KIRKUS REVIEW
A spiritual take on the 2012 craze.
Co-authors Almaida and ArahatBosnia present a book running counter to the prevailing New Age message that the year 2012 may bring with it a violent end to the world. Nevertheless, the pair does believe that year, and especially the date of December 21, holds a special significance. They see this significance in a spiritual context, however, and have written their book as an attempt to reach out to the public with a positive message about 2012. As they point out, “We are not here to wait for the outcome of December 21, 2012, but to be active participants in the transformation of ourselves and humanity.” Indeed, they have created something of a self-help book—a guide to personal enlightenment and transformation. Almaida and ArahatBosnia blend a wide-ranging panoply of religious traditions together as they weave a message of human re-creation. Though mainly based in Islam, with copious references to the Quran throughout, the authors also draw heavily on other world religions and traditions as well as New Age terminology and thought. The authors assert that December 2012 will bring about a jump in humanity’s collective consciousness, though how or why this date is significant remains unclear. They do provide a lengthy exposition on how an individual can attain a higher level of self-consciousness. Specifically, they urge readers to “clone” themselves into the form of a “humanoid,” or a human changed through a higher level of consciousness. Almaida and ArahatBosnia provide nine steps toward this end. A great deal of the authors’ teaching relies on a belief that our thoughts help to create our circumstances, and in turn the thoughts of others affect our circumstances as well. Through positive thoughts, self-awareness and a greater understanding of the invisible and spiritual world, people can move ahead to a new level of being. Cogently written, the text is rather accessible for a New Age work. Tying the authors’ theories to the year 2012, however, still seems a contentious problem.
An accessible look at 2012 as an apocalypse of the mind.
