Sanskrit Cipher: A Marina Alexander Adventure
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So I leave that with you: whether Jesus lived and traveled throughout India remains to be proven, but I believe it’s likely—at least during his younger years. Because where did he go during that time? His life was in danger, and to stay in Israel would have been a death sentence.
What is completely fictional, however, is the idea of Jesus traveling about with a bee hive. There certainly could have been mobile bee hives as described—we transport honeybees today in order to make certain crops are pollinated—but I have no reason to believe Jesus, or St. Issa, had one of his own.
However, all of the Apis bee facts that Eli shares throughout the story are accurate, including that honey never spoils and that it has healing properties. The germ of the idea for this book actually came when I read about jars of honey being found in Egyptian tombs, and that the honey was unspoiled in unopened vessels.
Dr. Patricia Denke—the real person, not the fictional one—helped me to create the Apis patricia witch which Eli becomes enamored. Therefore, the description and characteristics of the bee are right from the mind and heart of an entomologist.
Most of the information about glacier melt and its environmental effects is true—including the “ice stupas”—the huge frozen fountains—that were created in Ladakh in order to preserve the quickly-melting glacier water. The special colloidal “fountain of youth” water that Allen Schleuter is so excited about is a product of my imagination, but what he says about unknown bacteria being uncovered by melting glaciers, and the idea of special colloids in the water, are accurate.
The Volvoticus bacteria is also my own creation, however there was a team of scientists at CalTech (as described in the book) that accidentally discovered a metal-eating bacteria. My bacteria is simply a derivation of that one—but much faster and more powerful.
The descriptions of New Delhi are are based on the personal travel experiences of friends. The descriptions of Ladakh, the Tse-dup festival, the Buddhist gompa, the guest houses, and the flora and fauna, are all from my research—so any errors or inconsistencies are my own.
Additionally, the cave rescue that Marina Alexander, Adele, and poor lovelorn Bruce undertake is based on the similar, but with a far more tragic end, search and rescue operation known as the Nutty Putty Cave incident near Salt Lake City in 2009. I’m relieved that my fictional team had more success than the rescuers in real life.
In closing, I’d like to acknowledge that this book took a definite turn toward the metaphysical. But for me, it was the natural progression of Marina’s character development. As I am a firm believer in the concept of Universal Consciousness, it makes so much sense to me that Marina, the daughter of Gaia, would feel a connection to Her, especially when in the area of the world near the Himalayan mountains. When I began writing and researching the book, I didn’t realize that geographical area is considered by many to be the Seventh Chakra of the Earth—but it certainly made sense to me the more I researched the region, as well as how my characters and story worked out.
Thank you once again for reading Sanskrit Cipher. I would love to hear from you if you have thoughts or questions—I can be reached via my website (colleengleason.com) or email books@colleengleason.com.
—C. M. Gleason
June 2021
Acknowledgments
I have many people to thank for helping me with this book. It took nearly five years to write, and it was one of those projects that I nearly gave up on multiple times. If it hadn’t been for many of these people, I would not have a finished manuscript today.
First, Patricia Denke was instrumental in helping me with all of the entomological facts and practices in this (and the previous) book.
Gary March, my on-call medical expert and jack of all trades when it comes to knowing about random facts, poked, prodded, and pushed me over the last years to get this book finished. As well, his wife Darlene Domanik, and my other friends Erin Wolfe, MaryAlice and Dennis Galloway, as well as my husband, listened to me talk about this book ad nauseam over the last several years—and all of them had ideas and thoughts that helped push me to find the ending. Darlene in particular helped me with the Nicolas Notovitch angle as well as shared her personal travel experiences in India.
Big thanks to Marion Graham for checking me on the microbiology and bacteriology front—she was the one who said, yes, it’s possible (but not necessarily probable)!
Myah Price was my go-to person about the campus of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the neat map she marked up really helped me negotiate Eli’s escape route.
And big thanks to Tammy Kearly for doing an early read of the pieces of this book so that I could ramble on about how to make everything work. Thank you for being my figurative shoulder to cry on!
And finally, thanks to Diane Davidson and Joyce Doele for giving it their eagle eyes for a final read.
Once again, I’m beyond grateful to all of you for your support—both emotional and literary—over the years. I wonder how long it’ll take me to write the next one!
—C.M. Gleason
June 2021