Sun. Simply stated, it's a time to go within ourselves to find our inner wisdom that leads to peace of mind, unlike the prevailing mode of materialism and uber-greed as the path to salvation. (How many wealthy people do you know who are really happy?) The ground will once again become fertile for a new understanding that self-service, fear based religion, power politics and egomania must take a back seat in favor of service to the whole. This will not happen overnight. This is not an event but a process, one that any person can start at any time, even today. Further, as free-willed creatures, this shift will be a personal choice. Nothing will be forced upon us. But my feeling is, as the years proceeding 2012 tick by, that those who choose to operate from the old paradigm of fear, corruption, and grotesque disregard for fellow beings will find themselves lonely and isolated in a world where tired ideologies have collapsed beneath the weight their own hubris, giving way to community consciousness as the new normal.

–George Stone, Minneapolis, MN

*John Major Jenkins, The 2012 Story (2009)
The 13 Baktun end date can be written as either 13.0.0.0.0, or 0.0.0.0.0. Counting right to left, time is recorded as: Kin (1 day) Uinal, Kun, Katun and Baktun. All periods are on a base-20 count, so 20 Kin = 1 Uinal, except for the Uinal which is base-18, so 18 Uinal = 1 Kun, and the Baktun which is base-13, so 13 Baktun = a World Age, equal to 5,125.36 years. Hence, December 20, 2012 will read 12.19.19.17.19

** www.perennial.org
Philosophia Perennis – the phrase was coined by Leibniz; but the thing – the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being – the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the Perennial Philosophy may be found among the traditionary lore of primitive peoples, [and at the core of] every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in [every spiritual tradition.] Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy

Misunderstandings about the shifting energy patterns and change. A higher consiousness and enligjtment is difficult for some to understand. That these changes are for a positive change leads others to be a skeptic (o ye of little faith.)