A NEW VISION

Dec. 21, 2012. What if the date marks not the end of the world, but the beginning of a new era?

That’s the premise behind Birth 2012, a global celebration planned to usher in the new age.

“It’s an awakening to a new vision of our world,” said Kate Guendling, spiritual leader of Unity of Fayetteville. That vision is based on collaboration, said Nancy Harris, co-coordinator of local Birth 2012 events.

“It’s a move away from old paradigms and into a new one, where we all cooperate.”

The two-day event will feature concerts, parties, cultural performances and spiritual practices streamed live from around the world. A 33-hour webcast will link more than 40 “hubs” in Mexico, Egypt, India, Japan, Israel, Ghana, Kenya, Scotland, Guatemala, Brazil, Canada and the United States.

The celebration starts at 5 a.m. Friday in Chichen Itza, the heart of Mayan culture in Mexico. It ends at 11 p.m. Dec. 22 at the Day One gala at Agape International and Spiritual Center in Los Angeles.

A dozen “waves of unity” staged every two hours will lead to the “birth moment” at 2 p.m.

Dec. 22, according to birth2012.

com.

The waves will include synchronized meditations, prayers and songs. A Havdalah prayer will be off ered from Jerusalem, an “Om” from India and a peace prayer from Japan, for example.

Other events planned for the two-day celebration include singing, dancing, drumming, yoga, toning and smiles. The interfaith event includes aspects of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, as well as indigenous faiths from around the world.

The webcast will start at 2 p.m. Friday and continue to 11 p.m. Dec. 22. It is being touted as the largest webinar event ever attempted.

The goal is to reach a critical mass of people - 100 million or 1 percent of the world’s population, said Jill Mangino, a publicist for the event.

ONE HUMAN FAMILY

The Birth 2012 campaign is the brainchild of Stephen Dinan, chief executive oftcer of The Shift Network, and Barbara Marx Hubbard, futurist (and former Democratic vice presidential nominee).

Their idea was to take the attention generated by the end of the Mayan calendar and transform it into something positive, Mangino said. Joined by a host of New Thought luminaries, their aim is “to declare this ‘end’ date as a symbolic marker” - a quantum leap into an era of sustainability, cooperation and compassion, she said.

“Our goal is to create this global coherence of love. ... It’s a very hopeful vision for the future.”

The lineup of authors, speakers and spiritual leaders involved in the event reads like a Who’s Who of the New Thought movement.

They include Deepak Chopra, don Miguel Ruiz, Jack Canfi eld, Jean Huston, Michael Beckwith,Neale Donald Walsch, Bruce Lipton, Marianne Williamson, Oscar Miro-Quesada and Ram Dass.

Hubbard teaches that the crises facing human beings today - cultural, environmental, economic, political - are the forerunners of change, Harris said.

“We’re hitting this time for creative innovation to come through the hard times we’re having.”

The futurist believes the human species is evolving to a higher form of consciousness, Harris said. Her “wheel of cocreation” shows 12 aspects of human endeavor pierced by a ray of universal intelligence.

“It’s time for a conscious shift in our (perspective),” Harris said. “We’ve got to learn to be cooperative.”

Organizers are not naive enough to think that sweeping change will occur overnight, Harris said. “It’s a time to set that intention and have as many people on the planet (as possible) set that intention together.”

Kim Burgner, director of the Northwest Arkansas Center for Spiritual Living, also is involvedin planning local events. Both her center and Unity will stream the event live Dec. 22. Burgner will lead a life visioning process twice through the day. Unity will host a Oneness Blessing, a concert and a candle-lighting service.

“From my point of view,the biggest disease in the world is that we are ‘separate from,’” Burgner said. “The idea behind Birth 2012 is that we’re one. When we are able to release our ideas of diff erence and look at our commonalities, we see we are one human family. We can evolve to a world that works for everyone.”