Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall with chimpanzee

Jane Morris Goodall is a British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist, known for her pioneering field research on chimpanzees in Africa.

Early years

She was born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on April 3, 1934.

After the war, she wanted to attend a university, but her family could not afford the fees, and no scholarship was available She went to London seeking secretarial work, and while there she fed her craving for knowledge with free courses from the London School of Economics, by visiting museums and art galleries.

Involvement with Theosophy

Jane Goodall described her introduction to Theosophy during the early London years, in her autobiography, Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey:

I also began to attend courses held once a week on the teachings of Theosophy. I was especially drawn to the concepts of karma and reincarnation, because I was still trying very hard to make sense of the horrors of the war. If karma was operating, Hitler and the Nazis would pay for their crimes in some future life, while those who were killed in battle or tortured in the death camps may have been paying for former transgressions. They would then either be reborn to a better life or go to some kind of heaven or paradise. I had never been able to believe that God would give us poor frail humans only one chance at making it – that we would be assigned to some kind of hell because we failed during ‘’one’ experience of mortal life. After all, one human life span measured against eternity – it is gone faster than a millionth of a second. So the concept of karma and reincarnation made logical sense to me.

The woman who taught our Theosophy course was charismatic. Most of the young men were semi in love with her and I thought she was brilliant. She would take a little idea and develop it in a thousand different directions. She constantly emphasized the need to stop what she called "circling thought" so that we could become more aware of things going on around us. Circling thought, she explained, is the constant flow of thoughts that go through one’s mind, almost all the time. Trying to make my mind a blank, thought-less, was perhaps the hardest task of all. Much of what I learned in those classes was very helpful to my own constantly evolving personal beliefs about God and the universe. I wrote quite a lot of poetry at the time: the following is a good example.

THE OLD WISDOM

When the night wind makes the pine trees creak

And the pale clouds glide across the dark sky,

Go out, my child, go out and seek

Your soul: the eternal I.

For all the grasses rustling at your feet

And every flaming star that glitters high

Above you, close up and meet

In you: the Eternal I.

Yes, my child, go out into the world; walk slow

And silent, comprehending all, and by and by

Your soul, the Universe, will know

Itself: the Eternal I.

After a session some of us would go to a coffeehouse and talk for hours and I learned a great deal about life during those late-night sessions. We were a motley collection, representing all strata of society. There was the “Worm Lady,” who jumped to her feet repeatedly during the classes to offer pearls of wisdom, her points invariably illustrated by reference to earthworms because of the symbolism of such lowly creatures who yet aerated the soil, that all might live. It was amazing how many times worms were mentioned thanks to the Worm Lady. And there was an utterly fascinating Dutchman who had been part of the Dutch resistance...
Theosophy captivated me – but my deep love of Jesus remained…...

Scientific career

Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania.

n 1977, Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Institute, based in Silver Spring, Maryland It supports programs for environmental research, education, and research, including the continuing research on primates in the Gombe Stream Research Centre in Tanzania. "The Jane Goodall Institute is the center of a network of institutes in 13 other countries, including Canada, China, Holland, Uganda and South Africa."

Honors

In 2002, Goodall was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and has helped to raise awareness of U.N. initiatives. She carries the title of "Dame" since being honored by Queen Elizabeth II in 1995 as CBE, or "Commander of the order of the British Empire," and in 2004 as DBe or "Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire."

Goodall has also received the Medal of Tanzania for her environmental work, the Hubbard Medal from the National Geographic Society; and the Kyoto Prize from Japan. In 2001, the World Movement for Nonviolence awared the third Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence. Commemorative postage stamps have been issued in her honor in Tanzania, Gambia, Uganda, and Mali.