John Cusack, the Mayans and an array of melodramatic doomsday theorists would all have us believe that this year, 2011, will be our last before the apocalypse.

But humanity has been predicting the end of the world seemingly since the beginning of the world, so the hype surrounding 2012 is nothing new.

Obviously, our predictions have always been wrong, but what if we’re right about the end of the world this time?

To err on the side of caution, I decided to talk to some people who possess some useful insight on the future: psychics. But before I could ask them for their thoughts on the upcoming apocalypse, I had to make sure they were legitimate.

Kim Smith, a certified member of both the American and Canadian Association of Psychics, advises those looking to get a reading done to do research before they go and to avoid hotlines as well as those who charge large fees and claim to require multiple sessions.

“No reputable psychic will offer a ‘guarantee’ either,” Smith writes in an email.

Smith’s predictions about the year 2012 are anything but apocalyptic, describing the upcoming year as one of “tentative hope.”

“I believe that a major energetic shift will occur,” she says. “Most of the shift will be outwardly subtle and not be noticed until after, when scientists and other experts note changes in ‘normal’ occurrences.”

With the advice from Smith, I sauntered into Shifting Sands Metaphysical to meet with Winnipeg psychic Denis Maurice Prairie.

Prairie, who says he has always been aware of his psychic abilities, views the spiritual world as having two distinct sides: dark and light.

Shockingly (or, perhaps, obviously), Prairie reveals that he knows of Winnipeg politicians who have “gone to the dark side.”

In the middle of the interview, Prairie asks for my ring and begins rolling it around in his hand, practicing “psychometry,” a form of extra-sensory perception with objects.

He suddenly breaks from his focus, and asks, “You were shy at a young age, weren’t you?”

Indeed, I was.

As I ask Prairie about the possibility of the upcoming apocalypse in 2012, he fervently shakes his head, smirking.

“After 2012 we will develop a higher consciousness ... From now until then there will be many dysfunctional marriages, people cheating and being unfaithful, but those who are spiritual will be more enlightened,” he says.

Ian was the next psychic I visited; from him I received a full, and eerily accurate, reading. As opposed to others I had visited, Ian looked away from me and toward his spirit guide while doing my reading.

His thoughts about the apparently imminent end of the world?

“When you say ... ‘the world,’ which world are we talking about?’” he quips. “Is that the world that the media portrays? Because that is just all bullshit. It’s hysteria ... To me, it’s making the lowest common denominator lower.”

Ian believes that the end of the world is not yet nigh, but that this generation needs to seek change for itself.

“(Young people) feel very disconnected and, to me, that’s the whole problem with Facebook,” he says. “Younger people are much more group oriented; it’s safer.”

My next reading was with Trevor, a psychic who has been doing readings since he was 17. Trevor has experienced the evolution of the psychic culture shift from theatrical restaurant readings to intimate opportunities to seek guidance in an increasingly secular society.

I felt as though I were naked during the reading because he could sense the most obscurely intimate details about my personal life, but he addressed these issues in a comforting and often humorous manner.

Trevor used tarot cards to do my reading, explaining that the cards act as a vehicle for the information to flow through.

Trevor emphasizes that psychics are not gurus; they cannot guide a person’s entire life, but can be an adjunct to a person’s own intuition.

“A big part is helping people to see that their experience and their self is much bigger than the immediate conditions that are defining them,” he says.

Trevor dismisses the 2012 apocalypse just as quickly as the other psychics I spoke to did. He prefers to focus on the current mass consciousness of our culture and what that will mean.

“I think that everybody has a purpose, and places have a purpose themselves. Winnipeg is a unique environment that I’m feeling is going to be a kind of centre in terms of revolutionizing things,” he says. “People forget that (Winnipeg) ... has always been a place where rights issues come through. It’s part of what this city is. It’s part of the potential that it has to fulfill.”

Published in Volume 65, Number 15 of The Uniter (January 13, 2011)