Bugarach is a commune in the Aude department in southern France, around 35 km south of Carcassonne. The economy is based on agriculture and tourism, attracting many New Age adherents. Bugarach is at the foot of Pic de Bugarach, a 1,230 metres (4,040 ft) mountain peak and the highest summit in the Corbières mountains.
The peak is also called the "upside down mountain" as the top layers of rock are older than the lower layers due to uplift of the Pyrenees.
It is also located on the Green Meridian.
The location is mentioned for the first time as Villa Burgaragio in 889 AD; it derives from the German name Burghar and name "Bugari" of the Bulgarian Bogomilis in medieval France.
In the 18th century the village became known for manufacturing wooden tools and hats.
In modern times many esoteric and UFO legends have been connected to this place. The major economic activity of the village and surrounding region is agriculture and tourism. Demand for holiday cottages and popularity with New Age followers led to a rise in real estate prices. In the 1960s and 70s Pic de Bugarach became popular with the hippie movement. Later in the 20th century it became popular with New Age followers who believed the "upside down mountain" had mystical powers, spreading to the belief that the village would be spared in the 2012 apocalypse. Cult followers believe aliens reside inside the mountain and will spare any humans that decide to leave the planet with them in the coming apocalypse. In 2011, the number of visitors doubled to over 20,000 and France's cult watchdog, Miviludes, placed the village under scrutiny due to concern over possible mass suicides. The mayor even considered calling the army over concerns caused by this issue.
Il y a quelque jours, un ami m'a appelé pour proposer que la Bête à Poils, Hatchi, et moi l'accompagnions en randonnée. L'ami avait en tête l'idée de grimper jusqu'au sommet du Pech de Bugarach. Bugarach est devenu très connu car quand il y a eu la folie de fin du monde en 2012, la montagne était censée être le seul endroit à y survivre. Enfin, c'est ce que disaient beaucoup de croyances New Age.
Donc, le jour J, mon ami est venu nous chercher le matin et c'est parti pour environs 2h30 de route. Nous sommes arrivés au pied de la montagne vers midi et avons pique niqué sur place. Ensuite, nous avons démarré la grimpette.
Panneau à l'aire de pique nique, cherches les fautes !
Panorama du haut de la montagne
Je ne sais pas trop comment raconter une randonnée. Enfin, j'en ai surtout retenu qu'on a marché, Hatchi m'a beaucoup aidé à marcher plus vite et dans les endroits techniques de la descente, eu chaud et soif, vu des paysages sublimes et qu'on est rentrés épuisés. La Bête à Poils et moi pensons du coup à nous équiper un peu mieux pour partir plus souvent en randonnée avec Hatchi.
The end of the world is nigh – and that is excellent news for the small French village singled out in doomsday cults as the only place likely to survive the apocalypse.
With esoteric groups circulating a rumour that everyone will perish on December 21 unless they are on Pic de Bugarach, in the Pyrenees, locals can scarcely believe their good fortune.
They have spotted an opportunity to make money from New Agers who believe that extraterrestrials will emerge from the mountain top and rescue anyone who is there on the fateful day.
The French authorities, however, are clamping down on doomsday fever. Police have been ordered to investigate a flourishing trade in end-of-the-world memorabilia linked to the notion – based on a dubious interpretation of the Mayan calendar – that Bugarach is a sacred site.
One landowner, for example, is offering to rent out his four-bedroom house on the slopes of Bugarach for 1500 euros ($1870) a night next month, or a field in which to pitch a tent for 400 euros. He says it is a small price to pay for peace of mind during Armageddon.
“I possess a rare asset, the land of immortality,” the owner, who was not named, told La Depeche du Midi, the local daily. A bed and breakfast room 19km away is available on December 21 for 500 euros – even though the person who normally stays there will be outside the “safety zone” and will die, according to the prophecy.
“Authentic Bugarach stones” are selling for 1.50 euros a gram online and a 500ml bottle of water from its stream for 15 euros, a drink will cure a range of health and financial problems, according to the advertisement.
An online French auction offers a “natural pyramid of pyrite iron” from Bugarach while a local winemaker is marketing an End of the World vintage – and a Survival Vintage next year, just in case the prophecy is wrong. The Italian restaurant in Limoux, about 32km to the north, is to put an Apocalypse Pizza on the menu.
Eric Freysselinard, the prefect of the Aude county which encompasses Bugarach, this week expressed indignation over the trade. “I find it really outrageous to abuse the naivety of people and rush into commerce that defies common sense.”
He said he had told local police officers to launch an inquiry and clamp down on trade, although it is not clear whether any offences have been committed.
Claims that Bugarach will be taken over by New Agers this month might prove unfounded. But with the French government’s watchdog on sects warning that believers might mark Armageddon by committing mass suicide, Mr Freysselinard is taking no chances.
Dozens of officers will block the mountain top and filter access to the village during a four-day period around December 21. Gatherings of any sort will be banned, and anyone landing in a light aircraft will be arrested.
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.
All the hype about the Mayan End of the World is causing real fear, particularly in children.
In May, a 16-year-old UK girl by the name of Isabel Taylor hanged herself after she’d done extensive research on the Internet about Doomsday predictions, and convinced herself the world would end in 2012. According to her friend, Taylor had become obsessed with the world ending—constantly making comments to friends and family about a nuclear disaster caused by sunspots resulting in a reaction so big as to end the world.
According to the 200 inhabitants of a small town in France called Pic de Bugarach, 20,000 people have descended on their hamlet to wait out and possibly save themselves from the impending doom. At 1,230 meters (or 4,035 feet), it’s the highest peak in the Corbieres mountain range, and many believe that like Mount Sinai, it possesses mystical energies and magnetic waves. Many of the pilgrims or “New Agers” believe that on December 21st, aliens will come to the mountain and rescue them, taking them to the place of the “new age or era”. The French government is concerned that if nothing happens on the day, there could be mass suicides.
John Kenhe, web developer of the site December 21, 2012, a doomsday clearinghouse of sorts, says the site he created in 2005 wasn’t meant to scare people but be a place for all opinions. Although Kenhe is an admitted “prepper” —someone who is prepared for a disaster with food, water, and gas masks located in a bunker under his house— he doesn’t believe the world will end on 12/21.
“Whether we can witness it or not, something will happen on that day. No one can know for sure what will happen. I tell my kids there will be a Christmas this year. I feel positive that we’re headed for a more enlightened way of living on the planet,” Kehne says.
“When children are afraid or anxious by this doomsday stuff, it’s because they lack adult figures in their lives who aren’t reassuring them they’re safe,” said Dr. Saurabh Gupta, a researcher in the department of Psychiatry at UCSD. “Emotional safety is created by adults for children, kids can’t be held responsible for making themselves feel worry free—it’s not their job.”
French chateaus, picturesque rivieras and places like Mont Saint-Michel -- a landmark that is second only to the Eiffel Tower are just a few of the tourist destinations that France touts. Paris alone is reason enough to visit the museum-laden country, but for one group of New Age believers, there can only be one "city of lights."
Pic de Bugarach, a mountain popular for being the inspiration behind Jules Verne's book, Journey to the Center of the Earth, has become a temporary home to an estimated 20,000 people -- all who claim the infamous peak is an ancient launching pad that will activate on Dec. 21, 2012.
The doomsday theories are nothing new, but in an unusual twist these specific esoterics believe that the Pic de Bugarach is more than a mountain -- it is a sacred land occupied by aliens as we speak. According to their beliefs, once the apocalypse begins the aliens will reveal themselves to the patiently faithful and take them on a journey in a Noah's-ark-meets-Star Wars-voyage to another universe.
"The apocalypse we believe in is the end of a certain world and the beginning of another," one of the New Age pilgrims going only by the name "Jean" tells the paper. "A new spiritual world... the year 2012 is the end of a cycle of suffering. Bugarach is one of the major chakras of the earth, a place devoted to welcoming the energies of tomorrow."
A mountain looming over a French commune with a population of just 200 is being touted as a modern Noah's Ark when doomsday arrives – supposedly less than nine months from now.
A rapidly increasing stream of New Age believers – or esoterics, as locals call them – have descended in their camper van-loads on the usually picturesque and tranquil Pyrenean village of Bugarach. They believe that when apocalypse strikes on 21 December this year, the aliens waiting in their spacecraft inside Pic de Bugarach will save all the humans near by and beam them off to the next age.
As the cataclysmic date – which, according to eschatological beliefs and predicted astrological alignments, concludes a 5,125-year cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar – nears, the goings-on around the peak have become more bizarre and ritualistic.
For decades, there has been a belief that Pic de Bugarach, which, at 1,230 metres, is the highest in the Corbières mountain range, possesses an eery power. Often called the "upside-down mountain" – geologists think that it exploded after its formation and the top landed the wrong way up – it is thought to have inspired Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Since the 1960s, it has attracted New Agers, who insist that it emits special magnetic waves.
Further, rumours persist that the country's late president François Mitterrand was transported by helicopter on to the peak, while the Nazis, and, later, Israel's Mossad, performed mysterious digs there. Now the nearby village is awash with New Agers, who have boosted the local economy, though their naked group climbs up to the peak have raised concerns as well as eyebrows. Among other oddities, some hikers have been spotted scaling the mountain carrying a ball with a golden ring, strung together by a single thread.
A grizzled man wearing a white linen smock, who calls himself Jean, set up a yurt in the forest a couple of years ago to prepare for the earth's demise. "The apocalypse we believe in is the end of a certain world and the beginning of another," he offers. "A new spiritual world. The year 2012 is the end of a cycle of suffering. Bugarach is one of the major chakras of the earth, a place devoted to welcoming the energies of tomorrow."
Upwards of 100,000 people are thought to be planning a trip to the mountain, 30 miles west of Perpignan, in time for 21 December, and opportunistic entrepreneurs are shamelessly cashing in on the phenomenon. While American travel agents have been offering special, one-way deals to witness the end of the world, a neighbouring village, Saint-Paul de Fenouillet, has produced a wine to celebrate the occasion.
Jean-Pierre Delord, the perplexed mayor of Bugarach, has flagged up the situation to the French authorities, requesting they scramble the army to the tiny village for fear of a mass suicide. It has also caught the attention of France's sect watchdog, Miviludes.
A genial sexagenarian, Mr Delord says: "We've seen a huge rise in visitors. Already this year more than 20,000 people have climbed right to the top, and last year we had 10,000 hikers, which was a significant rise on the previous 12 months. They think Pic de Bugarach is 'un garage à ovnis' [an alien garage]. The villagers are exasperated: the exaggerated importance of something which they see as completely removed from reality is bewildering. After 21 December, this will surely return to normal."
Masking his fears of what might happen on 21 December, Mr Delord jokes that he will throw a party and supply vin chaud and cheese. "I'm sure we'll have a little fete to celebrate that we're still alive," he smiles. "I suppose it's up to each of us to find our own way."
The small village of Bugarach, in southern France, has attracted the attention of a government agency to oversee the sects because of the constant mass of people visiting it believed to be the only place in the world that will survive the Apocalypse in 2012.
Published by atraccion1982 in Christianity on June 17, 2011
A report by the agency, Miviludes, released Wednesday, notes that the picturesque village near Carcassonne should be monitored closely in the days prior to December 21, 2012, when many believe the world will end, according to an ancient Mayan prophecy .
Miviludes was created in 2002 to control the activity of sects, after a law passed last year criminalize fraud or abuse of vulnerable people through pressure techniques as those used in religious rites.
Surrounded by legends for years, Bugarach and rock, the peak Bugarach have attracted many visitors to the New Age movement in recent months, driving up property prices but also the threat of financial scams and psychological manipulations, said Miviludes in his report.
“I think we have to be careful. We should not become paranoid, but seeing what happened in Waco, United States, we know that this kind of thinking can influence vulnerable people,” said council president, Georges Fenech, a Reuters.
Waco, Texas, made headlines in 1993 when federal agents raided the headquarters of “Davidian movement” led by David Koresh, beginning a siege that lasted 50 days. The building was on fire when the troops finally tried to enter, leaving 80 dead.
Bugarach, with a population of just 200 inhabitants, has always been considered magical, partly because of what locals defined as a “mountain upside down”, where layers of rock from the top are older than the base.
The Internet is an infinite number of myths about the place: the mountain is surrounded by a magnetic force, which is the site of a hidden alien base until it contains an underground access to another world.
Now, many see the village as the last refuge from the proximity of the “End of the World.” Alerted to the arrival of visitors by Mayor Bugarach, Fenech went to the area and found six settlements in the surroundings created by members of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment.
Other “gurus” and messianic groups have organized conferences payment in hotels in the region, according to Fenech. “This is big business,” he told Reuters.
Founded by J.Z. Knight, the school says the lessons follow mystic Ramtha, Lemurian warrior who fought against the residents of the mythical Atlantis 35,000 years ago and claimed to discover the secret of immortality.
The report says his goal is not to stigmatize the movement, but to inform the public about “groups or individuals whose speech doctrine or follow the theory of the ‘end of the world’.”
The tiny French hamlet of Bugarach is known for its serenity and quaint charm.
But in recent months, the village -- which boasts a population of a mere 189 people -- has been besieged by tourist hordes comprised of New Age followers who are convinced a nearby mountain will help them escape the end of the world in 2012, the BBC is reporting.
Mayor Jean-Pierre Delord says these visitors believe the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, or the end of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the ancient Maya calendar. In addition, the myth of a 2012 doomsday is reportedly supported by claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth, according to the U.S. space agency NASA. That theory, in turn, became linked to dates in the Mayan calendar.
The Telegraph reports that many of the tourists see Bugarach -- which reportedly inspired both Steven Spielberg's hit film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and Jules Verne's classic novel "A Journey to the Center of the Earth" -- as one of perhaps several "sacred mountains," or an "alien garage" somehow sheltered from the cataclysm.
"I'm worried because the population of our village is only 200 people and... we risk having a flood from all the corners of the earth," Delord told RTL radio. "There are already some websites in the U.S. with some people selling tickets for trips to Bugarach. They are doing some business, and people are already organizing visits and prayer and meditation workshops," he added.
Residents seem to feel similarly. "There is a special feeling here, but if I really believed the world were about to end, I'd have a whale of a time over the next two years rather than look for salvation." Valerie Austin, a British woman who's lived in Bugarach for 22 years, told the Daily Mail. "It's a beautiful area, but now you find people chanting lying around meditating."
A myth surrounds the Bugarach mountain and its supposed magnetism. Some people plan to take refuge there on Dec. 21, 2012.
By MAÏA de la BAUME Published: January 30, 2011
BUGARACH, France — The rocky mountain of Bugarach, rising just over 4,000 feet in the Corbières Mountains, in one of the poorest and least populated areas of France, has long attracted hikers and nature lovers who like to wander its gentle slopes in search of rare species of orchids.
But in recent years, the mystic beauty and remoteness of the mountain has lured another, less common variety of hiker. Residents call them “the esoterics,” people who believe that the end of the world is coming — don’t forget to mark your calendar — on Dec. 21, 2012.
Last month, the mayor of Bugarach, a tiny village at the foot of the mountain in the southern district of Aude, alerted the local authorities after he read on Internet forums that believers in the apocalypse planned to take refuge here in 2012.
“Some Web sites in the U.S. were selling tickets to come here,” said Jean-Pierre Delord, the mayor. “We are 200 locals; we don’t want 2,000 to 3,000 utopians showing up in Bugarach.”
Some French and international Web sites devoted to the apocalypse claim that the mountain of Bugarach is a sacred place that will protect them from the end of the world. Some even believe that, on doomsday, they will be spirited away by a group of aliens who live under the mountain. The date in question is when a 5,125-year cycle in the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to a close.
A local innkeeper, Sigrid Benard, who offers rooms only in the summer, said she had received numerous calls from people wishing to reserve rooms and mobile homes from the beginning of December 2012 to the end of January.
“People know I’m closed in the winter,” Mrs. Benard said. “But those people said they wanted to come three weeks before the apocalypse and book the week afterward to see what happens.”
Many here, including the mayor, do not want to see Bugarach transformed into a safe haven for those he called “apocalypse believers and lunatics.” They point to an increasing presence of “esoterics,” who settled in Bugarach around the year 2000 and who are also attracted to the tranquillity, the low price of real estate and the history of the area.
“Those people belong to a New Age circle of influence,” Mr. Delord said. “Today, they do business on pure fables; they build inns and organize collective therapies.”
One of the esoterics is a former teacher named Jean. With a wise look and linen pants in winter, he resembles a neo-hippie. He recently settled in a yurt in the forest near Bugarach with hopes of building what he calls “the civilization of the heart.”
“The apocalypse we believe in is the end of a certain world and the beginning of another, a new spiritual world,” Jean said, refusing to give his last name because of the increasing local controversy.
“The year 2012 is the end of a cycle of suffering,” he said. Bugarach is “one of the major chakras of the earth, a place devoted to welcome the energies of tomorrow.”
For other people around France, Bugarach is not just a quaint village with a mountain.
“We all know that aliens are there for thousands of years,” said Paul Ponssot, the owner of a Paris-based bookstore specializing in esoteric literature. “They may be the forces who will help us get through 2012.”
In the little town, even the most pragmatic visitors acknowledged the special atmosphere of the place, silent and vibrant.
“Bugarach is like California in the ’60s,” said Didier Gromaire, a social worker from Chambéry who spent three months in Bugarach last year. “Things appear more clearly here; when you arrive, you feel that this is the beginning of a new life.”
Bugarach and its surroundings still bear significant traces of medieval religious sects and orders, including the Cathars, who built remarkable castles nearby.
A few miles away sits the village of Rennes-le-Château, whose supposedly hidden treasures have inspired many international authors, including Dan Brown, author of “The Da Vinci Code.”
The peak of Bugarach has long been called “the sacred mountain”; geologists say that soon after the mountain was formed, it exploded and the top landed upside-down. The mountain is also said to have inspired French authors like Jules Verne in “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” and American filmmakers like Steven Spielberg in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
Several reports circulating on the Internet even suggested that former President François Mitterrand visited the peak by helicopter, that there was often a halo of cloud shaped like a spaceship around the summit and that planes never flew over the mountain because of supposed magnetic waves.
“People built an entire myth around the magnetism of the mountain,” said Jean-Luc Lamotte, 60, a retired businessman who owns a house nearby.
Some residents say that they sometimes see parades of people, their arms crossed in an X shape, climbing the peak with figurines of the Virgin Mary in their hands.
Ismo Nykanen, a Finnish journalist who settled in Bugarach with his family a few years ago, said he once spotted several groups of people, some dressed in white, some naked, carrying a ball and a golden ring hung by a thread.
“They stay several months during the summer in campers parked at the bottom of the peak,” Mr. Nykanen said. His teenage daughter, Elsa, said she once saw a truck with a message spray-painted on its door: “Collective suicide: Bugarach 2012.”
Cristina Breiner owns a guesthouse in the nearby village of Rennes-les-Bains. She was recently brought by a friend to a meeting of local esoterics.
“They dress like ordinary people and strongly believe that someone in the sky is sending them messages,” Mrs. Breiner said.
Mayor Delord is trying to figure out how to curb new influxes of utopians in the area, especially with the apocalypse coming. In a country where the government lists at least 30 movements preaching the apocalypse, the mayor’s concerns are not abstract.
“If it happens as in Mr. Spielberg’s ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ ” Mr. Delord said, “it would be necessary to call in the army.”
The tiny southern French hamlet of Bugarach is at the mercy of scams from droves of visitors who believe it is the only place in the world that will survive a 2012 apocalypse. A French government watchdog, which monitors sects, said the picturesque village should be monitored until December 21, 2012, when many believe the world will end, according to an ancient Mayan prophecy. Surrounded in legend for centuries, Bugarach and its rocky outcrop, the Pic de Bugarach, have attracted an influx of New Age visitors in recent months, pushing up property prices but also raising the threat of financial scams and psychological manipulation, the watchdog, known as Miviludes, said in a report published this week.
"I think we need to be careful. We shouldn't get paranoid, but when you see what happened at Waco in the United States, we know this kind of thinking can influence vulnerable people," the watchdog's president Georges Fenech said. Waco, Texas, made headlines in 1993 when federal agents raided the headquarters of the Branch Davidian movement, led by David Koresh, leading to a 50-day siege. The building was burnt down when agents eventually tried to force their way in, leaving about 80 people dead.
MAGIC MOUNTAIN
Bugarach, with a population of just 200, has long been considered magical, partly due to what locals claim is an "upside-down mountain" where the top layers of rock are older than the lower ones. The internet is awash with myths about the place - that the mountain is surrounded by a magnetic force, that it is the site of a concealed alien base, or even that it contains an underground access to another world. And now many have seized on it as the ultimate refuge with Doomsday rapidly approaching. Alerted to an influx of visitors by the mayor of Bugarach, Fenech said he recently visited the area, and found six settlements in the surrounding countryside set up by members of the American Ramtha School of Enlightenment. Other "gurus" and messianic groups have been organising fee-paying conferences at local hotels, Fenech said. "This is big business," he said. Aside from the risks in Bugarach, the Miviludes report also warned of the danger of increased activity by apocalyptic groups across France in the run-up to 2012, particularly in the wake of recent disasters that could be interpreted as omens. Climate and environmental fears, anxiety over pandemics after the 2009 swine flu outbreak, and the earthquake disaster in Japan are all reinforcing the idea of the Mayan calendar, Fenech said. Among the groups highlighted in the report, the Ramtha movement is said to be focusing on south-western France to spread its message, the report said. Founded by J.Z. Knight, the group claims to follow the mystic teachings of Ramtha, a Lemurean warrior who fought the residents of the mythical Atlantis 35,000 years ago, and is said to have discovered the secret of immortality. Other groups being watched include the Raelians, founded by a former sports-car journalist who claims to have had repeated encounters with aliens. The report says its aim is not to stigmatise movements but to inform the public about "groups or individuals whose doctrine or discourse follows an 'end-of-world' theory". A law was passed in France in 2001 making it an offence to abuse vulnerable people using heavy pressure techniques, meaning sects can be outlawed if there is evidence of fraud or abuse. American televangelist Harold Camping predicted the end of the world on May 21 this year. However, the date passed uneventfully. Camping revised his prophecy and now says that Judgment Day will come on October 21. Reuters
REPORTAGE - Selon une prédiction, cette paisible bourgade du Sud de la France serait la seule à survivre à l'Apocalypse. Les visiteurs en tous genres y affluent et les réservations pour la dernière quinzaine de décembre 2012 ont déjà commencé.
En cette matinée pluvieuse, le pic de Bugarach dans l'Aude est dans le brouillard. Mais cette petite montagne qui domine un village de 200 habitants et qui culmine à 1 230 mètres n'a plus besoin de se montrer. Elle est aujourd'hui mondialement connue par le biais de centaines de sites sur le Net. Selon la prédiction qui fait rage sur la Toile, c'est au pied de cette citadelle de calcaire que le monde sera épargné. Après l'Apocalypse du 21 décembre 2012, seule Bugarach survivra. Une sacrée bonne nouvelle qui a pour conséquence aujourd'hui de doper l'activité immobilière de la commune. «Quinze maisons sont à vendre. Depuis trente-quatre ans que je suis maire, je n'ai jamais vu ça», raconte l'édile Jean-Pierre Delord. Tarif demandé : trois à quatre fois plus cher que les prix habituellement pratiqués. La pierre devient une bonne affaire.
Il ne se passe pas un jour, sans qu'on se renseigne d'ailleurs sur Bugarach, ses capacités d'hébergement et d'approvisionnement. «Tout le monde a compris qu'en décembre, on ne peut ici se contenter d'un sac de couchage, car il peut y avoir de la neige et du verglas. Alors on nous appelle pour louer des chambres et réserver des stocks de nourriture pour la dernière quinzaine de décembre 2012», raconte derrière son comptoir, garni de foie gras et de saucissons, la commerçante de la ferme de Janou. «On refuse tout», tranche-t-elle, levant les yeux au ciel en évoquant «toutes ces salades» sur le Net.
Des yourtes en pleine forêt
Bugarach. Crédits photo : NANDA GONZAGUE/The New York Times-REDUX-REA/NANDA GONZAGUE/NYT-REDUX-REA
De son côté, le maire s'inquiète de cette publicité planétaire qui attire, plus que d'ordinaire, des organisateurs de stages ésotériques (à des prix exorbitants), des thérapeutes en tous genres, des survivalistes qui comptent désormais leurs jours ou encore des adeptes du new age en quête de méditation cosmo-sidérale. Certains d'entre eux vont séjourner dans le gîte d'étape du village, tenu par Sigrid. Originaire de la région parisienne, cette dernière porte un regard bienveillant sur ces groupes devisant durant des heures dans la salle de réunion qu'elle met à leur disposition. «C'est une clientèle très plaisante, très calme. Il n'y a jamais de problème avec eux», dit-elle.
Tout de blanc vêtu, ce petit monde déambule aussi dans les rues du village, se réfugie dans des grottes pour des longues retraites contemplatives, se blottit dans des lieux prétendument magiques et se lance dans l'ascension du pic. Les compteurs installés sur l'un des flancs de la montagne pour calculer le nombre de randonneurs affichent des données jamais égalées. 10.000 l'an passé. Cette année, les chiffres vont doubler. Mais parfois, l'entraînement fait défaut. Il y a quinze jours, ce fut pour l'un de ces grimpeurs une montée sans descente. Foudroyé au sommet par une crise cardiaque. «La fin du monde avait juste sonné un peu plus tôt pour lui», glisse le maire, un rien facétieux et qui ne peut s'empêcher une pointe d'ironie malgré une situation préoccupante. Depuis plusieurs mois déjà, ce dernier a alerté la Miviludes, le préfet et les gendarmes. Le village est désormais sous bonne garde.
Cette prédiction frappant aujourd'hui Bugarach ne doit rien au hasard. Depuis des dizaines d'années, le village est habitué à bien des loufoqueries. «Ici ça bouillonne dans tous les coins !», reconnaît le maire. Il y a en effet mille raisons d'atterrir dans ce village situé au milieu de nulle part. Pénétrés d'études ufologiques, les uns y viennent, persuadés que le pic est un garage à ovni. Personne n'a jamais vu un seul de ces engins mais c'est normal, dit-on, en raison de leur vitesse ! D'autres veulent profiter des ondes magnétiques de la «montagne sacrée» et y découvrir son «vortex», le passage pour accéder à une civilisation disparue. D'autres encore viennent à la recherche d'un prétendu trésor qu'un abbé aurait caché il y a plus de cent ans.
Depuis un an aussi, des yourtes ont fait irruption en pleine forêt, occupées par des «écolos» qui, sur fond de chants indiens et de communication non violente, renouent avec la vie communautaire. Mais ceux-là ne croient pas à la fin du monde… juste à la fin de notre monde ! La tenue hippie et les dreadlocks côtoient désormais la toge blanche immaculée. Mais il y a aussi les amoureux de la nature qui viennent plus prosaïquement pour le plaisir de la marche et qui imposent une autre tenue : sac à dos et grosses chaussures…
Bugarach is a commune in the Aude department in southern France, around 35 km south of Carcassonne.The economy is based on agriculture and tourism, attracting many New Age adherents.
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End of days? ... cloud shrouds the mysterious Pic de Bugarach in south-west France
THE Sun has had a close encounter with a mysterious mountain which doom-mongers believe is their only hope when the world ends in 18 days time.
They think the eerie peak conceals a spaceship “garage” manned by extra-terrestrial beings.
Cult members pray the aliens will emerge to pluck them to safety in their craft when — according to the calendar of the ancient Maya civilisation of Central America — Armageddon comes on December 21.
We saw how hippies and New Age oddballs have thrown up makeshift camps in the shadow of the 4,040ft cloud-shrouded summit of the Pic de Bugarach in south-western France.
The mountain, with a network of deep caves, is thought to have inspired the Steven Spielberg movie Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and the classic novel Journey To The Centre Of The Earth.
(...)
David, 30, who quit his telecoms job in the French city of Tours to live in a bus in a forest near Bugarach, told The Sun: “There are serious things going on here — I want to know what these objects are.
“These things exist and people have the right to know.”
David, who did not reveal his surname, was not fully convinced that the world will end on December 21 but said: “I do think the capitalist system is going to collapse then.”
Street artist and local children’s co-ordinator Alain Didier insisted he had seen UFOs.
For anyone who is still in fear of the supposed apocalypse which will come with the end of the Mayan calendar a village in France may be your refuge. The modern Noah’s Ark established ahead of December 21st has local authorities concerned.
New Agers suggest the village of Bugarach at the foot of the French Pyrenees is the only place where people will be able to survive the upcoming Apocalypse, Spiegel Online reports.
The tiny village with a population of only 200 has become a Mecca for those who believe the world is about the end.
The mountain Pic de Bugarach is said to have magical powers and is believed to be a gate between worlds. Others believe that inside the mountain rest extra-terrestrials, who will come out and save humans they find on the spot.
Pilgrims have post dozens of photos and videos about their alleged contacts with the extra-terrestrials in the area to prove it’s truly a magical place.
The town's mayor, Jean-Pierre Delord, is afraid that soon the village will be overrun with Apocalypse pilgrims and make life their unsafe and disturb the locals. Residents fear mass suicides, sect meetings and the like.
"If you ask the mayor, there are supposed to be new hotels and wind turbines here soon," the owner of a local shop told Spiegel. "To attract tourists, he continues to bring us into the media, so they keep reheating the story when the rumors go cold."
The Mayor himself admitted that boosting the number of tourists to their area would be good for business, but there limits to everything.
"People who believe in the end of the world regularly write to me," Mayor Delord says. "I don't want to tell anyone how to live… but when hundreds of people storm our village, we won't be able to guarantee public safety anymore." He also says that real estate prices in the area have already risen substantially.
Apocalypse soon: For some, ancient Mayan calculations indicate the world will end on December 21, 2012
If the world ends on December 21, blame a German butterfingers who dropped a volcanic rock skull once owned by SS overlord Heinrich Himmler in his laboratory this week.
According to legend, the Mayan skull, which was stolen from Tibet by the Nazis and imbued for believers with magical powers to enable mankind to survive an apocalypse, fell and chipped during a photo shoot.
For some, this is a catastrophe that foretells the end of the world, but others advise us to keep calm and carry on.
'It was probably put down somewhere a bit wobbly,' an eyewitness told a German newspaper. 'Suddenly it crashed to the floor. A big piece broke off the chin. It's really tragic.'
Thomas Ritter, an historian who owns the skull, said it was given to him by the family of a former British soldier present at the 1945 arrest of Himmler, who ran the Gestapo, the SS and the extermination programme which murdered six million Jews.
He added that he believed its accident wouldn't 'anger the Gods' and that the world will still be turning on December 22.
The skull is 1,000 years old and one of the legendary Mayan skulls that belonged to the lost, ancient race of Mexico, which were said to be infused with magical powers.
The 3lb skull is made of volcanic rock and, according to Ritter, was seized by SS men sent on an expedition to Tibet between 1937 and 1939 to look for the lost city of Shangri-La.
Ritter said: 'The Nazis were convinced that 13 such skulls existed and that whoever owned them would have control of the world.'
Himmler died on May 23, 1945 using a poison capsule hidden in his mouth to take his life.
MANY CONVINCED THE END IS NIGH
Some interpretations of the ancient Mayan calendar point to December 21, 2012 as the end of the world.
Mexico's tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors this year to the five states richest in Mayan heritage to see sights such as the Pyramid of Kukulcan in Chichen Itza (pictured above).
Other theorists have found evidence of a 2012 apocalypse in the Bible or the prophesies of Nostradamus.
The hamlet of Bugarach, in the south of France, has attracted the attention of a government watchdog monitoring cults and suspicious spiritual activities.
Bugarach - and the rocky outcrop of Pic de Bugarach - have had an influx of New Age visitors who believe it is the only place in the world which will survive an apocalypse.
Hundreds of thousands of believers are flocking to Bugarach, France to be saved from Doomsday on December 21, 2012. An Alien Spaceship will rescue all who are near the sacred Pic De Bugarach Mountain before the apocalypse hits.
Are you prepared for the end of the world on December 21, 2012? If not, then you might want to join the hundreds of thousands (projected to possibly a million) of people that are planning on being near the Pyrenean Village of Bugarach in France.
The area is being dubbed as the modern day Noah’s Ark to the people who think they will be saved from the coming apocalypse on or before December 21 of this year. Thousands of believers weekly are coming into this small town which has a population of only 200 usually. Current estimates are that there are more than 100,000 people already in the area with projections of anywhere from 300,000 to possibly one million people coming before the middle of December.
So how will these believers be saved from the coming apocalypse you ask? Well, here is where the story gets downright bizarre if it wasn’t already. A spaceship(s) will transport all the people in the area to safety and these survivors will enter a “new age” with their alien saviors. Anyone who is not in the immediate vicinity of the area will surely perish in the coming apocalypse and the only surviving members of the human race will be the ones aboard the spaceship(s).
Now the question is why this location? Well, it seems that one mountain in particular is at the heart of the story. That mountain is named Pic De Bugarach which happens to be the highest mountain in the Corbieres Mountain range. It is also one of the most sacred mountains to “New Agers” who claim that it actually emits strange magnetic waves.
You've assembled your post-apocalyptic reading list. You've packed your bug-out bag. You've even practiced a little melee combat, just in case. But where should you go when the global pandemic hits or sky starts raining fire? If you can hang out in a self-sufficient rural community or get yourself adopted into a tribe of uncontacted people, then you can probably pull through several flavors of apocalyptic disaster. But here are a few specific locations that might improve your odds of survival, if you can get there in time:
- Utah: In the event of a run-of-the-mill infrastructural collapse, it wouldn't be a bad idea idea to hightail it to Utah and make friends with some stockpiling Mormons.
- Pyongyang North Korea: It should be no surprise that a country that thrives on paranoia has made elaborate preparations in case of nuclear war.
- Pitcairn Islands: Anyone who's ever stared in frustration at Madagascar at the end of a game of Pandemic II knows that islands are a great escape from pathogen-born disasters.
-Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado: There are plenty of options for nuclear bunkers around the world: Germany's swanky doomsday palace, the decommissioned Congressional shelter beneath the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, even bomb-proof homes available on the real estate market.
- London, England: Of course, it's even better if you don't have to drive to your shock-proof digs.
- Mount Yamantau, Mezhgorye, Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia: While some countries stopped building nuclear shelters at the close of the Cold War, Russia was still putting the finishing touches on at least one of theirs.
- Svalbard, Norway: If the apocalypse should wipe out most of the plant life on Earth, you'll want to be hanging out somewhere near the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Arctic Svalbard archipelago.
- Western Australia: There's a reason Mad Max is set in Australia. Perth is one of the most remote cities in the world (some measures put it behind Honolulu and Auckland), and although it was first colonized by British settlers in 1829, it wasn't connected to the rest of Australia by train until 1917.
- Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland: Few cultures in the world revolve around hunting as their primary means of subsistence, but it's the occupation for most of the roughly 500 residents of the isolated Ittoqqortoormiit settlement.
- Bugarach, France: What recommends this sleepy mountain town with a population of 200 for post-apocalyptic survival? To be honest, the residents aren't even sure. Bugarach sits at the base of Pic de Bugarach, which is often called the "upside-down mountain." According to geologists, the mountain exploded after its formation, and the top landed upside-down. Its unusual shape has inspired Jules Verne and Steven Spielberg, and attracted hippies and New Agers who believed it emitted special magnetic waves. More recently, rumors have started circulating on doomsday 2012 forums that the mountain is sacred and will be protected in the coming apocalypse. Some believe that there are aliens living under the mountain who rescue anyone living nearby on December 21st, 2012. We know that the 2012 doomsday is a myth, but if the cataclysm should hit on that date, the best case scenario is that well prepared survivalists will head for Bugarach. The worst case is that you'll witness a mass suicide commanded by the ancient aliens.
In December 2012, a legion of apocalyptic New Age believers will either join the ranks of aliens, or feel very stupid. For the time being though, they're content just to occupy the small, wine-country village of Bugarach, France and wait for the end of the world.
According to believers from across the globe, the village of Bugarach is the only location in the world that will be spared during the Mayan-predicted apocalypse of 2012. Despite scientists asserting with a high level of confidence that the Mayan calendar simply starts over, the New Age followers who have flocked to the town insist that aliens living beneath the mountain near Bugarach will save them when the world ends.
With a steady stream of almost 20,000 visitors per year, alien-scientists and fanatics alike have come to the foot of the mountain, or alien garage as they like to call it, to pray, learn and engage in bizarre ritual. Overrunning natives of Bugarach, the real estate market in the area has even increased in value as many alien-followers have purchased homes and cottages in the area.
Over the last 1000 years, a number of sources have stated that caves below the mountain existed. However, there is little hard evidence that aliens reside in these caves, and the New Age following around the town is beginning to concern locals. The mayor of the town even issued a statement saying he would not hesitate to involve the army if things in Bugarach got out of hand. A French group has also placed the town under watch, suspecting that mass suicides might take place before the predicted apocalypse....
When a north breeze dissipates a haze upon tip of a Corbières, emerges, stately as well as secret, a impiety of Bugarach. The crawl poise a vegetable initial riddle: because do we verbalise of a “inverted plateau “? And even when a object luminous radiance full flanks of limestone, an aura of poser still hangs in a blue sky of a Aude.
“ Bug ” , such as internal call it, has not accomplished sketch attention. It is called “sacred mountain” . They contend it emanates a singular energy, absolute as well as unifying. It would be a single of “chakras” a “Mother Earth” , that “vibratory rate” volume some-more any year. They additionally contend it would residence an subterraneous bottom for UFOs. Humans improvising “mediums” explain to have come in to hit with a aliens who have invested (not us, shame). Finally, a little disagree that it would be a single of a integrate of places where land group would tarry a finish of a world, that likely by a Mayan calendar, that ends Dec 21, 2012.
short, simply sort “ Bugarach ” upon a poke engine to find a enigmatic heated wake up stirred by a tip rise in a Corbières. Culminating during 1231 m, a Bug as well as crystallizes all fantasies. Already in a open solstice, Mar 21, hikers intrigued asked us in their path: “Did we notice something strange?” . The summer solstice additionally attracts a share of extraordinary as well as fauna brand new age . “Marches in conscience” , “walking initiation” , initiatives freshness … for those who can means it.
he captivate of Pic is growing, to a discomfit of a mayor of Bugarach as well as many residents, who fright not being means to carry out a liquid of visitors in Dec 2012. Rommie, owners of a desirable cottages of a Presbytery with her husband, Sander, does provoke anyone. “Most business come to nature, to a Cathar castles. From time to time, a little come for energy, for Bugarach. we similar to starting up for a great view. But about energy, we do not know “.
a initial riddle, a answer is simple: by image tectonics, limestone strata comparison than 135 million years have arisen over precision in in between fifteen million years, reversing a sequence of a geological layers. Otherwise, it is insincere that a geographical upon all sides of a rise has catalyzed a visionary currents already during work in a area.
Who has not dreamed, in fact, a value of a Abbé Saunière, a clergyman mysteriously enriched after starting work in his church in Rennes-le-Château, a integrate of miles from there? (To visit!) Who did not let his aptitude ramble to follow a query of a final Cathars, a preferred as well as undiluted retreat upon a tops of breezy Corbières? (Surveying a busted castles in tall winds is a singular experience!)
At a tip of a peak. RICHARD DAVID
No need nonetheless enigmatic beam to entrance a tip of a peak, that is value a glance, even a many Ampoules led pragmatic. A label or phone call to a House of Nature will do. The trail many Ampoules led taken from a neck of a Linas, 6 km from Bugarach. In reduction than dual hours, we have been right away during a top, considering a Pyrenees as well as a Mediterranean Sea. The approach called “the window” sneaks nearby a hole in a stone face. More air, permitted to great walkers, it takes dual hours from a pour out of Mathieux. The adore of upon foot will do a complete double back from a village. Between 6 as well as 7 hours, together with breaks. The event for a great travel in in between sky as well as earth.
Bob Thiel , LA Church History & End Prophecy Examiner December 22, 2010
COGwriter
Last year Sony released its 2012 movie. Sony invited this Examiner to Century City (near Hollywood) to watch the press pre-release preview. The movie was number 1 when it first opened. It is did fantastically well in overseas markets like China (see Chinese Pleased With China’s Portrayal in Sony’s 2012 Movie, Indonesia Less So) and Russia (see 2012 a Hit in Russia).
The movie portrays Los Angeles, India, the Vatican, and other places being destroyed by a flood, two years from now. The main ones that survive, survive on what could best be described as flotilla of modern versions of Noah’s Ark.
Because the date of the start of the “Mayan flood” is two years from now, it is making the news again. There was something in the news yesterday about a village in France that many believe will survive 2012.
Notice the headline:
French village which will ‘survive 2012 Armageddon’ plagued by visitors
Essentially, since the area is isolated and some consider the village of Bugarach is in “sacred mountains”, the 189 residents there are concerned that thousands will descend upon it in about two years and overwhelm the local population. It has been getting a lot of visitors who are checking it out, just in case they wish to flee there.
Now, unless the French village is bombed or some major disaster strikes it, I believe it will survive December 21, 2012 and be fine on December 22, 2012 (though possibly a bit crowded). Yet, I believe that the same is true for Los Angeles, India, the Vatican, and other places that Sony’s 2012 movie shows will be destroyed by flood.
Why?
Because the world will not end in a flood (Genesis 9).
Now, in Sony’s defense, the movie it produced was based on one particular interpretation of a centuries old Mayan prophecy.
In the 16th century Mayan writing known as the Chilam Balam there is the following:
But when the law of the katun has run its course, the God will bring about a great deluge again which will be the end of the world. When this is over, then our Lord Jesus Christ will descend over the valley of Jehoshaphat beside the town of Jerusalem where he redeemed us with his holy blood (José Hoíl J, Roys R. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel. Roys Publisher, 1933. Reprint Forgotten Books, 1967, p. 62).
Since the Mayan calendar ends when one of the katuns is finished (December 21, 2012), some interpret that the world will end in a flood that begins that date, and that presumably all we see by December 22, 2012 until most drown.
But notice that the particular Mayan prophecy, which by the way is the most explicit one about the world ending in a flood (prior to the 16th century the Mayans did not write, but essentially used a picture written communication system which 21st century scholars interpret in various ways), says that Jesus will return. As it turns out, the book that mentions Jesus the most, the Holy Bible, has this to say about a disasterous flood:
8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." (Genesis 9:8-11, NKJV)
So, no, the world as we know it will not be destroyed by December 22, 2012. Los Angeles residents do not need to live in fear that their county will be destroyed like the 2012 movie portrays. The Bible is clear that the world will not be destroyed by a flood.
However, it is likely that when the world does not end in a flood, that on December 22, 2012 scoffers will rise up and discount all prophecy. Because of misinterpretations of 2012 and certain media, hype, many will doubt Bible prophecy. Notice that the Apostle Peter warned about this:
1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), 2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? (2 Peter 3:1-13)
So, no, we in Southern California do not need to go to French mountains to survive the end of the world and return of Jesus Christ on December 21/22, 2012. But yes Jesus will return and the world as we know it will end. But that will not be for a few years later. You do not need to go to France in two years, but please do not scoff at Bible prophecy, as it will come to pass.
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
End of Mayan Calendar 2012–Might 2012 Mean Something? Are there Mayan calendar predictions for change in 2012? Changes were centuries ago predicted by the Hopi Native Americans. Do Mayan/Hindu/Hopi/Buddhist/New Age/Nostradamus prophecies have any value here? Why might Satan have inspired this date? Does the Dresden codex show destruction of the earth by flood? Can the great tribulation start before 2012? How might Barack Obama be involved in 2012? 2012 and the Rise of the Secret Sect This is a link related to a book by Bob Thiel (COGwriter). This link also has YouTube videos. This book documents and explains hundreds of prophecies. And since it was published, world events have aligned with at least 14 predictions in the book and many more will to come to pass. It clearly explains much of what will and will not happen in 2012 and the signs that believers need to be looking for. 2012 y el surgimiento de la secta secreta 2012 libro del Dr. Thiel en Español. 2012 und das Auftreten der geheimen Sekte (German Edition) 2012 Buch von Dr. Thiel in deutscher Sprache. 2012 e o Surgimento da Seita Secreta (Portuguese Edition) 2012 livro do Dr. Thiel em Português. Este livro documenta e explica centenas de profecias. E desde que foi publicado pela primeira vez, pelo menos 14 já começaram a acontecer.
The mayor of Bugarach, Jean-Pierre Delord stands on the outskirts of the village
The Telegraph :
The mayor of a picturesque French village has threatened to call in the army to seal it off from a tide of New Age fanatics and UFO watchers, who are convinced it is the only place on Earth to be spared Armageddon in 2012.
By Henry Samuel, Paris 5:00PM GMT 21 Dec 2010
Bugarach, population 189, is a peaceful farming village in the Aude region, southwestern France and sits at the foot of the Pic de Bugarach, the highest mountain in the Corbières wine-growing area. But in the past few months, the quiet village has been inundated by groups of esoteric outsiders who believe the peak is an "alien garage". According to them, extraterrestrials are quietly waiting in a massive cavity beneath the rock for the world to end, at which point they will leave, taking, it is hoped, a lucky few humans with them. Most believe Armageddon will take place on December 21, 2012, the end date of the ancient Maya calendar, at which point they predict human civilisation will come to an end. Another favourite date mentioned is 12, December, 2012. They see Bugarach as one of perhaps several "sacred mountains" sheltered from the cataclysm. "This is no laughing matter," Jean-Pierre Delord, the mayor, told The Daily Telegraph.
"If tomorrow 10,000 people turn up, as a village of 200 people we will not be able to cope. I have informed the regional authorities of our concerns and want the army to be at hand if necessary come December 2012." Mr Delord said people had been coming to the village for the past 10 years or so in search of alien life following a post in an UFO review by a local man, who has since died. "He claimed he had seen aliens and heard the humming of their spacecraft under the mountain," he said. The internet abounds with tales of the late President François Mitterrand being curiously heliported on to the peak, of mysterious digs conducted by the Nazis and later Mossad, the Israeli secret services. A visit to Bugarach is said to have inspired Steven Spielberg in his film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind – although the actual mountain he used is Devil's Tower in Wyoming. It is also where Jules Verne found the entrance and the inspiration for A Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Recently, however, interest in the site had skyrocketed, said the mayor, with online UFO websites, many in the US, advising people to seek shelter in Bugarach as the countdown to Armageddon commences. "Many come and pray on the mountainside. I've even seen one man doing some ritual totally nude up there," said Mr Delord. Sigrid Benard, who runs the Maison de la Nature guesthouse, said UFO tourists were taking over. "At first, my clientele was 72 per cent ramblers. Today, I have 68 per cent 'esoteric visitors'," he said. Several "Ufologists" have bought up properties in the small hamlet of Le Linas, in the mountain's shadow for "extortionate" prices, and locals have complained they are being priced out of the market. Strange sect-like courses are held for up to €800 a week. "For this price, you are introduced to a guru, made to go on a procession, offered a christening and other rubbish, all payable in cash," said Mr Delord. Valerie Austin, a retired Briton from Newcastle who settled in Bugarach 22 years ago who said the alien watchers were spoiling the village atmosphere. "You can't go for a peaceful walk anymore. It's a beautiful area, but now you find people chanting lying around meditating. Everybody has the right to their own beliefs, but the place no longer feels like ours." She said alien watchers planted strange objects on the mountainside. Recently she found a black virgin statuette cemented to the rock face. Although she described the alien claims as "total rubbish", she said there was nevertheless something special about the place. "It has a magnetic force in the scientific sense of the word. There is a special feeling here, but if I really believed the world were about to end, I'd have a whale of a time over the next two years" rather than look for salvation, she said.
Bugarach villages in claim survived the apocalypse 2012
A forecast for heretical groups say that the end will come on December 12, 2012, there was only one place in France that had escaped destruction. As a result, now this place is selling well so coveted the property buyers across the country.
This place is a village famous for its peak Bugarach Pic de Bugarach, mysterious place for the followers of cult. Peak height of 1230 meters this store a variety of mystical tales to be said as his ship berths aliens.
Reporting from the French daily Le Figaro, Wednesday, June 22, 2011, due to the story of salvation from the wrath of this place the end of time, selling a house here sells. “There are 15 homes for sale. Bugarach I’ve been mayor for 34 years and never experienced this before ” said the mayor of this small village, Jean Pierre Delord.
Delord said every day there are only asking for information about land in the village. Many also ask how the capacity of the village and whether there is food to survive. Delord said many of those who want to rent a house on 12 December 2012.
“We always said no ” said a woman selling sausages.
Delord said the village has the now become overcrowded due to the many people who come. Most of them are followers of sects beliefs, fanatical aliens, and new age cults. They often hold workshops and meditation are united with the cosmos at the venue.
As many as 10,000 people climb the peak Bugarach last year and increased rapidly this year. Delord says that until July was 20,000 people who climb. Hectic now increasingly worried that village, Delord fear is among tens of thousands of people there are adherents of a dangerous sect.
To keep the village from the things that are not desirable, Delord has contacted the council in Paris, police and Miviludes, a government agency to oversee the flow of beliefs and sects. Babysitting will be tightened, especially before the big day, said to be the end of time.
On this rainy spring morning,the Pic de Bugarach in southern France is completely shrouded in mist. But though the peak,at 4,000 ft.,is invisible today,its rugged outline is known all over the world. Hundreds of websites are claiming that after an apocalypse on December 21,2012,only the small village of Bugarach,at the foot of this rocky citadel,will be left standing.
Apart from the free publicity,one of the first effects of the end-of-the-world prediction was a boost to the village’s real estate market. “Fifteen houses are currently for sale. I have been mayor of Bugarach for 34 years,and I have never seen this before,”says Jean-Pierre Delord. The prices asked are four to five times higher than usual.
Not a day goes by without someone asking for information about Bugarach,located in the county of Aude,and about its capacities for accommodation and supplies. “Everyone knows that there might be snow and freezing temperatures in December,and that sleeping bags might not suffice. So people call us to rent rooms and ask us to stock food for them for the last two weeks of 2012,”says a local saleswoman from behind her stall filled with foie gras and sausages. “We always tell them no,”she says,visibly exasperated by all the “lies”circulating on the Internet.
The mayor of Bugarach is also worried about this planetary publicity,which has been attracting more than the usual number of esoteric-workshop organizers (who charge exorbitant prices),therapists of all types,survivalists counting down the days left to go,and New Age followers meditating to connect to the cosmos. Some of them stay in the youth hostel owned by Sigrid. Originally from Paris,she rather approves of the groups who discuss mysterious matters behind the closed doors of the conference room she provides. “They are very nice,calm clients. I have never had any problems with them,”she says.
Dressed in white,these peculiar tourists can be seen strolling around the town or taking refuge in the nearby caves for long contemplative retreats. Some of them gather in supposedly magical sites,and others attempt to climb the Pic de Bugarach. The automatic counters installed in the mountains are showing record numbers of hikers:10,000 last year,and an estimated 20,000 this year. In some cases,lack of training has proved lethal. Two weeks ago,one of these hikers reached the peak only to succumb to a heart attack. “The end of the world came earlier for him,”says the mayor with a touch of irony.
But Delord does not hide his concern about the possible consequences of his town’s extraordinary renown. Several months ago,he contacted the Council,the police and Miviludes (the Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combatting Cultic Deviances),a French government agency that monitors potentially dangerous sects. The town is under guard.
This is because the apocalyptic prediction is only the latest in a long line of crazy theories about Bugarach. “This place is bubbling with activity!”admits the mayor. It seems there are a hundred reasons to come to this town in the middle of nowhere. Ufologists often visit,convinced that the peak is a garage for UFOs. None has ever sighted a vessel here,but believers say this makes sense because they travel so fast. Other visitors are eager to benefit from the magnetic waves emitted by the “magic mountain,”and find its “vortex,”or the secret passage towards a lost civilization. And yet others come looking for a treasure that an abbot is supposed to have hidden more than a hundred years ago.
Around a year ago,yurts started springing up in the middle of the forest,inhabited by tree huggers wanting to go back to a more community-based way of life through Indian singing and nonviolent communication. They don’t think that the end of the world is near …just the end of our world as we know it. Hippie clothes and dreadlocks now mix with perfectly white togas. But Bugarach is also attracting nature lovers who simply come to enjoy the great outdoors,and they have accessories of their own:backpacks and hiking boots.
By Angélique Négroni / Le Figaro / Worldcrunch TIME
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