Geryl
The cover of Patrick Geryl's 2007 book, "How To Survive 2012." www.howtosurvive2012.com

Belgian doomsday survival author Patrick Geryl has made enough money to spend on preparing for a global catastrophe in 2012 by writing books about it and what other people can do to prepare.

Geryl, who wrote How to Survive 2012 among several other eschatological books, told CNNMoney he has already plunked down more than $130,000 on survival preparations: a bunker in South Africa and an ever-expanding list of gear, including guns, a radiation meter, dry goods and condoms -- for carrying water, of course.

According to Geryl's predictions, the end times will come in the form of a magnetic pole reversal on Dec. 21, 2012, the date when the Mayan long-count calendar reaches the end of its over 5,000-year cycle.

Immense earthquakes and kilometers-high tidal waves will torment the surface of the earth, Geryl wrote on his website. At the same time a pole shift will occur. In just a couple of hours the earth's crust will shift thousands of kilometers. In this short period the United States and Europe will be completely destroyed.

Geryl plans to escape to South Africa, which he believes will escape the worst of the cataclysm as the continents shift northward to the pole. He told CNNMoney that he is considering sailing there on an unsinkable yacht with double walls insulated with foam, but can't afford the $100,000 price tag yet.

Once there, he hopes to rebuild society with any survivors.

In his earlier books, Geryl posits that the event was predicted by the Maya and ancient Egyptians, both of whom he claims were descendants of members of the mythical advanced civilization of Atlantis.

The Atlanteans had highly evolved astronomical knowledge and were able to exactly predict the previous worldwide flood in 9792 B.C., Geryl wrote on his website. They built tens of thousands of boats and escaped to South America and Egypt.

If he's going to get that yacht, he better sell a couple more thousand books.