Jose Arguelles | Inspired '87 event, 72

In 1983, art historian Jose Arguelles was driving down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles to return a rental car when a vision bloomed: On Aug. 16, 1987, a critical mass of humanity would congregate at sacred spots around the world to bond with the cosmos and prevent global catastrophe.

The theory behind the proposed happening was farfetched, involving extraterrestrial Mayans and synchronicity with the universe, but at sunrise on the appointed day, Mr. Arguelles' call was answered.

Around the world - including at Mount Shasta in California, in Central Park in New York, at Machu Picchu in Peru, and the Great Pyramids in Egypt - thousands danced, hugged, solar-charged crystals, and chanted "om." Mr. Arguelles, stationed near Boulder, Colo., blew a conch shell 144 times.

Was the occasion a "moronic convergence," as spoofed in the Doonesbury comic strip? Or was it the Harmonic Convergence, as Mr. Arguelles named it?

Regardless, his idea resonated with a generation of seekers riding the New Age wave of the 1980s.

Mr. Arguelles was planning another convergence for 2012 when he died March 23 at his retreat in central Australia. He was 72 and died of peritonitis, said his partner and research assistant, Stephanie South.

The foundation for the harmonic convergence was laid out in Mr. Arguelles' 1987 book, The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology.

Based on his interpretation of the ancient Mayan calendar, he determined that Aug. 16-17 of 1987 offered a crucial window in planetary time to correct Earth's "dissonances" and usher in the final 25 years of a 5,125-year cycle that would end in 2012. His book popularized the idea that 2012 would bring an epochal shift.

Academics skewered Mr. Arguelles as a crackpot.

After earning a doctorate in art history in 1969 from the University of Chicago, Mr. Arguelles taught briefly at Princeton University before moving on to the University of California, Davis, and later to Washington's Evergreen State University.

- Los Angeles Times