About Jill Purce
 
A Brief Description of Jill :
JILL PURCE pioneered the international
sound healing movement through her rediscovery
of ancient vocal techniques, the power of
group chant, and the spiritual potential of
the voice as a magical instrument for healing
and meditation, and introduced
Overtone Chanting and other
Healing Voice Workshops
into Europe, North America and Japan.
Jill Purce
Through her workshops, Inner Sound and Voice; The Healing Voice; Re-enchanting the World; Ritual Resonance - Healing The Family; and Ritual Resonance - Healing The Ancestors she has taught internationally for thirty years, teaching diverse forms of sacred chant, and especially Mongolian overtone chanting.
 
She is the author of "The Mystic Spiral: Journey of the Soul" (Thames and Hudson, 1974) a book about the spiral and the evolution of consciousness in spiritual traditions, art and psychology, as well as numerous articles.
 
From 1973, as General Editor for many years of her pioneering series "Art and Imagination", she produced over thirty beautifully illustrated books on Sacred Traditions, Art and Cosmology, published by Thames and Hudson, Seuil, Heibonsha.
 
. Jill's Biography :
. Born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire England.
 
. Received an Honours degree in Fine Art at Reading University.
 
. 1968 selected for and exhibited paintings at the Northern Young Contemporaries exhibition.
 
. 1968-74 Researched the form of the spiral in nature, science, art, psychology and spiritual traditions.
 
The Labyrinth .... 1968-74 Researched the theme of the Labyrinth, a condensed section on this was published in The Mystic Spiral, 1974.
 
. Post graduate at Chelsea College of Art, London.
 
. Awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in King's College Biophysics Department, University of London, where she initiated a dialogue between science and mysticism with Maurice Wilkins (Nobel prize for DNA).
In 1971 she lectured at King's College to the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (BSSRS).
At this time she was lecturing and teaching on art, music and mysticism, as well as on the spiral as a ubiquitous form in both nature and the development of consciousness, and on sound and the voice as a spiritual practice and creative force in the universe.
 
In June 1971 She moved to Kürten in Germany to work with the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. During her time there, and because of her long-time fascination with the power of the voice, she helped him create Alphabet für Liège, a piece demonstrating the effect of sound and the voice on matter (1972). She took part in concerts of his music at various music Festivals (Liège, La Rochelle and Sainte Baume -1972,1973,1974), published articles on music and form, and worked with the spiritual dimension of music and overtone chanting (producing chords or simultaneous notes octaves apart). Stockhausen had just introduced overtone chanting to the West for the first time, two years before, with the first peformance of his piece Stimmung in December 1968.
During the autumn of 1971 Jill toured with Stockhausen and the performances of Stimmung all over the Eastern United States and Canada.
Researching and working with the magical properties of the voice since 1968, and having spent time with the Gyutö monks before going to Germany in 1971, she continued her studies with the chantmaster of the Gyutö Tibetan Monastery and Tantric College, Tenpa Gyaltsen, in the Himalayas and with the Mongolian Khöömii master, Yavgaan in order to develop the Tibetan and Mongolian methods of overtone chanting.
 
From 1970 onwards she worked with many spiritual teachers, as well as American Indians and Shamans from different traditions.
Between 1971 and 1974 she divided her time
between Kürten, Germany - working and travelling
with Stockhausen - and London, writing her book
The Mystic Spiral : Journey of the Soul, and
lecturing and giving workshops on both the spiral
and on sound and the voice in the UK, USA,
Holland, Germany, France and later Japan, India,
Canada and in institutions all over the world,
where she pioneered voice and overtone
chanting workshops.
 
 
Between 1973 and 1982, General Editor of
Art & Imagination series.
 
 
Originated over thirty illustrated books on the spiritual traditions of different cultures published by Thames & Hudson :
 
 

 

1973 Co-organized an exhibition and co-authored the catalogue : The Printed Scores of Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage.
 
The Mystic Spiral1974 Her book The Mystic Spiral, Journey of the Soul, published by Thames & Hudson.
 
1974 Worked in Paris with Carlo Suarès, Fred Allan Wolfe, Jack Sarfatti on Bob Toben's the book "Space Time and Beyond" (E.P.Dutton 1974). Collaborated with Carlo Suarès on the French translation of "The Mystic Spiral".
 
1974 Was the subject of an hour long BBC documentary "More Ways than One" made by Bill Young. Broadcast 29th December.
 
In 1974 Lecturer at Chelsea College of Art, giving a series of lectures she called "The Breathing Cosmos". These included The Music of the Spheres (the creativity of sound and voice), "Sensitive Chaos"; - (patterns of form in nature), "The Metaphysics of Form", "The Labyrinth and other Ritual Structures" and many others.
 
1974-5 Lecturer at The Architectural Association in London, where she gave a series of open lectures she called "Time and the Music of Form" The first of these lectures, "The Music of the Spheres", discussed "Music, vibration, form, overtone chanting and creation through sound and voice.
 
1975 Lectured At the ICA - The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London : "Cosmic Order and The Mystic Spiral."
 
1977 Worked with the Swedish film director Mai Zetterling and acted in her film "The Moon is a Green Cheese."
 
In 1978, she began to study with the Tibetan Lama,
Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and has been following the philosophy
and practice of Dzogchen ever since.
 
1978-82 Organised a number of retreats for Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.
 
1980 She gave one of the Schumacher Lectures, along with Shirley Williams and Johan Galtung, entitled "Creative Tension".

1982-84 Travelled and studied in India and the Himalayas.

From 1982 onwards she was a regular speaker at the International Transpersonal Association (ITA) conferences, organized by Stanislav Grof.

1982 Lectured at the ITA conference "Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science" in Bombay, India.

1984 Invited by Marina Abramovic and Ulay to take part in the art festival Forum en Scene in Middleburg, Holland.

She participated and exhibited along with them, Lawrence Weiner and others.

Made an art film with overtone chanting "Just One more Breath".

From 1984 for twelve years she was a visiting lecturer at CIIS- the California Institute of Integrative Studies in San Francisco and again in 2005.

From 1984 onwards she has spent a part of each year in North America and teaching regularly at the Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California, as well as teaching at the New York Open Centre, Omega Institute, Interface in Boston, and Hollyhock Farm in Canada and many other North American Institutions.

1985, a visiting Professor at J.F.K University in Orinda, California.

1994, in Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, USA, created and participated in the event "Ritual, Resonance and the Return of the Angels", with Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake.

She has taught the English Shakespeare Company and led seminars and workshops for ENO- (English National Opera).

June 1993 Gave a lecture and seminar for ENO "The Healing Power of Opera" as part of the Covent Garden Music Festival, London. She later led the audience in a chanting meditation before the first performance of Jonathan Harvey's Opera: "Inquest of Love" for ENO.

1995 Presented and participated in the round table discussion The Global Crisis of Spirit and the Search for Meaning with Mikhail Gorbachev, Sam Kean and others at the first State of the World Forum in San Francisco.

1997 July - Gave the opening lecture for the 4th International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT) at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in London.

Took part in Symposium II : "Science and Religion and Environment", sponsored by the European Commission and the Orthodox Church "The Black Sea in Crisis" which circumambulated the Black Sea and in
 
1999 Symposium III "Science, Religion and the Environment, A River of Life : Down the Danube to the Black Sea.".
 
1999 As part of the international conference devoted to family constellations and the work of family therapist Bert Hellinger in Wiesloch, Germany, she was invited by Bert Hellinger to give an extended workshop to his students on her work "Healing Family Patterns and Ancestral Lines".

2002  Travelled around the Adriatic Sea taking part in the Symposium IV "Science,"Religion and the Environment": sponsored by the European Commission and the Orthodox Church,  under the auspices of his All Holiness The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Mr Romano Prodi , president of the European Commission"  The Adriatic sea, a Sea at Risk, a Unity of purpose"

2003  Travelled around the Baltic Sea taking part in Symposium V "Science, "Religion and the Environment": The Baltic Sea a Common Heritage, a shared Responsibility".

In the last few years she has been invited to work with nuns and monks in a number of enclosed Christian Monastic Communities who sing Gregorian Chant, to teach overtone chanting and other methods to help them find ways to re-invigorate and rediscover the meditative power of chant. As a result of this, a number of these communities have now started using overtone chanting as part of their meditation.

She occasionally gives workshops with her husband, the biologist Rupert Sheldrake: "Morphic Resonance and Inner Sound", "Re-Enchanting the World", "The Rebirth of Nature and The Healing Voice".
 
She lectures and gives workshops regularly, in universities, colleges, schools, hospitals, Christian and other monastic communities, international conferences and centres, as well as in the corporate sector, all over the world, and has appeared on numerous TV and radio programmes in the UK and the USA.

Her writings have appeared in twelve languages and some of her published articles, include: Patterns of Growth in Nature and Consciousness; Time and the Music of Form; Creative Tension; Harmonics of Mind and Body; Sound in Mind and Body; Healing Resonance; Re-enchanting the World; The Healing Voice; Being In Tune. see selected Bibliography.
 

Rupert Sheldrake
She lives in Hampstead, in London,
England with her husband,
the biologist Rupert Sheldrake
and their two sons.

Jill Purce

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