Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Eternal Way of Truth to Sacred Wisdom

The Beginning
The video documentary, Sacred Wisdom, began its life as the slide show, The Eternal Way of Truth. The EWT (Eternal Way of Truth) was created in the late 1970’s by Charles Berner. It was an audio slide show of over 700 photographs, drawings, paintings and diagrams that explored the philosophy, metaphysics and practices of yoga.
It was divided into four parts:



Part 1: Divine Order

Part 2: Cycle of Life

Part 3: Transformation

Part 4: Transcendence



In about 1990 I began the project of converting the slide show into a video. I added music, animation and digital graphs. It took me about a year to complete and in that time I learned a lot about video, computers and video production. I've begun to upload that video slide show project to YouTube. There will be about 36 ten minute segments. Here is the URL to Part 1 of 36. < v="KyOZ4jDVzZs">. You can find the other parts that I've uploaded on my YouTube channel.

I'm also going to put it on the web in its original still image and text form.
Here is Part 1 of 36.




While working on the conversion from a photographic slide show to a video slide show I was inspired to develop the project further. Instead of photographs, I wanted moving images. Instead of a photograph of the Taj Mahal or the Egyptian Sphinx, I wanted moving images. It was at that point I committed myself to travel the world taking video footage of the paintings, statues, temples and sacred sites found in The Eternal Way of Truth.

As I continued to work on The Eternal Way of Truth video project I found myself researching and re-writing the original script. I was going into more depth and detail than the original. For example, when Charles would talk about the concept of Prana or life force, he would only say a few brief words. I wanted to explore the subject further. But doing that meant the project would be MUCH longer in length. When completed, the video slide show of his original Eternal Way of Truth was 6 hours in length. The expanded version that I had begun to work on could easily be 20 or more hours in length.

When I spoke to Charles about the expanded version, he agreed it would be a good thing to do. It was at that point that I realized the project was no longer going to simply be an expanded version of The Eternal Way of Truth. It would be something entirely new. So, inspired by the original slide show, the documentary, Sacred Wisdom, was conceived.

Here is the treatment or description that I use to introduce people to the Sacred Wisdom documentary project.

Sacred Wisdom is a video documentary project that I’m currently working on that explores the golden thread of sacred wisdom that weaves a tapestry of truth through the world’s diverse spiritual and religions traditions.

It reveals both modern and ancient philosophies and practises for achieving a quiet mind, a healthy body, a loving heart, an enlightened soul and a happy and prosperous life.

It tells the universal story of spiritual awakening through art, science, cosmology, architecture, painting, sculpture, myth, music, dance, ceremony, spiritual psychology and the sacred esoteric sciences.

The genre of the video/DVD will be documentary in style and will include interviews with experts in the fields of religion, health, yoga, mythology, philosophy, biology, the creative arts and the occult sciences. It features video imagery, photographs, animation and dramatic recreations to help illustrate the philosophy, practices and principles of Sacred Wisdom.

This documentary is a self funded project inspired by love and service to the legacy of our common ancestry of Sacred Wisdom. Contributions of your skills, knowledge, time and money is generously appreciated.

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