Many might have heard that 2012 could hold a special significance for humanity, seeing as according to some the calendar of the ancient Mayan civilisation finishes its cycle on that year.

Some see in this as clear indication of impending doom and destruction but, thankfully, more moderate thinkers within the New Age movement view the turning point in more positive light.

One such person is Janet Trevisan, who is organising a conference called 2012 – A Positive Outcome, running this weekend at the Grand Hotel Excelsior in Floriana.

“Well, I don’t think we’re going to see three quarters of the stuff that is being predicted,” referring to films such as the apocalyptic 2012 and negative websites proclaiming the end is nigh.

In fact, the yoga instructor was prompted to organise the conference because she was faced by a swathe of young people anxious about the negative prospects being prophesised.

“If we go back to 2000, we were also told the world would end... we woke up normally the next morning. Personally, I think it’s going to be the same thing. I think we’re going to wake up the next day and you go to work, same old. I think I’m right and I think most people with a brain would say the same thing,” Ms Trevisan said.

However, she still believes 2012 might be a pivotal year, leading to a gradual but positive shift in consciousness.

Outside the hall where the conference is being held, there is material supporting this position with different theories. A table full of books and CDs reveals the varied nature of the conference, with books with titles such as 2012 In Your Pocket and The Promise Of Surfing Rainbows rubbing shoulders with titles such as A Harp Full Of Stars, only loosely related to 2012.

The latter book was written by harpist and speaker Joel Andrews, who opened the conference. He claims to have communicated with angels and “higher beings”, met “the Living Christ” and, when he was 26, had a “touch of cosmic consciousness,” where he spent a month in ecstasy and lost all fear of death.

“I see a doomsday type pro­phecy as a wakeup call to take responsibility for our thoughts feelings and actions,” Mr Andrews said of the 2012 prophecies.

“It’s not so important how you die but how you live each day before you die,” he added, “because how you live before you die is going to attract you to a certain planet or plane of being once you die”.

Taking a deep breath as he sat down to play, Mr Andrews invited the audience to be sensitive to the music, which, he says, was inspired by the higher beings.

He then went into an ethereal performance on the harp, leaving the audience – and himself – shaking their hands in the air (as an alternative to clapping) in appreciation, after a splendid 20 minute performance.

Pamilla Sullivan, a former tax accountant, spoke of the benefits of “surfing rainbows” by visualising the seven colours of the rainbows and associating them with their corresponding “chakras” – energy points in the body – which represented seven positive attitudes.

Later on in the day, Maltese researcher Anton Mifsud spoke on the plausibility of Malta being the lost Atlantis, citing ancient texts by Plato and Eumalus of Cyrene, showing pictures and videos, which hinted at Malta being the remaining hilltop of Atlantis, which had perished into the sea.

Dr Mifsud was followed by Steve Bassett, an activist who runs paradigmresearchgroup.org and pressures governments to disclose the records of UFO sightings and extraterrestrial encounters.

The high point, however, is meant to be reached tomorrow at 3 p.m., where the group links up to Central America where a group of Mayan elders is meant to be holding a secret meeting that would reveal what would happen in 2012... and the word on the street is that nothing much will.

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