In some macrobiotic circles, for the past few years, there has been a consensus that the present time period is influenced by a very yang, contracting energy; similar to 6 Metal's tight, downwardly directed ki. This is the culmination of the cycle of materialization. You can see it in ways that many cultures have become rigid, isolated, and primarily interested in money and the material world. This certainly includes the West but we should not rule out other cultures, whose frustrations often stem from the lack of prosperity.

It has been proposed that people who are living and eating in a balanced way, using lighter foods, will become more spiritually attuned; a counterbalance to the downward spiral. That their lives and personal environments will become more yin, open and all-embracing.

Until recently, I believed that this concept was correct, but that this would take place over a long period of time and would be initiated by the changing ki around us. Now, I am playing with the idea that we must initiate the change. And that there may be a certain sense of urgency to this.

Before you write me off as a total crackpot, I'd like you to consider the following. There may already be some individuals who have made this transformation. Perhaps not to perfection, but maybe well enough. For example, the well known macrobiotic personality, Michio Kushi, suggests that some are in the process of evolving from Homo Sapiens to "Homo Spiritos" and apparently, he is leading the way. Many of you may remember his open letter to President Bush, on September 25, 2001, shortly after the 9-11 attack. Back then, the contents of the message seemed like good ideas; a voice of calm in a world of hurt, fear and anger. But now, the ideas embodied in that document are more than good advice; they are prophetic.

If Mr. Kushi's message had met wider approval, or if a similar course of action had been followed, consider where the United States would be today, including the stronger alliances and the lives saved. And, if more of us could develop the same kind of comprehensive intuition, how many times over could we improve the world?

I have utilized macrobiotic diet and lifestyle, for over 18 years. I don't claim to have transformed myself to some higher level of being, but I have become more peaceful, active, intuitive and receptive to challenge and change. And that last part, about being receptive to change, may hold the key.

What does it mean "time will end"? Is it the end of the world, or the universe? Likely not. But, it certainly suggests a radical change and that's where this sense of urgency comes in. That date so closely coincides with the graphs in Toffler's Future Shock that I do not anticipate a void, but rather its opposite. Changes and events happening, like lightening, so rapidly around all of us that the material world may, indeed, become an abstraction.

Of course, when I first heard the date, December 23, 2012, I immediately looked at it from a 9 Ki point of view. I was disappointed. The combination being a 4 Tree Month / 6 Metal year. I would have expected an 8 Soil year (revolution) or possibly 9 Fire. But, now, it makes perfect sense. Six Metal, the tightening spiral of materialization. Time moving faster and faster, towards dissolution. Just like the macrobiotic folks were saying.

So, at the very least, we can anticipate a whirlwind of a ride into the heart of the 21st century. And, as changes come faster and the world grows smaller, we will be in one another's faces with no time available for drawn out, complicated peace negotiations. A true necessity to make peace by embodying peace, to make balance by being balanced, to become more spiritual and less material. And not this government or that corporation but you and I. Up close and personal. The children of the planet must change the world.

Though we don't understand the nature of the Mayan "End of Time", we can deduce probable components through macrobiotic "spiral" theory, Alvin Toffler's extrapolations and the current rate of global change. All of these indicate a world that moves at a continuously faster pace, with less and less time to react. There will be a given point in time, when the rate of change will exceed the capacity to react in a practical and meaningful way. Centuries ago, the Mayans determined that date to be December 23, 2012, nine years from this month.

The solution to passing through this time, successfully, is to increase our intuitive capacity, our flexibility, our health, our faith and our capacity to love and forgive one another. One of the most practical ways of doing so, is to practice a macrobiotic lifestyle. To embrace all of the technological changes around us, while living more like our ancestors. Wearing natural, non-synthetic clothing, spending more time outdoors in all weather, and by eating the foods that we are intended to run on; namely, whole organic produce, of vegetable origin.

Folks, you may be able to run your car on perfume, but not very fast and not very far. If a simple system, like an internal combustion engine, requires a specific fuel to perform well, then it surely follows that we can only enhance our own physical, mental and spiritual agility, by consuming what we are designed to. And that isn't difficult to figure out.

Just look in your mouth. Like a rabbit, we have incisors in front, for breaking up roots; tiny canines, for small occasional quantities of meat; and those massive lines of molars, on both sides, for grinding vegetables and grains. Using our teeth as a guideline, a typical meal would be a heap of whole grains (rice, wheat, millet, buckwheat, barley, oats, maize), along with an assortment of beans and leafy & root vegetables.

Does it work? Will you get results? Yes. Yes, it does work and it works very well. But, not like an aspirin. You have to be patient. It takes time. And, as we have seen, we may not have as much time as we thought.