By Linda M. Potter
As 2012 draws closer, are we prepared for its challenges? Is the fate of humanity hanging in the balance? Can we work together to address the critical issues facing our world in time to re-write the 2012 doomsday scenarios and create a better future?
The man behind the questions (and their provocative answers) is scientist and seer, Gregg Braden. A former geologist and aerospace computer systems designer, Braden has devoted the last 22 years to researching ancient wisdom traditions, studying the ice cores in Antarctica and working for Global Coherence.
Time is running out, he says, as we approach one of the most pivotal periods in the history of civilization.
Where do we begin?
Braden: I think it is important to begin with facts, and it is a fact that we are living the end of a rare and mysterious cycle of time that began 5,125 years ago in the year 3114 B.C. and completes with a rare astronomical event that occurs on December 21, 2012 A.D.
It’s a fact that this 5,125 year cycle has occurred in the past a number of times. Ancient and indigenous traditions, specifically Mesoamerican traditions, identify at least four of these cycles leading up to the cycle that we’re experiencing now.
It’s a fact that each time cycles were completed and new cycles began, they were accompanied by conditions of change that were catastrophic for the people living during that time.
What kinds of planetary changes are we talking about, and how did they lead to the destruction of earlier civilizations?
Braden: Specifically, those were changes in climate, in temperature, and in seasons which impacted their ability to do simple life-sustaining things like growing food. So they started to fight each other for the vestiges of these disappearing resources, and in their fighting everyone lost — no one won – and the civilizations collapsed and disappeared.
Can science explain these cyclic patterns and the resulting planetary changes?
Braden: There are two key scientific discoveries that have helped us understand what is happening. The first is the discovery that there is a powerful source of energy at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It is a powerful magnetic field that ebbs and flows and has a profound effect upon life on Earth.
The second discovery is that our location (proximity) to this field of energy determines how strongly we are influenced by it. Our orbit around the core of Milky Way Galaxy is not a perfect circle. If it were, the energy would be the same all the time. Rather, it is an ellipse, an elongated circle.
We happen to be at a point in the cycle right now where the magnetic field is lessened, and we have more energy from the sun influencing our planet. That energy heats up the ocean, heats up the atmosphere, melts the ice, causes sea levels to rise, and triggers changes in weather patterns. As a result, the climate changes.
Is this recurring pattern responsible for what we are experiencing on Earth?
Braden: Yes. What looks like radical changes occurring on the Earth right now are actually changes that are perfectly aligned with the changes the Earth has always seen when we reach this point in the cycle. We’re right on track with the changes that come with the end of what the Mayans called a World Age Cycle.
Can we meet the physical challenges on the planet and survive the end of this World Age?
Braden: I’m not that concerned about our ability to meet the challenges of the physical changes. We’re already doing it and I think we’re doing a good job. My concern is how we deal with the personal, social and cultural changes that are presented to us as a factor of the cycle.
How do we respond? How do we treat one another? We’re answering that question right now. What I’m seeing happening — and I admit I’m an optimist — is the changes in our world are driving the governments and nations of our planet to work together with greater levels of cooperation because we need to get through the cycles.
Braden, the New York Times bestselling author of such groundbreaking books as The Divine Matrix and, most recently, Fractal Time, will be appearing in Saint Louis on March 4, at 560 Music Hall. For further information, contact BellaSpark Productions, 970-443-0732, www.bellaspark.com.