HELPFUL ALIENS

Most visitors here describe Friday as a moment of positive change, a time for reflection over the planet's direction.

"A new age will dawn, and everybody who is involved in this knows that the world is in a very sad state," said Jill Baker, an artist from Kentucky, who, together with her partner Lee Pennington, spent $14,000 to visit Mexico for the big day.

"We want to learn how we go about bringing the peace all the elders of the ancient civilizations have told (of)," she added.

Many modern Maya, whose ancestors rose to prominence as a conquering civilization in much of southern Mexico and Central America during the first millennium, practicing human sacrifice along the way, have been baffled by the hype.

Scholars say the date has been exploited by purveyors of spiritual hokum and tall tales in exotic locations.

"This whole Maya prophecy is actually a hoax, which cynical pseudo-scholars have developed to sell their books," said Susan Milbrath at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Sandra Stocco, 39, a tax lawyer from Brazil, said she was honored to be in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and pointed to a group of meditating people dressed in white and quietly humming to explain why she had come.

"For this. This sound, this is the sound of the vibration of their heart, and Chichen Itza is the heart chakra," she said.

Others see the gathering of minds as a chance for humanity to correct its ways by calling on extra-terrestrial assistance.

"We're hoping for some sort of contact event and to meet some beings of other species," said Otto Martin, a production manager wearing shorts who had traveled from Los Angeles. "We're basically just hoping to ask them for help."

Lisa Harris, a 23-year-old jembe drummer from Oakland, California, with a nose ring and dreadlocks, said friends had paid for her to come to Mexico. She hoped she would see UFOs.

"I definitely believe in UFOs and alien ancestry, so that would be pretty cool if that does happen," she said.

Jeremy Berg, a 28-year-old from Oregon and fan of full-moon celebrations, solstices, solar eclipses, and meteor showers, said great energies were coming into alignment.

"All over the planet there are key lay-line positions that meet up into little vortex spots," said Berg, whose day job is running an electronics firm. "This is a momentous time in history. I look at it as a new beginning."

But in case Friday is the end, Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid thanked his readers for their time over the years.

"It's been a blast," Reid wrote on Thursday. "So have an extra few roast potatoes today at lunch as it really won't matter if their prophesy turns out to be correct."

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