12/21/12: The end of the world as we know it?

FOUR years, nine months and three weeks may be about all the time we have left on Earth. Why? Dec. 21, 2012, marks the end of a 5,000-year cycle by the Maya Long Count calendar. To some, this spells doomsday (disaster scenarios include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions caused by solar storms, cracks forming in the earth’s magnetic field and mass extinction brought on by nuclear winter). To others, it carries the promise of a new beginning. And to still others, 2012 provides explanations for unsettling developments (e.g., the disappearance of bees) that seem beyond our control.

While all this has largely been a hot topic within alternative cultures, the 2012 phenomenon is slowly trickling into the mainstream. At least four new books on 2012 have appeared in bookstores in the wake of the 2006 success of Daniel Pinchbeck’s “2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl.” This month, Sony won a bidding war for disaster-movie king Roland “Godzilla” Emmerich’s apocalyptic script “2012.” And this Saturday, 2012-ers will converge on Hollywood for a day-long conference devoted to the subject.

“There’s a real hunger for this kind of knowledge,” says 2012 Conference producer Christian John Meoli. Meoli takes a more optimistic view of the date, referring to it as “the Shift” (the conference’s slogan: “Shift Happens”). “It’s easy to manipulate people with fear,” he says. “I wanted to stay away from the gloom and doom.”

Among those appearing at the conference will be “Return of Quetzalcoatl” author and psychonaut Pinchbeck, who describes 2012 as “a window of opportunity to change civilization.”

Says Pinchbeck: “At the moment, global civilization is unsustainable. . . . According to many scientists, 25% of our species will be extinct within 30 years. We need to re-center our world view away from materialism. My hope is that by 2012, there’s a fundamental redirection of focus, and we start projecting the universal dream.”

Other futurists scheduled to appear at the 2012 Conference include Alberto Villoldo, a Cuban American medical anthropologist and psychologist who has studied and practiced shamanism for more than two decades, John Major Jenkins, author of “Maya Cosmogenesis 2012,” and filmmaker Sharron Rose, whose documentary “Timewave 2013” will kick off the conference.

“I’m also flying in a shaman from Peru -- you should see his rider!” Meoli laughs. “Do you have any idea where I can get some yuk-yuk?”

Meoli plans to produce a total of 12 conferences in various cities around the globe.

“The grand hurrah will be on Dec. 21, 2012, at the Mayan pyramids,” he says. “This is just the beginning.”

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--Pauline.O’ Connor@latimes.com

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2012 CONFERENCE

WHERE: Ricardo Montalban Theater, 1615 N. Vine St., L.A.

WHEN: 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday

PRICE: $12

INFO: www.2012 conference.org