Preface

Page 3

Standing on this side of the experience seven years later, I look back at that time with very different eyes. The suspicions that had prompted me to feel that "things were not as they seemed," having been realized beyond my wildest imaginings. Over these last seven years, new dimensions of reality have presented themselves, mythic dreams have become reality and a new multi-dimensional universe has been opened and explored. It almost seems too much to believe and all of it might have remained unwritten and confined to our personal dream world had it not been for the interest of Oliver Stone.

The Grocer, Kabul Marketplace, 1983

Having gone to him with a concept for the Voice after the movie JFK we found Stone to have an avid interest in the power of dreams, having named his own company IXTLAN after a Carlos Casteneda book on the subject.
But Stone's interest was for Afghanistan and from the moment we met, our dreams seemed to slip into mythic overdrive. Materializing with a nearly three-dimensional holographic quality, Liz found herself nightly in elaborate settings, Greek Temples, French Chateaus. There, in shimmering Versailles-like palaces of light, Oliver would listen to her hopes and dreams and tell her of his plans to make her dreams come true.

Risks of the Adventure, 1982

My dreams assumed a more business-like quality, meeting Oliver in production somewhere in Afghanistan, discussing the risks of the adventure. The dreams even assumed the practical side as we'd discuss expenses in a dream, then receive a check in the mail the very next morning. But as the story of Afghanistan began to unfold, its mystical aspects assumed center stage. Afghanistan was the most significant geopolitical event of the late twentieth century but it was clearly something more.

City Graveyard, Kabul 1982

Afghanistan had been a storehouse of secret knowledge for many thousands of years. Kipling, the soldier's poet had written about its mystical allure and the U.S. Congress had even acknowledged the mystical powers of its people. In its report dated January 3, 1985 it requested the power of "the Mujihadeen leadership, through their mystical tribal commu­nications network, put an end to the production of opium, morphine base and heroin in their territory. Isolated and withdrawn it had preserved ancient secrets in almost total obscurity, touched only by the occasional holy warrior, drug dealer and the most esoteric of the intelligence community.

Continue to Page 4 of the Preface

Return to the Top