Interestingly, I've known for quite a long time that Weekly World News was inaccurate, which is why I was very surprised to see an article referring to UFO abductions as demonic activity. I'm not surprised because it was accurate, I'm surprised because this article coincides, by pure coincidence, with at least 6 different sites I have seen on the internet which talk about end of times, and refer to extraterrestrials as being minions of Satan. If I didn't know better, I would think that this was one more example of the Collective Conciousness throwing up an archetype in this aspect. Either that, or people are making the opposite conclusion what some skeptics of the UFO phenomenon have been saying for years now. That UFOs are part of our consciousness, as it was angels centuries and millenia ago, and now it's UFOs. Of course, I'm not about to entirely discount the UFO phenomenon either, given the fact that when the US government did their review of UFO reports between 1947 and 1969, the Air Force, found 600 cases out of 2000 they were unable to find a scientific explanation for. And to the best of my knowledge, they haven't found an explanation for them since. This does not mean automatically that they are extraterrestrial spacecraft, but that does not automatically mean that they aren't, either. So being the science student I am, my position is that given the amount of evidence compiling over the last few decades, it's a bit more likely UFOs exist, but I am still reserving judgement on the issue until ALL data is in. Especially since in recent times, there has been accounts and photos and video footage taken by Astronauts on the space shuttle of these phenomenon.

How long ago was this? Because the "extraterrestrials are demons" thing is kind of old. My first, personal experience with it^[1] was about 5 years ago, and I know it's been around longer than that.

Also, which appeared first? That kind of stuff, even when published seriously by others, is perfect fodder for WWN. I could see a WWN "journalist" coming across the original claims and adding their own outrageous spin to it. Of course, we also know people take WWN seriously ("nugget of truth", yadda-yadda), so it also wouldn't suprise me that the WWN article would become a sort of "revelation" to others.

No "collective conciousness" needed...

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¹ I was at work one day wearing a t-shirt with a design similar to this poster, and one older lady pointed to it and asked, "Do you know what that is?" Playing along, I said, "No." See said, "It's the devil."

I think somebody has been feeding you dis-info.

You wouldn't happen to have any evidence to support that claim, now would you?

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I saw it on a documentary called the Unex Report. If you also check my post on Haith as well, I made references to a few other mainstream documentaries. That should be a good start for you.

Also, I heard this on Space News (the Space Channel used to run a 5 minute segment pertaining to astronomy between shows. It was the bit of science fact they stuck between science fiction shows. normally it reported on NASA's probes to Mars, nebulae found by the Hubble Space Telescope, and this was the only instance I had seen on there of any news pertaining to UFOs.), check up any documentation relating to declassified documents pertaining to interviews of the Astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission. There was reports that the three astronauts had seen an object on their way to the moon that they couldn't agree whether it was a hollow cylinder or two large rings connected by rods or cables. Huston had it on their radar as well and all they could determine was that it was not part of the Saturn V rocket. My point bottom line though is just that there have been other cases which have not been reported. I won't say outright that they are UFOs, but I still think nonetheless, that the whole issue is still worth researching. I'm a science student, so I still won't fully formulate an opinion on this until ALL the data is in.

There was reports that the three astronauts had seen an object on their way to the moon that they couldn't agree whether it was a hollow cylinder or two large rings connected by rods or cables. Huston had it on their radar as well and all they could determine was that it was not part of the Saturn V rocket.

Well it wasn't the Saturn V, it was actually it part of the Saturn IVB rocket. At the time they belived it should have been further away, but on later flights they confirmed that the object the 11 crew had seen was indeed the Saturn IVB booster.

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It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

u know, its kinda weird that that guy said that, cuz the mayan calendar went all the way up to 2012, then stopped, and people speculate about that, so i wonder....

It doesn't stop, it rolls over. It's like speculating that your car will blow up 1 mile after its odmeter hits 999999.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

Oh, I'm quite sure my car will blow up long before then.

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As has been mentioned, it rolls over, just like the calender you use rolls over every year. I also get conflicting stories about whether or not the Mayans thought the world would end in 2012, but it doesn't matter if they did or not.

The obvious question is this: Why would the Mayans know more then we do today? how could they possibly detect something that could destroy the world thousands of years before it reached us? To be large enough to destroy the Earth a meteor would have to be about the size of Venus, maybe the size of Mars if it was going fast enough.

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Here's where people insert the theories about aliens, Atlantis, "the Mayan's had psychic powers", astrology, etc.

It is so obvious that the world could not end in 2012 - Nostradamus has it ending much later than that!

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What's it like being a skeptic in the Middle East? Check out my blog.

The only real threat that "might" be associated with 2012, is that some "wack-a-doo" will gain "followers" who will do anything he commands...the result "could be" another Heavens Gate.

Certainly no threat simply because the year is 2012...

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"The facts gentlemen, and nothing but the facts, for careful eyes are narrowly watching." Isaac Asimov

Ed Dames claims to be a powerful psychic, and according to him, the world has ended at least 5 times in the last 7 or 8 years. It will end again in the not too distant future, don't you hate it when that happens.

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Those who repeat History are doomed to learn it.

I believe the world ended on the 28th of July 1986. I was on a plane flying from the US to New Zealand and due crossing the IDL I skipped this day and so wasn't affected. This means the rest of you are figments of my imagination and thus I automatically win.

__________________
Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

Actually, for the Mayan civilization, the "end of the world", as in the end of their "classic" culture, was in about 900 AD (LINK) and certainly by the time of the arrival of the Spanish (around 1500). So why doesn't the end of their civilization coincide with the end of their calendar, if they are either so brilliant or so psychic?

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One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

No, no. That's due to the French revisionists!

[pause to see if anyone gets it]

CJSF

[edit: Yay! My 800th post!]

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Two years ago moved from my town
I was looking up past the city lights
But the city lights got in my way

See the constellation ride across the sky
No cigar, no lady on his arm
Just a guy made of dots and lines

-from "See The Constellation"
by They Might Be Giants

Thanks for the heads-up on that one phantomwolf. I had checked for further info on it, but couldn't find anything, so I assumed incorrectly that it was correct based on its source.

If they haven't been reported, then how do you know that there have been other cases??

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"The facts gentlemen, and nothing but the facts, for careful eyes are narrowly watching." Isaac Asimov

I've heard a Michael Tsarion clip, where he starts talking about the movement of Pluto.. linking in with 2012.

We're back into the realms of astrology again

I'm sure his 5 disc DVD set that he's about to release will sell by the bucket load

Chitterlings sell by the bucket load too, and smell about the same.

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Hello all.


Im not at all one to believe these things but the year 2012 has been lookad at in some cultures that are long gone as being a "interesting" time. I believe it was the Mayan calander that abruptly stops in the year 2012.

"Is there something significant we should know about the Winter Solstice date of December 21, 2012? Yes. On this day a rare astronomical and Mayan mythical event occurs. In astronomic terms, the Sun conjuncts the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. The Milky Way, as most of us know, extends in a general north-south direction in the night sky. The plane of the ecliptic is the track the Sun, Moon, planets and stars appear to travel in the sky, from east to west. It intersects the Milky Way at a 60 degree angle near the constellation Sagittarius."

"The cosmic cross formed by the intersecting Milky Way and plane of the ecliptic was called the Sacred Tree by the Maya. The trunk of the tree, the Axis Mundi, is the Milky Way, and the main branch intersecting the tree is the plane of the ecliptic. Mythically, at sunrise on December 21, 2012, the Sun - our Father - rises to conjoin the center of the Sacred Tree, the World Tree, the Tree of Life."

"This rare astronomical event, foretold in the Mayan creation story of the Hero Twins, and calculated empirically by them, will happen for many of us in our lifetime. The Sun has not conjoined the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic since some 25,800 years ago, long before the Mayans arrived on the scene and long before their predecessors the Olmecs arrived. What does this mean?"

I don’t remember the earth coming in contact with any “gassy soup” 10 years ago.

And, of course, as has been said repeatedly--the Mayan calendar does not abruptly stop. It cycles over, not unlike an odometer. Just like our own did a few years back.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

So sorry...never heard that before. Perhaps you could provide a link to an article as to further enlighten me? After a search the only things ive found about it cycling has been in these forums.

http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.html

The baktun is what rolls over in 2012. They had 4 higher cycles, the highest being the Alautun which is 60+ million years long. They all roll over and start over.

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"Getting lost is part of exploring." Uniqua in "Backyardigans-Heart of the Jungle"

"Trying to wrap my head around creationist astronomy is like trying to ride a unicycle around a Moebius strip: it’s off-balance, physically impossible, full of one-sided arguments, and in the end you don’t go anywhere." Phil Plait

Nope. Right now for instance, in the Northern Hemisphere for ~30^o latitude, at the beginning of evening the Milky Way is approximately parallel to the horizon, stretching mainly from south to west. For the Mayans' latitude there would be times where the Milky Way would go from east to west.Nope it's just the apparent track of the Sun/the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun.

I'm sure the Mayans had very precise knowledge as to where the plane of the Milky Way galaxy is located.

BTW, what's with the quotes? Are you copying and pasting from a published source? If so there should be a cite.

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For a start, at least one person around here (I don't remember who) has made an extensive study of the Maya. Whatever thread it was brought up in would have that person's own link. For another thing, if you look in Wikipedia under "Mayan calendar," it gives you the details.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Perhaps I didn't make it obvious, but I posted a link about the cyclic nature of the mayan calander in my post above.

While not an expert, mesoamerican history is one of my hobbies. Even the Mayans thought of 2012 as a cycle, the beginning of the sixth age, when the world will be reborn and be better. (each baktun started an age, and each one was a better world then the one before)

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"Ignorance has caused more calamity than malignity" H.G. Wells

"Getting lost is part of exploring." Uniqua in "Backyardigans-Heart of the Jungle"

"Trying to wrap my head around creationist astronomy is like trying to ride a unicycle around a Moebius strip: it’s off-balance, physically impossible, full of one-sided arguments, and in the end you don’t go anywhere." Phil Plait

Were the Mayan calendars even harmonized from city-state to city-state? Was Tikal using the same calendar as Palenque?

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Now while I might be amused by Cthulhians, I don't necessarily distrust them to carry out the functions of government. -- JayUtah

What's it like being a skeptic in the Middle East? Check out my blog.

Do you have any links for this? According to some sources, the Mayans predicted the end of an age on 23rd Dec 2012, and according to others it's just because their calendars run out...

Edit: Ah, I have just seen the posts above ... good stuff