GREGG BRADEN GREGG BRADEN - Earthstar

2012...Continued from page 29What Does It Mean?www.earthstarmag.comWe know that the sun is goingthrough a magnetic shift, and theEarth appears to be in the earlystages of a polar reversal as well.What do these celestial events haveto do with the Mayan calendar?What does it all mean? These arevery good questions, and they areimportant because the one thing weknow for certain is that all life isstrongly influenced by magneticchanges. There are countless studiesin scientific literature that describehow many species of animals, fromwhales and dolphins to hummingbirdsand wildebeests, rely onEarth’s magnetic “superhighways”to navigate their way to feeding andmating grounds. While we may notuse these “superhighways” quite thesame way, it appears that humansare no exception.In 1993, an international teamstudying magnetoreception, theability of our brains to detect magneticchanges in the Earth,announced a discovery that makes2012, the Mayan cycles, and Earth’smagnetic fields even more significantthan previously thought. Theteam published the remarkable findingsthat the human brain contains“millions of tiny magnetic particles.”These particles connect us,just as they do other animals, toEarth’s magnetic field in a powerful,direct, and intimate way. Andthis connection carries powerfulimplications. If Earth’s magneticfields are changing in the 2012 timeframe, then we too are affected.We know, for example, thatmagnetic fields have a profoundinfluence on our nervous systems,our immune systems, and our perceptionsof space, time, dreams, andeven reality itself. And while thestrength of our planet’s magneticfield may be measured as a generalreading, it varies locally from placeto place. Early in the twentieth century,magnetic, ribbonlike patternswere charted and published by scientistsas a contour map of theworld. The map displays thestrength of the magnetic lines overlayingthe continents and shows theplaces on Earth where the people ofthe world experience thestrongest—and the weakest—effects of the planet’s magneticfields. To understand why this isimportant for the 2012 cycle, weneed look no further than consciousnessitself.While there is a lot that wedon’t know about consciousness,there is one thing that we are certainof: the stuff that consciousness ismade of is energy, and that energyincludes electricity and magnetism.While the electromagnetic nature ofconsciousness is still beingexplored, it does appear that Earth’smagnetics play a key role in how weaccept new ideas and change in ourlives. If we think of magnetic fieldsMayan Calendaras a form of energetic “glue,” wecan use this metaphor as a possibleexplanation for why some parts ofthe world, and our own country, areslower to accept change, whileother places seem to jump at theopportunity to try something new.Our “magnetic glue” modelsuggests that places with strongermagnetic fields (more glue) aremore deeply entrenched in tradition,beliefs, and existing ideas. In placeswhere the fields are weaker, just theopposite is true. In these places,people seem compelled to createchange. Although areas of low magneticintensity may be ripe forsomething new, how that change isexpressed is up to those living there.With this in mind, a look at ourglobal magnetic map may help usmake sense of places that seem continuouslylocked in conflict, as wellas understand why innovation andchange seem to spark in one areabefore spreading to others.Continued on page 70FEBRUARY / MARCH 2008 EARTH STAR 67