The man who first introduced the date December 21, 2012 into mass consciousness, Jose Arguelles discussed how he uncovered the Mayan codes, including the Harmonic Convergence (1987), and the need to return to natural time. He was joined by Stephanie South, whose biography of Arguelles has just been published.
Arguelles believes that a solar flare will deliver a knock out punch to modern civilization in 2012. Satellites, the power grid, and communications will all go down, creating an irrevocable event, he said. The positive aspect of this is that we'll be placed back in "natural time" and the biosphere can clean itself of effects from the industrial/mechanized system, he noted.
The early Mayans did have ET-type contacts from very advanced beings, "telepathic transmissions through different dimensions where the fractal properties of a particular form remain constant through the dimensions, so they get reconstructed in the dimension where they're being targeted," he explained.
Arguelles is an advocate for the 13 moon-28 day calendar, which was one of the systems the Mayans used. Living in this natural cycle, as opposed to our irregular calendar, can bring about a harmonious shift in consciousness, he said. A person will become more spiritual, with new perceptions coming into their mind with the 28 day calendar, South added. After 2012, he sees humanity synchronizing with a cosmic civilization, and the beginning of a whole new evolutionary cycle.