2012: Mayan Year of Destiny: The Myan Calendar Marks the Year 2012 as Humanity's Appointment with Destiny and Global Change!

Gilbert's book covers Mayan archeology a lot and talks about the year 2012 sometimes. Finding out the significance of Mayan writings, symbols, and calendars is like a giant intellectual puzzle which scholars try to figure out. Gilbert makes scholarship look like the most noble and exciting calling on earth as he tells of all the scholars who have made sacrifices to find out the truth about the Mayans, including one nobleman who ended up in debtor's prison, but managed to publish valuable books on Mayanology. Gilbert's account of the history of Mayan archeology is mostly straightforward, except for a few new age twists. He keeps exploring taboo questions that orthodox academics reject such as "Was there an Atlantis? What did the psychic Edgar Cayce say about Atlantis? What will become of us on December 22, 2012? Will we experience a catastrophe or a transformation or both? Was there contact between the Americas and the rest of the world before 1492?" Sometimes he sounds silly when we mentions that the people studying Mayanology today may have been Mayan priests in their past lives. But he comes to no sensational conclusions in the end, such as whether we will all be levitating after 2012. He does advise that we store up 2 years worth of food for any catastrophes that might happen. Gilbert talks about the Mayans and Aztecs and their obsession with the stars, astronomy, and calendars, despite being cruel and barbaric societies in other respects. At one time, scholars believed that the Mayans were peaceful philosophers, but now they are leaning toward the evidence that shows that they practiced human sacrifice. The Mexicans don't like this interpretation of history though. (You can find the same sort of denial in Europe with the fact that the Druids practiced human sacrifice.) Before the Spanish arrived with their oppressive rule, the Indians were oppressing themselves by warfare and capturing enemies to serve up their beating hearts to the angry gods so that the world would not end, according to their beliefs. The Indians actually welcomed Spanish rule over Mayan and Aztec rule. The Spanish Christians promptly put a stop to human sacrifice and destroyed most of the books and monuments of the Indian religion. A few monuments and documents have survived and now scholars are trying to see if there is something valuable to be learned from this religion. --Strangely, even Christianity features a human sacrifice to end all sacrifices. The blood and flesh of Christ are consumed metaphorically during communion, which is a really weird ritual when you think about it.

The author presents his ideas well and supports his theories with examples. Enough pictures and explanations to decipher the confusing stone carvings.

The Mayans saw how the World as we know it ending but not as we think it will. It's the start of a new age in 2012. This book explains how they saw and predicted what is foretold as the beginning of a new World for us. Regardless of your beliefs this is worth reading.