It seems that the world has become more aware recently of the existence of a
calendar created by the ancient Mayan people in Central America. This calendar
is more than just a device for keeping track of time. It is said to be a tool
for prophesy. The main feature that has entered the public consciousness is that
the calendar has an end which is fast approaching. The end of the calendar is
said to be a time when human consciousness will transform to a new level, and
humankind will enter a different relationship with reality. Some people also
hold the view that this event will be accompanied by geological and
meteorological upheavals in the earth environment.
The invading Spaniards destroyed most of the written record of the Maya, so
there will likely always be disagreements about the guesswork needed to bring
the Mayan calendar back to life. Because of the holes and ambiguities in the
historical and archeological records, there is even dispute about the exact date
of the calendar end. In particular, John
Major Jenkins supports the established view of archeologists that the last
day falls on December 21, 2012, while Carl
Johan Calleman concludes that the last day is October 28, 2011. Both have
authored books describing their studies and conclusions. I am not qualified to
vouch for the accuracy of archeological research in this area, but I am
impressed by the relationships Calleman finds between the calendar and
significant event sequences in recorded history.
My purpose here is to show that some seismic activity is systematically
related to the structure of the Mayan calendar. This relationship was predicted
on the basis of Calleman's explanatory model of the calendar. Since the model
includes the earth as a component, it can be used to make predictions about
earthquake activity. The following discussion assumes that you are aware of the
basic structure of the calendar as described by Calleman in his book, "The
Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness" published in 2004.
The Model
According to Calleman's interpretation, the Mayan calendar consists of nine
embedded cycles, or Underworlds, all ending in 2011. A cycle is subdivided into
13 equal intervals, each ruled by a particular deity representing certain
principles. Calleman sees opposing characteristics or yin/yang traits in
successive pairs of intervals in a cycle, and describes an Underworld as a
sequence of six Day/Night pairs plus a final Day. Each cycle except the first is
embedded in the last Day of the previous cycle. This means that the length of
the Day shortens exponentially from one Underworld to the next. In Calleman's
terminology, the Galactic Underworld began in 1999 and has a Day length of 360
astronomical days, or almost one year. The previous cycle, called the Planetary
Underworld, began in 1755 and had a Day length of 19.7 years. There is much more
to the calendar, but this short description should suffice for now.
The length of a Day is directly related to the rate at which events unfold.
For example, most would agree that the rate at which telecommunications
technology developed in the Galactic Underworld is much faster than the rate at
which writing technology evolved in the Planetary Underworld. There is an
analogy between writing technology and telecommunications technology, and this
example shows how history tends to repeat itself in successive cycles, albeit at
faster rates. Similar analogies can be drawn in other fields such as politics
and religion.
The duration of an Underworld is a reflection of the properties of the
"frame of consciousness" present in that time. Calleman attempts to
provide a partly physical rationale for the properties of this consciousness
field. Because consciousness is involved, the model is necessarily a mixture of
intuitive ideas, esoteric lore, and what is known about the physics of the
earth. We know that the iron core of the earth has a crystalline structure due
to the tremendous pressure that exists there. Calleman proposes that a universal
consciousness field is mediated by the crystalline core of the earth. He
suggests that "different layers are activated according to the preset
pattern of the Mayan calendar" and that "the Nine Underworlds
correspond to nine sequentially activated layers of iron crystals in the earth's
inner core" (p. 59-60). And, further, "concentrated mental activity
arises from resonance with the earth's inner core" (p. 62).
The model proposes that the level of core activation decreases in depth with
each successive Underworld. Although not specifically stated, variations in the
cycle properties represented by successive Days and Nights should then be
associated with modulations of the core activation. Physical correlates of core
activations should be most evident in the earth's lower mantle adjacent to the
core. Therefore, changes in seismic activity in the lower mantle are predicted
to occur in parallel with changes to the consciousness field at the onset of
each Day and Night.
We are fortunate to have access to the USGS/NEIC database containing siesmic
information for any time period from 1973 to the present. The data is accessible
via http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/epic/epic_global.html. The form on the page lets
one select ranges of interest for the date, magnitude, depth, and intensity
variables. Four ranges of depths were chosen: the lower mantle (> 650 km),
the mid mantle (400-650 km), the upper mantle (10-400 km), and the crust (<
10 km). Two ranges of magnitude were defined as quakes (5-10) and tremors (3-5).
The intensity field was not used.
Test of the model
Figures 1, 2, and 3 present an overview of earthquake activity from 1980 to
2006. Figure 1 shows the counts for large quakes between magnitudes 5 and 10. On
average, the frequency of large quakes has remained relatively constant over the
years. Note, however, that the highest frequency occurred in 2005. Figure 2
shows the counts for magnitudes between 3 and 5. Here, there is a quadratic,
almost 5-fold increase between 1980 and the present. It is possible that this is
due to a continuous improvement in the sensitivity of the network of
seismometers over the years so that weaker tremors were more likely to be
detected from one year to the next. Otherwise, something is causing the actual
frequency of smaller earthquakes to increase over time.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3 shows the relationship at each depth between the frequencies of
quakes and tremors over the years. Clearly, there is a strong correlation at the
crust, but this deteriorates as the depth increases. At the lower mantle, there
is almost no correlation. This is an indication that the dynamics of the lower
mantle are different from those at lesser depths.
Figure 3
To test the prediction of the model as described above, the earthquake counts
during the individual Days and Nights of the Galactic Underworld were examined
(dates as specified on p. 155 of Calleman's book). Figure 4 shows the total
earthquake count at different depths for the first four Days and Nights of the
cycle. As predicted, there is something different going on at the lower mantle
next to the core than at higher depths. In the lower mantle, all of the Night
counts are higher than the Day counts, except for the anomaly on the first Day.
There is only a trace of this oscillating pattern in the mid-mantle, and it is
totally absent in the upper mantle and the crust.
Figure 4
So it seems that there is something systematic going on in the lower mantle
that fades away at smaller depths. These oscillations cannot be due to changes
in detector sensitivity, and there is no other obvious explanation. Thus,
however speculative Calleman's model might be from a physical perspective, it
predicted the observed effect and this can be taken as evidence for the model's
validity.
If the large oscillations in the lower mantle earthquake count are due to the
periodic increase in the consciousness field, they should not be present to the
same extent before the onset of the Galactic Underworld in January, 1999. The
longer Day length of the Planetary Underworld means that there is only about one
Day's worth of data for this cycle since 1973. A year by year analysis back to
1973 should not show the oscillations prior to the beginning of the Galactic
Underworld. Figure 5 shows that this is the case, thus confirming the role
played by the structure of the Mayan calendar. The astronomical year is close
enough to the length of the Galactic Underworld Day that the oscillatory pattern
is still seen here during the Galactic Underworld.
