The Kashyapa Theory

Prelude

There are two obvious camps whenever Ancient Mysteries are debated - those that cite a lack of hard physical evidence, and those that trust their instincts. Prime examples are the pyramids and flood myths. These were global phenomenons in ancient times, and the similarities appear obvious to the layman, which is why so many books on the subjects are published and sold. Serious academics, who went through university adhering to strict scientific principals, will argue that there isn't enough evidence to show that ancient societies were in contact with each other. Flood myths apparantly arose from local flooding, and global pyramids... it's all just a coincidence, they say.

It is as if 100 people witnessed a murder, and knew the murderer personally. The murderer fled. Each witness told their children, who in turn told their children. Amazingly, two generations later, the murderer returns to hand himself in. Hundreds of grandchildren of the original witnesses know who he is and that he is guilty, because of the details they had been told. But he will not be punished, because there is no physical evidence, and no original witnesses.

There is little likelihood of anything surviving the ravages of time unless it was specifically designed to do so. Even today, we are finding that we are unable to contain nuclear waste forever, and settle for a few hundred years of safety ( see here ). Ancient texts like the Dead Sea Scrolls have come to us only through a fluke of circumstances.

In the search for answers I have decided that starting with evidence and then developing theories is the wrong path. There is unlikely to ever be enough definitive evidence, and if there was, scientists and academics are the best qualified to do so. So I have begun with a theory, based on instinct and obviousness, and am now trying to gather enough proof to convince the majority of humans that are sane, regular people. I have little desire to change the opinions of academics, but I have respect for some of their methods and standards - where appropriate I will choose to quote academics over laymen, and as much as possible I will provide verifiable references for anything I find. Which means any mentions of Zacharia Sitchin or Erich von Daniken are unlikely, regardless of how well meaning and intelligent they appear to be.

I also choose not to mention UFOs. I wouldn't be too surprised if we had alien visitors from time to time, but evidence is lacking. And it would be difficult for me to remain a non-fiction author with the number of possibilities they allow.

The Starting Point

In its purest form The Kashyapa theory is based on these assumptions:

• Ancient cultures communicated with each other in some way
• Mysterious Elders have appeared from time to time to guide us
• Pyramids and mounds had a purpose other than burying royalty
• Evolution doesn't generally occur in small stages
• Global cataclysms have occurred within the last 12,000 years
• Our galactic neighbourhood could be more dangerous than is commonly acknowledged

These assumptions are certainly not unique, and many books have been written on each, with perhaps the last being debated less often than the others.

The Theory

In One Sentence: Every so often a force from space causes global cataclysms and mass mutations.

• The Anicent Mayan Calendar ends in 2012. We would be very foolish to ignore this warning, a doomsday date that may have been given to the Maya by others
• Pole shifts have occurred in the past and will occur again. There is no known terrestial mechanism that can cause pole shifts, so the trigger could well be extra-terrestial. With the universe being the mystery that it is, we should accept that anything is possible.
• Mass extinctions and rapid evolution occur at the same time as cataclysms. Rapid evolutionary change can only be achieved via extremely high rates of mutations, and by mutations that are not random. Unicorns and dragons once actually existed, they were mutant strains that didn't survive very long.
• Cosmic rays cause mutations. A huge influx of cosmic rays would cause high rates of mutations. Although scientists are unsure about where all the cosmic rays come from, the source might be the same as what powers the pole shifts.
• The ancients were aware of the dangers of cosmic rays and cataclysms and encoded information about them into their calendars, myths and monuments. I also believe that pyramids may have been designed as cosmic ray shelters.

What will happen in 2012!

There is zero scientific evidence that anything will happen, but there are numerous things that could easily threaten the human species in the year 2012, such as a geomagnetic reversal, asteroid strike or supernova. Or something more intimate, like a flu pandemic, or a nuclear war.

2012 Possibilities

As 2012 approaches we have a growing list of what "experts" feel might occur. Despite the sincerity and long-winded explanations, it's all just guesswork. There is no scientific evidence that anything untoward will happen in 2012. All we have to suggest that 2012 will be any different to 2011 or 2013 is that the Mayan Long Count calendar ends on Dec 21, 2012. The Mayans themselves had almost nothing to say about what the end of the calendar held for humankind, and this suggests that they merely inherited the calendar from an earlier culture. In deciding which of the many possible calamities are more likely to wipe us out in 2012, the possibility of an ancient culture predicting such for 2012 must be taken into consideration.

Here's my list of possibilities, ranked on 3 criteria; the relative odds of happening this century, of happening in 2012, and of the ancients being able to predict such a thing. Regarding aliens and a religious apocalypse, while I don't believe in these things personally, they are on the list due to the billions of folk that do believe in them

1. Asteroid/Meteor/Comet - ancient, advanced civilisations have one distinct advantage over us - they may have observed the skies for longer, and may have spotted an orbit that will culminate in a collision with Earth in 2012. This is easily the most predictable disaster for 2012. With recent discussion of "dark comets", we have become aware of the possibility of our planet being struck with little or no warning.

Possibility this century	9
Possibility in 2012	8
Could Ancients Predict It?	10
TOTAL	27

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2. Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from our Sun - a CME was behind the solar storm of 1859. It occurred in September of that year, causing the failure of telegraph systems across North America and Europe. Accompanying the storm were auroras that are normally only seen in the Arctic and Antarctic, but were visible as far south as the Caribbean. Typically we would expect a storm of 1859's magnitude cause power blackouts and wreck satellites. But do we really know how big they can get? In 2009 NASA told us to be wary of solar storms, and warned of the dangers to America's ancient overloaded power grid. Being without power for a few months, in the developed world, is a lot more serious than most people realise.

Possibility this century	10
Possibility in 2012	8
Could Ancients Predict It?	6
TOTAL	24

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3. Magnetic Pole Shift - pole reversals have been happening on average once every 400,000 years, with the most recent one being 730,000 years ago - so we are well overdue. Not only do we not know much about reversals, scientists are still unsure about how our magnetic field is generated. Long thought to be a by-product of the movements of liquid iron in our planet's core, recent studies are suggesting that our salty oceans might be the cause. Scientists suggest a geomagnetic reversal takes thousands of years and does no harm. They are wrong - it could just as easily happen overnight. No mechanism is known for the cause of the magnetic poles swapping places. Our magnetic field is known to be rapidly declining (10% in the last 150 years), and the magnetic North pole is moving around at an accelerating pace - it has been predicted it will move from Canada to Siberia in the next 50 years. These changes could be indicating an imminent reversal.

Possibility this century	8
Possibility in 2012	7
Could Ancients Predict It?	7
TOTAL	22

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4. Explosion from the black hole at the center of our galaxy - in 1983 Dr Paul LaViolette described the dangers of a Galactic core explosion. He explained that it would generate a cosmic ray superwave, and it would be signalled by a gamma ray burst (see below). He also warned us that a gravity wave might travel ahead of the superwave. If seems likely that the 2004 tsunami was caused by a gravity wave, because the accompanying GRB arrived just 21 hours later, and was the brightest ever observed, 100 times brighter than any other seen in recorded history. This gravity wave did not come from our galactic center, but if it had, perhaps the effects would have been much worse.

Possibility this century	8
Possibility in 2012	7
Could Ancients Predict It?	6
TOTAL	21

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5. Religious Apocalypse - or rapture, or "judgement day". Most religions predict such a day. Conspiracy theorists suggest that many world leaders have apocalyptic beliefs, and may even be attempting to cause Biblical prophecy to be fulfilled in 2012 via their actions. If it helps, the Bible says “But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.” But then again, maybe God changed his mind since the Bible was written, and told some people the date of the apocalypse? Maybe he told the ancient Mayans? Possibilities could be argued ad infinitum

Possibility this century	6
Possibility in 2012	6
Could Ancients Predict It?	8
TOTAL	20

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6. Alien Invasion - no evidence, but plenty of believers! Tied in with this are recent crop circles that have 2012 and Mayan themes. If aliens are the creators of crop circles, then one would expect the circles to be a warning of sorts.

Possibility this century	7
Possibility in 2012	6
Could Ancients Predict It?	7
TOTAL	20

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7. Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) - a 2004 study told us that a GRB from a distance of just one kiloparsec could destroy half of Earth's ozone layer. It suggests that historical mass extinctions may have been caused by GRBs. NASA explains how "gamma-ray radiation from a relatively nearby star explosion, hitting the Earth for only ten seconds, could deplete up to half of the atmosphere's protective ozone layer. Recovery could take at least five years. With the ozone layer damaged, ultraviolet radiation from the Sun could kill much of the life on land and near the surface of oceans and lakes, and disrupt the food chain."

Possibility this century	7
Possibility in 2012	7
Could Ancients Predict It?	5
TOTAL	19

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8. Crustal Displacement - a physical pole shift. The mechanism is not understood, and most theories are just wild guesses. However it seems quite likely we had one 12,000 years ago, and what goes around, comes around. Charles Hapgood provided substantial evidence for a pole shift at that time, and Allan and Delair have added to it in their book Cataclysm!: Compelling Evidence of a Cosmic Catastrophe in 9500 B.C. Take into account that Albert Einstein endorsed Hapgood's ideas, and we have something to worry about.

Possibility this century	6
Possibility in 2012	6
Could Ancients Predict It?	6
TOTAL	18

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9. Cosmic Rays - scientists have yet to work out where most high-energy cosmic rays come from. Either an increase striking our atmosphere, or a weakening of our shields, will let in more cosmic rays. They are already zipping through your body every second, and they could end up being our silent killers. As one example of their danger, airlines do not let pregnant women work on their inter-continental routes, because of the increased exposure to cosmic rays at those heights.

Possibility this century	8
Possibility in 2012	6
Could Ancients Predict It?	3
TOTAL	17

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10. Flu Pandemic - it might not be swine flu, but flu researchers say a deadly pandemic is not a case of if, but when. Our generation is generally unaware of how bad the pandemic of 1918 was - it killed 50 million people. It was the number one cause of death amongst soldiers in WW1. Being killed by the enemy came second.

Possibility this century	10
Possibility in 2012	6
Could Ancients Predict It?	1
TOTAL	17

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11. Nuclear War / WW3 / Biological War - although the Cold War is over, and less bunkers are being built, the threat is still very real. Tensions between the Koreas, and India & Pakistan are worrisome, as are the huge bunkers that the Russians have built. The Yamantau complex is large enough to protect 60,000 people!

Possibility this century	10
Possibility in 2012	5
Could Ancients Predict It?	2
TOTAL	17

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12. Supervolcano - these are real, they have caused great catastrophes in the past, and we have no idea when the next eruption will be. Some believe Yellowstone could explode again soon, as it has been exhibiting signs of unrest, with earthquake swarms, ground deformation and considerable heat and gas emissions. It it did erupt, expect half of the USA to be wiped out, and major variations in global climate for many years. For more information, watch documentaries by the BBC and Discovery Channel.

Possibility this century	7
Possibility in 2012	4
Could Ancients Predict It?	5
TOTAL	16

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13. Rise of the Machines - somewhere between Terminator and I Robot is an easy prediction: robots one day will have the capacity to rule the world. Are we stupid enough to allow it to happen?

Possibility this century	10
Possibility in 2012	2
Could Ancients Predict It?	2
TOTAL	14

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14. Global Warming - it will only take an increase of a couple of degrees to make life very difficult for most humans. Luckily for us, it is unlikely to wipe us out as early as 2012.

Possibility this century	9
Possibility in 2012	3
Could Ancients Predict It?	2
TOTAL	14

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15. Time Travel Error - someone from the future ventures into our past and causes a conflict in the time-space continuum... if it causes us harm in 2012, maybe someone managed to zip back in time and warn the ancients of it?

Possibility this century	6
Possibility in 2012	3
Could Ancients Predict It?	4
TOTAL	13

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16. Nanotechnology - while this might have health concerns when used in everyday products (ie sunscreen), the doomsday risk is when self-replicating little thingies are developed. Search for "grey goo". Fortunately 2012 seems too soon for some mad scientist to let the goo loose.

Possibility this century	9
Possibility in 2012	2
Could Ancients Predict It?	1
TOTAL	12

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17. Nearby Supernova - experts say that no supernova candidates are close enough to harm us. But how many supernovas have they observed? This is where, after the fact, scientists proclaim "but of course!"

Possibility this century	5
Possibility in 2012	4
Could Ancients Predict It?	3
TOTAL	12

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18. Genetic Modification - we blindly take vaccinations, and we might be sheep when it comes to "gene therapy" as well. Our desire to live longer might just be our undoing.

Possibility this century	8
Possibility in 2012	3
Could Ancients Predict It?	1
TOTAL	12

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19. Nuclear Accident - nothing is foolproof. We've had such accidents in the past, and a bigger accident is totally possible. Hard for the ancients to predict, though.

Possibility this century	8
Possibility in 2012	2
Could Ancients Predict It?	1
TOTAL	11

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20. Ice Age - right now the buzz is about "global warming", yet a mere thirty years ago we were worried about an impending Ice Age. There is evidence that parts of our climate system work more like a switch than a dial, and if a certain level of temperature is reached, it may cause what is known as "abrupt climate change". See the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" for how it might work.

Possibility this century	6
Possibility in 2012	1
Could Ancients Predict It?	2
TOTAL	9

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21. Solar System Falls Apart (butterfly effect) - to the best of our knowledge, everything is OK for a long, long time. However simulations have shown how Mercury could cause Earth and Mars to collide a few billion years from now. But throw a stray comet or Planet X into the mix, and our solar system could turn into a catastrophic pinball machine any old time.

Possibility this century	0
Possibility in 2012	0
Could Ancients Predict It?	4
TOTAL	4

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22. Large Hadron Collider - scientists tinkering with something they think they understand the risks of, but what if there's a 0.000001% chance their black hole calculations are wrong? Is it worth the risk? Originally we were told by CERN scientists that it was impossible for a black hole (that might gobble up the entire planet) to be created by the LHC, because it "would decay before it had the chance to do any damage". This has recently been updated to "the growth of black holes to catastrophic size does not seem possible.”

Possibility this century	1
Possibility in 2012	1
Could Ancients Predict It?	0
TOTAL	2

Why 2012?

The Long Count Calendar of the Ancient Mayans ends on Dec 21 2012. There isn't much information regarding what the Mayans thought would occur in 2012, but the consensus of opinion is that there will be great change. To some people this means a positive, spiritual change. Others, like myself, consider that a catastrophic event may have been predicted.

The Mayan Calendar

The Maya

The Maya civilisation inhabited a region encompassing southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize & western Honduras, and flourished between the third and tenth centuries AD, but by 1200 AD their society had collapsed for reasons we can only guess at. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived, descendants still occupied the area, and still spoke the Mayan language, but were unaware of the cities their forefathers had created.

It wasn't until the late 18^th century that explorers first investigated the dense Guatemalan rainforest and came across plazas, monoliths, temples and pyramids, each decorated with pictures and hieroglyphs. The ancient Maya had been keeping historical records - using a script which mixed ideographic and phonetic elements. Some of their writing still exists on stelae (stone monuments) that recount civil events and record their calendric and astronomical knowledge.

Spanish Conquest

Diego de Landa was a Spanish priest who visited Mexico on a charitable mission, became the Franciscan provincial of Yucatán in 1561 and is infamous for his destruction of priceless Maya documents and artefacts.

Although Landa was very interested in the Mayan culture, he abhorred certain aspects of their practices, particularly human sacrifice. In July 1562, when evidence of human sacrifice was found in a cave containing sacred Maya statues, a bout of religious self-righteousness saw Landa order the destruction of five thousand idols. He decided that their books were also the devil's work and saw to it that they were burned, with only three books surviving. Consequently the majority of Mayan knowledge and history was lost.

Yet despite his actions, we are also indebted to Landa for his acute and intelligent opus on Mayan life and religion, Relación de las cosas de Yucatán (1566), which remains the classical text on Mayan civilisation. This book, which was not printed until 1864, provided a phonetic alphabet that made it possible to decipher roughly one-third of the remaining Mayan hieroglyphs.

The most important of the surviving books was what is now called the Dresden Codex, named after the city where it was lodged. It is a strange book, inscribed with hieroglyphs, which no one understood until 1880. At that time Ernst FØrstemann, a German scholar who worked at the same Dresden library, managed to crack the code of the Mayan calendar making it possible for other academics to translate the many dated inscriptions found on buildings, stelae and other ancient Mayan artefacts.

He discovered that the Codex contained detailed astrological tables, which calculated the year to be 365.2420 days long, more accurate than the Julian calendar that we use today. The tables were used exclusively by the Mayan astronomers to predict the solstices and equinoxes, the path of the planets in our solar system, the cycles of Venus and Mars, and other celestial phenomena.

Other information we have today has been gleaned from the Popol Vuh and Chilam Balam - books written just after the Spanish arrived. The knowledge found in these books and codices, combined with the uncovering of mysterious pyramids, demonstrate that the Maya had knowledge to rival the Greeks and Egyptians.

Mayan Calendar

The life of the Maya revolved around the concept of time. Priests were consulted on civil, agricultural and religious matters, and their advice would be derived from readings of the sacred calendars. Time was of such importance that children were even named after the date on which they were born.

Maya math uses only three symbols - a shell-shaped glyph for zero, a dot for one and a bar for five to represent units from zero to 19. For instance, the number 13 was represented as three dots and two bars.

Zero was an advanced concept in those days, something that the Romans were not aware of. Yet the Maya were comfortable enough with it to use a shell as its symbol, a tangible object representing an abstract concept. The Maya also used metrical calculation and place numeration, which were very clever for a culture that didn't use the wheel!

Although they had many calendars, they marked the passage of time with three cycles that ran in parallel.

The first is the scared calendar known as the Tzolkin. It combines the numbers from 1 through 13 with a sequence of 20 day-names. It works in a similar manner to our named days of the week, and their date within each month. So you might have 5-Chikchan (like our Sunday the 5th) followed by 6-Kimi (as we would have Monday the 6th). After 260 days the same number/name combination will re-occur, and the calendar starts anew. Their use of the vigesimal (base 20) numbering system probably relates to fingers and toes, whereas the 13 nicely fits the growth phase of the moon which isn't visible when new and appears full for two days on end, thus appearing to have a 13 day growth cycle. Alternatively, the length of the Tzolkin may be related to the human gestation period of nine months (273 days). It has been suggested that 260 days is the time between a woman suspecting her pregnancy (she doesn't menstruate) and when she gives birth.

The second is the agricultural calendar known as the Haab, or vague year. It consists of 18 months, each of 20 days. An addition of a five-day month (a period of apprehension and bad luck named Uayeb) gives us 365 days, an approximation of a year. This calendar's primary purpose was to keep track of the seasons, for seasonal and solar events would occur on roughly the same day of each year. The Maya were aware of the annual quarter day discrepancy, but it is not known if they ever did anything about it.

These two independently running calendars each begin again every 260 and 360+5 days. However, every 52 years they coincide:

"The Tzolkin and the Haab ran concurrently, like intermeshed cog-wheels, and to return to any given date, 52 years, or 18,980 days, would have to elapse (because both 365 x 52 and 260 x 73 = 18,980). In other words, the Tzolkin would make 73 revolutions and the Haab 52, so that every 52 calendar years of 365 days one would return to the same date. A complete date in this 52-year cycle might be, for example, 2 1k 0 Pop (2 1k being the position of the day in the Tzolkin, 0 Pop the position in the Haab). Fifty-two years would pass before another 2 1k 0 Pop date returned.

It was expected that the world would end at the completion of a 52-year cycle. At this time, among the Mexica in the Valley of Mexico, all fires were extinguished, pregnant women were locked up lest they be turned into wild animals, children were pinched to keep them awake so that they would not turn into mice, and all pottery was broken in preparation for the end of the world. In the event the gods decided to grant man another 52 years of life on earth, however, a night time ceremony was held in which the populace followed the priests through the darkness over a causeway to the top of an old extinct volcano that rises abruptly from the floor of the basin of Mexico, known today as the Hill of the Star, the hill above Ixtapalapa. There, with all eyes on the stars, they awaited the passage of the Pleiades across the center of the heavens, which would announce the continuation of the world for another 52 years. When the precise moment came, a victim was quickly sacrificed by making a single gash in his chest and extracting the still palpitating heart. In the gory cavity the priests, with a fire drill, kindled a new flame that was quickly carried by torches across the lake to the temple in Tenochititlan, and from there to all temples and villages around the lake. This was known as the New Fire Ceremony among the Mexica, and in some way this same completion and renewal of each 52-year cycle was recognized by all Mesoamericans."

This is not unlike how the end of the last millennium may have felt for many Christians or doomsday cult followers.

Our modern Western calendar was first introduced in Europe in 1582. It was based upon the Gregorian calendar, which calculated the Earth's orbit to take 365.25 days. This was 0.0003 of a day per year too much, but still exceptionally accurate for scientists living over 400 years ago.

The Mayan calendars were derived from those of their predecessors, the Olmec, whose culture dates back at least 3,000 years. Without the instruments of 16^th century Europe, these Central American locals managed to calculate a solar year of 365.2420 days, just 0.0002 of a day short. More accurate than the Europeans, and much earlier. It is not known if the Olmecs created the Long Count calendar, or if they received it from an even earlier civilisation...

The Long Count

A Mayan date utilises three calendars. The third calendar, known as the "long count", is a continuous record of days that starts over every 5000 years or so. The current Long Count began in 3114 BC. And it will end very soon.

A typical Mayan date looks like this:

12.18.16.2.6, 3 Cimi 4 Zotz

4 Zotz is the Haab date.

3 Cimi is the Tzolkin date.

12.18.16.2.6 is the Long Count date.

The basic unit is the kin (day), which is the last component of the Long Count. Going from right to left the remaining components are:

• unial........1 unial = 20 kin = 20 days
• tun..........1 tun = 18 unial = 360 days = approx. 1 year
• katun.......1 katun = 20 tun = 7,200 days = approx. 20 years
• baktun.....1 baktun = 20 katun = 144,000 days = approx. 394 years

The kin, tun, and katun are numbered from 0 to 19.

The unial are numbered from 0 to 17.

The baktun are numbered from 1 to 13.

The Long Count is a great cycle of 13 baktuns (roughly 5,126 years), where the use of 13 may again represent the growth of the moon from new to full. The current cycle began on 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau 8 Cumku which correlates to Aug. 13, 3114 BC.

In Mayan mythology each Long Count cycle is a world age in which the gods attempt to create pious and subservient creatures.

The First Age began with the creation of the Earth, and it had upon it vegetation and living beings. Unfortunately, because they lacked speech, the birds and animals were unable to pay homage to the gods and were destroyed. In the Second and Third Ages the gods created humans of mud and then wood, but these also failed to please and were wiped out. We are currently in the Fourth and Final Age, the age of the modern, fully functional human. Is it possible that these Ages referred to evolutionary change? If they did, then what might occur when the current age finishes on December 21, 2012?