Customer Reviews

The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Jose Arguelles presents a harmonic balance of the nature of Energy and Mayan spirituality in "The Mayan Factor." Although some of the concepts can seem intimidating at first, Arguelles' masterful use of language allows the reader peel away the layers of traditional Western thought on the subject of Energy to reveal a core of Mayan philosophy steeped in spirtuality. This book is what I call a "long lingering lesson," meaning the longer you allow Arguelles' message to linger in your thoughts, the more poignant the lesson becomes! For me reading the Mayan Facor was like sipping a glass of 1996 Bordeaux; when I was done I was refreshed, yet thirsted for more, and the world didn't quite look the same anymore! I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Mayan culture, energy, or anyone looking for a unique perspective on humanity's place in the grand scheme of things!

Mr. Argulles gives a concise and easy-to-understand analysis of the Mayan Calendar, and then proceeds to leap into unique and interestingly odd interpretations of this calendar and what it means for humanity (based on his interpretation). Although I question his New Age terminology, the ideas as presented are certainly worth having a look at if you're interested in this subject and have a tolerance for the mathematical complexity that this calendar can present. Argulles has apparently amassed quite a little following by charging people for "further information," but this book really is all one needs to understand his bizarre interpretations of Mayan spirituality. Nonetheless, it is a strangely good read.

This is the first book I have read in a series of Mayan religion and culture. This book is absolutely necessary for anyone studying the Mayan culture. It provides an unorthodoxed look at there culture and religion. It will furthermore open ones mind to the abilities of our predecessors, and show that there is much more to be learned of our history as humanoids. This book has fantastic technical merit. I am not a archaeologist or a anthropoligist or even a paleontologists. Therefore i can not credentially state that this book is true. But I have read many Mayan books now and after much experience it has opened into a labyrinth of mystery. One that may not be solved but so fabulous to learn. For anyone looking at this book you need this, for education or for spiritual growth of your own discipline. It will propel you to better and broader horizons. I would like to thank the author for revealing another side of what i see as a biased history of the Mayans. Thank you.

I wanted to give this book a chance, and wish I hadn't bothered. It reads like an acid ramble -- cosmic assertions tumble over startling insights, with no notion sustained beyond two sentences, properly connected to others, or backed by evidence. I kept waiting for him to settle down and present out some facts and build his case, but he just keeps laying bricks on air. I researched some of the more checkable facts, and found him generally wrong: for example, Isamu Noguchi's "The Sculpture to be Seen From Mars" looks nothing like the "face on Mars" (which was an illusion anyway), which he says shocked him into realizing the transmission of universal information. The irony is that despite savaging Western science as unable to understand the Maya, he is so absorbed in his own insights and revelations and discoveries that he never tries to see the Maya through their own eyes, as any good scientist would, and so fails to truly respect the subject he supposedly exalts.

I know many people look to Maya spirituality as a guide for their own spiritual journeys and I think that is great. In some ways, it helps promote intercultural understandings. This book does not do that however. Arguelles' work is a mixture of pure conjecture, misrepresentation and bad scholarship. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of real Maya spiritual practices will be able to identify the errors in fact and application of his unique perspective on time and the Maya Universe.

Arguelles' book entices unwary souls who are searching for enlightenment, but does them and the Maya people a severe injustice. IF you want to believe in Harmonic Convergences and the like then go ahead and buy this book. If you want genuine insight from real practicioners of Maya spiritual knowledge and from people who know and respect Maya culture, this is not the book for you.

I would recommend the following anthropologists' works "Time and the Highland Maya" by Barbara Tedlock, Dennis Tedlock's annotated translation of "The Popol Vuh" with K'iche shaman Andres Xiloj, and "Tortillas for the Gods" by Evon Vogt. And anything by Martin Prechtel, who is himself a Tzutujil shaman.

When this book first came out it presented radically new ways to interpret history, time, and consciousness. However the concepts in this book are all over the place and lack any coherant grounding into the Mayan Calendar. Occasionally facts about the Mayan Long count are presented in error.

More often imagined correspondences and inventions such as 'The Loom Of The Maya' are presented as cosmic fact when they are products of Joe's imagination. Joe is a great artist and should present himself as such and not apostle of the next Baktun. The only way you could believe you are reading truth here is if you allow yourself to turn off discrimination and accept whatever wild stuff he says.

I have no doubt that Joe, has opened himself up to either off-world information and/or the depths of his own imagination. But this 'artistic' plethora was never grounded either in historical facts about the Mayan nor in logical thinking. The work remains a very loose artistic interpretation with Mayan influences.

Example from this book: "Instantaneously releasing themselves through chromo-molecular transport into the farther reacher of the galaxy into whence they had come, the Mayan sages nonetheless also prepared for a return."

Ok, that one had the word Maya in it. But where does this concept of chromo-molecular transport come from? We have no evidence of this concept in Maya life either past or present. It, like much other in this book, comes from Joes imagination.

Ultimately and unfortunately Mr Arguelles became convinced of his identity as a reincarnated Pacal Votan (Lord of Time) and created another system of Mayan glyphs called the Dreamspell. Dreamspell is not based on the pure interpretation of the Mayan Tzolkin. It is an invention that detracts from the original Mayan teachings.

So while the book does provide some interesting, if not incomprehensible, introduction to the Mayan calendar it is based on imagined predicates of what later becomes an incomprehensible Dreamspell system. The author has been changing this concept and his websites almost continually.

More authentic sources on this subject are John Major Jenkins, Barbara Tedlock, and Carl Johan Calleman. In fact Calleman can be considered a disciple of Arguelles. Callemans 'Solving the Greatest Mystery of Our Time: The Mayan Calendar' and 'The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness' form the crux of an authentic system of study and understanding based partly on MAYAN galactic concepts. However even Calleman provides a mix of Mayan and non-Mayan concepts without letting you know which is which. So you could call Callemans 'The Mayan Calendar And The Transformation Of Consciouss' by another name as 'The Mayan Factor 2'.

This is an amazing work. The Mayan Factor is a must for everyone who is genuinly interested in Mayan enigma.This book answered and clarified my many years of wonder about Mayans and their obsession with time; and of course, like all good works, leaves you with other interesting questions. Do yourself a favour: read this book!

This is for reviewer CHRISTOPHER FUNG. If you found Argulles' work to be a load of mallarky, you might find an alternate study of the Mayan Calendar interesting. Swedish Mayanist/authro Carl Johan Calleman has written a book on the subject and he is in strong disagreement with Argulles' conjectures (and this whole Dreamspell business). He even sets a completely different date for the end of the Mayan Calendar (a year earlier). Hope you find this info useful.

I've done many mind-altering drugs in my life. I will say that this book was more powerful than all of those. I had to put it down about halfway through to take a break and I haven't picked it back up yet. Extremely interesting although parts of it get too dry and mathematical / very confusing / patterns which I fail to understand.... but those other parts.. oh my god! mind blowing!

The Mayan Factor is not an easy read but very facinating. It puts the 2012 prediction in perspective and explains so much about the Mayans, where they came from and where they may have gone. Interestingly, the author of this book died last week!