The Anxiety over the Apocalypse

   Scientists state the world is millions of years old (actually 4.5 billion) and that as a species we’ve been around for much longer than we can remember.  Naturalists believe that Paleolithic cave paintings suggest that the human species has possessed its same intellectual capacity for at least 50,000 years and some speculate 100,000 years.  According to conventional wisdom, civilization seems to have emerged about 5,500 years ago.  Biblical genealogies suggest we are beginning our seventh millennium as we enter the 21^st Century.  And yet, for the better part of our recorded history, one fear stands out above all others:  Doomsday.  It appears that humankind has been obsessed with the apocalypse for the better part of the last 3,000 years.  Why has our species spent so much of its energy fretting over when our world will end? 

   While not all of humankind consciously shares this anxiety in equal parts, as Carl Jung would say, it does appear to be in our collective unconscious. (You may recall that Jung was a disciple of Sigmund Freud, but unlike Freud who seemed fixated on sexual motivations, Jung was much more inclined toward investigating the realm of the spirit to diagnose psychological disorders).  Jung believed there are archetypes in the universal memory that humans subconsciously share.  These archetypes are symbols of meaning – and they seem to have a life of their own.  We unwittingly encounter them in our dreams and visions.  Experts often reckon them the origin of our myths.  The fact that we have them in common validates that we tap into is a “collective unconscious mind.” This mind transcends our individual minds.  Since so many experts concur that this may be so, perhaps we should search for ancient roots to our apprehension.

   Some would suggest we consider the notion of Atlantis, a supposed advanced civilization destroyed in 9600 BC (mentioned by Plato around 380 BC in his Timaeus and Critias dialogues).  It is perhaps the oldest archetype of humanity’s pending destruction.  While it’s true that Atlantis for traditional historians is at best a tall tale, there are many authors who contend Atlantis really existed.  Furthermore, the convinced assert there is much more to Atlantis than merely a myth of destruction.  After all, we named the second biggest ocean, the Atlantic, after this missing continent.  Even Georgians found it worthy to name their capital after too.

   Nonetheless, to find these modern day advocates for the theory of Atlantis, you must resort to alternate history – which is a polite way of labeling a historical rendering “more likely fable than fact.”

Atlantis and Alternate History 

   According to those that take alternate history seriously, the world experienced the great cataclysm that sunk Atlantis around 12,000 years ago just as Plato indicates.  There were precious few survivors of this apocalypse.  According to this theory, most of those that did manage to survive wound up in Egypt.

   Traditional history (including Egypt’s national scholars) records that Pharaoh Khufu built the first of the Pyramids (circa 2850 BC).  However, alternative history contends the descendants of those that fled Atlantis built the Pyramids, and certainly the Sphinx, perhaps as much as 6,000 years earlier.¹  Furthermore, these most sophisticated pyramids were not tombs to safeguard mummies.  To the contrary, their builders created them to safeguard ancient knowledge for the ages.  Exactly what do we mean by ancient knowledge? 

   Also known as, “prisca sapientia,” this ancient knowledge is something that many enlightened scientists and philosophers of the 16^th and 17^th centuries believed once existed, but was subsequently lost to humankind through the ages.  Keep in mind – these enlightened ones were hardly members of the fringe element.  Scholars like Francis Bacon and Sir Isaac Newton, were convinced ancient humans possessed this knowledge – and the study of their archaic monuments and historical records would decode it. 

   How did pre-historic man derive this arcane wisdom?  That’s a fascinating question because in essence, many believe “only the gods” knew this information and therefore, such insight was beyond humanity’s ability to uncover without supernatural (or at least extraterrestrial) means.  The Egyptians learned this transcendent knowledge directly from extraterrestrials or, indirectly, from an advanced and even more ancient civilization, namely, Atlantis.  Presumably, the Atlanteans were our direct connections to the extraterrestrials.  By surviving (supposedly) the catastrophe of 10,000 BC, Atlanteans passed down this knowledge to subsequent generations.² 

The Puzzles of the Pyramids

     Case in point:  The very architecture of the Pyramids information appears encoded and may address issues like:  “Where did we come from?” “How big is the world?” and “When we will experience another world-wide catastrophe?”³

   Attributes of the construction are unquestionably fascinating.  These structures point true north, are completely symmetrical, and possess over a two and a half million stones weighing 2.5 to 50 tons apiece.  Given that we would be hard-pressed to accomplish similar construction today, this is no “mean” feat.  Furthermore, despite this enormous weight, the Pyramids haven’t sunk into the earth one inch.  Moreover, the builders placed the stones so tightly that the space between the stones is less than 1/50^th of an inch.  That’s so close it’s impossible to slide a piece of paper in the crease between the stones.

   Then there are the astronomical features.  Many scholars (traditional and alternate) now agree that the layout of the Pyramids models the three stars in Orion’s constellation (his “belt” – an idea proposed by Robert Bauval in his book, The Orion Mystery).  Additionally, the long and narrow “air shafts” inside the Great Pyramid of Giza target specific locations in the sky – pointing to very specific stars preeminent in particular constellations (e.g., Draco, Sirius), causing some believers to suppose these pointers locate the origin of our alien visitors – the extraterrestrials who designed the Pyramids and supplied the requisite technology.  Maybe it’s where ET phoned home.

   However, is there really information encoded into the architecture of the Pyramids that only “out-of-this-world” beings could know?

   When we dig deep into the little known facts, we learn that it’s apparent these ancient builders did indeed encode ancient knowledge into the Pyramids that wouldn’t have been available without advanced instrumentation.

• Students of the pyramids contend that the location of the Pyramids lies exactly at the center of the landmasses of the world.  It also stands at an elevation equal to the “mean” elevation for all the earth’s continents considered together. 

• If we take the ancient Egyptian cubit to be 25.025 inches, a reasonable assumption based upon Sir Isaac Newton’s research into the ancient cubit,⁴ the length of each side of the Giza Pyramid is 365.2422 cubits – almost exactly the length of the solar year within a few minutes. 

• Likewise, the height isn’t random.  The slope of the four sides yields a height of 232.52 cubits.  If twice we divide the length of a side (365.2422) by the height (232.52), the result is an especially interesting number:  3.1416.  Pie (π) anyone?  However, there’s more.

• Take the altitude, raised to the power of nine.  You wind up with 91,840,000.  Transformed to miles, that number is the mean distance to the sun – give or take a mile or two.  But how would anyone know to calculate this number?  Perhaps it’s because for every 10 feet you ascend the Pyramid at its perilous 52º slope, you rise in altitude by 9 feet.⁵  Critics might suppose the “mile” is a modern concept; but history shows that today’s measurements (metrology) are derived from ancient standards.⁶

   Apparently, astronomical knowledge wasn’t just ancient wisdom peculiar to the Maya.  Clearly, the Egyptians were equally well versed in this knowledge too.  However, does possessing this arcane wisdom suggest that those living on both sides of the Atlantic acquired this knowledge from survivors of Atlantis?  Alternatively, did both peoples encounter ET and learn these facts from aliens such as Erich Van Däniken, author of Chariots of the Gods, supposes?

   Both peoples built pyramids with great sophistication in their methods.  Both had astronomical information that modern man has only possessed for about the last 80 years or so.  Each society recorded its history in hieroglyphs.  Some of these glyphs have been interpreted to refer to ancient astronauts or to gods with similar abilities.  Thus, it appears the idea of ancient wisdom has merit.  Nevertheless, should we jump to the conclusion that the know-how came from Atlantis?⁷

   Perhaps we should consider another structure that causes the plot to thicken further – an edifice that historians call the Labyrinth. 

Decoding Doomsday The 2012 Prophecies, the Apocalypse, and the Perilous Days Ahead

   No less than the father of history himself, Herodotus, traveled to Egypt from Greece and saw this structure around 450 BC (of course, he saw the Pyramids too – it was hard to miss them).  As impressed as he was with the Pyramids and the intelligence it took to build them, he indicates in his account that the Labyrinth is far more amazing.  He says in his Histories, “From what I have seen it is hard to believe that they (the rooms) are the work of men.” This structure was massive in size (over 3,000 rooms) with half of the buildings above the surface and half below.  Traditional historians admit such a structure existed, but for the most part, the ravages of time destroyed it.  Only the foundation stones (recently found by modern day archeologists) are all that remain. 

   Some allege that the Labyrinth contained far more ancient history and wisdom than the Pyramids.  One such person is alternate history writer, Patrick Geryl, who has been trying to fund an expedition to explore this structure for years (he believes there is much more remaining of the structure than what archeologists admit).  Furthermore, he contends that no matter what the cost to excavate it is, it will be worth it.  Geryl believes that the Labyrinth, once “decoded,” discloses the next cataclysm, along with what we must do to survive it. 

   However, Geryl’s writings are wild, scattered, and difficult to follow.  It isn’t obvious why he expresses such certainty about our gloomy fate.  Additionally, Geryl makes most of his assertions without citing reliable authorities.  Due to this lapse, it’s hard to take him seriously. Additionally, Geryl faces an even bigger problem than the lack of funds necessary to go gallivanting around the Egyptian desert.  In his opinion, the next cataclysm takes place in 2012.  His time (and ours apparently) is running out. 

   But why is 2012 relevant to Geryl?  He points to a most unusual astronomical phenomenon that happened once before in 9782 BC.  This was the year of the so-called transit of Venus – this is when Venus makes a retrograde motion (appears to move backward) above the constellation Orion.  The planet rarely loops through this spot in the sky.⁸  In fact, the next time that it repeats this movement is, of course, in 2012.  Geryl believes the wisdom of Egypt discloses this to be the seminal sign that cataclysm approaches, since according to him, it was the sign to the Atlanteans that their culture was coming to a catastrophic end.

The Worldwide Flood

   However, the tale of Atlantis might not be the only primordial source of our obsession with Doomsday.  Another story of catastrophe, equally fantastic, may be the primeval cause:  The worldwide flood of Noah. 

   Like the tale of Atlantis, the flood of Noah is an account that most secular historians seriously doubt – ascribing it to the realm of myth.  While they sometimes acquiesce, agreeing that there may have been a spectacular localized flood in the old Mesopotamian world, this is as far as most will go.⁹  Confidently, they assert that such a flood wasn’t worldwide and it certainly didn’t wipe out all of humanity or the animal kingdom.  Secular history dismisses this watery cataclysm, seeing no scientific basis for how it could happen.

   Despite this skepticism, the Book of Genesis maintains that Noah’s flood was an historical event.  Furthermore, those who study the chronology of the Bible ascertain that this flood transpired in the year 2348 BC.  (With the names of ancient personages, along with their age when they “begat” their progeny, Bible scholars can create a very detailed chronology of the world.¹⁰)

   Furthermore, other cultures also contribute to a legend of a great flood.  The Mayans suggest that the last age (epoch four of five) was destroyed by flood.  Could it be that the Great Flood of Noah was the concluding event of the last Mayan age (3114 BC) and is the starting point for the next 5126-year period in their “long-count” calendar?¹¹ 

   Assuming that such a flood did occur, the issue is whether it was closer to when the Hebrew Bible specifies (2348 BC) or when the fifth age of the Mayan calendar began five millennia ago (764 years earlier than the biblical chronology).  What’s in common in both accounts is the conviction that a great deluge occurred about five thousand years ago and it dramatically changed human civilization.

   Although outside the scope of our study, we could demonstrate that a worldwide flood is a shared memory of virtually every ancient culture.  The Epic of Gilgamesh in Sumer records a world-wide flood in its clay tablets, perhaps 500 to 1,000 years before the Biblical record.  If we accept this thesis, it becomes evident that such an event would produce a similar account of devastation and a universal apprehension that what happened before could happen again. 

   So do our doomsday fears originate with the flood of Noah?  For the past two hundred years, popular scientific enlightenment has inundated us with wave after wave of skepticism (no pun intended) as regards the historical validity of the Bible.  Critics skewer no Bible story as much as the tale of the Great Flood (with the possible exception being, “Jonah and the Whale”).  Therefore, despite considerable evidence from ancient cultures as an explanation for the origin of our apprehension, Noah’s Flood isn’t the strongest contender.

   In the final analysis, stories of the destruction of Atlantis and the worldwide flood of Noah, whether true or not, appear too distant to be relevant – being beyond accepted historical records by mainline academics.  Therefore, it’s hard to believe they’re the basis for so much worry over the world’s end.  True, a subliminal fear resulting from these accounts may hide in our collective subconscious.  Nevertheless, history provides a much more vital and empirical source for our concern.

   To get at the real origin of our doomsday dread in the Western World (and the Middle East), we must study a more recent element of the Bible.  In particular, one primary biblical prediction drives the greatest amount of consternation on the topic of Doomsday – the belief that God will send an anointed one, a messiah, to set things right in the world.  This powerful (and perhaps divine) figure will end sin, oppression, and injustice. 

   Would that this predicted deliverance only came on the heels of good news!  Unfortunately, by all accounts the Messiah comes at the climax of THE Apocalypse, a time of unsurpassed destruction, dismay, and death. 

   Today, there seems to be little that Jews, Christians, and Muslims can agree on; however, they all hold in common the notion of Messiah.  For all three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), the idea of an anointed one is central to their faith.  Moreover, all three envision this as a cataclysmic moment.  Thus, we see the prophecies of Messiah and Apocalypse wound together.  The Coming of Messiah for the Jews, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ for the Christians, and the coming of the 12^th Imam in Islam (as well as Jesus Christ who is a secondary figure in Islam), all go hand-in-hand with the Apocalypse. 

   As they say, there is no free lunch. 

   That’s why I contend that for the western world and the Middle East, the coming of Messiah and the circumstances surrounding his appearance are the fundamental cause of our doomsday fears.  In the next article, we will take up this origin of apocalyptic thinking and secondly, see how the world’s most famous Messiah contributed to this vision of the end of the world.  

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S. Douglas Woodward has written two books, the most recent, Decoding Doomsday, now published by Defender Books (380 pages). You can order the book from the Survivor Mall.  See the following link for more information about the book and an excerpt you may download and read.

www.decodingdoomsday.org

Notes  

[1] This group of alternate historians is sometimes lumped together in a not so flattering bunch called the “Pyramidiots.”  Graham Hancock  and Robert Bauval  would be the two most famous of the bunch.  James (J.J.) Hurtak  and Richard Hoagland  would be two others who connect the Pyramids to “The Council of the Nine ” – supposedly extraterrestrials mirroring the “nine gods of Heliopolis ,” aka the Ennead , who various mediums purportedly have channeled since the 1950’s.  We will discuss much more about this paranormal perspective in a later chapter.

[1] The movie, 10,000 BC , briefly alludes to “ancient ones,” who guided the construction of the Pyramids.  The movie provides a very quick glimpse of the one remaining being, known as the “Almighty,” who appears to be a giant and an alien.  Roland Emmerich was the producer/creator of this film.  Was he inferring these beings to be Atlanteans, Nephilim  (i.e., “demigods” spoken of in the Bible, see Genesis 6:4), or extraterrestrials?  Although he did not acknowledge this fact, Emmerich was clearly familiar with “alternative history speculations” concerning the origin of the Pyramids as well as when they were built.  The constellation Orion  and the notion of a coming Messiah (who sign was a “hunter” as Orion) is also big part of his story.

[1] Plato’s father, Plato, and one of his biographers two hundred years after Plato’s death, supposedly went to Egypt and wrote down the story of Atlantis from a particular temple where the story was engraved.  Each made the trip separately over several hundred years.  Unfortunately in the 2^nd century BC, the temple was destroyed.

[1] Sir Isaac Newton, A Dissertation upon the Sacred Cubit of the Jews, Hebrew University, The Newton Project, 10 pages.

[1] This information is from Patrick Heron’s  book listed in the bibliography, pages 2 and 3.  Skeptics might contend, “Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.”

[1] See David Flynn, The Temple at the Center of Time, Anomalous Publishing, for an intelligent discussion of how our measurements were derived and why there is consistency between ancient measurements and our own.

[1] In my book, Decoding Doomsday, I delve into the “henges ” in England and the remarkable work done by Christopher Knight  and Alan Butler , which argues that ancient wisdom existed there 1,000 years before the Egyptian Pyramids.  Knight and Butler provide an explanation for at least a portion of this knowledge, which doesn’t require an “out of this world” explanation.

[1] Known as “the transit of Venus ,” the looping effect comes from the fact that we are orbiting the Sun just as Venus is.  Being much closer to the sun, the appearance of the orbit of Venus from Earth appears like a loop over a series of nights.

[1] Mesopotamia  literally means “between the two rivers” and refers to the rivers Tigris  and Euphrates .  Thus, we know today’s Syria , Iraq , and Iran  collectively by this ancient name.

[1] This date may be quite precise if you are willing to grant that we can count on the accuracy of the Hebrew genealogies and that, as they are given, they are contiguous – without any gaps.  However, not even all Evangelicals agree that we should regard the genealogies in this way.

[1] According to most Mayan scholars, we are living in age five, which completes in 2012 – the next age, if there is one, begins on December 22, 2012.