Short biographical sketch
Pierre Pradervand studied at the universities of Geneva, Bern and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor before receiving a Doctorate in sociology from La Sorbonne University A true world citizen, Pierre has labored most of his life for social justice, living in or visiting 40 countries on every continent. From his Geneva home Pierre is now active as a writer, speaker and workshop facilitator, helping people to live simpler, yet richer, more contented lives. His workshops provide personal development tools that empower attendees to strengthen their internal anchors and advance on their spiritual path. Pierre is also an independent celebrant for weddings, burials and other events.
Career information
Currently a writer (20 books in as many languages), speaker and life coach in the area of personal development and spirituality; independent celebrant for weddings, burials, and other events.
On completing university, Pierre worked for a year for the UN in Geneva, then in Algeria doing field research as a sociologist. From 1971-73 he worked for the American Friends Service Committee in Senegal, setting up the first public information program on family planning for French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa, then, with no experience whatsoever in the field of journalism, he started, for the Canadian International Development research Center of Ottawa, a grass roots magazine on health and development which in three years became the best-selling international magazine in French-speaking Africa (1973-79). he worked briefly as an international consultant on family planning for the UN, then did a year’s stint for the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs running a six-country survey of development education, and finally worked for a group of Swiss NGOs setting up the first information program for public schools on North-South issues in French-speaking Switzerland. His work over the years took him to over 40 countries of the five continents.
Five books have been published in English:
The Gentle Art of Spiritual Discernment - a Guide to Discovering your Personal Path, Inner Traditions, 2023
365 Blessings to heal myself and the world - John Hunt Publishing, 2018
The Gentle Art Blessing, Atria Paperbacks, Simon and Schuster, 2009. English editions also in Great Britain (Cygnus books) and India (St. Paul’s, Mumbai). The book originally appeared in French (Jouvence, 1998) and has also appeared in Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish and Slovene. Winner of the 2010 Gold Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality
Messages of Life from Death Row, Booksurge Publishing, 1999, (originally in French, and also Dutch)
Listening to Africa, (a 14,000km. trip through over 100 villages of the Sahel, Kenya and Zimbabwe undertaken in 1987, talking with around 1300 peasant farmers a the grass roots, published in 6 languages including Japanese, Praeger publishers, N.Y. 1989.)
Twenty books, mostly on personal development and spirituality, are in French and have been published in 15 languages, including Japanese, Arabic and Russian.
Hobbies and interests
Music (autoharp), singing, and a great deal of volunteering in very diverse areas. For 20 years he has been accompanying an amazing Afro-American death row inmate from Texas who has become a spiritual model for hundreds around the world (see his book on Roger W. McGowen, Messages of Life from Death Row). He also volunteers with a remarkable Geneva-based international NGO, the Women’s World Summit Foundation which is active in the field of decreasing violence against women and children (see www.woman.ch), and is on the board of another Geneva-based NGO recently classified as one of the 58th best NGOs in the world, the Voix Libres (Free Voices) organization (see trilingual website: http://www.voixlibres.org/index.php?lang=en ). He takes part in the yearly Geneva Book Fair with his French-language publisher, Editions Jouvence.
Published articles
Numerous scientific articles (about 50) during the first 20 years of his life but which are not relevant here.
Regular contributions to The Christian Science Monitor, but not in recent years
Over the years he has been a frequent contributor to Cygnus Review (no longer published in the same format), here is the link
http://blog.cygnusreview.com/author/pierre-pradervand/
January 19, 2016: Awakin podcast http://www.awakin.org/calls/238/pierre-pradervand/ (transcript: A lifetime Of Blessing: Pierre Pradervand transcript (2948 reads)
February 19, 2015: Guest blogger, The Forgiveness Project:
http://theforgivenessproject.com/guest-blog-stunning-lesson-forgiveness-pierre-pradervand/
March and June, 2015: The College of Psychic Studies, London, lecture and workshops
https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/events/leader/id/6103/pierre-pradervand
Inspire Me Today February 2017 https://inspiremetoday.com/brilliance/whatever-situation-can-always-love/
Blogs on Br. David Steindl-Rast Gratefulness website: http://gratefulness.org/?searchterm=pradervand
Online Presence
https://pierrepradervand.com
https://gentleartofblessing.org/
A strictly a non-commercial site, all content is free. Basic text of blessing, print, audio and video, healing testimonies, blessings by the author (print and audio), spiritual texts, positive news, monthly blogs, thoughts to ponder, Q&A, links to inspiring videos, etc.
https://vivreautrement.org/ (for Pierre’s workshops, in French only)
Facebook page (bilingual): https://www.facebook.com/ppradervand
Recent interviews, videos and conversations in English
All can be accessed from the web site https://gentleartofblessing.org/category/interviews-with-pierre-pradervand/
a. January 2016 Awakin podcast http://www.awakin.org/calls/238/pierre-pradervand/ (transcript: A lifetime Of Blessing: Pierre Pradervand transcript (2948 reads) January 19, 2016 http://www.servicespace.org/blog/view.php?id=18518
b. May 2014 Lilou Mace interview https://youtu.be/y9CniM_9IDw (English 12670 views, French 39000 views)
c. Cygnus Review podcast June 2014
d. Humanity’s Team audio conversations (typically 18,000-20,000 register for these calls): (All HT conversations are archived on their website)
i. December 2015 (12 Spheres of Spirituality) – Blessing
ii. May 2016 – Living in Oneness Summit –Focus on Forgiveness
iii. October 24. 2016 2016 Global World Summit Blessing
iv. December 1, 2016 What/Who is God
v. May 18, Not judging, forgiving and blessing
vi. Scheduled conversations for 2017: October 24, December 14
e. Prayerful Living 2015 on Practice of Blessing (archived at PL) and 2016 on Forgiveness is now on YouTube https://youtu.be/4lxTK2jqYT0
f. June2016 Theater of the Mind, Kelly Howell, June 2016 http://www.brainsync.com/blog/pierre-pradervand-the-gentle-art-of-blessing/
g. July 2016 Awake2Oneness now on YouTube https://youtu.be/caDb3FUtzXM
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