Planetary Journey: From Catastrophobia to Spiritual Awakening

A recent global scientific data convergence reveals that a great cataclysm occurred only 11,500 years ago — the Late Pleistocene extinctions, according to geology, and the Flood, according to theologians. This was followed by massive crustal adjustments and flooding for thousands of years as human cultures struggled for survival while they were deeply traumatized. As this story comes forth, it emerges in a damaged world in which many people believe that the end of the world is coming soon.

Many people are afflicted with catastrophobia — an intense fear of catastrophes. This new word is intended to name a psychological syndrome that causes individuals and societies to think an end is coming soon. Because they are always thinking something is coming, people are not caring for the earth.

Catastrophobia: Self-Fulfilling Prophecy or Memory?

Crippled by unnamed fear that is carried in racial memory, our surface minds are filled with floating images of disaster, guilt, and suffering. To ease our inner minds, we project these painful thoughts onto outer moving screens, which could make a coming apocalypse into a self-fulfilling prophecy. But it already happened!

Based on geological, biological, paleontological, and archaeological knowledge from new dating techniques, ice-core drilling, ocean sediment cores, and computer-imaging technology, most scientists agree that a series of cataclysms occurred 14,000 to 11,500 years ago. We also know a lot about the follow-up Earth changes, such as the Black Sea Flood in 5600 BC and the eruption of Thera on Santorini in 1600 BC.

During those terrible times, our planet was afflicted with floods, erupting volcanoes, earthquakes, and massive waves of death, and we were reduced to bare survivalism. As a result of more data on cross-cultural global mythology, settlement patterns, and geoarchaeology, we are achieving a global memory of our recent past. Archaeological sites come alive because we know what happened and when, and we even know a great deal about the background of the sites.


innerself subscribe graphic


Accessing Our Dormant DNA: The Unused 85% to 90%

Now that the date and the magnitude of the cataclysms are verified by science, we can see that it is a miracle anything survived, including ourselves. But in a way, we didn’t survive, because our civilization and its cultures were obscenely obliterated; until very recently it was thought that we have always been progressively advancing.

Since this book was first published, new research, discussed in this revision, has emerged that verifies Plato’s date for the fall of Atlantis — the historical record of the fall of a previously advanced world. Since the 1980s, many researchers, most notably Graham Hancock, have been analyzing the remnants of an advanced global maritime culture from more than 12,000 years ago that vanished almost without a trace. Any evidence of such a lost world is incredibly significant.

Science says we use only around 10 to 15 percent of our DNA. I wonder if the unused DNA is the coding for a mixture of the global maritime culture’s technological knowledge, psychic skills, and our emotional range that was shut down by the catastrophes. I think we must access this dormant DNA as quickly as possible, so that we can take back our role as Earth’s keepers.

Waking up from Collective Amnesia

Planetary Journey: From Catastrophobia to Spiritual AwakeningUntil very recently science investigated catastrophes that were comfortably at a distance, such as the extinction of the dinosaurs 63 million years ago. Lately, more scientists have been investigating the magnitude of the 9500 BC disaster — just as a tidal wave of apocalyptical fanaticism poisons the major world religions, including the New Age.

We are waking up from collective amnesia as we hear the correct version of the past, which also stirs up repressed cataclysmic memory that lurks in the deep unconscious mind of each one of us. The whole world is in a very nervous mood, which bears all the signs of people dealing with terribly painful memories.

Media Hype: Murky Fears of Disasters, Violence & Chaos

Of course, the popular media stirs these murky fears with disaster scenarios and constant reports of violence and chaos. Why? Just so the Elite can prolong selling both pharmaceuticals and guns to get a few more corporate profits. People feel cornered, as if there is no future. Yet, events as great as the disasters described in this book probably occur about every 30 million years or more in our solar system.

The public mainly hears that there are recurrent cyclical disasters caused by fields of meteors and comets and cycles in the solar system that influence Earth’s climate. These things do happen, and they can cause big trouble, yet from a cyclical and galactic perspective, our solar system is probably in recovery mode.

Meanwhile, science is infected with catastrophobia for profit — a big disaster is coming soon that could totally destroy the planet so we must spend trillions to build weapons to shoot things out of the sky — and this terrifies the public.

The Next Evolutionary Advance: A Great Spiritual Awakening

Ten years have passed since the first edition of this work was published in 2001, and many more scientists and popular writers have brought forth the real story of these disasters. I noted in 2001,

"Our attention is riveted when preachers and New Age prophets make predictions which sound true because they resonate with disassociated inner images.”

I believe we are on the verge of a great spiritual and intellectual awakening just when popular culture is caught in a very silly obsession with the End Times. The current fad is waiting for December 21, 2012, when the poles will flip, Planet X will invade our planet, and/or the Matrix will take over — the newest versions of catastrophobia.

As this book goes to press in 2011, happily, these fanatics are striking a false note in many if not most people. Many can also see that the probable cause of another catastrophe will most likely be an extinction caused by the human species, not by natural causes.

Meanwhile, I know our species is on the brink of the next evolutionary advance: a great spiritual awakening.

Reprinted with permission of the publisher,
Bear & Company, an imprint of Inner Traditions Inc.
©2001, 2011 by  Barbara Hand Clow. www.innertraditions.com


This article was adapted with permission from the book:

Awakening the Planetary Mind: Beyond the Trauma of the Past to a New Era of Creativity (completely revised and expanded edition of Catastrophobia)
by Barbara Hand Clow.

Awakening the Planetary Mind by Barbara Hand ClowBarbara Hand Clow reveals that as the Earth’s 26,000-year precessional cycle shifts, our evolution is accelerating to prepare us for a new age of harmony and peace. She shows that by remembering and moving beyond the trauma of our long lost past, we bring the era of cataclysms to an end and cross the threshold into a time of extraordinary creative activity.

Click here for more info or to order this book on Amazon.


About the Author

Barbara Hand Clow, author of the book: Awakening the Planetary Mind -- Beyond the Trauma of the Past to a New Era of Creativity Barbara Hand Clow is an internationally acclaimed ceremonial teacher, author, and Mayan Calendar researcher. Her numerous books include The Pleiadian Agenda, Alchemy of Nine Dimensions, Catastrophobia, Liquid Light of Sex and The Mayan Code. She has taught at sacred sites throughout the world and maintains an astrological web site, www.HandClow2012.com