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www.shamansociety.org 35 toward Love. He explained that it is the Dervish who leaves behind the world of the profane in search of the sacred and who must learn lessons about transcend- ing the ego all the while understanding and embracing the immanent and the transcendent nature of all things. The journey of the soul is experienced as the Lover in search of the Beloved through invoking the presence of Saghi the wine bearer who through meditation con- templation zikr and sama will unite the Lover and Beloved as one. This union creates a drunken state of ecstasy in the Dervish which allows for his or her soul to transcend dis-ease of the mind body and spirit. This union further creates a state of perpetual and all encompassing Love within the Dervish that emanates out into the world toward all living be- ings. I was awed by this new spiritual learning and sought to know more. Moreover increasing levels of danger in my childhood world only pushed me further toward gaining spiritual insights culminating in an opening and engaging with the spirit world. My first encounter with the unseen world came at age eight at the onset of the Iranian revolution. Social unrest had become ubiquitous and angry mobs were forming everywhere. One particular day they were roaming and looting the street right outside our second story apartment. Terror struck my parents. They feared that as Jews we would become scape- goats and targets for revenge killings. As the mob grew in numbers my parents ordered us all to turn off the lights and hide under our beds. However I did not follow those instructions. Instead I felt drawn to a window that oversaw the mob forming below. Standing there in that dimly lit room watching the crowd heralded the same feelings of profound awe that I felt that day in the museum. There and then a clear deep and penetrating knowing arose in me echoing these words You and your family will go unharmed. But you must witness this for yourself. From that day on I developed my second pas- sion in life To understand the nature of conflict war and destruction. These various experiences instilled in me a deep calling to practice shaman- ism as it was taught and passed down through my culture and upbringing. However immigration to the United States set me on a different course. Like many other Iranian American young adults I soon ignored my traditional roots along with my unique calling and decided to pursue Western professions in my case Western psychology. Over twenty years I pursued graduate studies in psychology with an emphasis in transpersonal studies and earned a cer- tificate in Therapeutic Massage. I worked on healing my own mind and body and later on developed my craft as a healer to heal others. I became a drug and alcohol counselor and eventually took a faculty member post in the Department of Psychology at Santa Monica College. All the while I continued my own studies in Sufism under the guidance of teachers in both the physical and ethereal plane. In time eventually I more formally honored my Sufi roots by blending psychology with shamanism.