The Alignment: December 21, 2012 Is Coming and You Have a Ringside Seat

By Steve Scott Sr.

Map Detailing Ancient Olmec and Maya States that Rimmed the Gulf of Mexico
It seems that the human race has an abiding tendency to know what surrounds our often routine, mundane lives. There is an even greater tendency to involve ourselves in perceived mystery, particularly when it involves prophecy and doomsday scenarios.
The astronomical Alignment on December 21, 2012 is just such an event that encompasses all the elements of a great mystery, including doomsday prophecy and more. The book chronicles what a group of noted scientists say we can expect to happen, as the sun and earth align with the center of our own galaxy.
The reader is cautioned to hold on tight, and be mentally prepared for mind-bending surprises, as a cabal of our best scientific minds slug it out over the portent of the Alignment during a symposium at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468596724

Book preview

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all those who, looking upward at the starry sky, occasionally wonder where it all came from and how our little earth and our civilization fit in the grand scheme of things. More importantly, it is dedicated to the much hoped for bright future for my young grandchildren: Mackenzie, Cennie, and Ruby Scott along with the irrepressible duo, David and Malachi Mayes.

In Memoriam

The book memorializes the passing of Lawrence D. Scott, Jr., 1929-2009, who lived a life of ungrudging, unrelenting desire to hold fast to the indomitable spirit of high moral character and values of parents, Lawrence and Violet Scott. And all the while, he challenged his many brothers and sisters to do the same.

Don F. Scott

1933-2011

I would offer a special memorial to the family members of Donald F. Scott, who passed away December, 2011, leaving behind his lovely wife Ray F. Scott, after a marriage of over a half century. Let it be known that across space and time, Don will never be forgotten by his family and friends. And through our continued prayers we are convinced that God’s best angels will watch over his spirit now and forever more.

Contents

Dedication

In Memoriam

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Epilogue

Selected Authors and

Their Books Used in

Writing the Novel

About The Author

Acknowledgements

In my view, writing a work such as The Alignment, which contains a great number of references and quotes that would normally be acknowledged at the time and place of their usage, would make for cumbersome reading. In that regard, in places where I felt referencing did not impede the flow of the dialogue, I have recognized the appropriate author of the material. In addition, I have arbitrarily chosen to reference all books that I read in preparing for this book in the back pages.

I would like to thank several people who read the first draft and encouraged me not to throw it into the nearest landfill. Those brave souls who gave me great counsel and, in some cases, read the manuscript and survived the ordeal will go unnamed, but not unsung. They know who they are. But wait! There is one person I must recognize, D.J. Hanson, who took the first crack at deciphering the manuscript and, and after months of recovering from shock of managing such a daunting task, returned it with many thoughtful and positive suggestions.

I would also like to thank my dear wife Marilyn, who suffered the lack of companionship during the long, cold, dreary months of Indiana winter while I did most of the heavy lifting of reading so many books and writing the novel.

Introduction

I must be brutally honest with you. I originally had no intention of writing this book.The reason was simple. It was becoming clear, even to casual observers, that my mind was growing dim and that I much preferred using the diminution of any remaining mental prowess as a repository of stale knowledge to impart to my two youngest grandchildren, David and Malachi Mayes. It was also becoming manifest to me that my physical strength was being depleted by taking them to local museums, chasing them around parks, teaching them to play golf, exploring rock formations on hills and in streams ; to say nothing of hiking through the woods, discovering the variations of flora and fauna. The easy part was exhausting my valuable time and energy lying on our backs on starry summer nights, gazing into heaven’s vault vainly attempting to identify the different star formations. I’m getting tired just thinking about it.

But the nagging question of all was whether or not to heed a small, barely audible voice that kept nagging at my consciousness to write a sequel to my novel, The Covenant at Stedman Woods. It seems many readers of the book wanted an answer to the questions posed in the final chapters of the book.

But, what could I write about that would appease them? What was slouching toward humanity that, if it happened, would profoundly determine the fate of the entire planet? The usual suspects had already been identified and written about ad nauseam. We are already mortified by the likes of atomic warfare and greenhouse gases defiling earth. Then there is the threat of a worldwide pandemic from the likes of Asian flu, Ebola, AIDS, Sarrs, Bird and Swine viruses. And now, the H1-N1 virus is running hell-bent throughout the United States and across the globe. All of the calamities say nothing of nature’s furies caused by global warming, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, famine, drought and global economic melt down. Ugh! Just thinking about all of these actual and potential disasters is enough to make one run home and overpay the maid. No! If I was going to spend my rapidly waning months or years on a project, I would have to be convinced of its uniqueness of meaning.

I have always believed that out of desperation comes inspiration. I was not wrong. Suddenly the answer came as a thunderbolt. Something is coming and it is an absolute: the year 2012. And why, one might rightfully ask, would the year 2012 be so important? Well, the simple answer is the Prophecy of the Mayan calendar and for many, the year 2012 will portend the end of days! Doomsday! The Apocalypses! The End Times predicted by mystics, seers and shamans. Make no mistake about it, the Mayan calendar, acknowledged by the most highly trained anthropologists, archaeologists, philosophers, cosmologists, and religious scholars agree that the ancient Mayan calendar artifact is a profound and accurate celestial timepiece that bodes prophetic predictions for the fate of mankind.

Another reason for my reticence in writing this book is that its trajectory is about science, and as a non scientist, it would require a monstrous amount of time and research. Fortunately, I am enthusiastic about modern science and have read, for pure pleasure and escapism, countless books on various scientific achievements and theories. I still remain properly awed by science and its possibilities, but I’m also skeptical about it too. I strongly believe most of us need to stop being mystified and learn enough to intelligently question our scientists and push these high priests to explain what they are up to, and in a language we can understand. So now we are faced with a potential disaster like the galactic alignment of 2012.

Finally, and a much more prosaic reason for writing the book, was the belief that people want answers to questions they can’t understand or have answers for. For example, there is a new school of thought which is called coherent catastrophism. It seems to be developing worldwide. Essentially what it states is that there is a great deal of data that surrounds mysterious events, such as the death of the dinosaurs, Atlantis, UFO sightings, teleportation, out of body experiences, and doomsday prophecies.

The new catastrophism is very different from all other approaches to doomsday. It evokes only agents and forces that can be detected—commentary fragments, meteorites, and asteroids are there for all to see. It doesn’t need to rearrange the entire solar system. And to add to the fervor, we are being scared out of our wits by television programs such as the History Channel’s Life after People, Doomsday Prophecies of Nostradamus and documentaries of comets and asteroids zeroing in on planet Earth. And of course there is the blockbuster hit, 2012 the Mayan Prophecies.

Catastrophism is clearly winning the day, but why? Certainly catastrophism shouldn’t be turned into a catchall explanation for every puzzling change on our planet and in the heavens. But still, it would be well to best arm ourselves with facts and answers to these questions so that we can best assess how seriously our own misbehavior is contributing to Earth’s problems.

The collapse of so many ancient civilizations and cultures from disasters, both manmade and celestial, should surely give us pause for thought. So for these reasons, the book you are holding in your hand is the result of these musings.

Look to the heavens dear reader! The alignment . . . 2012 is coming! Ready or not!

Preface

Keep watching the skies . . . Something is coming this way and the ancient Mayans knew about it nearly fifteen hundred years ago. They called it the Galactic Alignment.

There is something absolutely astonishing about the coming of the celestial alignment of our sun, earth, and the dark rift at the center of our galaxy on 12-21-2012. It will absolutely, positively happen, and those of us alive on that date will have a front row seat to this event that happens only once every 26,000 years.

Many of us are aware of the Mayan calendar, but not many people truly understand what it means, how it works and what their calendar is based on. Another question that will be raised in the brief interim before the Alignment takes place is, what will happen when this momentous event occurs? Some prophets and New Age thinkers are saying the Mayan calendar predicts an event that will usher in from the heavens doomsday of biblical proportions. Others say it will be something else, perhaps the beginning of an elevation of human consciousness. Other sky watchers of the event say nothing at all will happen and it will be an ordinary day. All can’t be right, but who is and why? Another engaging question is, who were these ancient Mayans and what is their ubiquitous calendar really saying to us? Dr. Richard Stedman, Nobel Laureate at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, is hell-bent on finding the best answers to these questions.

The subject matter that surrounds The Alignment requires that we must undergo something of a fundamental shift in our mindset. Make no mistake, readers who feel unable to open their minds should close the book now, as it requires the willingness to widen your worldview and suspend preconceptions, allowing the mind to freely dance over the subject matter and allowing for the possibilities that might otherwise go unsought.

To aid us in our journey toward understanding the Alignment, we travel to the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton New Jersey, where some of the world’s greatest thinkers continue to pass through. The Institute is where we find Dr. Stedman, as he leads a symposium panel of iconic professors who are equally hell-bent on uncovering the histrionics and the true science behind the Alignment and the Mayan calendar.

Combining the sophistic skills of a modern day Plato, and the steely nerve of a private detective, Dr. Richard Stedman orchestrates a panel of intellectuals at a symposium at the Institute in search of the truth. Dr. Stedman and the panel painstakingly set out to discover whether or not the world will end in 2012. Hidden beneath this question is a monumental one: How did a people, living more than 2,000 years ago in the jungles of Central American, come to possess such incredible knowledge of the Alignment of our galaxy, sun, and the earth with such amazing prophetic insight? How or where did this extraordinary knowledge come from?

If that task was not daunting enough, Dr. Stedman is forced to relive a mind-bending episode of the unthinkable that occurred nearly a decade ago on his family estate—Stedman Woods, in Indiana.

Professor Stedman has a sixth sense that one of the panel members, Dr. Vincent [Vinnie the Skeptic] Sheldrake, is displaying the same mental symptoms, nightmares and absolute dread that gripped him just before his UFO encounter at Stedman Woods. Vinny, by his own admission, is the consummate skeptic on most matters of pseudo science and myths, and he is not about to permit the other panel members to pull anything over on him.

His lifelong pursuit of the truth is to never stray far from the old dictum, You never know who is swimming naked until the tide goes out. Vinny is determined to be the tidal wave that uncovers the novice swimmers.

However, Vinny’s deeply ingrained skepticism is about to change at the end of the symposium as he speeds down the highway to his home in Newburgh, New York.

Chapter 1

Saturday July 2010

Stockholm Sweden

It was late morning when Dr. Richard Stedman arrived in Stockholm. It had been a long flight from his home in Princeton, New Jersey via La Guardia airport, New York. He was surprised that fatigue had not set in, not yet away. He had been visibly embarrassed when he was greeted at the airport by a bevy of beautiful young ladies, to say nothing of a green light limousine ride to his hotel, The Gamlastan. His choice of The Gamla would surely surprise many of his contemporaries, but he had decided not to stay at the main hotel where most of the Nobel Prize festivities would be taking place. He knew that it was near the bustling Drottmiggatan Street and the swanky department stores. He wanted no part of all of that. He decided to stay at The Gamla, a 5 star hotel and much more to his liking, since it was located in Old Town.

Another surprise, but by now not a total one, was the beautiful blond female who recognized him by name and proclaimed him a guest of honor. The Gamlastan just happened to be a 5 star hotel in its heyday, but now had fallen to some degree from that lofty accreditation. After stepping inside the hotel, he was more than pleased with his selection and its location. He adored the fact that the hotel was surrounded by cobbled streets and 17th century, narrow alleys and courtyards. Small shops lined both sides of the streets offering antiques, rare books and gifts. Street musicians strolled through crowded outdoor café tables. It nearly took his breath away when he noticed that the Castle of the King and Queen was within walking distance. He was convinced that the atmosphere was like nowhere else in the world.

After his speedy, green light check-in and surveying his luxurious room accommodations, he quickly decided he would not have a late lunch or dinner at the hotel. He would eat on the go. Dr. Stedman hurriedly changed clothing into casual attire of white and brown floral short sleeved shirt and light brown trousers and tan moccasins. His designer aviator sunglasses completed his make over. No one would suspect he was a renowned physicist and that he would soon become a Nobel laureate. He picked up a visitor’s guide from the concierge desk and began to quickly peruse it. He settled on a must see stopping place for all visitors. It was a visit to the Vasamuseet (Vasa) warship, despite the fact that it required an easily accessible ferry ride across a small river. Dr. Stedman knew from his love of naval history that in 1628 the highly acclaimed warship sailed from Stockholm on her maiden voyage and sank. However, three centuries later in 1961 Vasa was discovered and salvaged and now is the world’s only preserved 17th century warship. It has now been converted into a museum that attracts thousands of visitors and naval buffs each year. He knew that it would be well worth the time spent. He would allocate two hours for the visit and then return to the hotel area for a bit of shopping and more sightseeing.

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Hours later he suddenly became aware that it was late evening and darkness was beginning to descend over the city. A brief evening shower had ended. The multi-colored lights shown brightly as he approached the hotel Gamla area, giving a picturesque beauty to street lights from the surrounding shops. The whole scene would have caught the eye of the old renaissance painters, like Matisse or Renoir.

The shops remained opened late, and Richard spent a great deal of time window shopping. He had purchased an old porcelain vase from an antique shop as a souvenir near the warship, but he worried that he paid too much for it. That sudden feeling may have contributed to the three glasses of port wine he had with his elegant smorgasbord dinner at a quaint sidewalk café. Over dinner he could not help but think about the annual, prestigious Nobel Prize in physics he would be awarded come Monday evening. It was difficult for him to believe that he would soon be joining that pantheon of physicists who had made fantastic contributions to science and the world. In a self congratulating mood he decided to have one more glass of wine.

Richard reluctantly convinced himself that he had had enough of everything. Feeling a bit giddy and dizzy, he stood up from the table and straightened to his full height. After a few moments of fumbling through his wallet, he came up with enough money to pay the bill and a generous tip and walked outside. The air was thick and heavy after the day’s rain, but was still refreshing. Although somewhat unsteady in his gait, he began to walk slowly back toward his hotel. When he arrived, he decided to have a nightcap at the hotel bar. Sitting alone at the end of the bar, he let a stream of unconscious thoughts stray all over a vast landscape of the light and dark as his mind settled on a prodigious task for his condition of trying to name a few of the past Nobel Laureates in physics. He rubbed his chin and thought to himself, Let’s see, there was uh . . . of course Albert Einstein for his proven theory of relativity. Well that was easy enough, he thought. Other names were harder to conjure up. Finally, a few more names broke through the fogginess of his mind.

2008—Yauchiro Nambe for discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in sub-atomic particles.

1993—Russell A. Holes and Joseph H. Taylor for their discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation.

1945—Wolfgang Pauli for the discovery of the exclusion principle also called The Pauli Principle. I guess I should be embarrassed, but those great men are the only ones that have been my idols over the past few years he thought. But there was something else. It was another dark memory that kept creeping into his mind that bothered him even more. It was the suppressed memory of what really happened, nearly 10 years ago, at Stedman Woods. But he quickly shoved it aside as he had done countless times before. The memory of those mind bending events years ago were still too much to bear, especially when he was alone. To aide in his memory suppression, he had another glass of wine.

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Richard had now arrived back at his room . . . and none too soon. The wine had made him far less in control than he was accustomed and he knew it. He undressed quickly and put on his night clothes. Jet lag and the wine consumed had taken their toll. He decided he would sleep late, avoid the hand slapping lunches and go to parties that evening. He convinced himself that he would much prefer to go sightseeing again tomorrow.

The last thing he remembered was setting the bedside alarm clock for an early morning wake-up call. Sleep came deliciously quick. Then Sunday came and went in a blur, with Dr. Stedman doing very little sightseeing and much wine drinking Sunday night.

Monday came as it always did. However, this time it reluctantly dragged its way onto the calendar because for Richard, this was to be no ordinary day. In just a few hours he would be on stage at the Bristol Stephanie on Avenue Louis-91-93, where he would be receiving the most prestigious award every physicist dreams of, the Nobel Prize for the year 2008. Soon he would be taking his place among the giants of winners past and duly accorded all of the respect and privileges of the scientific community from around the world.

Richard slowly clambered out of bed, took a long, very long hot shower and then approached the mirror for his morning shave. He was never one for shaving twice in one day, even for important engagements. He was determined not to break this habit and settled for a very close shave. As he lathered his face, his eyes lingered furtively at the face staring back at him. It was not a satisfying image that greeted him.

It had been a hard night at the Cage’s lounge and other nightclubs with several friends and Nobel associates, soon to be recognized at the festive occasion. The man in the mirror staring back at him had a slight puffiness surrounding his eyes. A wary smile crossed his lips as he took further stock of the apparition before him. He was now 47 years old, but his 6 foot frame still had a hint of athleticism. His cold black hair of yesteryear was now thinning a bit, along with flecks of gray showing at the temples and beard. His newly grown beard was well trimmed and he chuckled as he recalled the reason for growing it. Didn’t all well established scientists wear a beard to make them look more distinguished? At one time, I didn’t care what others thought. I had won honorary degrees, praise from academia, and earned lots of money? What else could a man wish . . . ? He was not able to finish the sentence. Suddenly, and as if the gods or aliens if you will took umbrage to his brashness, he felt himself getting dizzy. He grasped the wash basin with both hands. He knew exactly what was coming next. He would be receiving a message, or vision from some thing . . . from somewhere.

Richard fought back against the replaying of the vision, but the more he fought, the more intense it became. He suspected that the aliens he met in 1999, just before the new millennium, were trying to use him in some way as another prophetic time approached, December 21, 2012. He tried to use his celebrated mind to think of what that something might be. The answer came, unsolicited. Lately he had been seeing in his mind’s eye, the date 12-21-12. The date had been cropping up in the most untimely and unsuspected places, times and events he was involved in. He saw the date in mirrors, golf courses, tennis courts, Even on pizza boxes, for Gods Sake, he thought. He tried to laugh at the last thought, but he knew it was not a laughing matter.

He straightened, but unsteadily, to his full height and made his way out of the bathroom. He barely made it to the sitting room where he collapsed onto the couch. Flashes of starry light filled his vision. He could see an alignment of the sun, Mercury, and the planet Earth. A bright yellow arrow, like a bony finger, was pointing straight into the Dark Rift of our galaxy.

Richard waived his arms across his burning eyes, only to see, upon opening them, these words appear in bold stylized letters on the far wall.

His lightenings enlighten the world—the earth saw and trembled!

Psalms 97:4

His body became rigid, and his mind flashed instantaneously back to the year 1999 and his home at Stedman Woods, Greencastle, Indiana.

FLASH BACK

December 1999 Stedman Woods

Welcome Dr. Stedman, we have waited a long time to meet with you again. Do not be afraid. We wish you no harm. We have been your constant companions since the days of your youth. We also knew your ancestors dating back a quarter million of your years, a time when saber-tooth tigers prowled the earth. We were there when your primitives made paintings on the cave walls of Lascaux, France. These paintings were our message for mankind to ponder thousands of years in the future.

Richard was dumb founded. What could the message mean, he thought to himself. He staggered out of the bathroom and into the sitting room where he collapsed in his easy chair. It was then that the flashback began in earnest.

He closed his eyes and his mind flashed back to the year 1999 and his UFO encounter at Stedman Woods. He had resisted reliving those moments of nearly ten years ago. Now they were coming back like a kaleidoscopic color movie. So, that was where the visions were taking me, he thought out loud. Now he was a spectator to whatever would unfold. He had the sinking feeling that the aliens he had met nearly a decade ago had arranged for him to receive the Nobel Prize.

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Richard saw himself walking once again along the well trodden path toward the familiar pond of his youth at Stedman woods. When he reached the pond, familiar sights greeted his senses. He laughed quietly, but aloud, as he saw himself sitting quietly by the pond as the gathering dusk surrounded him. Boyhood images were conjured up, as he summoned up witches, evil sorceresses and goblins flying swiftly to their nocturnal gatherings. Or, were they blindly seeking refuge from the Prince of Darkness, as the evil one sought unbridled orgies with them.

He stifled a cackling laugh as he now recalled such thoughts that terrified him at the time. He instantly felt young again. It was comforting to his tortured soul that it was once again possible to see the tall, stately reeds and tall grasses surrounding the pond. They were all bunched together, each to their own kind.

He continued to enjoy the serenity and quiet slumber of the pond. He saw himself reaching down to gather several rocks that were just right for skipping across the pond. He scaled a small, rocky mound, about three feet high. Then, childlike, he began hurling the rocks upon the water.

He was pleased that he witnessed himself succeed in getting three or four beautiful skips each, until he sensed that something was wrong. Things were again too quiet out on the pond, except for the occasional croaking of a frog. Reality in the area did not appear to be exactly this or that. Oh, there were the black birds making lazy circles in the sky above . . . and the pond creatures sang their songs, but for some unearthly reason, true reality was just beyond his reason. His sixth sense told him something unusual was creeping up on him, like the early morning fog entering the bay at San Francisco where he would often go for deep thought and reflection.

The vision flashback moved faster and he became a more active participant in the vision, as all of his senses became heightened. He was now virtually inside the vision. It was now an out of body experience, with both sight and sound. Suddenly, a hot hellish blast of air brushed past his face.

Richard had the presence of mind to look at his watch. It was now nearing 4:45 in the afternoon. He had had enough of the bizarre for one afternoon, and he attempted to extricate himself from the vision and return to the familiar now. It was not to be.

It was at this time that he noticed, over by the wooded thicket, a huge, silvery triangular shaped object. What’s that, he thought aloud. One moment it was only the frogs and crickets. Now he was looking at something unworldly. It was some kind of craft, a leviathan in size, but a thing of immense beauty and power. No, it can’t be, he thought. Whatever it is, it is of some significant design and a wonder to behold.

After all of these years of wondering, he still had a difficult time of imagining what it was that he was seeing. There it was, just hovering about thirty feet above the tree line, vacillating back and forth like a falling leaf. It seemed to throw off rays of shimmering light in all directions, like rays of the sun preschool children learn to draw.

He could see, but was unsure of what he was observing. He stumbled from his perch of safety. His blurred eyes remained fixed on the object that had now settled to the ground. It remained there. Its lights stained in unearthly shades of amber, purple, orange and blue-white. He nearly collapsed to his knees like Paul on the road to Damascus. Then he heard a mechanical voice mention his name. It was not threatening, but it was a definite command, instructing him not to be afraid and to approach the craft. He did as he was told. He did not, or could not halt his advance. Some vice-like force of attraction was tightening around him.

One of the beings he noticed was about a foot taller than the others, and apparently their leader. He had an inordinately large head with dark slanting eyes that seemed fathomless and not surrounded by any whites in the eyes.

The larger entity made a few guttural, indistinguishable sounds. The others stood motionless as the larger one advanced a few steps. Richard was not quite sure then, or now, whether the next sounds came from the tiny, unmoving slit where its mouth would normally be.

But come aboard quickly. We do not have much time. There are things we wish to show you. Things I’m sure you will find difficult to believe.

Was it all a dream, a hallucination? Richard thought. Perhaps now he would find the answer as the vision sped on.

Richard noticed in the one corner of the cabin of the spacecraft, a reddish, phosphorescent device, perhaps four feet high. Then a panel or screen appeared that showed a panoramic view of the pond, its immediate surroundings, even his home. The alien leader barked several orders to the alien nearest to a bank of crystal like devices,