Customer Reviews

The Mayan Prophecies: Unlocking the Secrets of a Lost Civilization

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Starting off I knew nothing of native Central Americans. This book has taught me a lot about the Mayans, Aztecs, Olmecs, and Toltecs. If you have an interest in this subject, I say give the book a try.

The main focus of the book is a prophecy the Mayans made about a worldwide catastrophe that is supposed to come about in 2012, what their basis for this prediction is, and if there's any scientific knowledge to back this prediction up. You may not be a person into end of days predictions, but the book still offers a lot of knowledge about many different aspects of Central America. The book covers things such as how Central American knowledge and beliefs could be tied to the lost continent of Atlantis (why some people think Atlantis existed), how the Aztec and Mayan calendars work, what gods they worshiped, what events they celebrated and feared, their accurate astronomy, ties they could have to Europe, one of the reasons they may have declined, a possibility as to why the serpent is so prevalent in their culture, how the Central American rattlesnake cult could have come about, how sunspot cycles affected the Mayans, how and why sunspots are tied to the Mayan prophecy. Another aspect of the book I liked is the author's willingness to take a serious look a little known archeological theories presented by people that do not have a big name is the field.

The one annoying thing I found in this book is how the authors used this book to point out how some authorities refuse to believe them, or even listen to them. That certain museums and magazines may not be totally scientific and concern themselves only with mainstream ideas that are satisfying to the establishment. Another thing you have to keep in mind is that a lot of this book in theoretical, and thought the ideas may make sense, they may not be reality.

This book is about coincidences. The authors notice a similarity between certain large numbers in the Maya calendar cycle and their own astrological theories about sunspot cycles. The numbers don't match, but from this "coincidence" the authors conclude that the Maya warned of a cosmic disaster for the year 2012.

The book could have stopped there, but instead it digresses into a sort of personal log of the authors' visits to Mexico, then revisits old material on transatlantic contact, Atlantis mythology, Edgar Cayce, Velikovsky, and other nonsense. Some of the historical material about Mexico is interesting and well written, but is clearly taken from other sources.

Some of the claims are bizarre, such as that the crystal "skull of doom" was used as a magnifying glass in a fire ceremony. Or that the "loops" on the Palenque sarcophagus represent magnetic field lines on the sun, something the Maya couldn't possibly have known about.

The authors' contempt for those with other points of view is annoying. The book that derides Von Daniken, astrologists, and professional archaeologists all at the same time.

The sloppiness about numbers is also annoying, especially since their entire case rests on numbers. The authors cite a "remarkable correlation" between the dates given for the great flood by Plato (9500 B.C), Cayce (10,500 B.C.), and the Maya (11,205 B.C.) These dates differ by over 1700 years, a variation of 15% relative to the present day. Considering that one of the authors claims to be an engineer and a scientist, this is inexcusable.

The Maya civilization is a fascinating and impressive one, and no doubt there is much wisdom we have yet to learn from them. You won't find it in this book.

This well written, very readable book is the most compelling I have read on the mythology, religion and what is known of the history of the Maya. I'm not much into mathematics or arithmetic but found the ideas very interesting, especially as related to nature (the cross motif from the skin of the rattlesnake and the sun-spot cycles). Not everything here is new, Von Daniken already popularised some of these concepts two decades ago - but it is cohesively presented in the right context with a wealth of figures, maps, and the most beautiful colour plates. It makes a worthy contribution to the terrain that Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval etc, are bringing to light. Extensive appendices, a glossary, bibliography and index ensure this will remain a valuable reference work for years to come. As for 2012, I don't believe in scaremongering (many books claimed that Nostradamus predicted a world war for 1999) so I am content to believe that date will signal a change (improvement) in consciousness.

If anyone is interested in furthering their knowledge in the ancient Maya, this book cannot be ignored. Ripping apart past archaeological theories, Cotterel and Gilbert pave the way for a new way of explaining human history. The book makes the reader want to fly to Mexico as fast as possible, and dive into the mysterious sights and riddles of the Pre-Columbian civilizations. This book must be read...

This book is a valuable work in the understanding of the ancient mayan civilization. Gilbert and Cotterell starts from few fragments which weren't destroyed by Spanish "conquests", and give an interpretation about the Stone of Palenque. Goin' trough the outrageous mayan numeric system, and their practical applications like calender and astronomy, this book drives the reader to discover how Mayans was so scientifically and spiritually advanced. Applying mayan timing mode to modern sunspots observations, and the studies about the solar magnetic fields and its interactions with our planet, they give an alternative key to redesign human development, myths and Astrology. The conclusion is outrageous : Mayans knew many things more than we, when they preview that the world we live today it is about to change. This will occur at the end of 2012. If you want to add some ancient wisdom of the Mayans to your knowledge, don't hesitate to read this book. -Peace and love to everyone -

When seeing the title of the book for the first time, I expected something a little broader in focus than just the end of the present world age. As far as the prophecies go, everything seems to revolve around this "end of the world" scenario. Having said that, I found the book fascinating and the discriptions of the authors' travels of discovery interesting. Having come to this book via Graham Hancock's writings, the whole picture, I think, would be disturbing, at least.

An adventure in ancient Mexico with full detail of the history of the Azdecs and Maya mainly, with many technical information at the appendices, try to decode many mysteries of the Maya civilization. Although i have many questions on the decoding of the lid of Palenque (sometimes it makes you think that during the decoding of the Lid, the authors should be drunk or something like that!) it gives you enough excitement to start or continue further research.

Without question there are unknowns regarding the origins, spirituality and disappearance of the Mayan civlilization. What record thereof not destroyed by Spanish conquerers has mostly been locked away from public evaluation by fear-ridden western scholars, still clinging to the Christian based perspective that the Mayans, as well as other spiritually advanced civilizations, were simply barbaric. In The Mayan Prophecies, Gilbert and Cotterell use what I would call anthropological probability theory to synthesize the tremendous amount of abstract information to decode the complex Mayan cosmology. Did the Mayans communicate with the Gods? Did the entire civilization die or simply transcend dimensions? Did they leave behind a message to inform us "blinded ones" us of the dawn of a new age? While remaining relatively objective, Gilbert and Cotterrell, apply recent scientific discoveries in astrogenetics and sunspot cycles with ancient myths and astrology, to! ! draw the reader to several possible answers to these questions. Although scientifically inconclusive, these speculations indicate a very strong probability that the Mayans knew something that we don't, and that the world as we know it is about to change. If you are at all interested in applying the ancient wisdom of the Mayans to your data-base of knowledge concerning the new-age energetic (or if you just want to read a cool book) I would highly recommend The Mayan Prophecies. --Peace and love to those on the search --

I found the conclusion of the book to be inconclusive and feel that it is not based on any hard science; its the author's opinion supported by sketchy facts, figures and theories from other sources. It's artful and entertaining, but it's not like its going to leave you with the truth of 2012 being the end of the world.

I don't regret reading it, however, and would recommend it to someone who is interested in learning about the subject. It just gives you one more opinion to chew on and ponder. And, I like pondering things.

Futhermore, there is some historical information on the Central American Civilizations of the past, the Mayan calendars, as well as some interesting theories on Sunspot's.

The blurb on the back reads "The present world will end on 22 December 2012. So prophesied the Maya 5,000 years ago..." - yet on page 4 the authors indicate that the Maya appeared around 500AD, which by my reckoning is only 1,500 years ago.

Such internal inconsistencies riddle this book, and make it unreliable. On the face of it - and ignoring the 2012 prophecy, which uses some pretty tortuous mathematical manipulations - there is a lot of interesting information here about the Maya, but I'm afraid I just don't know how much I can believe or trust.

I'm sure many people will lap up this book, and simply assume that the "facts" on the Maya must be true because they are written in an authoritative manner, but please keep an open mind - which includes remembering that the authors may be wrong.