***image1***My work as a Master of Voice is to joyfully tune people’s voices. This is not just a physical process — it also includes encouraging intention to arise from the heart, full of passion and inspiration. When the speaker truly speaks from their ‘note or centre’ we feel their ‘gravitas’.

“If words arise from the heart,

They will enter the heart

If words arise from the tongue alone,

They will not pass beyond the ears.” said an Eastern Mystic.

As I experience life in the west I rarely hear what is revealed by this verse. Why is this? The technological lives that we lead (often at ravening speed) have disconnected us from the ‘signature note’ or the sound of truth that resonates at the centre of our beings. We live our lives through a ‘literal consciousness’ rather than one that is feeling based and therefore ‘metaphoric’. We unconsciously choose words that reflect this, such as ‘soundbyte’, ‘info-tech highway’ and ‘CD ROM’. Whereas our forebears living in an age before the scientific advancements of today created words like, ‘radiance’, ‘dwindle’ and ‘fretful’.

Today, as a result of our fixation with the ‘doing’ aspect of our lives we tend to live in our heads rather than our bodies. Our voices spring from these lofty conduits often sounding harsh, glottal and nasal. We unconsciously use ‘cerebral resonance’ to solely express what we think and this controls the environment in which we place ourselves. The mechanistic approach of our information culture is stifling the ‘being’ aspect of our lives.

Inevitably, this creates imbalance within us and consequently we experience ‘disenchantment’. As we move from our bodies into our heads we risk losing what is ‘en-chanting’ about our lives, for our voices harmonize life, within them is the blueprint of our humanity. For example, think of the metallic nasal voice of the cityscape, where folk live their talking lives moving across unremitting concrete. Then, listen to the undulations of melody found in rural contexts. When in connection with Mother Nature, people tend to live their lives in tune with her subtle flow of force, and therefore are essentially more ‘present’ and harmonious; when this is so we connect with the song of our soul.

The ancient peoples of our planet believed that all creation was accomplished by sound, and that the earth itself came into being through the power of sound – a sound that moved and still moves through every aspect of creation. They believed this animating principle to be the breathed sound of God’s voice.

Similarly, there was a time in western civilization when a father would listen to a young man who came to woo his daughter. No matter what dress the young man sported, if his voice was rich with certain sounds the lover would be accepted for how well spoken he was. Honesty, wit, self-knowledge, suffering, faithfulness, nobility and soul ~ in short the very integrity of a person can be heard in their voice ~ this was called PERSONA which literally means “through sound”.

If we persist in avoiding this power within our voices we are in danger of losing a fundamental aspect of our humanity. Today, it is unusual for the young to read out loud the great poets of yore, or to connect with the passions lying within the great stories of literature. The sounds of our aural traditions and culture are in danger of no longer living in the bodies of our children ~ a dreadful thought I feel!

A young romantic in Shakespeare’s THE MERCHANT OF VENICE says:

“The man that hath no music in himself,

Nor is not moved with the concord of sweet sounds,

Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;

The motions of his spirit are as dull as night,

And his affections dark as Erebus:

Let no such man be trusted.”

My life’s work (THE ALCHEMY OF VOICE) has been to free the inner potential within all our voices, to let us lead lives transformed by the ‘gravitas’ of sound alive in our bodies. This activity moves us back into the locus of our own ‘signature note’, truly resonating the sovereign treasure that is stored within our hearts.

The theory of New Physics tells us that ‘morphic resonance’ creates fields of magnetic energy; sound is one of the principle components of this resonance. Through our voices we may feel resonance in the form of sound waves streaming through our bodies, cleansing and re-energising our energy field with waves of peaceful light. Thence, our chakras become balanced and charged with beauty of the one unified field of force ~ sound and light bring the peace that passeth all understanding.

Namaste,

Stewart.

Read the book review The Alchemy of Voice by Stewart Pearce

To learn more about sound healing sessions with Stewart in the U.S. this August, visit his site at: www.thealchemyofvoice.com

(Bio continued)

He facilitates Master Class processes internationally and has taught in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark and extensively throughout the USA. Stewart regularly coaches at the ‘Chicago Shakespeare Theater’, voice directs the ‘Rutgers University Conservatory at Shakespeare’s Globe’, which was solely created for the classical training of the US Conservatory Acting Student, and coaches for premier theatre companies such as “Classic Stage Ireland” based in Dublin. Clients have included: Maria Aitken, Minnie Driver, Kathryn Hunter, Josie Lawrence, Julia Ormond, Vanessa Redgrave, Simon Callow, Jack Davenport, Jerome Flynn and Mark Rylance.

In addition, Stewart is a consultant to the international corporate market as a Master of Presentation, dealing with many aspects of the Public Speaking process. This includes Stress Management, Presence & Vocal Gravitas and Persuasive Presentation. Having experienced leading spiritual teaching and empowerment models, Stewart brings creative self~development issues to the arena of personal presentation.

Clients have included: L`Oreal, BT, ITN World News, McKinsey & Co, Merrill Lynch, WPP Programmes and the LONDON 2012 Olympic bid.

Stewart’s seminal text ‘The Alchemy of Voice’ is published in 2005. He regularly appears in the media addressing the issues of Voice and Persona as powerful expressions of human integrity.

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