“Those who tell stories rule society” – Plato.
For millennia, storytelling was a ritualistic and integrated part of a well functioning society. From tribal campfires where elders handed down precious wisdom, to the theatres where Aristotle’s drama, comedy and satire evoked evolution through the exploration of human emotion. Stories are the very fabric of a conscious and connected society.
As humans, we come to understand ourselves and ‘the other’ through the stories told to us, and then, through the stories we tell ourselves both consciously and unconsciously. Perception of our world sets the pretence for our interaction with it and those perceptions are shaped through story. We are provoked through rich mediums of voice and movement, or silence and stillness, of colour, light, shadow and expression. We are invited into the struggles and triumphs of a myriad of archetypal protagonists. Simultaneously, we are subconsciously invited into our own inner-world, wherein a mirror shines back all that we are, all that we are not, all we wish to be, or never to be, and of course, all that we may choose to become. Possibility triplicates, the axes of our beckoning shift and the potentiality for elevated consciousness gestates. Herein lies the very glory that is ‘the art of story-telling’. Somewhere along the way however, this art has become submerged beneath the swampland of industry, and it is industry that kills practice. The storyteller is offered a chance to reclaim the essence of that glory through an elegant, provocative process that is Le Bon Method. A deepening and lengthening of the story, more nuanced characters and arcs that avoid tokenistic stereotypes or unconscious bias, can raise the story to a new echelon and create greater impact.
If storytelling is life expressing itself, then the actor, if honouring his role, becomes a humble servant to life’s expression. The exploration of inner-life is the actor’s first modality for coming into being. According to Le Bon Method, the inner-life, while beautifully complex, presents the actor with 4 quadrants of exploration. Each quadrant is its own season and yet each season is part of a ‘oneness’, which sets the foundation for Le Bon Ontological Framework. The quality of the outward expression, albeit voice, movement or other, is reflective of the degree to which the inner-life has been considered. If the actor wishes to experience a deepening and lengthening in his craft, he requires a holistic and methodical approach to his expedition, this is offered through the Method. Moreover, the actor requires this in tandem with the untethering of the conditions that prevent expression from his unique nature. The interdisciplinary lenses offered through Le Bon Method allow the actor to reframe and transmute conditions, resulting in more profundity in his craft and greater freedom in the actor’s waking life.
Le Bon Method was born for the writer, the playwright, the poet, the actor, the dancer, the musician and the artist. Each their own subject of being and their expressions and creations are the by-products of a position in their journey. Le Bon Method acts as a catalytic tool to assist in moving beyond inevitable plateaus, to proceed with an ongoing but seemingly ephemeral deepening and lengthening. Deepening in one’s process and practice counterpoises the human condition, which keeps the subject bound. The result is greater freedom in expression and peace in one’s by-product.
We all exist in the landscape of the ‘everyday’. Within the seemingly ordinary, there exists a wellspring of culture and socio-cultural information. The examination of socially patterned intricacies, discovered in socio-cultural information reveals value and meaning. A cultural perspective assists in defining identity, highlights social relationships, and establishes our very definitions of life. Failing to understand those patterns and dynamics within various social and institutional contexts, renders analysis void because we are impacted, even if unconsciously, through exposure alone.
Le Bon Method utilises interdisciplinary lenses to reflect on culture, in macro and micro forms and is applicable to arts festivals, arts councils, public events, public spaces, retreats, as well as corporate culture. Our Method is rooted in connection, intentionality, intersectionality, longevity and cathedral thinking. Le Bon Method facilitates cultural transformations within public and private organisations and spaces, for the betterment of both individual and collective wellbeing. We utilise the arts and concepts of community as a vehicle for connection, wellbeing, social capital, and the enrichment of environments.
If there is one golden rule offered in philosophy and subscribed to by all philosophers alike, it is the Delphic maxim “know thyself”. The path to betterment and living a more fulfilling life starts with an understanding of the Self. Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living”. Coming to know oneself is not simply a choice to invest in an array of prescribed activities such as therapy, yoga, meditation, retreats and self-help books. Though these aid the journey within, they cannot substitute an honest commitment to ‘the expedition of one’s multidimensionality’. To place the onus of discovery in any modality other than the self, and the self as one’s own conductor, would reduce the ripening of self-actualisation in its perpetual process. Le Bon maintains that the subject is his own healer, teacher and expert and the Method is merely a facilitator.
When delving within, inevitable afflictions (or plateaus) arise, which evoke vacillation around identity. Such afflictions can create a perceived impediment within one’s expedition. However, the affliction itself confirms that one is actively in his process of becoming and consciously so. Le Bon Method provides a holistic ontological framework that induces movement beyond the affliction, through a provocative process pertaining to Thinking, Feeling, Sensing or Intuiting (TFSI).