© Angel ChevresttAPOCALYPSE NO! Amid guffaws, Doomsday "prophet" Robert Fitzpatrick (center), who spent $140,000 on Rapture get-the-word-out ads, counts down the seconds to the realization that it isn't over till it's over -- and it's NOT over!
When the world did not end at precisely 6 p.m. yesterday, Doomsday prophet Robert Fitzpatrick's fragile grasp on reality crumbled.
"I don't understand why nothing is happening," said Fitzpatrick, flipping through his Bible for clues to why Rapture failed to show up on time.
"It's not a mistake. I did what I had to do. I did what the Bible said," he said, looking increasingly disheveled and confused as he stood in Times Square before mocking crowds.
A kooky Christian cult predicted that corpses would line the streets and deadly earthquakes would swallow up sinners beginning at 11:59 p.m. Jerusalem time on May 21, 2011.
Fitzpatrick, 60, a retired MTA engineer who became the city's self-appointed siren of the Apocalypse, spent $140,000 of his life savings on 3,219 bus, subway and commuter-rail ads trumpeting the coming "global earthquake" and urging sinners to repent to Jesus.
Fitzpatrick is a follower of Harold Camping, 89, an Oakland, Calif., evangelist who promised that on Judgment Day the righteous would be sucked up to heaven while sinners -- even children -- were to rot among fires, earthquakes and tsunamis engulfing the Earth. People would slowly die off until Oct. 21, 2011, when God completely KO'd the earth and all of its inhabitants.
Even cynical city dwellers got into the spirit of Doomsday, with New Yorkers hawking T-shirts, holding Judgment Day parties and Mayor Bloomberg deadpanning that he'd suspend alternate-side parking if the Earth crumbled.
Fitzpatrick's self-published tome on his predictions, The Doomsday Code, earned $1,400 in royalties, he said. But his publicity stunt wasn't about getting checks. On Judgment Day, after all, money wouldn't matter.
Yesterday, the doomsayer ate a simple breakfast of toast and righteous "Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Cereal" at home and boned up on the word of the Lord with his blue Bible. He tossed a few peanuts to squirrels in his back yard, though all the animals were supposed to die later that day in a "fireball."
"I expect this to be my last meal," he said solemnly after a light lunch of chicken tenders and spinach.
The gloomy Gus visited his sickly mother in a Staten Island nursing home one last time and prayed to reunite with her when they went knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door.
After 6 p.m. came and went, Fitzpatrick blamed himself for the wrong date with Doomsday, as "God is never wrong." He schlepped on the R train back to the Staten Island Ferry and pondered his next step.
"I didn't water my plants, I didn't do my dishes before I left. I didn't expect to go back home," Fitzpatrick conceded.
Additional reporting by Aaron Feis and Annais Morales
This man's thoughts have literally caused an evolution of consciousness. Think about how many people actually considered death on the 21st. Some people truly believed (such as myself, i'm not absolved from the rest) that all life on earth would be gone. What kind of an impact does that have on people? To think that this passed through ROUGHLY 10 million people (only a guesstimate, and really low balling it) in NYC alone? What about on a global scale? Information spreads faster then ever.
Who ever took that seriously considered the death of themselves, their families, their friends, and everyone around them. They considered what the world would be like without life. This is HUGE. How many people have never truly confronted death before then? How many people were awaken to the idea that there are false prophets? Who awoke to the fact that we cannot blindly believe the mass hysteria? Who saw what truly matters to them? Who realized that their life is precious? How many people realized how powerful the mind is?And this event brings up some rather speculative questions.Why did NYC allow the spreading of these messages? How much FEAR did they spread? Why did they do nothing in calming the population and reassuring that the event of total destruction in a moment's notice is unpractical?
This day acted as another evolution of consciousness. The Mayan calendar is a representation of consciousness evolving through time and May 20th was the beginning of a new wave of consciousness. It was the beginning of "Another period of Light. In nature this is the development of a root system and the second set of leaves that will be a permanent part of the plant. It is the establishment of the new consciousness as viable. In human history during this section lies or failed systems are disclosed so that progress is not blocked." This doom sayer provided us with another moment of clarity. He showed us that lies exist, and they are very much real. He showed us so much about ourselves and the world. He has given me a breath of fresh air. He has given me greater gratitude for the very existence I hold. He has shown the world something.