With regards to 2012, or even pseudoscience in general, you'll see proponents banded about as self-proclaimed experts. In that one word, expert, we're led to believe that they really do have something to say. I can only really speak for Sitchin and the Nibiru crowd, who see him as an expert in his field simply because he knew more about Sumerians than the YouTubers who cite him. The only problem is that he was a poor choice of authority to follow on the subject, but you'd only know that if you stepped outside and look at the claims from another angle.

Set yourself up to be any kind of authority on a subject, even to the extent of being in contact with aliens, and you put yourself one step higher than the audience you have, who in turn reinforce your 'authority' - you don't have to know anything complex, you just need to know more than your audience.

Can it not be a case of "Some say the solar system will pass through the galactic plane in 2012, as in this diagram. There are however a number of reasons why this isn't the case (including we've already passed through, millions of years between passes, there isn't really a defined plane/literal half to the galaxy etc)"

I suppose it's that balance of background info vs tackling a claim. Either there needs to be better talking between the pages (see this page for more information on the definitions, see that page for the claim that we will pass through the plane - which happens to an extent with the Galactic Alignment page), or we can find out if they play nicely together as a single page with Galactic Equator/Plane as the single focus (all claims associated with the Plane goes on the Plane page, all associated with Alignment goes on an Alignment page etc).

They may not all go together well, certainly, may be better to keep them apart, but wherever possible we should clear up what we do and don't need, and where we need it.

"According to various New Age sources, the Photon Band (Belt) was discovered in 1961 by satellites. These sources state that the band encircles the Pleiades at an absolute right angle to its orbital plane.

Lotsa garbage.

Sol, our Sun, orbits the Pleiades every 26,000 years

Bucketloads of garbage. The 26k years is pulled from the length of our Axial precession.

and reaches the mid-point of the Band every 12,500 years.

Seeing as there is no band and the Sun isn't orbiting anything over the course of 26k years, that's more garbage.

This Earth/Sun/Pleiades cycle is at the end of a 230,000,000 year orbit around the Galactic Center. (20)"

Give or take that number is accurate, 225-250mil years for the Sun to orbit the galactic center once. But of course it's accurate only in that regard, not to the regard that the Earth/Sun/Pleiades are in any cycle in the first place. Which they aren't. Cue the garbage.

I wrote this as part of a greater essay on New Age 2012 stuff"

"According to various New Age sources, the Photon Band (Belt) was discovered in 1961 by satellites. These sources state that the band encircles the Pleiades at an absolute right angle to its orbital plane. Sol, our Sun, orbits the Pleiades every 26,000 years, and reaches the mid-point of the Band every 12,500 years. This Earth/Sun/Pleiades cycle is at the end of a 230,000,000 year orbit around the Galactic Center. (20)" <—— is that cycle etc garbage?

Could we please modify the diagram to make this clear? Maybe put a thin red line or cross through it? Or add the words "incorrect" or "not true"?