As promised, this entire post will be devoted to Geoff Stray's chapter because it is so chock-full of good stuff. He opens with a brief introduction to the work of Terence and Dennis McKenna, their experiences with ayahuasca (a very powerful entheogen), and their novelty wave theory that "demonstrates the acceleration of change in the universe toward a point...when time will end" -- which they placed at November 17, 2012.
He then mentions the near death experience (NDE) of Dannion Brinkley (for whom I have a special soft spot as we once appeared together, along with Dr. Raymond Moody, on a panel at the Whole Life Expo in San Francisco). During one of Brinkley's NDE's (he has had a total of three!) he was taken to meet 13 beings who showed him 300 scenes of the future, one of which was an "electromagnetic polar Earth shift" occurring between 2012 and 2014 that "would present humankind with a spiritual opportunity to raise in consciousness."
Stray covers the Mayan Long Count calendar (which originated with the Olmecs), the Popol Vuh myth, the Toltec's New Fire Ceremony, and the Hopi belief that we are approaching the transition from the Fourth World to the Fifth World, which will entail a "great purification." This is very similar to a Seneca prophecy that there will be a 25 year period of "purification" lasting until the year 2012, as well as to a prophecy by a Pueblo Indian named Speaking Wind who has stated that the Fifth World will start in December, 2012.
The Paqos, Q'ero priests in the Peruvian Andes, had previously announced that, according to their Pachakuti formula, "the turning over of the world" would start in 1990, last 22 years, and culminate in 2012 with the beginning of Taripay Pacha, a golden age when "the upper world, lower world and everyday world will unite," -- an age in which we will be "meeting ourselves again."
There are various indigenous prophecies of cataclysmic events occurring in the near future but it is interesting to note that a Maori creation myth regarding 2012 which was originally translated as "the curtain will fall" has apparently been revisited more recently by Maori elders who believe a more accurate translation would be "the veil will dissolve." I don't know about you, but that sounds a lot less ominous to me.
Stray touches on Quetzalcoatl, Kundalini, the Chilam Balam, Venus transits, and magnetized plasma, before returning to NDE's, this time one by Ken Kalb in 1969 that lead to his publication of a book, The Grand Catharsis. In this work Kalb discusses consciousness changes leading up to 2012 -- a period he saw as "Earth's own NDE" -- and a global rebirth.
According to Stray there are similar reports "from people who have undergone out-of-body experiences...lucid dreams, remote viewing, meditative trance states, hypnotic progression, and...alien abduction...experiences."
Stray has an interesting take on recent research on the possible effect of dimethyltryptamine (DMT -- the "spirit molecule") and other entheogens on pinoline production and the pineal gland, which is apparently "very sensitive to changes in the geomagnetic field."
He then pulls all of this heady brew together in the following tantalizing conjecture:
Could it be that our entry into the magnetized plasma band will cause Earth weather changes and a geomagnetic reversal, which will trigger the pineal gland into DMT and pinoline production, leading to Kundalini and out-of-body experiences and increasing incidents of telepathy, while we develop our ability to see beyond the veil into the invisible landscape?
As I said at the outset, chock-full of good stuff!
