Bram Williams
"Listening is a kind of opening of the pores of the skin...The more you can relax...the less defined are the boundaries between where I am and where the world begin."
21st June 2010
Bram teaches Kum Nye, a form of Tibetan yoga which
focuses on body awareness. He
also has a special insight into listening by virtue of being partially deaf. In
this interview, Bram speaks of his inquiries into the nature of listening and
how, by paying attention to the way we listen, we can loosen the boundary
between ourselves and the world around us.
Read the full interview with Bram
Judith Seelig"True listening means
being completely open to information through or in every cell of your
body. If you’re asserting or defending something, some part of you will
not be open because the information might challenge your position."2nd November 2009
I
was in my kitchen over-hearing my housemate relaying something her
teacher had said in a yoga class - something about listening and the
body. My ears pricked up. How can I meet this lady, I asked? One month
later I found myself in the conservatory of the extraordinary Judith
Seelig - yoga teacher, singer, healer - garnering new wisdom for The
Listening Spheres.
Read the full
interview with Judith
Michael Rossoff
“It
is definitely possible to know the condition of every organ in the body
from the voice, because that is where the voice is coming from”
11 May 2009
Michael
is an acupuncturist, Macrobiotic Counselor and Oriental Medicine &
Macrobiotic Teacher, based in the States. I met him when I attended a
course he was teaching called Basic Alchemy. At one point in the course
he said something which intrigued me: that it is possible, by listening
to someone’s voice, to locate where in their body the pain is. I was
lucky enough to intercept Michael on a recent visit to London, to
'interview' him for the Listening Spheres. The interview did not consist
of a series of questions and answers. He asked me at the beginning of
the interview to explain my interest in listening. From that point on I
said very little, and simply tried to follow his (high-speed!) train of
thought.
Read the full interview with Michael
George Dunnebacke
“Listening is an open-ended state. It is not “listening to”. It’s just “listening”.
3 March 2009
One day I was telling my housemate Annie about my interest in listening. We watched together the TED.com talk by the percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Straight afterwards Annie turned to me and said: “You have
to talk to my father”. George, a pianist, lives in the States so the
interview took place over the phone. We had a number of further
conversations and email exchanges before George announced that he was
satisfied with my notes - a very useful demonstration of the limits of
my own listening skills...
Read the full interview with George (coming shortly)
James Ashdown
"Listening draws out stories from people, and allows richness and meaningfulness to emerge."
12 February 2009
On
my return from a solitary retreat in the Sinai Desert, I wrote a short
piece about my experience for a newsletter. James was the editor
of this newsletter. Having read my piece he emailed to tell me that
he too had a deep fascination with the desert. We met to discuss and
very quickly I realised I was in the presence of a distinguished
listener...
Read the full interview with James
Liz Watson
“The marriage of Intention and Attention”
15th January 2009
Liz is the UK National Coordinator for The World Community for Christian Meditation and leads a meditation group which I attend. 24 hours before I set off for a solitary retreat in the Sinai Desert last October, I had my first wobble. I had been reading John Merton’s “On Contemplation” and “The Sayings of the Desert Fathers” by Benedicta Ward. What if the demons came to attack me in my desert solitude? Would I lose my mind all alone in the sand? I called Liz and asked for an emergency meeting. I was immediately struck by the quality of her listening, in particular the boldness and directness with which she played back to me my fears. When the Listening Spheres project was born, she was the first person I called to request an interview.
Read the full interview with Liz