I have been advised to write a new post for this aging travel blog I have now become a part of.
There is apparently lots of ground to cover since the last post here, so i'll just add a fine story:
Whence i was dropped in Delhi, merely two days later i was shipped off to a beautiful highly religious tourist hippy city known as Rishikesh (also known as the Beatles' Indian stomping ground and home of Transcendental Meditation). Cassandra paired off with her parents for the majority of the week we spent there. Stef and I got into our own escapades dodging monkeys and fresh, frequently made prairie oysters. The amount of cow excrement in the streets was astounding.
I digress. One eve during our supper, within dusty one room restaurant, we were approached by a man who had been sitting next to us, also eating and previously trying to sell something to someone, which is in no way unheard of. He began to introduce himself as Mark Metcalf and ask where we were from, as we were obviously. He told us of his time spent in India, and how he had been living in India for quite some time (i forget exactly how long), and had lived in Canada, as well as the states, as well as Germany (playing in the Nina Hagen band which apparently made him millions of dollars).
After all the formalities, he began talking about his books. One which he published in the United States, and two which he published in India. The first was about his ingenious science experiment with ionized silver in water, which apparently solves nearly all disease and mental illness. He then ordered a glass of water, poured pure silver into the glass, and hooked up batteries to metal rods, which ran into the water. He insisted on drinking this every day.
As a side note, this man looked as if he had been smoking opium for 42 days on end, and spoke the like.
After the water experiment, he tried to sell us on his new book, which he wrote entirely based on information given to him by God through meditation. Because of this, he wrote it under the moniker of "St.Mark", because it would have been self indulgent of him to put his own name, since it was the word of god. Because calling yourself a saint is not self indulgent.
Long story short, i bought his books that he had burnt to a CD-R in microsoft word files, and had a sip of ionized silver water. Stef and I googled him the next day, and the only information on him was a faded image of him from the Nina Hagen band (he's the guy in the back right of this photo), and an online cease and desist from an ionized silver research group in the States, revealing that he had been accused of fraud and various other money making offenses. Also, apparently he used very very unhealthy amounts of silver in his drinks. Cool, huh.
India Rulz
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That isn't Mark in the Nina Hagen band photo. He was hired as a member of her band for a few weeks of rehearsals in the mid '80s then fired. He thereafter always referred to himself as a former member of the Nina Hagen group, "the number one touring band in Europe". He also claimed he "worked with Joe Pass" (he attended one guitar lesson and was dismissed.) After burning all his music business relationships in Los Angeles (by constantly trying to control, get money from and sue everyone he worked with) he moved on to the Pacific Northwest, purveying quack medicine, conspiracy videos and "spiritual" books from the privacy of his shack in the woods. I hear also several people who bought his silver cure developed argyria, a serious permanent affliction which he has been scrambling to distance himself from, while mounting endless threats and attacks on the internet against anyone who disputes his theories. A very sad case, and you were fortunate to escape with only having parted a with a small amount of money - he's always looking for ways to charm out more money from people who don't know of him or his reputation.
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