 There
is a profound sense of disenchantment in Western
society. I think this is because, quite
literally, there is no chant in our lives
anymore. All the situations in which members of
traditional cultures came together to chant have
gradually been eroded away, so we feel
disempowered and helpless in a desacralized
world. My aim is to try and re-enchant the world,
to make it more magical through people chanting
together again. The workshop gives us a real
sense of what a literally enchanted community
could be like.-
-
 My
own first transmission of the power of the voice
came in early childhood in Ireland. We were
visiting a remote island off the West coast. The
only other people in the small boat were the old
women of the island returning home. A violent
storm blew up and it seemed obvious to all of us
we were going to drown. Suddenly the women began
to sing with an ancient power and deep passion.
Almost at once our fear dissolved, waves of
strength surged into us, until finally we were
overcome with feelings of bliss and enchantment.-
-
- During
the week we work with increasing intensity and at
deeper and deeper levels, touching quite often on
areas of the psyche long buried. Through the
therapeutic use of the voice we are able to bring
these areas of hurt and pain safely up into the
light of clarity and illumination, often ridding
ourselves of traumas which have beset us since
early childhood.
-
-
 One
of the effects of chanting is the dissolution of
boundaries and when this happens something new
can take place in the psyche and body of a
person. Chanting seems directly to stimulate the
emission of certain chemicals in the brain, such
as endorphins, which give rise to states of
enhanced awareness, blissful calm, and other deep
meditative states.-
- People
of all ages and backgrounds come together for
these retreats. I have people from eleven to
ninety, from professional musicians, singers and
voice experts, and therapists who want to extend
their work, to those who were told at school that
they could not sing in tune. The retreats also
attract people who want to work on emotional or
physical blocks, as well as professional
educators, actors and healers. People often
report miraculous healing experiences: headaches
and backache may suddenly vanish, or emotional
burdens quickly lift. Others report feeling more
confident and powerful. Overtone
chanting,
in particular, can facilitate visionary
experiences.
-
- My
teaching begins with instruction in a specific
form of breathing. This is the basis of all the
other work. We then begin to tune our voices
together. We discover the effect of the voice on
the body, mind and spirit. We learn exactly what
the voice does, and its power to heal.
-
- A
specific skill I teach is Mongolian
overtone chanting.
This involves a single note only, but by
modulating all the resonant cavities including
the shape of the mouth, you make audible, high,
bell-like sounds which float above the continuous
bass note in a way which makes people think of
the music of the spheres. The overtones are the
component parts of the fundamental note being
chanted, and are normally too quiet to be
audible. Here they are filtered in such a way
that they can be heard louder than the note
itself. It is a powerful experience even to
listen to it, producing a state of extreme calm
and clarity.
-
 One
of the practices I have been exploring most
intensely on the week is the healing of the
ancestral lines. We go back through our families
and by means of the voice we exorcise family
curses, unacknowledged deaths, redundant themes
and patterns, and other ancient hurts. At the
same time we uncover the particular blessings,
the gifts which we receive from our ancestors.
Often we find what the Native Americans call
‘our medicine’, the gift which we are
to the world and how this relates to the essence
of our family patterns. One person who did this
work with me said that they managed to release
and heal their relationship with their mother,
which had been untouched by years of therapy.-
 Depending
on the time of year, we do ceremonies which mark
the passing seasons and reflect and interact with
the quality of time, making accessible the
spirits of the moment, so that we can remain in
harmony with it. In a similar way we work with
the spirits of the place, learning to interact
with the forces and spirits of nature and
understand how they can have a benign influence
on us. We discover how these forces affect our
place of birth, our childhood and the health of
our family lines, and what we can do to balance
these forces of nature to bring our lives into
harmony with them. In addition to these, we do
different purification practices and work with
the elements to purify past and future karma and
balance the elements in our bodies. I also work
with dreams through sound and mantra. I use chant
combined with ceremonial dance to connect with
one of the most ancient forms of healing, the
power of vocally induced trance . We do many
ancient forms of sacred chant.-
- Underlying
all my work is the premise that the voice is the
key to spiritual transformation. Because the
sound of the voice is directly linked through the
breath to the activities of the mind, through
working with the voice we can learn to enter the
state the Tibetans know as ‘rigpa’, the
awareness which combines emptiness with clarity.
This leads ultimately to illumination.
-
- Copyright Jill Purce
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