Bugarach

Hippies? I thought they died out in the 1970s, either by cleaning up their act and going mainstream or by ODing on bad drugs. 

But that's the term I encountered in a headline about the people gathering around a mountain in France, hoping to hitch a ride aboard a starship when the world ends (once again) on December 21st, 2012. ("Hippies head for Noah’s Ark: Queue here for rescue aboard alien spaceship") 

Well, if you're a "hippie" or New Ager wondering what do to (again) on doomsday, your best bet seems to be joining the approximately 20,000 souls who are abiding their time in the area of a Pyrenean village called Bugarach and a mountain named Pic de Bugarach. 

The mountain is the focus of all of the attention. Some say a spaceship is hidden inside Pic de Bugarach and when the cosmic crap hits the celestial fan, the benevolent ETs will provide a safe ride away from all of the destruction. I hope the spaceship is big enough to handle the passengers who want aboard: it's predicted the number of the New Agers or "esoterics" is going to swell up to 100,000. 

The mayor of Bugarach is concerned the situation might get out of hand, e.g., mass suicides, people leaping into eternity off the mountain. Maybe the mayor read my article "Vortex Or Void" about "UFO lawyer" Peter Gersten who plans to escape doomsday here at home in the good ol' USA by jumping off a towering rock in Arizona, escaping into an interdimensional gateway when everything is in cosmic alignment on December 21st.

Bugurach's mayor has contacted MIVILUDES, the French government watchdog that tracks cults. The agency's name is an acronym for Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires, translated into English as Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combatting Cultic Deviances. "Hippies" have been seen ascending Pic de Bugarach, naked. Other groups have been seen carrying some sort of ball with a silver ring up the peak. 

Deviance, indeed.