In 2019, over two dozen members of the Franz Bardon community came together to create Equipoise: Insights into Foundational Astral Training. The theme of this book was magical equilibrium, and the final result contained numerous bits of wisdom pertaining to this subject from many Bardonists. Equipoise was the first ever wide-scale collaborative project carried out by this community. Since many of the book’s co-authors told us that contributing to Equipoise was a positive experience, Falcon Books Publishing is organizing a similar collaborative project for 2020.
2020 Theme
The theme for the 2020 Franz Bardon community collaborative project is the stage exercise. This is an introspective exercise created by William Mistele. For those unfamiliar with this exercise, the instructions can be found at the end of this announcement.
The stage exercise is a valuable exercise for many reasons. It allows the practitioner to look upon his life in a detached manner, to assess what kind of person he is, and even to rewrite the story of his own life. For this year’s collaborative project, we are asking members of the community to try this exercise and write an essay about their experience. Examples of topics an essay could cover include but are not limited to the following.
- How you approached the stage exercise
- What you learned about your personality by practicing the stage exercise
- What you learned about your past, present, or future by practicing the stage exercise
- How you benefited from the stage exercise
- What you will do differently in the future after learning more about yourself via the stage exercise
- Any thoughts you have about the stage exercise in general
Of course, the stage exercise can be a very personal experience. We are not asking people to share information that they are not comfortable sharing. We are simply inviting people to share whatever insights they are comfortable sharing, and that others might benefit from reading about. After we have received all of the essays, we will compile them together and publish them in a book.
Deadline and Submission Instructions
The deadline for submissions is August 1st, 2020. No submissions will be accepted past this date.
We cannot guarantee that every essay we receive will be included in the book. As long as your essay is coherent and on-topic, it should be fine. However, an essay may be rejected for any number of reasons, including but not limited to the following.
- The essay is off-topic
- The essay is too poorly organized to follow
- The essay contains racist or sexist remarks
- The essay lacks originality, and simply rehashes the instructions for the stage exercise
- Portions of the essay are plagiarized
Above all, we are not looking for just intellectual analyses of the stage exercise, but accounts of peoples’ experiences with the stage exercise. Since one’s understanding of the stage exercise improves drastically upon actually practicing it, we would be hesitant to include essays written by people who have never done it.
We prefer that submissions be sent in the form of a Microsoft Word document to the falcon books via email: Please format the document so that it is single-spaced and in 12 pt. Times New Roman font.
Instructions for the Stage Exercise
The following instructions for the stage exercise are taken from William Mistele’s book The Perfection of Wisdom.
Come. Sit next to me. Center seat, row four. You are here next to me and that is also you up there on the stage. See the script you play written for you on the astral plane before you were born, written by a Norn, fate, or some karma lord.
There, the thoughts you think, like chains together they are linked. The categories that limit your thoughts are hard and sharp like the cuts on the face of a diamond.
But here we sit in row four with infinity surrounding us, every possibility, every alternate reality. Take a look around. There is no one else out here in the audience but you and me. Actually, only you and your mind like a mirror so clear it reflects infinity.
And there on the stage – look at your body language and your face. Every feeling and emotion you feel – if feelings were colors on the light spectrum you are only shining with a few.
Let’s change the stage lights say with a little more red, green, or opal. Now you act with a completely different personality. Study the entire spectrum of feelings and you learn to be free because you can now respond with so much more ability.
I’ll leave you hear for a bit. Take a few minutes. Your task is to review and then consider rewriting your life script. Consider introducing greater versatility and skill in your responses to human need. Consider how to see each moment as an opportunity to feel alive in new ways the old you never dreamed.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts…” (Shakespeare)
Art reminds us of this truth – how easy it is to identify with characters who are not us. How familiar the conflicts and passions of those from other ages. And whether past or present, how incredibly easy it is to become trapped in our self-image, the roles and routines assigned to us or that we have invented, fabricated, and made up. How strange that we identify ourselves with the brief images that appear in our minds and forget that the creative power of the mind is also who we are.
This creative power? It is to understand anything and to discover the original purpose underlying all things.
Those who wish to view other Bardon related publications from Falcon Books please see below:
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