"When an evolutionary change or mutation occurs, there is a precise moment when one stage changes into another, as by analogy when water boils and transforms into gas from liquid. We know that this happens precisely at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees centigrade. Likewise, it may be that December 21, 2012, is the precise "temperature" of synchronization in time when the chaotic unconscious phase of biospheric life begins to transform, through an act of collective self reflection, into the harmonically awakened state of the Noosphere.

As is commonly recognized, the 2012 date originates  from calculations related to the Mayan calendar. It is a common misconception that December 21, 2012, is the "end of the Mayan calender." No- the Mayan calender does not end. The now famous date corresponds to the end of a CYCLE precisely measured by the long-count Mayan calendar and often refereed  to as the "Great Cycle." The measure of the Great Cycle is from the date August 13, 3113 B.C. (Julian, August,11, 3114) and has a duration of just over 5,125 years, ending on Gregorian, December 21, 2012. Looking at it solely in this way one misses the actual precision of the measure as it is conveyed by the Mayan calender. In the Mayan calendar the measure of 5,125 vague solar years is a precise count of days: 1,872,000 to be exact. 

As demonstrated in the Mayan Factor this count is subdivided into thirteen cycles called baktuns of 144,000 days each. Each of these cycles is again subdivided into twenty smaller cycles of 7,200 days each, called katuns, 260 in all, twenty per baktun. The beginning date in the Mayan notation is a date known as 13.0.0.0.0, and the end date is also 13.0.0.0.0 the first position marks the number of baktuns; the second position the number of katuns; the third the number of tuns, 360 days cycles called vinals; and the fifth position one of 20 days called kin (day, or unit) numbered from 0 to 19. 13.0.0.0.0 as the beginning date means that a prior 13 baktun cycle has just ended, and the second such date means that another has come to an end. That is a very exact measure. The Great Cycle is a relatively small one and actually is the fifth part of a 65 baktun cycle in a larger sequence of five 5,125 year cycles or some 25,625 years. This is roughly similar to the Platonic "year" of some 26,000 years also known as the Pleiadean cycle. This larger 25,625 year cycle is also ending on Gregorian December 21, 2012.

The significance of these two cycles is the smaller 5,125 year cycle is worth contemplating in light of the biosphere-noosphere transition. When the current cycle ends, another one begins the day after. The ancients measured these cycles because they determined the nature and course of stages in evolution, just as the geological epochs like the Jurassic, the age of the dinosaurs, or the Cenozoic era, the rise of mammals. "The evolutionary function of H*** sapiens is to catalyze the next geological eon, in which six hundred million years of biospheric development finally attain it's apparatus of intelligence to create a planetary mental field of awakening consciousness: the noosphere." -The Noosphre Manifesto: The Next Stage in the Evolution of Human Consciousness pages:40-44.

"THE POINT IS THIS: WHEN WE UNDERSTAND THE SCALE OF THE MEGA CRISIS, WE REALIZE THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON WITHIN THE OLD SYSTEM OF BEHAVIOR AND BELIEF. YOU CANNOT STOP AN EVOLUTIONARY SHIFT THAT IS ENCODED INTO THE WHOLE SYSTEM PROCESS OF A LIVING PLANET LIKE THE EARTH, MUCH LIKE THE STAGES OF FETAL DEVELOPMENT ARE ENCODED INTO THE EMBRYO'S GENETIC MATERIAL. THE ONLY MEANINGFUL RESPONSE TO SUCH A TRANSITION AS IS NOW OCCURRING IS TO SHIFT OUR CONSCIOUSNESS TO MEET IT. AND THIS IS PRECISELY THE PRESCRIPTION THAT AUGMENTS AND AFFIRMS THE COMING OF THE NOOSPHERE."- The Noosphere Manifesto: The Next Stage in the Evolution of Human Consciousness by Jose Arguelles.    

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN WHAT THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE MAY BE LIKE LEADING UP TO THE DATE OF 12.21.2012 AND THE YEARS TO COME AFTER THAT DATE.

"All these are but the beginning of the birth pains."-Matthew 24:8