ike Dr. Archibald Polk, I started this novel with a fascination in human intuition. Does it exist? Where does it come from? So as usual, I thought I’d end this adventure by noting where many of the ideas and facts originated, dividing them by subject matter.

THE GREEK ORACLE OF DELPHI. I spent some time in the prologue on the myths and realities surrounding the Oracle. Whether these women could truly see the future or not might be up for debate, but what we do know for certain is that the Delphic Oracle’s prophecies were indeed fundamental in changing the course of Western civilization. As to the details—such as the mystery of the capital epsilon and the strange hallucinogenic gases—they are all factual. A great book for anyone interested in exploring this subject in greater detail is The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Message of Ancient Delphi by William J. Broad.

THE JASONS. This organization of scientists who work alongside the Defense Department is a real organization and is still operating. For a truly absorbing read into their history and accomplishments, pick up a copy of The Jasons: The Secret History of Science’s Postwar Elite by Ann Fink-beiner.

PROJECT STARGATE. This was a real program run out of the Stanford Research Institute and funded by the CIA. Their strange successes into remote viewing are factual.

BRAIN MANIPULATION. There was much speculation in the book about brain plasticity, about augmentation with transcranial magnetic stimulation, and about how humans are “natural-born cyborgs.” How much of that is true? All of it. For an enlightening and entertaining exploration into the mystery of the human brain, I suggest you read The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge, M.D. As to Monk’s induced amnesia, there are chemical techniques employed today that can erase selected memories, specifically through the use of propranolol.

CAN WE SEE THE FUTURE? Nobel Prize–winning scientists say yes. The experiments on gamblers and soldiers described in this book are real and have been repeated at universities around the world. According to those distinguished researchers, we do seem capable of seeing for about three seconds into the future. How is that possible? That remains unanswered. As to the stories about the amazing savants in India—like the Indian boy who was taken to Oxford and the woman who met Einstein—they are based on fact. You can read more about these histories in Intuition: Knowing Beyond Logic by Osho.

INDIA AND GYPSIES. The history of the Romani and their roots in the Punjab region in India is factual. This origin is also the reason the chakra wheel is prominently centered on the Romani flag. As to India’s caste system, the plight and status of the “untouchable” classes is a true concern. In fact, some historians believe it was just such a friction among castes that drove the Gypsy forefathers out of India. For more details about this struggle, there is a disturbing article in National Geographic in the June 2003 issue, titled “India’s Untouchables.” Oh, and if you’re ever visiting the Taj Mahal, there truly is a revolving restaurant atop the Deedar-e-Taj Hotel. I recommend the pani pani or golguppa.

RUSSIA’S RADIOACTIVE LEGACY. The descriptions of Pripyat and the planned closure of the old Sarcophagus under a giant arch of twelve-meter-thick steel is factual. Details about the old Soviet Union’s plutonium factories in the Ural Mountains, as disturbing as they may sound, are also true. There are indeed underground cities where prisoners were housed to work the uranium mines. Most miners died before ever earning their freedom. And today, the Chelyabinsk region of the Ural Mountains remains one of the most polluted places on the planet. In fact, Lake Karachay does exist, and according to the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C., the radiation level on the shore is sufficient to deliver a lethal dose to someone in less than an hour. So as Konstantin warned, it’s not a good place for a picnic. Worse yet, the lake is leaking radiation into the neighboring Asanov swamp. Fault lines do cross under the lake. An earthquake potentially threatens to do just what Savina Martov sought to accelerate. Such a disaster would kill the Arctic Ocean and sweep over northern Europe.

STRANGE WEAPONS. In this book, I employed sonic flares, radiosensitive poisons, whip-swords, shotguns that shoot Taser rounds, even a cell phone that converts into a gun. As you might guess, they’re all real.

AUTISM AND AUTISTIC SAVANT SYNDROME. While the exact cause for autism remains unknown, the latest research initiated by the Autism Genome Project in collaboration with the National Institute of Health has found that certain genes, along with environmental factors, contribute to the presentation of the disorder. For a better understanding of such unique minds, I highly recommend Dr. Temple Grandin’s book, Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism.Another book that I found insightful about autism and savant syndrome was the memoir by Daniel Tammet, Born on a Blue Monday: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant.

In fact, the seed for this novel came from a quote by Dr. Temple Grandin. She was kind enough to permit me to use it: “If by some magic, autism had been eradicated from the face of the earth, then men would still be socializing in front of a wood fire at the entrance to a cave.” To my mind, it echoes the quote at the beginning of this novel from Socrates about the Oracle of Delphi: “The greatest blessings granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift.” It makes one wonder if such unique minds truly guided the path of mankind’s history.

To answer that, I’ll end with a partial list of famous historical figures who are believed to have displayed some level of autistic tendencies.

Hans Christian Andersen

Jane Austen

Ludwig van Beethoven

Emily Dickinson

Thomas Edison

Albert Einstein

Henry Ford

homas Jefferson

Franz Kafka

Michelangelo

Wolfgang Amadeus

Mozart

Isaac Newton

Friedrich Nietzsche

Mark Twain

Nikola Tesla Henry

David Thoreau

Alan Turing

Nostradamus