Mayanism

Mayanism is a non-codified eclectic collection of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Age" title="New Age" >New Age</a> beliefs, influenced in part by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian" title="Pre-Columbian" class="mw-redirect" >Pre-Columbian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_mythology" title="Maya mythology" >Maya mythology</a> and some folk beliefs of the modern <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_peoples" title="Maya peoples" >Maya peoples</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism#cite_note-0" >[1]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism#cite_note-1" >[2]</a>

Adherents of this belief system are not to be confused with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanist" title="Mayanist" >Mayanists</a>, scholars who research the historical <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization" title="Maya civilization" >Maya civilization</a>.

Contemporary Mayanism places less emphasis on contacts between the ancient Maya and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_lands" title="Lost lands" >lost lands</a> than in the work of early writers such as

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Higgins" title="Godfrey Higgins" >Godfrey Higgins</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_%C3%89tienne_Brasseur_de_Bourbourg" title="Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg" >Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Le_Plongeon" title="Augustus Le Plongeon" >Augustus Le Plongeon</a>, alluding instead to possible contacts with<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life" title="Extraterrestrial life" >extraterrestrial life</a>.

However, it continues to include references to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis" title="Atlantis" >Atlantis</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism#cite_note-2" >[3]</a> Notions about extraterrestrial influence on the Maya can be traced to the book <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariots_of_the_Gods%3F" title="Chariots of the Gods?" >Chariots of the Gods?</a> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_D%C3%A4niken" title="Erich von Däniken" >Erich von Däniken</a>, whose <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronaut_theories" title="Ancient astronaut theories" class="mw-redirect" >ancient astronaut theories</a> were in turn influenced by the work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kolosimo" title="Peter Kolosimo" >Peter Kolosimo</a> and especially the team of

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bergier" title="Jacques Bergier" >Jacques Bergier</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pauwels" title="Louis Pauwels" >Louis Pauwels</a>, authors of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Matin_des_Magiciens" title="Le Matin des Magiciens" class="mw-redirect" >Le Matin des Magiciens</a>. These latter writers were inspired by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy" title="Fantasy" >fantasy</a> literature of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.P.Lovecraft" title="H. P. Lovecraft" >H. P. Lovecraft</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism#cite_note-3" >[4]</a> and publications by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fort" title="Charles Fort" >Charles Fort</a>. However, there remain elements of fascination with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_lands" title="Lost lands" >lost continents</a> and lost civilizations, especially as popularized by 19th century <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction" title="Science fiction" >science fiction</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction" title="Speculative fiction" >speculative fiction</a> by authors such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Verne" title="Jules Verne" >Jules Verne</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bulwer-Lytton" title="Edward Bulwer-Lytton" class="mw-redirect" >Edward Bulwer-Lytton</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Rider_Haggard" title="H. Rider Haggard" >H. Rider Haggard</a> and the more recent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience" title="Pseudoscience" >pseudoscientific</a> nonfiction of authors such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zecharia_Sitchin" title="Zecharia Sitchin" >Zecharia Sitchin</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Hancock" title="Graham Hancock" >Graham Hancock</a>.

Mayanism experienced a revival in the 1970s through the work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Waters" title="Frank Waters" >Frank Waters</a>, a writer on the subject of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi" title="Hopi" class="mw-redirect" >Hopi</a> mythology.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism#cite_note-4" >[5]</a> His The Book on the Hopi' is rejected "as largely ersatz by Hopi traditionalists". <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism#cite_note-5" >[6]</a> In 1970, Waters was the recipient of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Foundation" title="Rockefeller Foundation" >Rockefeller Foundation</a> grant to support research in Mexico and Central America. This resulted in his 1975 book Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth World of Consciousness, a discussion of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerica" title="Mesoamerica" >Mesoamerican</a> culture strongly colored by Waters' beliefs in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology" title="Astrology" >astrology</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy" title="Prophecy" >prophecy</a>, and the lost continent of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis" title="Atlantis" >Atlantis</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism#cite_note-Waters_1975-6" >[7]</a> It has gained new momentum in the context of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon" title="2012 phenomenon" >2012 phenomenon</a>, especially as presented in the work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Age" title="New Age" >New Age</a> author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major_Jenkins" title="John Major Jenkins" >John Major Jenkins</a>, who asserts that Mayanism is "the essential core ideas or teachings of Maya religion and philosophy" in his 2009 book The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History..<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism#cite_note-Jenkins_2009-7" >[8]</a>

Mayanism therefore has a complex history that draws from many different sources on the fringes of mainstream <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology" title="Archaeology" >archaeology</a>. It has gained growing attention through its influence on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture" title="Popular culture" >popular culture</a> through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine" title="Pulp magazine" >pulp fiction</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction" title="Science fiction" >science fiction</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_literature" title="Fantasy literature" >fantasy literature</a>, and more recently<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film" title="Film" >cinema</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_novels" title="Graphic novels" class="mw-redirect" >graphic novels</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy" title="Fantasy" >fantasy</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_games" title="Role-playing games" class="mw-redirect" >role-playing games</a> (especially <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons" title="Dungeons & Dragons" >Dungeons & Dragons</a>), and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_games" title="Video games" class="mw-redirect" >video games</a>. It has also drawn inspiration from the success

of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celestine_Prophecy" title="The Celestine Prophecy" >The Celestine Prophecy</a> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Redfield" title="James Redfield" >James Redfield</a>, a novel that refers to the fictional discovery of a Pre-Columbian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-help" title="Self-help" >self-help</a> manuscript in South America.

Mayanism has been promoted by specific publishing houses, most notably <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Traditions-Bear_%26_Company" title="Inner Traditions - Bear & Company" class="mw-redirect" >Inner Traditions - Bear & Company</a>, which has produced a number of books on the theme of 2012 by authors such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Arg%C3%BCelles" title="José Argüelles" >José Argüelles</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major_Jenkins" title="John Major Jenkins" >John Major Jenkins</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Johan_Calleman" title="Carl Johan Calleman" >Carl Johan Calleman</a>, and Barbara Hand Clow. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarcher" title="Tarcher" class="mw-redirect" >Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.</a> has published works by New Age authors <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Pinchbeck" title="Daniel Pinchbeck" >Daniel Pinchbeck</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major_Jenkins" title="John Major Jenkins" >John Major Jenkins</a> that have further contributed to a growing interest in Mayanism. The Book of Destiny: Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Mayans and the Prophecy of 2012, by Guatemalan author Carlos Barrios,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism#cite_note-8" >[9]</a> is another recent contribution to this genre.

Mayanism

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