| "Bright Michelle" makes numerous errors in fact when referring to 2012. |
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| Be afraid of 2012 so New Age nuts can stay in business! |
Michelle Casto is a "LightWorker"1 (meaning a New Age nut) who will be happy to help you deal with your fear of 2012. Her bio on twitter reads:
Lightbearer on a mission to upgrade human consciousness & bring enlightenment. I live to write,coach,connect. Awake/Shift/Shine/Succeed: also @soulbizradio
Her web page at http://www.brightlightcoach.com/shift-2012.html makes numerous errors of fact in just the first few paragraphs.
Errors
Error #1: "The Ancients Predicted"
At the top of the page is this opening sentence:
I have got news for you, 2012 is not new news. The date has been around for ages, when ancients predicted this incredible time in human history.
As this site has shown repeatedly2, the idea that something cataclysmic, apocalyptic, or transformational is going to occur in 2012 is not an ancient belief (unless you consider the 1960s "ancient"), but rather a modern one.
Error #2: The Mayan Calendar
Michelle claims that the "Mayan calendar mysteriously ends" on December 21st, 2012. Her evidence? She "watched a special" 15 years ago.
… I became aware of the 2012 concept 15 years ago, when I was attending graduate school at the University of South Carolina, I watched a special about the Mayan calendar and how it mysteriously ends December 21, 2012
Of course she doesn't tell us what the "special" was, or where she saw it. In our experience, a video presented as a lecture is not usually described as "a special", so it sounds like, from her description, that she may have seen something on TV.
Really? A television special? Is that really her evidence? We can't tell, because that is the extent of her citation.
Error #3: "Planet alignment with the galactic equator"
The sentence quoted above continues on to say:
… the exact date which astronomers believe our planet alignment takes place with the galactic equator (occurs once every 26,000 years).
This appears to be a mish-mash of various alignment claims. First of all, "astronomers" do not believe that any significant alignment will occur on December 21st, 2012. Second, there is no such thing as a "planet alignment with the galactic equator". Michelle appears to be referring to both the Solstice Alignment and Galactic Plane claims, both of which are wrong. By combining and confusing the two, here claim here is even more incorrect. Third, the 26,000 year period refers to the approximate period of precession, which somewhat relates to the Solstice Alignment claim, but not at all to any claim about the Galactic Plane.
Error #4: "Amazing Coincidence"
Michelle also claims:
Hmmm, that seems an amazing coincidence, doesn’ t it?
Well, it might be, if any of it were true. By making false claims, you can create coincidences out of thin air. Of course any meaning that they might have is just as insubstantial.
Error #5: "The Great Shaking"
Michelle goes on to say:
I stand firmly in a place of knowing … how I am to assist in what the Hopi Indians call “the great shaking.”
The references that I can find to "the great shaking" refer to the Frank Waters3 recitation of the "Hopi Prophecy"4 which interprets the so-called "Hopi Prophecy Rock" to refer to two "great shakings", World War I and World War II.
The rest of that page appears to be nothing more than a rah-rah cheer for people to spend their money on her courses on how to "transform yourself".
Conclusion
"Bright Michelle" is nothing more than yet another New Age guru, using (and mis-using) indigenous beliefs (in this case Mayan and Hopi) to advance her own business of packaging and selling completely worthless services to gullible, but unhappy people.
