There is a new movement afoot based upon a reading of the Mayan calendar in which they derive that on December 21^st of 2012 the world will come to an end.   At a site http://www.greatdreams.com/mynproph.htm by Dee Finney the logic which generates this conclusion is laid out.  It is based both on numbers and their mythology.  However, the teachings were not the Mayan alone: 

Thousands of years ago, the sacred teachings from the cosmos were deposited in many
magnetic centers throughout the world: Chan Chan (Peru), Huete (Spain), Tulle (France),  Hu-nan (China), Bethlehem (Israel), Tih (Egypt), Mississippi (United States), Humac (Brazil), Nagasaki (Japan), Mul (England), Maya (Russia, Naga (India), and Chukotz (Bering Strait). The names of all these places are of Maya origin, which confirms that, in different periods of times, the Maya were present in these sacred magnetic centers.

Dee Finney is not alone, there are links at his site included one to the discovers José & Lloydine Argüelles and other links.  Jose Arguelles, an art professor, studied the Nicholas Roerich Peace Pack and the prophecies of the Mayan calendar. This led to a series of publications: 

Following his unraveling of the Mayan calendar code in his international best seller, The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology (1987), Arguelles and his wife continued scientific and mathematic investigations of the timing frequency underlying the Mayan calendar system of http://www.greatdreams.com/mynproph.htm. The result of their research was the discovery of the 12:60 - 13:20 timing frequencies and the breakthrough set of tools and proofs of the mathematics of fourth-dimensional time, Dreamspell: the Journey of Timeship Earth 2013 (1991, 1992), the Thirteen Moon Calendar (1992), A Treatise on Time Viewed from its Own Dimension (1992), and finally, Telektonon: the Talking Stone of Prophesy, the thirteen moon calendar, prophesy, game, and universal peace plan (1993-94).

Professor Arguelles site is full of links, for those who wish to pursue this topic further.  Moreover, Professor Arguelles has published at least 24 esoteric books-- available at amazon.com

For those who like to investigate the esoteric, these two sites will send you on a journey.  

This belief has generate an articles in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Arg%C3%BCelle.