Photon Belt

Photon Belt

The Photon Belt (also called the Photon Band, Photon Ring, Manasic Ring, or Golden Nebula) is a spiritual belief, largely linked to some parts of the New Age Movement. It postulates that a belt or ring of photons is going to envelop the Earth, causing a cataclysm and/or initiating a spiritual transition (referred to variously as a "shift in consciousness," the "Great Shift," the "Shift of the Ages," the "Zero Point," or the "Ascension Point"), with the time period leading up to "the Shift" referred to as "The Quickening." The concept of the Photon Belt also ties into various phenomena including belief in extraterrestrial intelligence and 2012 millenarianism.

The core of the Photon Belt beliefs is that there is an immense belt of photons orbiting around the Pleiades. According to some New Age beliefs, Earth will pass through this belt of photons, resulting either in humanity's elevation to a higher plane of existence, the end of the world, or both. Authors Virginia Essene (born 1928) and Sheldon Nidle write that the Photon Belt represents a temporary window for spiritual transition during which time humans can reach a higher level of existence, which they term the "galactic" level.

The concept of the Photon Belt was first presented in 1950 by Paul Otto Hesse (died 1958) in his work Der Jüngste Tag (The Last Day). This concept was repeated and expanded upon by Samael Aun Weor in a lecture he gave in 1977 titled "The Rings of Alcyone," in September 1979, when Tierrah Boykins and Victoria Stiritz wrote a book, titled "The End", and in August 1981, when an article on the topic titled "And So Tomorrow" by Shirley Kemp was published in the Australian International UFO Flying Saucer Research Magazine.