Today’s date is believed by some to be a spiritual signal linked to 2012 Mayan prophecies of both doom and spiritual renewal.

The ancient Mayan long-count calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, and some people believe that this date will usher in a new spiritual era, or even doomsday. Nov. 11, 2011 most likely became linked with Dec. 21, 2012, when believers noticed that the U.S. Naval Observatory had set the exact time of the 2012 winter solstice for 11:11 Universal Time on Dec. 21, according to John Hoopes, a scholar of Maya history at the University of Kansas.

“It’s essentially based on the notion of synchronicities,” Hoopes told LiveScience. Synchronicities are meaningful coincidences, he said. And while everyone has a psychological tendency to find minding in random patterns the subcultures that believe in 2012 mythology tend to be those that dabble in psychedelics and cannabis, drugs that increase feelings of synchronicity.

“If it seems like the 2012 mythology was thought up by people on drugs, it’s because it was,” Hoopes said.

Indeed, the U.S. Naval Observatory now lists the official time of the 2012 winter solstice, when Earth’s tilt is angled as far away as possible from the sun, at 11:11 Universal Time on Dec. 21. This has not stopped 2012 believers from focusing on the 11:11 time.

In part, this is because 11:11 mythology has been floating around online for some time. The website 1111spiritguardians.com holds that noticing a clock when the time is 11:11 is a signal from “1,111 fun-loving Spirit Guardians, or Angels.” Other times, such as 12:12, 10:10 or 12:34 are messages, too, according to the site.

These numbers may seem special to people because they stick in our minds, Hoopes said. No one remembers looking at the clock when the numbers don’t make a pattern.

“People are more likely to remember 11:11 than they are, say, 4:29 or 6:53 or 3:17 or something like that,” Hoopes said.

Psychologists call the temptation to find patterns in random data pareidolia. This phenomenon is also responsible for visions of the Virgin Mary in toast or other objects.

New Age adherents have predicted everything from end-of-world scenarios to the ushering in of a new spiritual era.

“The buzz on the net and on Twitter and elsewhere is that 11/11/11 is the unofficial start of the 2012 metaphysical year,” Hoopes said.

Even moviemakers are cashing in on the action, with a horror/thriller movie titled “11-11-11” set for release on the date. The plot of the movie centers on a scary, mysterious force that will enter the Earthly realm at 11:11 on 11/11/11. 

Non-commercial predictions tend to be more positive than doom-centered, however. The number 11 is seen as a signal that all people are one, for example, and the date is more likely to be seen as an end to greed and disconnection than as an end to humanity. That puts 11/11/11 prophets in a different class than those such as Harold Camping, who predicted a Biblical doomsday in late October.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45248022/ns/technology_and_science-science/