nothing is true; everything is possible - hassan i sabbah

quoted by william s burroughs in his apocalyptic myth of the modern world

hassan i sabbah, the old man of the mountain, was the medieval ring leader of a band of assassins. operating from a retreat in the mountains around iraq and afghanistan, he terrorized the mideast. his followers were kidnapped as young men from rural villages, drugged with hashish, and seduced by hassan's slave girls, who introduced them to the heavenly pleasures; hence the name hashishin or "assassin". they were told they had indeed been in heaven and were promised seventy-two virgins when they returned there if they died for hassan.