apperantly not only the mayan civilization thought that the end of the world will come in 2012. The japanesse also thought that but their date was 12/22/2012 which is pretty closed to the mayan !

The date December 22, 2012 is the End of the I Ching. Ethnobotanists and fractal time experts Terrence and Dennis McKenna believe it is, and they present their ideas in Invisible Landscape: Mind Hallucinogens and the I Ching (1993).

Their studies began with the I Ching, which is composed of 64 hexagrams, or six-line figures. It struck them that 6 x 64 = 384, which is exceptionally close to the number of days in 13 lunar months (29.5306 x 13 = 383.8978), and that maybe the I Ching was originally an ancient Chinese calendar. Further multiples had astronomical significance:

1 day x 64 x 6 = 384 days = 13 lunar months

384 days x 64 = 67 years, 104.25 days = 6 minor sunspot cycles (11.2 years each)

67 years, 104.25 days x 64 = 4306+ years = 2 Zodiacal ages

4306+ years x 6 = 25836 years = 1 precession of the equinoxes

The McKenna brothers, by matching the levels of the pattern with key periods in history, they determined it would fit best if the end of the time scale was December 22, 2012. This is the only point in which the level of novelty reaches its maximum, and everything that happens is new. Change feeds upon itself like nano-machines converting every atom in the universe into gold.