Much has been said about the 2012 phenomenon; some saying the world will come to an end; others that we are at the dawn of a beautiful future for humanity.  According to the Wikipedia article, at least one suicide has been directly linked to fear of a 2012 apocalypse and others have been anecdotally reported. Books and movies on the subject abound.  Perhaps you have heard of The Shift Movie, The Shift Movement  or Birth 2012 & Beyond: Humanity’s Great Shift to the Age of Conscious Evolution.

Already we see some shifts away from capitalism and competition, to a sharing and collaborative world.  Community vegetable gardening, car pooling, car sharing and free cycle* schemes are some such examples. Wikipedia itself is a collaborative effort. Family law in the UK encourages collaboration and mediation before litigation.  In the medical field, mental health care tends towards collaboration and palliative medicine uses a multidisciplinary approach for patient care which by definition requires collaboration.

So yes, change is evident. Personally I don’t believe the world will come to a physical end. I do believe things are changing though and for the better. It does mean old structures will have to break down to make space for the new to emerge. It may not be pretty or comfortable whilst we go through this transition. For some it will be more painful than others. I have identified five categories of people with regards to accepting this change, being ready for it and welcoming it.

1. A Homecoming

For some people, these changes are very welcome and long overdue. The pace of change for some may feel too little too late. They have been thinking along different lines from mainstream society and have had to hide who they truly are, revealing themselves only to trusted sources. These are the people who have felt alien in this world for the best part of their lives and the arrival of this shift is like a homecoming to them.

2. An Easy Step

For others it is a perplexing yet exciting time. For years they might have suspected the ways of the world is not serving society, humanity, mankind or the universe. They are the ones who have been prepared to ask the tough questions for which there are seldom straightforward, simple answers. They are the ones who have kept looking, hoping that the answers will reveal themselves. They are the ones who dared question established norms and found them wanting. These are the people that will take to the shift with relative ease. These are the people who will help smooth the transition for each other and for those who find it more difficult.

3. No Change Please

Then there are those who may suspect there is another way, but where they are in life and what they do serves them well. They have no need for change. They don’t particularly want changes. They are comfortable; they don’t torture themselves with unanswerable questions. They get on with life and enjoy it. These people will find the shift stressful and unwelcome. They will shift slowly, reluctantly, painfully, muttering under their breath. They will need all the support they can get.

4. A Fight for the Status Quo

For a fourth group, the shift would be a totally foreign idea and go against the grain. They probably have much to lose and will have no idea how to function in a new world. Their world would be turned upside down. Old ways of being and behaving will bring enormous amounts of pain instead of happiness and satisfaction. They will fight will all their might for the current status quo. Anything else is inconceivable to them. They will be the aliens in the new world. I suspect they will make it very difficult for those in their circle who are more flexible.

5. Overwhelming

I guess there will always be those for whom things will just be too much, overwhelming. Unable to cope, they will take themselves out of the game. Some may even take their loved ones with them. The turmoil, the trauma, the ‘foreign-ness’ would be beyond their understanding of being able to ride it out, let alone thrive in a foreign land and they will choose to end it.

… Time will tell… We’ll see how the shift plays out, how society adjusts to it and to what degree this speculation is accurate.

What do you think? I would be very interested to hear your comments on this, what you think of the shift, the 2012 phenomena and where you see yourself in relation to a changing world.