NOTE: Our HEART FORCE Limited Edition pilot scripts are based on two novels: HIGH HEART and HIGHER FORCES by John Selby and his lifelong silent writing partner B Budd Smith. John has recently recorded a professional dramatic reading of the novel HIGH HEART, which is the intimate first-person version of the HEART FORCE story.
This audio performance of John's 'lucid tale of love and discovery' brings to life, through the eyes of her lover Jack Hadley, the female hero Mahalena Bernhardt and her outlandishly-brilliant wit, nonstop courage, and inspired vision. Mahee (her nickname) is our expression of a truly new female superhero who transcends all the standard hero clichés. She remains mysterious throughout the story – but in this expanded audiobook version she reveals much more than elsewhere.
And Jack himself is a new type of lead male hero. Rather than asserting his own masculine dominance, for once he surrenders to his female counterpart's drama and inspiration. In so doing, Jack becomes enmeshed in an archetypal conflict between male and female reactions and responses to all sorts of challenging situations.
This audiobook version also differs from the screenplay adaption at sexual levels – namely, this is the unrated version where sexual relating often includes deep dialog and mystic/erotic breakthroughs. There's no pornography here, but also there's no limits to intimate description and engagement. Sex and spirit quite naturally intertwine!
LISTENING TIP:
As you listen to this dramatic reading, you'll find it best to put aside traditional literary expectations. HIGH HEART and its HIGHER FORCES film adaptation will continually surprise you. Yes, this is an action-adventure drama about psych-tech inventions running head-on into ancient shamanic complications. But it's also an intense love story playing out on top of the action plot. Furthermore, it also delivers an even deeper level – archetypal twists inspired by James Joyce's ULYSSES novel exploring the ever-evolving mythic realms that underlie all of our lives.
Mahalena Bernhardt is both very real as a struggling young woman, and also somehow larger than life. She talks differently than most women because English is her fourth language – and also because her unique shamanic training as a child, merged with her intense scientific training in Europe, forever sets her apart as an almost-mythic new expression of the female hero.
The film version of this story will be produced with a special creative mix of live action visuals ,just slightly transformed by motion-capture computer animation. The aim is to subliminally touch the story with a super-hero edge of mystic 'lucid dream' fantasy – but just slightly! As you listen to Jack telling this story, do let yourself embrace this touch of other-worldly reality. Let your imagination open up to discover and enjoy the story's deeper resonance of multi-dimensional possibilities, discoveries, and realizations.
Also – as you'll immediately detect from this intimate audio version of the lucid tale, there's an uplifting element of playful lightness running throughout the plot, even in the most challenging situations. As quoted from Alan Watts early in the screenplay version, 'life is so serious that if you take it seriously, it'll kill you'. Our heroes are dedicated survivors – thus they keep it light.
This first-person version of the HEART FORCE story is admittedly walking the very edge of mysticism, science fiction, lucid dreaming, synchronistic action, and universal archetypal philosophy. If that's not your thing, stick to the screenplay version of HEART FORCE – it also has some slight supernatural/sci fi twists but remains mostly mainstream. However ... if you want the deeper stuff, take a listen here to John's dramatic reading of HIGH HEART!