Amid answering both telephone calls and e-mails at his cluttered desk, Ronald Hubbard can't help but take a moment to ponder how is business of selling bomb shelters is booming today thanks to some people centuries ago saying the world would end on December 21, 2012.

Hubbard explains that an astrophysicist buying his shelter told him, "On December 21st, our Earth, our Sun and the center of the galaxy will align. Which will cause the Sun to be knocked off balance and emit solar flares. Worst case scenario, the flares will emit radiation that will kill 98 percent of the Earth's population."

Moscow has added 5,000 shelters this year and other American bomb shelter companies like Vivos recording a 1000 percent sales increase in the past two years. Astronomers and Mayan experts agree that December 21 date with destiny will come and pass without incident. Perhaps after that date, bomb shelter customers and doomsday theorists will latch onto a new threat, just like they did after Y2K.

Originally a door manufacturer, Hubbard recently transitioned to the resurgent bomb shelter market. Walking through a shelter, he demonstrated the many functions. He pointed to a solar power generator, an air filtration unit and a water filter. He said he can live for a year in his shelters, which cost in the high five-figures.

Hugh Ross, an astronomer who's researched deep space at Caltech, said he does not think anything will happen this month. Ross said the alignment of Earth, Sun and Galactic center happens every year on the winter solstice.

"The perpetuators of the 2012 Doomsday theory all point to this galactic alignment being a problem," he said. "The only bodies worth considering for any gravitational influence on the Earth are the Moon and the Sun."

Ross rebuts claims made by the supposed scientists who visited Hubbard. Ross later exhibits a laundry list of doomsday scenarios all scientifically refuted by his organization, "Reasons to Believe."

At NASA, astronomer David Sibeck studies the relationship between the Sun and the Earth and is equally as baffled as Ross as to which scientist purchased a bomb shelter. Hubbard won't reveal the name of any customers.

Sibeck said that severe solar storms and coronal mass ejections from the Sun could disrupt power. On the eve of the American Civil War, the Carrington effect was described as a powerful solar storm that shut down the most advanced technology of the day, the telegraph.
In our era with increased reliance on GPS and other satellite based communication, surely we will be more inconvenienced by solar flare activity. But Sibeck is unconcerned with the expected peak in solar activity for late 2012 and 2013.

"We have been subject to solar flares for hundreds of years," he said. "Except for our technology it will not affect anyone on Earth."

While mainstream science does not see anything alarming in the next couple weeks, Hubbard has his reasons to build his own shelter. Hubbard claims that he has clients who include high-ranking politicians and military generals. He explains their fears. "They come to me with a very serious face. Looking upset to be spending their hard earned money. And that scares me." The need for such shelters may not be foolhardy as one Mayan scholar suggests.

Mark Van Stone, a professor and Mayan glyph expert from Southwestern College, Chula Vista, said the Mayan calendar doesn't end Dec. 21.

Over a Mayan meal at the Guatemalan Amalia's restaurant, Van Stone said he was awestruck by the amount of Mayan 2012 literature at bookstores which he says is 90 percent fantasy.

"Since we know so little about them," he said. "We can almost say anything we want."

Flipping through an interactive book, he points to infamous Monument 6, which is the only reference the Mayans have on the Dec 21, 2012 date, Van Stone says. It says, "4 how, 3 kon keen. It will be the end of 13 bak-tuns."

After this, the stones break and Van Stone says Doomsday theorists have latched onto this broken tablet and have used Murphy's law that "What can go wrong will go wrong" to justify the Armageddon hypothesis. 

After further decipherment, Van Stone can conclude that the tablet would say, "This god. 9-Dog-Tree, the god of palaces, is going to get dressed, he is going to wear a costume, and he is going to impersonate a god."

Van Stone translates 9-Dog-tree, the god of palaces as being the deity Bolon Yokte, who is a lower ranking god for the Mayans. Normally it is king's who impersonates the gods on important dates, however this tablet implies that Bolon Yokte will be impersonating another god for an unknown reason. The glyph is puzzling but not unique, since Mayan kings would often refer to dates in the future, especially a date like Dec. 21, 2012 which was considered auspicious.

If we take this stone literally, we should see a low ranking Mayan god get dressed to impersonate another god on Friday the 21st. But Mayan texts never indicate that gods would interact with humans, so it is unlikely that we will see a god come down from the sky and put on a costume.

Van Stone's cheery demeanor gives way to more chilling prophecies. He reckons that people bought into the 2012 theory because the world is going to hell with climate change, economic and political unrest.

"Humans are driving the planet towards a cliff, and no one is control," he said. "Which is why some are relieved if Bolon Yokte shows up and grabs the wheel." Indeed, Van Stone is not against Ronal's business

"Maybe with the way humanity is going," he said. "It might be a good idea to keep a year's worth of supplies in your basement, like all the Mormons do."

Marie D. Jones, a bestselling author and radio host who has written many books on the Mayan Doomsday theory, said, "If something catastrophic like that happens. I would rather go to the next level than live in a bomb shelter for three years and come out to a wasteland."

"The Mayans never talked about a galactic alignment," Jones adds. "That was something added on by white people."

Hubbard says he doesn't believe anything, but that he beliefs enough to be prepared.

"I'm not a nutcase," he said. "I checked the facts and got prepared to be safe than sorry." 

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Reach Byron Tseng here.