Flex Mentallo

They contemplated a special expedition to Inner Asia to retrieve the wisdom of Shambala - the project fell through as a result of intrigues within the Soviet intelligence service, as well as rival efforts of the Soviet Foreign Commissariat that sent its own expedition to Tibet in 1924. Bokii and Barchenko also experimented with Buddhist spiritual techniques. In his Moscow laboratory Barchenko was carrying out experiments on behalf of the Bolsheviks on mind control at a distance, with the aim of inculcating revolutionary fervour in the masses by the excitation of their brain cells.

Inspired by Theosophical lore and several visiting Mongol lamas, Gleb Bokii, the chief Bolshevik cryptographer and one of the bosses of the Soviet secret police, along with his writer friend Alexander Barchenko, embarked on a quest for Shambala, in an attempt to merge Kalachakra-tantra and ideas of Communism in the 1920s.

Until the twentieth century, Tibet and its ancient traditions were largely unknown to westerners. Rumors had persisted for four centuries that somewhere in Tibet there lay a fabled land whose inhabitants were the custodians of hidden wisdom. The legends said that they would emerge only when our greed has driven the world to the very brink of destruction. “Every seventh year, these teachers are believed to assemble in SCHAM-CHA-LO, the “happy land.” According to the general belief it is situated in the north-west of Tibet. Some place it within the unexplored central regions, inaccessible even to the fearless nomadic tribes; others hem it in between the range of the Gangdisri Mountains and the northern edge of the Gobi Desert, South and North, and the more populated regions of Khoondooz and Kashmir, of the Gya-Pheling (British-India), and China, West and East, which affords to the curious mind a pretty large latitude to locate it in. Others still place it between Namur Nur and the Kuen-Lun Mountains – but one and all firmly believe in Scham-bha-la, and speak of it as a fertile, fairy-like land, once an island, now an oasis of incomparable beauty, the place of meeting of the inheritors of the esoteric wisdom of the god-like inhabitants of the legendary island.” Madame Blavatsky, 1882

Tibet is the world’s largest and highest plateau. Chinese geologists have identified more than 130 minerals in Tibet with significant reserves of the world’s deposits of uranium, chromite, boron, lithium, borax, and iron. 10 major river systems originate from Tibet that sustain the life of about 47 per cent of the world’s total human population. It is often referred to as the ‘world’s third pole’ because it contains the biggest ice fields outside of the Arctic and Antarctic. No other area in the world is a water repository of such size. The Tibetan plateau is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world and the impact of melting glaciers could be catastrophic.

Shambala "It is very good to recite the mantra Om mani padme hum, but while you are doing it, you should be thinking on its meaning, for the meaning of the six syllables is great and vast... The first, Om symbolizes the practitioner's impure body, speech, and mind; it also symbolizes the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha. The path is indicated by the next four syllables. Mani, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factors of method: the altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love. The two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom. Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility. Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean that through the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha." The Dalai Lama

Conway: You know, when we were on that plane, I was fascinated by the way the shadow followed us. That silly shadow! Racing along over mountains and valleys, covering ten times the distance of the plane, and yet always there to greet us... with outstretched arms when we landed. And I've been thinking that, somehow, you're that plane, and I'm that silly shadow. That all my life I've been rushing up and down hills, leaping rivers, crashing over obstacles, never dreaming that one day that beautiful thing in flight would land on this earth and into my arms.

Eventually he stumbles into a remote village, more dead than alive, and news of his survival reaches the outside world. "During those last ten months, that man has done the most astounding things. Well, he learned how to fly, stole an Army plane and got caught, put into jail and escaped, all in an amazingly short space of time, but this is only the beginning of his adventure. He begged, cajoled, fought, always pushing forward to the Tibetan frontier. Everywhere I went, I heard the most amazing stories of the man's adventures. Positively astounding, till eventually, I trailed him to the most extreme outposts in Tibet. Of course, he had already gone, but his memory, oh, oh... His memory will live with those natives for the rest of their lives. 'The man who was not human,' they called him. They'll never forget the devil-eyed stranger who six times tried to go over a mountain pass that no other human being dared to travel, and six times was forced back by the severest storms. They'll never forget the madman who stole their food and clothing, who they locked up in their barracks but who fought six of their guards to escape. Why, their soldiers are still talking about their pursuit to overtake him and shuddering at the memory. He led them the wildest chase through their own country. And finally, he disappeared over that very mountain pass that they themselves dared not travel. And that, gentlemen, was the last that any known human being saw of Robert Conway." Lord Gainsford

Realizing his terrible mistake, Robert frantically searches for a way to return through the snowy mountains to the hidden valley - a tiny, desperate figure against the immensity of the Himalayas. But he is lost.

Out on the narrow ledge leading away from the valley, an avalanche buries the Tibetan porters, and only the three white travelers survive. Maria dies an old wrinkled and withered woman, aging by half a century, the time she spent in the valley. George screams out: "Look at her face! Her face! Look at her face!" Mad with grief George commits suicide by throwing himself off a cliff ledge.

Sondra frantically races after him and calls out: "Bob!" but cannot reach him. She collapses at the cold entrance, the wind and snow into which Robert has disappeared raging beyond.

At the gateway to the world, Robert looks back.

Half persuaded that he has been deceived, Robert reluctantly agrees to leave with them, but cannot bear to tell Sondra.

George believes that Robert's story about the Lama is completely mad. He demands that they return to the outside world and take Maria with them. Robert warns his brother that if Maria leaves, she will age and perhaps die. George: She's a fragile thing that can only live where fragile things are loved. Take her out of this valley and she'll fade away like an echo. Maria: I'll die if I have to stay here another minute...Look at me, Mr. Conway, do I look like an old woman? Is this the skin of an old woman? Look into my eyes. Are these the eyes of an old woman?

Father Perrault dies believing he has at last found a worthy successor. Conway explains to his brother that he has been chosen to replace him.

Conway: It's inconceivable. Sondra: What? Conway: All of it. Father Perrault and his magnificent history. This place hidden away from the rest of the world with its glorious concepts. And now you come along and confuse me entirely. Sondra: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was to be the light. But why do I confuse you? Am I so strange? Conway: Oh, on the contrary, you're not strange. And that, in itself, is confusing. I had the same idea about, about Shangri-La. A sense that I've been here before, that I belonged here. Sondra: I'm so glad. Conway: I can't quite explain it, but everything is somehow familiar. The very air I breathe, the Lamasery with its feet rooted in the good earth of this fertile valley while its head explores the eternal. All the beautiful things I see - these cherry blossoms, you. All are somehow familiar. I've been kidnapped and brought here against my will. A crime, a great crime, yet I accept it amiably, with the same warm amiability one tolerates only from a very dear and close friend. Why? Can you tell me why? Sondra: Perhaps because you've always been a part of Shangri-La without knowing it. Conway: I wonder. Sondra: I'm sure of it, just as I'm sure there's a wish for Shangri-La in everyone's heart.

Sondra:I saw a man whose life was empty...Oh I know, it was full of this and full of that. But you were accomplishing nothing. You were going nowhere, and you knew it. As a matter of fact, all I saw was a little boy whistling in the dark.

Conway is told that he was actually selected and summoned not by Father Perrault but by Sondra because of his idealistic writings of a utopian society free from tension, poverty and strife.

Robert is taken by Chang to meet the High Lama. "Look at the world today. Is there anything more pitiful? What madness there is! What blindness! What unintelligent leadership! A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity crashing headlong against each other, compelled by an orgy of greed and brutality. The time must come, my friend, when this orgy will spend itself, when brutality and the lust for power must perish by its own sword. Against that time is why I avoided death and am here and why you were brought here. For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life." Conway belatedly notices a walking stick, and that the High Lama has only one leg. He is amazed to realize that the High Lama and Father Perrault are one and the same, now more than 200 years old.

His brother meets and falls in love with Maria, a beautiful Russian woman who appears no more than 20 years of age, but who actually came to the valley in 1888. His brother is eager to return to civilization with Robert and wants to take Maria with them.

Conway sees a beautiful young woman bathing in a pool and wonders who she is.

According to Chang, the community was formed in 1713 by a Belgian priest named Father Perrault who stumbled into the valley half-frozen to death, and amputated his frost-bitten leg by himself when he found there were no doctors. Later, the natives told him that he could have saved his leg because there is no disease in the valley. Nor do people age as in the world outside. After building Shangri-La, he was 108 years old and still very active.

The valley is populated by a peaceful community.

Beyond, they suddenly find themselves in a beautiful, warm, fertile land, called 'the Valley of the Blue Moon.'

After a long journey they eventually reach a small pass.