Laura Nina Zealey of The Spiritual Unfoldment Network in Cambridge
(http://www.sunlodge.plus.com) has drawn my attention to a book by
the acclaimed Glastonbury writer, Geoff Stray, which examines and
questions the factual basis of the claims (primarily advanced by the
Swedish Mayan Calendar researcher, Dr. Carl Calleman) that the world
will end in December 2012 (the so-called "Ascension Theory"). Geoff
Stray has spent 20 years researching this legend. His book also has
an introduction by John Major Jenkins, another respected Mayan
Calendar expert.

His book is called "Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Ecstasy?":
http://www.Amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/095506080X/sunflowerheal-21
Geoff's research and analysis has led to him giving presentations on
this topic, not only all over the UK, but in countries as far afield
as Belgium, the USA and Peru.

An overview of the book contents can be found here:
http://www.vitalsignspublishing.co.uk/book2012/extract2012.html

Investigative journalist for the Financial Times, Jonathan Margolis,
has written a classic book on the art of "futurology" - i.e.
prediction of trends, technological and medical advances and coming
events for the human race. It is called "A Brief History of
Tomorrow: The Future Past and Present":
http://www.Amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0747550875/sunflowerheal-21

This entertaining, incisive and yet insightful Margolis review of
Nostradamus and those who have preceded and succeeded him in the
futurology business, suggests that predictions of the future tend to
tell us as much about "The Present" and "Those present", as they do
about the what may be to come in the future.

It has been said, of course, that predicting the future is the "last
refuge for small minds" - a paraphrasing of the words of Samuel
Johnson in 1775: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel!"
(U.S. politicians and neo-Nazis everywhere please note!).

This negative assessment of the art of futurology is also a
paraphrase of the words of Oscar Wilde, who said: "Consistency is
the last refuge of the unimaginative!"

American Business Management Guru, Peter Drucker, famously said "The
best way to predict the future is to create it!"

Let's hope that we are all creating a future that is worth (living
and) dying for!

Mike