Anthropologist Jenkins (Galactic Alignment) has been investigating Mayan culture since 1985, helping unveil the Mayan calendar system that predicts a once-in-26,000-years "astronomical alignment"-the solstice sun and the Milky Way with the galactic center-occurring on December 12, 2012, a date that's gained an apocalyptic reputation in the popular consciousness.Jenkins believes that the Mayans, just like their Greek, Indian, Babylonian, and Egyptian contemporaries, have much to teach us, but nothing about a global cataclysm.

Applying the concepts of Mayan cyclical cosmology-in particular, a transformation-and-renewal creation myth not unlike other religions'-he suggests that 2012 "basically represents a shift from one World Age to the next" occurring over decades, not hours: "The world is in a crisis.Systems need to be transformed and spiritually centered social activism is called for." He believes that the Indian idea of an "indigenous mind" offers an alternative to modern materialism, "oriented more to...maintaining balance with a sustainable value system." He also finds hopeful signs in farming, beer brewing, energy innovation, and health-food communities, as well as the popularity of meditation and other ways of freeing oneself from "the tangled knot of illusion." This introduction to Mayan culture, from the scientist who uncovered much of it, replaces silly disaster scenarios with something both truthful and provocative.