The term apocalypse means different things to different people. To some in might equate with complete destruction of the human world, whether by an act of God or natural disasters. Many link it to themes from dominant religions, where it is thought of as a time when God or his agents will appear on Earth to battle evil forces and lead some to salvation and banish sinners to hell. However, the word actually is rooted in more subtle concepts and means to ‘uncover' or ‘reveal'. When associated with rigid mythologies, created at times of social unrest and tribalistic conflict, apocalypse tends to be clothed in distinctly dualistic ideologies. God and the devil, heaven and hell, believers and non-believers, us and ‘them' and sin and salvation are some key polarities in such a dualistic interpretation of reality. Conversely, if apocalypse is taken to mean uncovering or revealing, things automatically open up and appear more interesting, less dogmatic and perceptions are less likely to lead to catastrophic conflicts.

Millenarianist visionaries have anticipated quite different things over time. Jesus anticipated that the kingdom of God would be established on Earth but what he believed this would entail is not clear as he tended to speak in vague parables. Cargo cult members hoped that their spiritual ancestors would return, colonialists would be banished and material goods would be given to the faithful. Marian Keech anticipated biblical scale floods and expected her group of devoted followers to be rescued by highly intelligent aliens who would take them to space. José Argüelles expected several things to happen before 2012. Some of his prophecies, including humanity adopting his pseudo-Mayan Dreamspell calendar, have already failed to happen. Apparently speaking for the Mayan Elders, Carlos Barrios anticipated that the massive volcano at Yellowstone National Park in the US would have erupted and brought chaos by now. Had he been vaguer and just predicted that a volcanic eruption would bring widespread chaos he might have gained credibility after Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010.

Any shaman, dreamer or meditator would acknowledge that visions are notoriously difficult to pin down and make sense of. A person in a visionary state may see thousands of scenes, people and entities over hours, while also having auditory hallucinations - often in a strange language. After intense visionary journeys most people find it impossible to articulate more than a vague sense of their experience.

It is the nature of the alluring and baffling world of visions that the experiences are ineffable. Readers who have not experienced waking visionary states will no doubt be able to recall times when they, in the space of a few minutes, had numerous intense dreams. In dreams individuals interact with many people and live entirely different lives, but soon after opening their eyes the memories of those worlds are lost. By the time most people get out of the shower their dreams have gone, faster than water down the plughole.

There are good reasons why most people dismiss their dreams or waking visions. One key reason is because most people intuitively realise that they are not to be taken literally. In our individualistic, post Freud age, many people would also assume that the visions relate to their own minds and relationships. Of those people who do dwell on their dreams and visions, most apply the insights to their inner worlds and move on. Most people would acknowledge that strange things do happen to us when we dream or when we consume a vision-inducing substance, but they are able to put such experiences to one side and get on with their lives.

The small minority of people who respond to their visions and dreams and establish or become greatly involved with millenarian movements deserve our attention. It is, of course, easy to equate their experiences to mental illness. Like those suffering from schizophrenia, millenarian prophets see and hear things of a strange nature and then attempt to reconstruct the world around their experiences. I would suggest that it is not the experience of visions and intense dreams that make such people unusual but the efforts they make to convince others of the significance of their experience and to reshape the world to fit their altered perceptions.

Every night billions of people dream and every week many millions of people seek out conscious visions by taking drugs, meditating, praying, fasting or drumming. If more than a tiny minority of these people interpreted their visions in a literal manner and were bold and dogmatic enough to encourage others to follow them, millenarian groups would be springing up every minute of every day. Similarly, if everybody took their dreams and visions literally and acted on them, the world would become a huge open air asylum or battleground. Therefore, it is apparent that what defines a prophet is not their visions, which are easy to obtain, but their arrogant assumption that their visions are of unique significance and that they should be followed by others. This may reflect the intensity of certain individuals' visions but it may also be connected with the pushy character of those who claim to be prophets.

As the case of José Argüelles demonstrates, the dogmatism of a prophet can actually have the effect of clouding the perceptions of those who take an interest in their visions, whether serious followers or not. By appropriating aspects of Mayan calendrics in order to create Dreamspell, Dr Argüelles has, in my view, peddled misinformation. Furthermore, by pushing his bizarre prophecies he has no doubt put many intelligent people off exploring the Mayan calendar or 2012 millenarianism. This is unfortunate, particularly for the Maya themselves, but it does at least illuminate a wider issue related to millenarianism. As we are now able to see that Arguelles' Planetary Art Network (PAN) hogged centre-stage and distracted people from understanding Mayan calendrics and culture, we should consider the possibility that something similar has happened throughout history. Millenarian prophets may gain all the attention, with their attractive visions and colourful nature, but this should not distract us from exploring, in a more subtle and intelligent way, realistic possibilities of apocalypse.

Millenarian prophets are alluring but also ultimately ludicrous figures, particularly after their prophecies fail. As the nature of what they do is claim that certain dramatic things will happen by certain dates, there is always the likelihood that they will be proved wrong and written off as charlatans or mentally ill. Because we now have access to information about a vast number of religions existing historically and globally, it is easy to write off any contemporary millenarian prophet as a deluded fool at best and a self-serving, deceitful manipulator in some cases.

However, I believe that there is a danger of throwing the baby away with the bathwater if we do not examine why particular groups came into being. At the very least, this can help us reflect more sharply on the characteristics of a society in which a group emerged. There is also the possibility that we can understand how elements of leaders' visions of the future may turn out to be true, on some level, when considered carefully.

Cultural evolution is a subtle thing and just because a prophetic vision appears to fail does not mean that it should be dismissed completely. I believe that a series of apocalypses have happened and continue to happen to the human world. They may not have involved the Earth having its poles reversed, burned by a nuclear war, destroyed by a massive volcano or a God returning to Earth to pass judgement on our actions. However, the undeniable fact is that the world in which we live has transformed and continues to transform before our eyes.

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