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Freethought110
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
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> http://www.ostadelahi.com/English/
>
>
Azadeh
Freethought110 <freetho...@bohemian.org> wrote in message
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Freethought110
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
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Freethought110 <freetho...@bohemian.org> wrote in message
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Besides Abu Ali Ibn Sina influenced the course of Western philosophy in a
very profound way. It has been proven that Descartes got his 'cogito ergo
sum' and the whole epistemology underlying it from Avicenna, particularly
the latters famous 'floating man' argument (i.e. if someone were to be
completely disembodied they would still have consciousness of their
existence).
--
Freethought110
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
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Freethought110 <freetho...@bohemian.org> wrote in message
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Freethought110
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
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There are quite a few philosophers living in Iran; some are active in the
area of Western Philosopy and some in are continuing the tradition of
Islamic Philosophy. Some teach in the State supported universities and
some in the traditional schools. Those continuing in the muslim tradituion
are of more interest; Iran is the only Muslim country in which the
traditional Islamic philosophy has been kept alive over the past millenua.
B.
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
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Babak Makkinejad <fzm...@wt.net> wrote in message
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What about Egypt.
If I am correct, Ostad Elahi has a son by the name of Dr. Bahram
Elahi, which has started a cult around the philosophy of his father in
France, and is actively setting up a priesthood, with moderate success
in attracting disaffected Iranians who are turning away from Islam,
and also including many western non-moslems yearning for spiritual
fulfillment.
I would like to caution you that this movement has taken a cult
status, to the point that puts the UHJ Bahais to shame. Where they
depart from the Bahais and some of the other cults is their
"pseudo-science" status. I know very little about the Elahi people,
but they are very active in proselytising, and follow up their sweet
talk with exthortion for monetary contributions and material support.
Many disaffected Iranians, and young western educated moslems who have
seen the beating that Islam is taking, have been gravitating to their
fold, looking for spiritual capital and group support. The Elahis, I
am told, have weekly or monthly meetings in homes of their local
leaders, where through intense psychological group therapy sessions,
bring these newcomers into their fold. Also annual retreats are set
up on Los Angeles and it is the duty of members to attend and
contribute to these gatherings.
On the surface they look like a benign lot, until one delves into
their philosophy and finds it is a hodge-podge of Islam,
re-incarnation, lobby group, old-boys networking, spiritual support,
material support, and exclusionist - in short they appear to have all
the trappings of a bona fide cult. For example:
Young children as young as 5 or 6 years old are given weekly
indoctrination sessions, telling them that if they do not believe or
behave in their way, that they will go to hell. They have been
successful in brainwashing young kids.
Members are required to donate certain amounts on a regular basis, to
be used by the cult, for their evangelical activities.
The Elahis are extremely defensive and secretive, and are not willing
to participate in the mainstream debates in fear of exposure. They
prefer one-to-one or group pressure tactics, scavenging to induce
"lost souls" to their ranks.
The Elahis appear to be following the footsteps of the Bahai
reactionaries, according to the true and tried formula, and have
received moderate amount of success. Their numbers I would guess is
anywhere between 2,000 to 10,000 committed members, including family.
One interesting thing about them is that they induce families as a
whole, which indicates that there must be a lot of pressure for
spouses and children to join in, at the risk of ex-communication.
Their philosophy is a hodge-podge of old and new ideas, some
hilarious. For example a soul has exactly 1,000 reincarnations
(somebody better tell them that any number with base 10 is already
suspect - it would be a lot more scientific if they had chosen a prime
number!). And if you see injustice in this world (e.g. an Afghani kid
being blown to pieces by a bomb, or a child dying from lukemia), it is
because this person has committed crimes in his/her past life, and
deserves it because God can only be just. Also, there is this
computer in the sky where all your minute actions in your 1000 lives
are tallied forever and at the end you are brought to reckon.
I know very little about these people. Maybe Nima Hazini can shed
more light on this. But they look, talk, and act just like a cult,
and should automatically be suspect. One big thing they offer is
group networking among the believers, at the expense of non-believers.
Nothing worse than other cults, but nevertheless a sure sign of a
cult.
Another hallmark of the Elahis is that they claim they have invented a
"science of the spirit". Bahram Elahi is apparently an MD, and claims
to be associated with the Sorbonne in ways they do not elaborate, but
there are no papers or publications that can be attributed to him
regarding this "science" that he has invented, and has not appeared in
respected or university publications. His thesis is that the spirit's
dynamics is exactly like a corporeal body, complete with infections,
virus, anti-bodies, genes, immune systems, etc. Of course all this
chart-va-part is written in Farsi for a non-scientific audience, never
been published in respected places, and only fed to their closed
group.
Any people who claim their rantings are "scientific" (e.g. Christian
Science), and propose pseudo-scientific ideas should be suspect, and
should be exposed IMO.
Dorood
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message news:<pBMZ7.4394$sb.5...@news1.calgary.shaw.ca>...
> http://www.ostadelahi.com/English/
This is both interesting and very disturbing information. Thanks for
sharing. All I have to say is that it seems that this is a re-occuring
pattern with a lot of different spiritual group/circles following a
charismatic teaching/or teacher) these days. And NRM, esoteric or New Age
groups are especially prone to fall to the Dark Side. All of this
corruptibility is no thanks to money and people's lust for power. A human,
all too human story, I'm afraid, but one which all these groups follow to
the script.
If this information is true, shame on Bahram Elahi. He has failed his
father. To be expected, though, and this information does not surprise me in
the least.
I guess the lesson to be learned here is people should be responsible for
their own personal spirituality themselves, rather than to turn to this or
that religion, cult figure or guru for guidance in this jumble puzzle enigma
we call life.
--
Freethought110
"xodaa" <xo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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Dear Azadeh, the word "Philospher" has been taking a new meaning in
the modern age. It used to be that if somebody dabbled in a good deal
of metaphysics, morality and ethics, he would be philosopher. Science
has come and basically thrown that out the window. To be a
Philosopher nowadays, you need a good basis in science and a deep
understanding of cosmology and cognitive sciences. The days are over
that somebody could start babbling about god, psycho-theism, and how
his spirit soars (obviously when he is high), and be oblivious to
modern thought and positive empiricism.
How do you combine rationality and metaphysics/spirituality without a
grounding in the scientific method?
The funny thing is that cognitive science does not deny a "state of
spirituality". But these old-guard theistic philosphers are loath to
explore this avenue, as they do not understand science, don't have the
discipline, and are afraid of new and competing theories.
From Ostaad Elahi's homepage, we see a quote from him: "Delve into
the self, as you will discover everything there is to discover" (or
something of this sort). This is the denial of the empirical
tradition, of objectivity, and just a restating of idealism and
psycho-babble. I would not give a person who is living in the 20th
century and says such stuff, the label "philosopher". Plato and
Aristotle had an alibi back then, before the advent of science. But
in the modern age, there is no longer an excuse.
regards
I find Ostad Elahi's sister, Jani, to be an interseting personality.
She was a liberated woman who left behind approximately
forty manuscripts written in Kurdish and Persian in which she
relates her spiritual experiences. Among these works are a few
compilations of mystic poems as well as "her advice and
recommendations to women". I wonder what they are! :-)
xodaa <xo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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Azadeh
xodaa <xo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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Among contemporary philosophers Ayn Rand and her brand of positivistic
objectivism is not taken all that seriously. In fact she and her successors
are universally scorned as cranks among serious philosophers, whether in or
out of the Academy. Personally I found much of the implied arguments set
forth in her novel *Atlas Shrugged* to be pseudo-philosophical hogwash.
In the East (especially in Iran, Greece and India) philosophy and
spirituality have always walked hand in hand. What is one to call figures
like Shankaracarya (India) and his school of Advaita Vedanta; Suhravardi and
his Illuminationism (Iran); or Plotinus with his peculiar brand of
Platonism, other than philosophy in the garb of the most elevated form of
spirituality imaginable? They have not been mutually exclusive, but
complimentary ways at looking at the complexities of Being from different
modes of investigation. Augustine once stated that philosophy is "faith
seeking understanding" and I agree with him, although I personally no longer
share the 'faith' part of the configuration.
Pascal is a problematic figure in philosophy especially because his totally
unreasonable "wager" makes a total mockery of human reason and ultimately
descends into irrationality and all which that entails.
You should look into Martin Heidegger but also look into people like Karl
Raymond Popper and especially his student William Barteley (see particuarly
his *The Retreat to Commitment* where he investigates the history of
Protestanism as "rational faith descending into irrational dogma").
--
Freethought110
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
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This is the radical diffrence between Shi'ism and Sunni Islam.
"Maleki" <male...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
news:0h4_7.7487$Gb1.1...@news2.calgary.shaw.ca...
Heart = a mere pump to circulate the blood around the body, hence "knowing
of the heart" is a little strange in the modern world.
The brain is a complicated and little-understood organ. Many of its
processes are not fully understood. A lot of mystical / spiritual
experiences are due to the brain functions we don't understand. I don't
think the kind of things you say below will have much currency in 50 years
time.
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
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Freethought110
"Babak Makkinejad" <fzm...@wt.net> wrote in message
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Freethought110 <freetho...@bohemian.org> wrote in message
news:a1amu0$2b1$1...@gnamma.connect.com.au...
I also hear that a CD-ROM of the unabridged version of Dehkhoda's
*Loghatnameh* (50 volumes in hardcopy) has also just been produced. If you
know anything about either one of these, please drop me an email at
lotu...@wxc.com.au .
Thanks :)
ghorbaanet
--
Freethought110
"Babak Makkinejad" <fzm...@wt.net> wrote in message
news:3c38...@sys13.hou.wt.net...
http://wilber.shambhala.com/index.cfm/xid,95408/yid,2961866/userId,0D7AC941-
76A6-46B4-BBF0A9122D4D43E9
or http://www.shambhala.com/ and follow the link where it says "Ken Wilber
website."
I think you'll _really_ like him especially his 750+ page opus magnum, *Sex,
Ecology and Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution* (1995). He's a biologist
by training and teaches at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
--
Freethought110
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
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Freethought110
"Pacifist" <Nos...@nospam.com> wrote in message
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Freethought110 <freetho...@bohemian.org> wrote in message
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Hahah :) Mysticism and spirituality are both bogus
terms that point to bogus ways that people who are not
very sharp utilize to refer to something they're not sure
how to describe. Anywhere there is a mention of any of
these two terms you ought to know you're in the presence
of confused persons, or kids at best. There are certain
concepts and thoughts that you cannot discuss with kids
too deeply.
Islam has provided simplified versions of tools just for
those who're really not sharp enough. Among them are
concepts like "ghiyAmat", "adl", "allAh", "jahannam" and
"behesht", "sheytAn", "fereshteh", "jenn", "haghgh". These
are all very legitimate and useful concepts, all very true and
effective, and yet they are understood and dealt with by some
people at a much simplified form, so simplified they start to
look like kids' stories.
And your approach to them is via looking at them at the kids
story level. So you have to relate them to some brain unknown
functions when you see fully intelligent people also indulge in
them. Hmm. What a situation you are in.
--
Freethought110
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
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"Pacifist" <Nos...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:a1ao7e$lj5$1...@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...
> Ayn Rand foundation = Home of rabid Zionism.
I wouldn't even dignify Rand and her ranting dribble and the Foundation
behind it with that appelation. You're being far too generous ;)
> Heart = a mere pump to circulate the blood around the body, hence "knowing
> of the heart" is a little strange in the modern world.
Well, "heart" = "del" which is understood to be a metaphorical organ not a
physical one.
> The brain is a complicated and little-understood organ. Many of its
> processes are not fully understood. A lot of mystical / spiritual
> experiences are due to the brain functions we don't understand.
Some experiments have been run with psychotropic substances (i.e. mescaline,
LSD, etc) which have re-created these experiences to the "T" for the
subjects under study. This is where I've started becoming highly ambivalent
about the whole validity of spirituality/mystical experiences tout court
over the years. Have you ever read Aldous Huxley's *Doors of Perception*
where he experiemented with mescaline and reported about it? In recent years
they've also investigated the content of NDE's (Near Death Experiences) and
been able to re-create about 2/3 of it. The only thing they haven't been
able to recreate is the luminiscent "Light" people report who've had them.
Other than that, the tunnel, life passing before your eyes etc, has all been
apparently recreated for the trial subjects. Of course, this is why Buddhism
has always argued that such experiences should be discounted altogether
because they are fundamentally subjective and thus empty.
> I don't
> think the kind of things you say below will have much currency in 50 years
> time.
Well, that we can't know. The question yet to be definitively answered by
parapsychologists and researchers is whether when the normal chemical
processes of the brain are altered or modified is a certain veil about
subjective everyday perception of reality removed? In other words, do the
drugs tested on the subjects create the experiences reported sui generis; or
is it the case that the drugs merely set aside the normal everyday
consciousness and unveil what is behind it? I don't know and any way you
answer the question you are left with a host of unresovable factors and new
enigmas. That is a question I don't think science will be able to answer
definitively even 50 years from now, as the variables involved are way too
many and way too complex to all pin down. It's fascinating stuff, in any
case, but this is among many other reasons is why I choose to be agnostic
rather than a believer or an out and out atheist on the whole question.
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC06/Gilman2.htm
Freethought110 <freetho...@bohemian.org> wrote in message
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> ShahrAm nAzeri belongs to the order.
I thought Shahram Nazeri was a Qaderi?
--
Freethought110
I have seen this happen in real life: put a Shi'i `alim next to a senior
ranking Sunni alim and get them to argue a point of fiqh, and the Shi'i
`alim will argue circles around the Sunni all the way to a TKO.
--
Freethought110
"Pacifist" <Nos...@nospam.com> wrote in message
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Freethought110
"Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
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"Freethought110" <freetho...@bohemian.org> wrote in message
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Freethought110
"Pacifist" <Nos...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:a1bn39$qg1$1...@news5.svr.pol.co.uk...
More relevantly, I have no idea about the outcome of any given piece of
research (or any specific time-span of say, 50 years), but I have felt for a
long time that all of the "stuff" about mysticism and spiritualism are of
the same genus as the "God of the Gaps", namely, people have placed legends
and gods in the places where rational explanations have failed them.
As science has advanced, the "gods" have retreated.
The workings of the Human Brain are not properly understood yet. As the
scientific knowledge expands, we will understand the nature of spiritual and
mystical experiences better, and can do away (if necessary!!) with many of
the beliefs about spirit and after life.
Your reference to the near-death experiences is important. The whole body
of religious beliefs about after-life has been built on people's description
of such events. (Well, nobody has actually come back from death itself and
described them!)
I do realise that science is concerned with "how" and not with "why" and
many of the "Big" questions are outside the ambit of science.
However, science can let us eliminate the implausible explanations of events
and experiences and that is very important.
"Freethought110" <freetho...@bohemian.org> wrote in message
news:a1b12u$95f$1...@gnamma.connect.com.au...
> Hahah :) Mysticism and spirituality are both bogus
> terms that point to bogus ways that people who are not
> very sharp utilize to refer to something they're not sure
> how to describe. Anywhere there is a mention of any of
> these two terms you ought to know you're in the presence
> of confused persons, or kids at best. There are certain
> concepts and thoughts that you cannot discuss with kids
> too deeply.
There are no kids here. Why don't you discuss some of these concept at
whatever depth you are capable of? People will either understand them or
come back to you, asking for explanations.
>
> Islam has provided simplified versions of tools just for
> those who're really not sharp enough. Among them are
> concepts like "ghiyAmat", "adl", "allAh", "jahannam" and
> "behesht", "sheytAn", "fereshteh", "jenn", "haghgh". These
> are all very legitimate and useful concepts, all very true and
> effective, and yet they are understood and dealt with by some
> people at a much simplified form, so simplified they start to
> look like kids' stories.
This stuff must have been effective for satisfying the desert dwellers of
1,400 years ago. They are unlikely to be satisfactory to educated people
living in the 21st century.
> And your approach to them is via looking at them at the kids
> story level. So you have to relate them to some brain unknown
> functions when you see fully intelligent people also indulge in
> them. Hmm. What a situation you are in.
I don't quite follow your line of reasoning. Many intelligent people are
interested in mystic practises. Many other intelligent people are following
the avenues of scientific research (from psychology to Quantum Physics) to
examine the same phenomena. My "situation" is that I observe both and
incline towards the second group.
If you have any better ideas, please enlighten me.
Babak Makkinejad wrote:
> Madame:
>
> There are quite a few philosophers living in Iran; some are active in the
> area of Western Philosopy and some in are continuing the tradition of
> Islamic Philosophy. Some teach in the State supported universities and
> some in the traditional schools. Those continuing in the muslim tradituion
> are of more interest; Iran is the only Muslim country in which the
> traditional Islamic philosophy has been kept alive over the past millenua.
>
> B.
>
> "Azadeh" <aza...@postchi.com> wrote in message
> news:hoNZ7.3966$0B1.6...@news3.calgary.shaw.ca...
> > He had combined humanism and spirituality, metaphysics
> > and rationality. Does it make him also a "Philosopher"
> > in its Western sense? Do we really have Persian
> > philosophers? Do you consider Avicenna a philosoher?
> >
I don't do this stuff free anymore. It's been 6 years now and
this party is over. I want money for it.
> >
> > Islam has provided simplified versions of tools just for
> > those who're really not sharp enough. Among them are
> > concepts like "ghiyAmat", "adl", "allAh", "jahannam" and
> > "behesht", "sheytAn", "fereshteh", "jenn", "haghgh". These
> > are all very legitimate and useful concepts, all very true and
> > effective, and yet they are understood and dealt with by some
> > people at a much simplified form, so simplified they start to
> > look like kids' stories.
>
> This stuff must have been effective for satisfying the desert dwellers of
> 1,400 years ago. They are unlikely to be satisfactory to educated people
> living in the 21st century.
>
Yet you see educated people satisfied by them.
> > And your approach to them is via looking at them at the kids
> > story level. So you have to relate them to some brain unknown
> > functions when you see fully intelligent people also indulge in
> > them. Hmm. What a situation you are in.
>
> I don't quite follow your line of reasoning. Many intelligent people are
> interested in mystic practises. Many other intelligent people are following
> the avenues of scientific research (from psychology to Quantum Physics) to
> examine the same phenomena. My "situation" is that I observe both and
> incline towards the second group.
> If you have any better ideas, please enlighten me.
> >
> >
My ideas, those better ones, are only spiritual and mystic to you :)
Let me have a word with Azadeh here.
Azadeh how's your exclusive Iranian newsgroup going ? :-) I would
blush to come back to this forum after all that hostility and distaste
you showed... But you're welcome.