Sedona resident Peter Gersten was left high and dry last night after a vortex failed to open at the base of Bell Rock, the popular red rock hiking spot. Gersten had been planning to leap into the "portal" last night. Instead, he apparently wandered home in an anticlimactic ending to his Doomsday stunt.
"He went home," says Yavapai County Sheriff's Office spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn. "His earthly home in Sedona."
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Sedona Man Plans on Jumping Off a Tall Rock on December 21, Believes He'll Land in a Portal
Here's Gersten's original explanation of what he was doing on Bell Rock all day yesterday:
"On the Winter Solstice of 2012 at exactly 11:11 UT a cosmic portal will open in Sedona Arizona and a leap of faith - from the top of Bell Rock - will propel me through its opening," he wrote.
A couple months ago, Gersten told us in an e-mail, "I will be on the top of Bell Rock on 12-21-2012 from at least 11:00 am to either midnight or the manifestation of an extraordinary event - whichever comes first."
Gersten, a retired lawyer -- who, at one point, became "professionally involved with the UFO phenomenon" -- detailed his lead-up to the opening of a portal at the base of Sedona's Bell Rock for at least two years.
The Mayan calendar and Doomsday prophecies are likely culprits behind Gersten's actions.
Here's what Gersten himself said:
Most of you will think that I am delusional and that my insane act will certainly result in my death. Death is inevitable - at least nowadays - and 100 years from now it won't matter whether I died in 2012 or 2013 or even 2020. But I believe that some type of cosmic portal will be opening at that time and place and that an opportunity will present itself. I fully expect that it will either lead to the next level of this cosmic program; freedom from an imprisoning time-loop; a magical Martian-like bubble; or something equally as exotic.In March 2012 I will reach 70 years of age and nine months later we arrive at the cosmic coordinate. I think it will then be time for me to move on - in one form or another. I'd like to see what else our Cosmic Computer has to offer.
Well, that's that. We can all get on with our holidays now.
Matthew Hendley contributed to this story.
