 His colleagues refuse to believe his story but accept it as a working hypothesis in order to glean his true intentions.John relates he was a Sumerian for 2000 years, later a Babylonian, and eventually went East to become a disciple of the Buddha.He claims to have had a chance to sail with Columbus (admitting that at the time he still believed the earth was flat) and to have befriended Van Gogh (one of whose original paintings he apparently owns, a gift from the artist himself).