No End To End of World Predictions, That Is, Until The End of the World!

Here’s an interesting graphic and lead-in provided by OnlinePsychologyDegree.net,
reprinted with permission. It was submitted by Allison M., who said in an email that she had a hand in making the graphic and thought it was a good fit with my Sept. 3, 2011 Podcast, “The End of the World.”

Thanks, Allison!

Aho & Namaste,
Bob

Lead-In

Supposedly, the world should have ended about a month ago, on December 21, 2012. If you’re like many other people who were at least kind of expecting the apocalypse to actually come through, don’t beat yourself up about it—the fact is, humans have a long, long history of believing wholeheartedly that the end is near, only to have the world stick around for another few thousand years. In looking at just how many apocalypse predictions there have been throughout history (and there have been a lot), it’s interesting to consider some of the psychology that goes on behind these predictions, and what makes so many people believe them time and time again.

The fact is, people have been spouting end-times predictions for several centuries, and some of those predictions can be pretty quirky. What’s quirkier, however, is that for some reason, there seems to always be a following of people who don’t just believe these zany predictions, they seem to be disappointed when they don’t come true. Whether this is chalked up to religious fanaticism, pack mentality, or just a general sense of paranoia, remains to be seen. But for whatever the reason, people from all through history seem obsessed with the end of the world, and the following infographic takes a look at some of the wackiest predictions ever made. (This is a small excerpt of a much larger graphic. See the entire work on the linked site.)

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