From the Back Cover
Shangri-La - a hidden world!
For more than 60 years, readers have been fascinated by the world of Shangri-La described in James Hilton's Lost Horizon. He portrayed it as an island of sanity in a world gone mad; a place where people live for hundreds of years; a lifeboat preserving humanity's fragile cultural heritage in peace and secrecy, waiting for a time when demonic passions shall have been exhausted.
That was in 1932. Year after year, the little enclave survived, waiting through the 30s, through the years of World War II, through the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet in 1950, through the first long years of the Cold War. In all that time, Shangri-La remained unspoiled and undiscovered.
Messenger takes up the story in 1962, when an American pilot on a secret military mission is forced down by engine failure while over the wildest, remotest part of Tibet. George Chiari finds himself guest - and prisoner - of Shangri-La, whose remoteness and secrecy have preserved it from all invaders. There Chiari finds the Westerners whose story Hilton told - Hugh Conway, Henry Barnard, and Roberta Brinklow - still in the prime of life, enjoying the vastly extended life and youth that is Shangri-La's unique gift.
But he finds more than that. He finds a new way to live. Indeed, as time goes on, Chiari discovers that Shangri-La's chief gift is not longer life, but better, deeper, life. And he begins a long journey of self-transformation.
How far that journey takes him, and the extent to which the outside world had changed in the meantime, becomes evident only 17 years later, when they hidden valley is discovered by another American flyer - working for the Chinese government!
Then it becomes a question of how to preserve Shangri-La from the outside world - and how to help the outside world preserve itself.
For more than 60 years, readers have been fascinated by the world of Shangri-La described in James Hilton's Lost Horizon. He portrayed it as an island of sanity in a world gone mad; a place where people live for hundreds of years; a lifeboat preserving humanity's fragile cultural heritage in peace and secrecy, waiting for a time when demonic passions shall have been exhausted.
That was in 1932. Year after year, the little enclave survived, waiting through the 30s, through the years of World War II, through the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet in 1950, through the first long years of the Cold War. In all that time, Shangri-La remained unspoiled and undiscovered.
Messenger takes up the story in 1962, when an American pilot on a secret military mission is forced down by engine failure while over the wildest, remotest part of Tibet. George Chiari finds himself guest - and prisoner - of Shangri-La, whose remoteness and secrecy have preserved it from all invaders. There Chiari finds the Westerners whose story Hilton told - Hugh Conway, Henry Barnard, and Roberta Brinklow - still in the prime of life, enjoying the vastly extended life and youth that is Shangri-La's unique gift.
But he finds more than that. He finds a new way to live. Indeed, as time goes on, Chiari discovers that Shangri-La's chief gift is not longer life, but better, deeper, life. And he begins a long journey of self-transformation.
How far that journey takes him, and the extent to which the outside world had changed in the meantime, becomes evident only 17 years later, when they hidden valley is discovered by another American flyer - working for the Chinese government!
Then it becomes a question of how to preserve Shangri-La from the outside world - and how to help the outside world preserve itself.
About the Author
For background information on Frank DeMarco, and articles reflecting his current thinking and experiences, visit hologrambooks.com
