LISTEN UP KIDDIES:  here's the actual reasoning for the 2012 phenomenon....
We have a calender based on just havin dates to refer to occurances and history, the Mayan calender is based on life cycles, which, when you can understand it with a cleared mind, is superior to ours in every way (ours has a leap year for instance).  I will not explain the whole system here because it is too much to put into words on NS, but just know that the Mayan knowledge of Time and Space is still way more advanced than ours.  They proved so many things that we can't even fathom with their wisdom.  Basically, cycles are everywhere and they are what our minds, world, solar system, galaxy and universe are all based on.  Their calender kept time in cycles, and when they discovered and started using their calender, they didnt start out with the year 0, that would be ridiculous, instead they found the begininning of that cycle that they were in.  on the winter equinox of 2012 (december 21) they mapped out that the center of our solar system's plane will actually be in the exact center of The Milky Way's plane.  That means that the earth will be in the center of millions of other solar systems.  This event happens on a schedule that we don't understand yet, but that the mayans had down exactly, and that why their whole system was perfect as well, they had every cycle in the world down exactly, all of which worked together in the harmonic symphony that is life.  To call this the "end of the world" really doesn't do it any good, doin so conjures up crazy visions of cities destroyed, volcanoes erupting, billions dying and so forth.  What it meant to the Mayans was that it was a time of being one with the spirit and the spirit world.  if you want to learn more, go to a real website, but not some fanatic 2012 one, try a more scientific one if you want to really understand on that kind of level.  I think our city lights and such have really changed our perspective of the heavens.  Go out to a remote spot with no civilization in sight and really look up to the night sky and ask yourself if you think it's all just coincidence that everything has a rythmn and cycle that runs with everything else.  are we really just here for shits, or is there a much deeper meaning to this reality?