2012: Prophet of nonsense # 3 – Patrick Geryl and the reversal of common sense

Listen to this slightly deluded man (and being interviewed by Geraldo  and/or Fox News does not give much credibility to the story anyway).

The man mentions yet another prophet of nonsense: Patrick Geryl. What is his prophecy then? Well, he claims that the world will end on the 21^st of December 2012. Not a big surprise, my guess had a 50% chance of being right since these prophets either claim that the world will end or that there will be a spiritual transformation of all mankind.

According to him the magnetic poles will reverse on this date. However, all he do is to reverse common sense. I quote him here from his website How to Survive 2012. He “came to the staggering conclusion that the Earth will soon be subjected to an immense disaster. The cause: upheavals in the sun’s magnetic fields will generate gigantic solar flares that will affect the polarity of the entire Earth. The result: our magnetic field will reverse all at once, with catastrophic consequences for humanity. Massive earthquakes will demolish all buildings on the planet, and instigate colossal tsunamis and intense volcanic activity. In fact, the Earth’s crust will shift, sweeping continents thousands of miles away from their present positions.”

OK, let us say this will occur (irony), what is his “evidence” that this will occur on this day? As other prophets he claims that “there is ample evidence in the literature of ancient civilizations that such disasters have occured in the past and also clues that they knew when another such calamity would occur. The Dresden Codex of the Maya for instance, contains the secrets of the sunspot cycle, about which our modern astronomers know almost nothing! In his books, Patrick Geryl continues his scientific analysis of the millennia-old codes of the Maya and Egyptians that refer to the coming super-disaster. He determines that both cultures arose from an antediluvian civilization which was able to calculate the previous polar shifts and that we should take very seriously their calculations that place the next reversal in 2012.”

What antediluvian civilization is he talking about? You have guessed absolutely right: Atlantis. He apparently has published a number of books on the subject. One is called the “Orion Prophecy”. Here it states that the Maya and Egyptians “are descendants of the legendary Atlantis, which is currently buried under the South-Pole. The Atlanteans had highly evolved astronomical knowledge and were able to exactly predict the previous world-wide flood in 9792 BC. They built tens of thousands of boats and escaped to South-America and Egypt.”

Well, first of all the Maya area is not in South America, it is in North America (or rather Mexico and Central America). Plato stated that his made up island of Atlantis was located outside Gibraltar, not the South-Pole. And where is the archaeological evidence of this world-wide flood? It should be found everywhere.

In another book called “The World Cataclysm in 2012” he argues that “when the sun’s magnetism reaches a crucial point, the sun’s surface will be subjected to immense storms. They will cause a super-catastrophe on earth, without equal. The astronomical Zodiac of the Egyptians described the exact dates of the previous disasters and their consequences for our planet. When you combine the facts of these phenomena, you are able to prove the source of the number 666, known from the Bible as the number of the Apocalypse. It is taken from the Egyptian civilization and indicates an aberration in the sunspot cycle, which lays the foundation for the forthcoming world cataclysm.” So, maybe Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast is all about 2012? I did not know the irons thought about that back in 1982, which actually is 30 years before 2012, which equals 1,5 katun in the Maya calendar. There is indeed compelling evidence of a connection between Iron Maiden and the end of the world as we know it (irony again).

Another recurrent theme among prophets of nonsense is that ancient cultures “made incredibly precise calculations for the orbit of the earth around the sun. They are so accurate, that they exceed our present values!” Not really, the Maya just counted in days, they had no smaller units. They did not even use leap years and had to correct their calendars so they did not get out of phase with the seasons.

In yet another book “How to Survive 2012” he gives the answers to questions no sane person will ask. Anyway he claims that “those who do not prepare themselves will die in a terrible way. When you do prepare yourself, your survival chances will quickly rise. The problems we will have to overcome are immense, but not insurmountable. I wrote this book because I want to be one of the survivors. It is a blueprint for all of you who want to re-live the story of Noah. I explain thoroughly all the problems we are going to encounter and which precautions we need to take. I expect to inspire enough people so that together we can resume life on earth in a new civilization.” So, now he is a modern version of Noah as well. Delusions of megalomania seems to be this prophet’s prognosis. And maybe the desire to sell as many books as possible before the set out date, since will anyone buy them in 2013?

It is perhaps no wonder that most of these people come from the US where religious beliefs have deluded people to believe in all sorts of disasters. Just come to think of Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” where he exposes an American history of fear and the desire to get armed. I guess you need arms if you are to survive Geryl’s apocalypse.

So, how shall we survive 2012? What ever you do, do not join his “survival group”. Just go to bed, fall asleep and get up on the 22^nd of December. Judging from the fate of earlier prophets and religious sects (often of American origin) you have a much higher risk of not surviving if you join this man.