Gregg Braden on Fractal Time and 2012

The Science Behind 2012

Interview with Gregg Braden, New York Times
best-selling author of Fractal Time
By Laurie Nadel, Ph.D. / Host of The Dr. Laurie Show

If you are curious to know if there is any science behind the prophecies of 2012, scientist and New York Times best-selling author Gregg Braden has the information that will put it into real-time perspective. Geological time, that is.

After 22 years of scientific research, Braden’s new book Fractal Time explains why 2012 marks the end of a 5,125-year cycle.

Did you know that the Earth is presently moving across the equator of the Milky Way? When we talk about the changes that are coming up in 2012, some of those visible changes here on Earth are apparently in response to the astronomical changes that are being created by the Earth’s crossing of the Equator of the Milky Way.

In an interview with Dr. Laurie Nadel, Gregg Braden talks about the Mayan prophecies of 2012 and what they mean to you.

Q: You say that 2012 is not the end of the world but the end of a world age—a 5,125-year cycle of time?

Gregg Braden: Some people speak about 2012 like any other news story that you hear about every day. Others who may not have heard anything about 2012 say, "What’s the big deal about a date?"

Q: Maybe they think it’s like Y2K.

Gregg Braden: Precisely! I was an engineer, working in the defense industry in the 1980s when I first began hearing about the year 2012. Some people were saying, literally, "It’s the end of the world." Others said, "It’s the end of the world as we know it." And some even said, "It’s the beginning of a thousand years of peace."

Everyone I asked had a different opinion. What I discovered as a scientist was that the only way that I would know what 2012 was all about was to understand the people who created the calendars that tell us about 2012. And the only way to understand them was to understand great cycles of time.

Q: What do you mean when you say, "cycles of time?"

Gregg Braden: Our own science now is telling us that we, on this planet, our lives, and our planet in general, are under the influence of great cycles of time; cycles within cycles, within cycles. Some of the cycles we know about, like the 24-hour cycle of the day for day and night, or the 28-days of a woman’s cycle. But the great cycles cover such vast periods of time that we don’t remember them from one civilization to the next. Our present great cycle is a 5,125-year-long cycle linked to an astronomical event that occurred in the year 3114 B.C.

Q: Now, that’s almost incomprehensible for people—3114 B.C.

Gregg Braden: It ends on December 21, the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2012 A.D.

Q: And in that moment or on that day, the sun, you say, is going to move into an alignment with the equator of the Milky Way.

Gregg Braden: What happens during this time—and we have to be really careful when we talk about this—there is an alignment that’s occurring because Earth does this little tip and this little wobble over long periods of time. As Earth tips and wobbles in its orbit, it changes the scenery of the night sky. It changes our orientation in space with respect to the center of our own galaxy –of our Milky Way galaxy.

Now, our own scientists have discovered—and they are publishing this openly—that the center of our Milky Way galaxy is a very powerful source of magnetic energy. The term they use is "magnetic filiments" that radiate from the center of our Milky Way. Where we are, in relation to that source of energy, has a huge effect on planet Earth. Sometimes we’re further away, and we’re tilted away from it, and the effect is less. Sometimes we’re closer or we’re tilted toward it, and the effect is greater.

On December 21st in the year 2012, we have a straight shot—a linear shot, unobstructed by any other planets or any other bodies in the solar system--where we have direct access to that field of energy.

Q: Now, does this mean that the magnetic poles are going to shift, and we’re going to have three days of darkness?

Gregg Braden: There is no scientific evidence to support that.

Q: I’m glad to hear that.

Gregg Braden: There has been a lot of speculation about it. The magnetic poles have certainly reversed in the past. I can tell you as a former geologist that we can see that in the geologic record, 14 times in the last 4-1/2 million years.

Each time, before the magnetic fields reversed, they had to weaken to a certain point before that reversal happened. Even though we have seen a decrease in the magnetic field strength of the Earth over the last 100 years or so, it is still so much higher than the measurement that is needed for it to reverse that the probability of this happening in the next three years between 2009 and 2012 or even a year or two after, it looks like it’s a slim probability. We’ve got so many other things to worry about.

Q: Are there new discoveries that show that we can think of time as an essence that follows the same rhythms and cycles that govern everything from particles to galaxies? Can we think of these things that happen in time as places within cycles?

Gregg Braden: The bottom line is that time is essentially a wave that is moving in one direction. Right now it’s moving from the present to the future. So, the seeds for things that are happening today and events like 2012 that are yet to happen have already occurred in the past.

If we know where to look into the past, it gives us a good idea of what we can expect in the present and the future. Time’s waves follow natural rhythms, cycles, and natural progressions. This means that we can measure, calculate, and predict when the seeds – the conditions -- for an event are going to happen again, and again, and again. This means that we can take the year 2012 calculate backwards, using natural rhythms to the times in our history when the seed for 2012 was planted. Looking at the seed, we can determine when the patterns and events that will happen in 2012 were set into motion. We can go into the geologic record to see what was happening then on the planet. Or we can go into the archaeological record to see what was happening to people to give us a really good idea of what we can expect over these next few years.

Q You talk about how the conditions for the Mayan end-date of 2012 have already happened in our past.

Gregg Braden: Absolutely!

Q: What can we do to prepare for what’s going to happen next in 2012?

Gregg Braden: To prepare for whatever is happening, we have to understand what it is that’s going to happen. This is the value of knowing precisely where to look in the past to understand what we’re about to experience or what we’re already experiencing now.

Q: Now, you talked about Pearl Harbor and 2001 as being years that were kind of hot dates when, in fact, the United States was, both times, attacked. What are some of the other hot dates that you refer to in the book?

Gregg Braden: For 2012, the records show that when we’ve looked into the history of the Earth, into the ice cores in Antarctica, for example, it preserved a record of Earth’s past. When we look into those ice cores at the dates that are the fractals or the seed patterns for 2012, they tell us that in those dates the magnetic fields of the Earth became weaker. The energy from the sun was stronger so that the ice on the poles began to melt. The oceans began to rise, the climate began to shift, and the weather patterns began to change.



Q: We are experiencing that now.

Gregg Braden: Precisely, and that is the whole point. Has the Earth gone through a big change? Yes. Does it mean that something is wrong or something is broken? No! It always happens when we reach this point in a great cycle. When we are this distance from the energy source at the center of our Milky Way, when Earth is tilted and oriented the way it is, apparently, this is what always happens.

Therefore, to a large extent, we are already experiencing the great changes that so many have predicted. We are already seeing cities wiped off the face of the Earth near shallow coastlines. We are already seeing major magnitude earthquakes and tsunamis. We are already seeing forest fires ranging them across vast, open spaces. We are seeing millions of people die from disease. The United States is blessed in that we’re not experiencing as much here as in other parts of the world. But such change can happen anywhere and everywhere.

Q: The take-away message…?

Gregg Braden: It is good for us to prepare and to help other people that are having the problems of feeling the brunt of these changes. But here is the core: The geologic records show that the changes are intense; absolutely intense, but that they’re brief. They don’t last for generation, after generation, after generation. The archaeological records show that when past civilizations reach the point in their cycle where we are in right now, they made a mistake that we don’t want to repeat today.

Q: What was that mistake?

Gregg Braden: When the world began to change, civilizations of the past didn’t understand the change. They began to fight one another for the resources. In that violent competition for what was left when the world was changing, everyone lost. Nobody won. The civilizations collapsed. For example, Egypt’s 20th dynasty absolutely collapsed during precisely this period of time and no one even knew about them until thousands of years later.

We are at a point right now where we must choose to work together for this brief period of time to bring ourselves through this time of change. If we make the mistakes of the past and everyone loses. This is why I feel that this book is so important right now.

Q: A lot of people kind of feel helpless when they start listening to stories about ancient civilizations collapsing. They think about tsunamis and Katrina, and it’s very hard for people not to feel overwhelmed by the great scope of planetary movements and fractal time. For what can people hope?

Gregg Braden: On my website, www.greggbraden.com you will find a link to the Global Coherence Initiative. When you click on that link, you can learn about the science-based initiative that allows each of us to learn a way of being that actually influences the fields of the Earth. In other words, you can learn how to have a positive impact on how we come through this time in history. This project is all about our relationship to the Earth through heart-based living.

Q: What is heart-based living?

Gregg Braden: In the past few years, our own science has made a radical, revolutionary discovery that changes everything about the way we think of ourselves and the world. What they found is that when we create heart-based feelings of gratitude, appreciation, care—literally, using the muscle of the heart to create these feelings—what we’re actually doing is generating a magnetic field inside our bodies that is part of the magnetic field of the Earth that undergoes the change.

The Earth’s magnetic field rises, falls, and regulates everything from climate to ice caps and sea levels. This magnetic field joins all life on Earth from a blade of grass, to an ant, to a goldfish, to a hamster, to us. When many of us come together and create a common feeling, that experience is called "coherence." "Coherence" can actually be measured. It is 0.10 Hertz. That is the measurement of the coherence created between the heart and the brain.

Scientists first found out about this during 9/11 when our satellites 22,000 miles in space began to register changes in the magnetic field of the Earth, when humans were having feelings about September 11th and the World Trade Center. This is a surprise to science. They asked, "Why would people experiencing 9/11, why would that possibly affect the magnetic fields of the Earth? There’s no connection, right?" Well, wrong. They found that there is a connection and this has led to what is called the Global Coherence Initiative Project.

Scientists are now building the sensors that can measure these magnetic fields and put them up onto the website where you can watch the fields change everyday in real time. In addition to measuring this field, the Global Coherence Project aim is to teach people how to create coherence in their everyday lives. It’s not a hard thing to do, and you don’t have to change your lives to do it. You don’t have to change your meditations, your prayers, or any practice. It’s a way of being in our hearts as we go throughout the day that’s very easy to learn.

Q: So, it’s kind of an awareness or biofeedback-type training.

Gregg Braden: That is part of it. When we create this coherence inside our bodies, it triggers about 1,400 biochemical changes. Anti-aging processes begin. DHEA level—the life-giving hormone—surges in our bodies. Our immune systems become really strong. We think more clearly. We become less aggressive. The magnetic fields of the heart are now being documented. We are facing the greatest challenges of 5,000 years of recorded human history. As we face the great challenges of our time, we are asking, "What can we do?" Here’s what we can do: We can learn the language of the magnetic field that is creating the changes and help bring that field from chaos into order.

We can influence the very fields that are creating the change. The Mayans cannot tell us how this cycle ends because we are writing the ending to this cycle while we’re living it right now. The fear about 2012 is stressing a lot of people but we have the ability to regulate the magnetic field by regulating the way that we work together through our hearts. The key is: we’ve got to work together to do it.