This thread is cracking me up. How many people do you think are now having to go out and do alllllllll of their Christmas shopping this weekend? I know my daughter stopped at Wally world and said it was packed.
Oh but! There is that "cosmic dawn" and the "beginning of the End times." (Altho', there are thousands of people who have some date in 1914 when that process started, already.) There's no escaping the certainty.
I remember being frozen in front of a clock on April 22, 1959. I forget the time of day but it came and went. Probably didn't interfere with much at that time of year.
During those years, I was a part of a religious group which had a splinter - I think that term describes them well enough. They were convinced that the End would come on April 22, 1959. We, on the other hand, were not supposed to think that way but I'm sure I wasn't the only young person in the group who could have been found staring at that clock.
Reassured of the "rightness" of my faction, it wasn't too much longer that I could put up with the main denomination anyway. I was outta there. Splinter people, or some of them, stayed locked into their beliefs. Many were successful in going to their personal End together not all that many years later. Fellowship had a lethal hold.
I think the timing of all of this Mayan (extinct civilization, pre-Columbus) stuff came at just about the right time. I'm hoping that there are some people still below ground in their bunkers. In fact, I hope there are.
I think a lot of that splinter group thinking is just the sociology of crowds. People seem to lose their own inhibitions and ability to reason. I remember Jonestown, so many years ago. It all seemed so unconceivable to rational folks. But then a close relative of mine is active in what I consider a "cult" religion, so, to me, that kind of demonstrates how strong the pull is.