The Profound
How the Books Came to Be
It was 1998.
It all started with a simple idea: What if there was a secret society of healers who recruit new students every year and introduce them to a magical parallel world? What would these magical masters be like? What could they do? What would they do? How would they train newcomers? How would they be organized? How would they function? What about their enemies? How would they live? Why would they have enemies at all? At the time I read an intriguing book by Baird Spalding, which raised so many questions within me:
I was also quite influenced by the writings of Franz Bardon, especially his book Frabatto, which made me question the frame of reality we all agree on.
These are some interesting books about the famous magician and his method:
With these questions in mind, almost thirty years ago, I set out to write a book. And one book eventually turned into many. The series continues to expand, and I continue to write.
The first draft of the first volume was somewhat chaotic, inconsistent, and a bit everywhere and yet nowhere. And when I spent quite a bit of money for editing by a professor of German literature in Munich, the conclusion of his evaluation was: The author doesn’t seem to know whether he’s serious about his work or not.
He hit the nail on the head and, at the same time, criticised most of my sentences. In fact he made so many suggestions for corrections that they barely fit on the manuscript. It was sobering and healthy. Over the next few years, Part 1, as well as Part 2 and 3, were rewritten, corrected, and revised so many times that they can no longer be called the same book today. With every written sentence, my book project became more important to me, and when a Swiss publisher, to whom I eventually sent the book to read, called me on a Sunday in total enthusiasm to tell me how great he thought my book was, I had high hopes. He found the book so original, fresh, and innovative that he prophesied a great future for it, but alas, he didn’t publish fantasy books. It was a moment of success and a fall on my nose.
After that, I found my way to a literary agent in Berlin. He wanted to turn my books into a radio play, which I found somewhat strange, but he was the expert, not me. I’m still waiting for the radio play today, even though I paid him a lot of money I couldn’t really afford at the time. At least this episode gave birth to the idea that I wanted to produce an audiobook, which today exists.
Today, the eighteen volumes (all available in English by the end of 2024) are as I want them.
The story describes the adventures of James Tannot, who joins a secret society of healers in order to learn how to help and heal human beings. As it quickly becomes apparent this journey does not unfold entirely without problems. James is cast into a world that is as fantastic as it is dangerous.
Manus Braith aged 28 , when he began writing The Profound.
Manus Braith today …
