16 Facts About Jill Purce

Jill Purce was born on 1947 and is a British voice teacher, Family Constellations therapist, and author.

Jill Purce is a former fellow of King's College London, Biophysics Department.

Jill Purce produced over 30 books as general editor of the Thames and Hudson Art and Imagination series.

Jill Purce is the author of The Mystic Spiral: Journey of the Soul, a book about the spiral in sacred traditions, art, and psychology.

Jill Purce was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship at King's College London, Biophysics Department, to explore the spiral as a universal structure.

Jill Purce's work with the voice was a major impetus behind widespread research into the supposed healing effects of sound from the 1970s onwards.

Jill Purce investigated the effect of sound on matter in the late 1960s, following the work of Hans Jenny, who used fine powders, liquids, and pastes, to show how formless matter takes on diverse forms and complex patterns through sound vibration.

Jill Purce investigated the effect of sound vibrations on fine particles and on water, inspired by the early experiments of Ernst Chladni in 1785 and Margaret Watts Hughes between 1885 and 1904.

Between June 1971 and 1974, Jill Purce lived in Kurten, Germany, and worked with the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Jill Purce provided him with many ideas about sounds and their effects on matter, which he used to create Alphabet fur Liege, a piece demonstrating those effects.

Jill Purce took part in performances of Stockhausen's music at various music festivals.

Jill Purce has been invited by several hospitals and schools to explore how these voice techniques might be of positive help to women in childbirth; at the Maudsley Hospital in London, with people suffering from Alzheimer's; at the Royal Free Hospital, London, with people suffering from mental disabilities; at Hawthorn School, with children suffering from physical disabilities; and with people suffering from Chronic fatigue syndrome.

In June 1993, Jill Purce gave a lecture and seminar for the English National Opera titled The Healing Power of Opera, as part of the Covent Garden Music Festival, London.

Jill Purce later led the audience in a chanting meditation before the first performance of Jonathan Harvey's opera Inquest of Love for ENO.

In 1999, as part of the international conference on Family Constellations, and the work of family therapist Bert Hellinger in Wiesloch, Germany, Jill Purce was invited to give an extended workshop to demonstrate her work to Hellinger's students and conference delegates.

Jill Purce is married to author and former biochemist Rupert Sheldrake.