How does the author use foreshadowing in The Lost Horizon?

In Chapter Seven, the High Lama's story has many fantastic elements. The most fantastic element is Father Perrault's timeline. He arrives in Shangri-La around 1720, becomes a monk in Shangri at age 53 in 1754, almost dies around 1789, and is still alive in 1931, when Conway visits. Yet Conway goes into the mental reality of the High Lama and accepts what he says without arguing or challenging him. This foreshadows Mallinson's attitude that everything the High Lama says is a fantastic lie.