No one event typified the New Age movement of the 1980s more than the Harmonic Convergence. The Convergence, marked by a gathering of 144,000 persons at more than 350 sacred locations around the globe on 16 and 17 August 1987,was the brainchild of Jose Argulles, an art historian from Colorado. Its goal was to generate a universal energy that would help create world peace and harmony. The rituals of dance, prayer, and prophecy were expected to reach out to the stars and attract extraterrestrial powers that would help people on Earth achieve peace. Argulles claimed he came up with the idea for this event from studying ancient Mayan and Aztec calendars. He found patterns, or "great cycles," that occurred throughout the ages where the earth sent out a beacon to the stars and rejuvenated itself. He calculated that the time had come for another one of...