This true story chronicles a recklessly adventurous soundman's experiences while working in the world's hot spots for CBS, NBC, and CBC television news, then being confronted with the truth of his actions:
I met a beautiful, covert mystic whose interests lay in the design of destiny, miracles, and apparently me, as she dangled mystical intrigues from her novel-in-progress to secure my help formatting it for the screen. As an average-looking man, whose naivet? had been savaged while working for television news in places like San Salvador and Beirut, I reasoned that a romance between us was no less absurd an idea than the premises she already embraced, and I decided to pursue her affections while assisting her.
Portentously, learning her plot was like sucking gelatine through a straw before she confessed that she needed help with a critical element: her story involved a rescue mission of such massive proportion and intricate design that rescuers had to undergo rigorous training before they could participate. Bonnie said my personal history made me an ideal stand-in for the development of a key character, and she asked me to go through some of these lessons so that she could accurately portray a trainee's resistance to it and subsequent development. As an afterthought, she added that without this background information / training her story would sound like pure fantasy, which is why the target was kept from students until they were ready to hear it. My fantasy about her caused me to agree to do this.
We subsequently worked closely, often combatively, as she kept me at bay like a bemused fox playing with a myopic rabbit, and the friction between us grew exponentially when my beliefs became examples of why the mission was necessary. Finally, she made a claim too ridiculous to contemplate, even within the context of our unfettered debates. She said that mankind's failure to recognize what we are really like has led us into an evolutionary cul-de-sac, and that an ancient teaching Spirit was telling her how this had happened through the proliferation of our damaging beliefs. We were on the cusp of a universal intervention, and that our return to sanity would begin by awakening masterful emissaries to their purpose.
Realizing I had been chasing a brilliant lunatic, I decided to cut my losses. However, while gathering the courage to abandon her otherwise delightful companionship and our challenging discussions, I had what would have been inexplicable experiences had she not surreptitiously prepared me for them. Because of these validating events, I had no choice but to believe her claims. Volumes 2 and 3 in this book continue my education.
