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The second spiritual explanation of the New Age movement, first popularized by Jose Arguelles, is supposedly based on the Mayan calendar. According to Arguelles, the Mayan calendar prophesies that in the year 2012 a major shift in cosmic energy coming into the Earth will occur. Until 2012, we will be experiencing a preview of this new energy and the New Age movement is the result of this new energy which is transforming our lives.
Based on this idea, Arguelles promoted and popularized the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, which he saw as the beginning or foreshadowing of this energy shift. Arguelles predicted that “by Tuesday, August 18 [the day after the Harmonic convergence] the infrastructure of a new planetary society will be in place . . . by 1989 the Campaign for Earth would be in full swing overseeing the dismantling of nuclear plants and all related armaments industries and technologies . . . By 1992 it will be evident that a new era has dawned, one as distinct from the industrial era as the industrial era was from the long agricultural era that preceded it.”[i]
Arguelles’ explanation is based on his claim that outside spiritual forces direct energy at the Earth to help our evolution. This energy he calls the beam. He says this beam will change in 2012, and thus the energy coming into the Earth will change then too. Arguelles says that “2012 is end of beam that is 5125 years long and is the last 1/5 of a beam that is close to 26,000 years long . . . Homo Sapiens emerged during the ice age, 26,000 years ago, at the beginning of the beam . . . in 2012 we will hit an evolutionary juncture when we will have new possibilities . . . to develop a new improved model of ourselves.”[ii] Arguelles says that in 2012 “the resonant frequency of the Earth-grid will shift. In the shift, the foundations of the mental house imprinted with the names of Descartes, Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus will dissolve.”[iii]
Arguelles has converted many New Agers, including prominent ones such as Ken Carey and Terence McKenna, to this vision. Ken Carey mixes this Mayan calendar with Christian symbolism and he says of 2012 that: “This event, anticipated by Christians as the Second Coming of Christ, is in fact the first fully conscious incarnation of the Eternal One in the collective consciousness of a world’s biosphere.”[iv]
The popularity of this explanation shows that the New Agers have a very accepting attitude to Native Americans and what they think are Native American prophecies. Western scientists belittle these prophecies and join the Doonesbury cartoon strip in satirizing the Harmonic Convergence. On the other hand, many New Agers consider Western science dogmatic because they say science maintains that only our physical senses can give us accurate information about reality. The New Agers are right in questioning the dogmatism of empiricism that is the basis of any worldview based on modern science. After all, how can one prove that only our senses give us knowledge and that we cannot obtain knowledge through prophecy?
Nevertheless, even if one accepts the possibility that prophecies can be an accurate source of information, there is still a major problem with believing in Arguelles’ claim. For according to Arguelles’ own explanation, he did not get his understanding of the Mayan calendar system just from the Mayan calendar itself. He admits he got the whole idea of the New Age as related to the Mayan calendar system in a private vision. In one place, he says he got the dates for the Harmonic Convergence from “personal inspiration, his interpretation of the Mayan mind, and the modern prophecy of several North American tribes.”[v] In another place, he says he got his whole system not just from the Mayan calendar, but also from the Tibetan teachings of Chogyam Trungpa and from meditation on the I Ching, the Chinese divination system.[vi] Thus his whole explanation, instead of being an ancient Native American prophecy, is actually a very recent private vision. Hence this explanation loses some of its charm, even to New Agers who want to believe in the possibility of acquiring knowledge from ancient prophecies.
This also means that any person who wants to evaluate Arguelles’ claims has to ask how much can one trust Arguelles’ personal vision and what kind of track record does he have? This record is severely damaged by claims he has made previously, especially about the Harmonic Convergence. Arguelles said of the Harmonic Convergence that “By Tuesday, August 18 [a few days after the Harmonic convergence] the infrastructure of a new planetary society will be in place . . . By 1989 the Campaign for Earth would be in full swing overseeing the dismantling of nuclear plants and all related armaments industries and technologies . . . By 1992 it will be evident that a new era has dawned, one as distinct from the industrial era as the industrial era was from the long agricultural era that preceded it.” Shortly afterwards Arguelles says that a world council of geomancies would be set up.[vii] Needless to say, none of these things have happened, and so the track record of Arguelles’ prophecies is pretty poor.
It does not help Arguelles’ credibility that he occassionally makes really wild claims: he said that the Mayan people were not really from this planet but were sent down from outer space. He also claims Buddha was one of these space people: the space beings “even included a clue to his identity” as his mother was named Maya.[viii]
Another problem with his prophecies is that Arguelles says that “the famous 144,000″[ix] people participated in the Harmonic Convergence. This number was not based on a count of the people involved in the Harmonic Convergence, but was arrived at because it has important resonances with the Christian Bible and the number of people mentioned there who will be saved. Combined with Ken Carey saying that 2012 will be the Second Coming of Christ, with this Mayan explanation of the New Age movement, we are not in the realm of ancient myth but in the realm of modern myth mixing.[x] In defense of his claims, Arguelles says that “Myth is no less real than history.”[xi]
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This essay was written by Joseph Waligore. He dedicated his life to following the will of the Universe when he was 20. Seven months later he received a message from his Higher Self or inner connection to the divine to quit Dartmouth College. Through following a deep intuition in a dream and after many synchronistic experiences, he met his soulmate and married her. He and his wife followed their spiritual intuitions in their daily lives, including receiving messages to have children. For twelve years he stayed at home and raised his three children while his wife worked. Then, his wife told him he needed to make some money, so he got a Ph. D. in philosophy from Syracuse University. He currently has a part-time job teaching philosophy and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. More information about him can be found at his MySpace profile. He also has a website with information about his own spiritual journey and his spiritual philosophy.
There is a Facebook group called Flowing. People interested in meeting other people who are interested in these ideas and/or participating in discussions about these ideas are invited to join the group.
Many people reach this site through keyword advertisements. It might be of interest that Joseph got the money for these ads through his daytrading profits.
[i]Jose Arguelles, “Harmonic Convergence, Trigger Event: Implementation and Follow-Up,” no. 3, Life Times, pp. 64-5.
[ii] Jose Arguelles, Surfers of the Zuvuya (Santa Fe: Bear and Co., 1989), p. 40.
[iii] Jose Arguelles, The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology (Bear and Co., 1987), p. 159.
[iv] Ken Carey, The Third Millenium: Living in the Posthistoric World (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1991), p. 102.
[v]Arguelles, Surfers of the Zuvuya, p. 10.
[vi]Arguelles, Mayan Factor, p. 34.
[vii]Jose Arguelles, “Harmonic Convergence”, Life Times Issue no. 3 p. 64-65
[viii] Arguelles, Surfers of the Zuvuya, p. 25 & 30.
[ix]Arguelles, Surfers of the Zuvuya, p. 74.
[x]Arguelles, Surfers of the Zuvuya, p. 74.
[xi]Arguelles, The Mayan Factor p. 170.
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My name is Joseph Waligore. I currently have a part-time job teaching philosophy and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. More information about me can be found at my MySpace profile or my Facebook profile.
This website is one of four websites I have. At makingyourconnections.com I have a posted a significant portion of a self-help book I am currently writing. This book helps people succeed in the world by making their connections, the special people in their lives. Another website, www.followingtheflow.com is for spiritually oriented people and discusses very similar ideas from a more spiritually oriented perspective. Another one, www.josephwaligore.com is for academically or intellectually oriented people. It has my writings about spiritual philosophies such as Stoicism, Socrates, the Deists, the Enlightenment period, and the rise of modern science.
There is a Facebook group called Flowing. People interested in meeting other people who are interested in these ideas and/or participating in discussions about these ideas are invited to join the group.
Many people reach this site through keyword advertisements. It might be of interest that Joseph got the money for these ads through his daytrading profits.