I have taken a survey among a small, but what seemed a relative accurate cross-section of the contributors to Blogstream. It consisted of a single question, “what would it take for you to re-examine your entire belief system?” This question among a group of college friends broke the monotony of picking the five people you would most like to have dinner with.

So I had heard alot of answers. I was surprised however at my responses from those contributors. I don’t want to sound “caustic” but from my responses most people don’t really want to change their belief system, they seem to be comfortable in their beliefs and the experience of those beliefs in their life. This is not a denouncing of comfort or confidence in one’s self

I enjoy the comfortable as much as anyone and desire a system that I can comprehend and exude a certain degree of confidence that I might be right, at least about a piece of the puzzle. With that said however I stand as a “freak” among you. I can not state this more emphatically than there is nothing I would rather have to do, other than to need to examine the most basic of my beliefs, because they might need changing.

I am not so ego-centric to think that this is an exclusive characteristic. This is perhaps why a number of responses indicate that their belief system is open and “morphing” constantly. Let’s hope that people are sincere about that, because I believe and propose that the entire planet must undergo a belief system change.

I find it hard to conceive that anyone could be living on the planet today and not feel in their heart that something is wrong. Even if one is not into the “worst case” scenarios it is impossible to look at the bitter divisions that separate rather than unite, and feel very good about the scenarios of the future, whatever they are. Only the fool would believe that civilization is served by such diffusion of intent.

We must come together and realize that diversity when focused gives us a strength of intent needed today. Science will re-integrate with aboriginal wisdom, rights will meet lefts, the carapace of modern technology will crumble as new support systems self-organize causing a major shift in human thought and values - from alienation to integration, from deformed and spatialized time to synchronic harmony, from either patriarchal or matriarchal dominance to true partnership, from ego based delusions to global telepathy. As a dialectical of Eastern enlightenment and Western curiosity - the Maya call this time the return of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent.

Why do I invoke the Mayan civilization, Einstein said, “the history of an epoch is the history of its instruments. The modern mind instrumentalized time, fashioning it into a tool to shape the three-dimensional perspectival world and permit it to become a reality.” The Mayans certainly fit into this definition, with the most sophisticated and accurate rendition of time that has ever been conceived, in addition to the first phonetic written language, and certainly a special place in history for chocolate.

A way to get one’s head around how advanced these people were is to realize that, at a time when the Catholic church was trying to burn Galilee at the stake the Mayans had at least a thousand years before calculated the existence and location of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way and the fact that our solar system orbits this center, correctly calculating the time spans involved. (one more nail in what should be the coffin of the Catholic church)

On the winter solstice of December 21, 2012, the Sun will rise within the dark rift at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, an event that happens every 25,800 years. To the Mayan culture this alignment represents the “ union of the Cosmic Mother (the Milky Way) with the First Father (the December solstice sun.) Mayan hieroglyphs describe the center of this dark rift as the “Hole in the Sky,” cosmic womb, or “black hole,” through which their wizard-kings entered other dimensions, accessed sacred knowledge, or toured across vast reaches of the cosmos. In September 2002, astronomers using the Hubbell verified the existence of a massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, naming it “Sagittarius B”.

This date is the culmination of what is called the “Long Count” of a calendar that consists of three counts proceeding simultaneously. A calendar that when compared to our Gregorian conjures up images of Mc Larens versus Model T’s.

This calendar when combined with temple architecture and hieroglyphs of the most important Mayan pyramids - the Temple of the inscriptions in Palenque, the pyramid of the Jaguar in Tikal, and the Pyramid of Quetzacoatl in Chichen Itza - represent a model of time from the origins of the Universe to the predicted phase shift on the December soltice 2012. This may not seem to some as extraordinary, but to possess knowledge that closely parallels our own understanding but perhaps 2,000 years ago cause me to ask, “what the fuck”

The Mayans indicated in what survives the Spanish that this knowledge was attained in a manner that stretches our modern concepts of knowledge itself. The kings and priests used psychoactive substances such as DMT-containing snuffs, peyote and psilocybin mushrooms, that allowed for direct perception of forces emanating from across the cosmos.

It may be easy for many to dismiss such knowledge, can you imagine “George” on peyote and mushrooms, that would be a state of the union gathering and speech that I would watch. Despite the present day perception of such activities causing one to dismiss such practices, it is impossible to dismiss how much they got right and how long it took us to catch up with people who lived 2,000 years ago.

See if you agree with the description of the time November 1999 to the present as described 2,000 years ago. The cycle of 13 tuns that began at this time reaches its zenith or “midnight hour” in November 2008. This time ruled by Tezcatlipoca, the lord of darkness...we will see the last desperate and at the same time forceful, attempt to secure control by the forces seeking to maintain dominance. That is a paraphrased translation from an inscription on the wall of a temple constructed 2,000 years ago. I’ll be damned if I can find words for a more apt description.

So, the Mayans have given us a picture of the universe as a 16 billion year journey of consciousness that portrays that consciousness being created in a hierarchal manner and that each advance stands on the foundation of another. That the culmination of that journey is the shift that is called for with the return of Quetzalcoatl, the return of “as above so below”.

Clearly, the shift to a higher form of consciousness could not happen passively. The transformation of consciousness requires not only personal work, but direct and surgically precise engagement with ecological, political, psychological, commercial, technological and spiritual aspects of reality - as Nietzche noted, the deed creates the doer, “as an afterthought.” It is inconceivable that movement to a higher state of consciousness could take place in a subconsciousness murk. Such a shift could take place in only one way: in the full light of consciousness.

To accomplish this would require our complete will and higher cognitive functions. We would have to decondition ourselves from negative programming, overcoming distractions and self justifications and egocentric goals - to “abandon abandonment” and “escape escapism.” At this moment, it is unclear how much sacrifice will be necessary.

If our current civilization were to disintegrate - a possibility that shouldn’t seem outlandish, considering New Orleans, peak oil theories and numerous ecological factors - we might face an apocalyptic passage, forcing us to evolve at a high speed. Breakdown and breakthrough may happen simultaneous.

All of my study into the premise that the earth itself is evolving. allows me some optimism, for this ,in my mind, tilts the table. If the system could go either way, a slight intervention to assist the convergence of the positive can tip the scales of evolution in favor of the enhancement of life on Earth. MAYBE. The return of Quetzalcoatl...