Peter E. Pflaum - Golden Globe - The Synergy Network
http://www.wiredbrain.net/documents//  pflaump@cfl.rr.com


RE: Humor Scholars

The Kennedy mystique much admired partly came from Sufi teaching.
Specifically from the followers of Gurdjieff, Meeting with
Remarkable Men. Your administration badly needs focus and power.
There is a way. 

I am asked "are you the secret teacher?"
"Yes, I am." I say
"But you don't know anything about Sufi teaching." they say.
"That's right - but that's the secret."


A Sufi camping one night put a bottle under his head for a
pillow.
His student said "surely that is going to be too hard?"
"As an ordinary bottle, Yes," the Sufi said " but I am going to
stuff it with straw before I put my head on it."

A new computer translation system is set up for the Russian
Republic - the message is sent "The spirit is willing but
the flesh is weak."
The terminal in Moscow quickly types " The Vodka is ready
but the meat is devitalized."

Fruit Flies like Bananas (Chomsky)
Time Flies like an arrow - 
have you seen a house fly, horse fly, deer fly, dragon fly?
Unconsidered Trifles = Neglected Puddings

A famous Professor was demonstrating, before fellow-members of
the learned Academy, a remarkable discovery.
First he took three flies out of a matchbox. Then he commanded
them to fly three times around the table. Then. on his command,
they jumped five times. Finally they danced a silent tap dance on
the table, their images magnified through a gigantic apparatus
devised for the purpose of making such demonstrations visible to
a large audience.
     The onlookers were spellbound. "and now," said the scholar,
"I will give you the real demonstration. It is the illustration
of my discovery."
     He took the flies and placed drops of honey on their feet,
sticking them to the table. Then he shouted "FLIES JUMP!" The
flies went on licking the stick stuff.
     "And that ladies and gentlemen," concluded the Professor
"demonstrates that flies, when their feet are covered in honey,
cannot hear!"

A whole band of Sufis (any group Episcopalians) were being
admitted to heaven. Each was admitted without any ceremony, the
doors simply closed and open for the next. Right at the end came
a scholar, with a reverent look and majestic gait, full of
confidence. He was among the most respected academics of his age.
As he stepped forward the gates swing wide, the trumpets sounded,
there was tremendous applause from the assembled multitude. The
shining figure of St. Michael himself came to escort him within.  
    "This is most gratifying", said the scholar, " to know that
the learned are recognized for their importance. But why all this
ceremony?"

"Well", said St. Michael, "it is something of an occasion. You
see, this is the first time that we have had an academic among
us.." (Lawyer, politician, University President etc.)

Idries Shah - Octagon Press

RE: Sufis

Christians associated with St. Augustine and St. John of the
Cross (Rosticrusian) (Palacios) 
St. John the Baptist - the wool and Sheikh Daud Yusuf, Jesus as a
Sufi Teacher. (Hallaj)
Coffee, clothes (shirt, belt, trousers) Andalusian, dance
waltz, morris dance, Dante, Robinson Crusoe, Chaucer,
William Tell, Freemasons, Tarot Cards, 
Arabist School of Montpellier (Jews from Spain)
Medicine - Dr. D. Campbell)
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence of Arabia)
Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, Bilal, Ibn Riyah, Abu Abdullah, Salman the
Persian (Zoroastrians)
The Rose, Rosicrucians, Rosary from the Spanish illuminist Sufi
claim a decent from: (Saracens the Reciter)
Hermes of Egypt, Mary the Hebrew, Democritus of Greece,
Morienus of Rome, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) of Arabia, Albertus
Magnus of Germany, Arnold of Villaneuve of France, Thomas
Aquinas of Italy, Raymond Lully of Spain, Roger Bacon of
England, Melchoir Cibienis of Hungary, Anonymous Sarmata
(Michael Sendivogius ) of Poland.
Jungian archetypal from Ibn El-Arabi (Modern Man in Search of a
Soul" C.C. Jung)
Robert Graves "The Crowning Privilege"
Human Potential Training and Education:
The Teacher (Guide) is Peter E.  Pflaum, Ph.D.  who has twenty
years of experience and practice with his unique system.   Others
will enrich the Yoga, and other special methods (Zen).   

Be Careful - Notes from The Secret Garden:
Mahmud Shabistari, (E.P. Dutton & Co, 1974)

Sufism is not a religion. The Sufi prac tice is a the science of
man, or the "Science of Certainty." In most societies, most of
the time, the Sufi could not find acceptance or a fair hearing.
Any ideas that were not devoted to the service of the state and
the prevailing ideology were regarded as not only odd but
dangerous treason, and was feared as subversive. The Moslem
cults, the brotherhood, and many others are mixtures. Will the
real Sufi please stand up. 
Sufi cloaked their teaching and activities in the outward
garb of religion. The ability to pretend and remember what is
image and what is real,  is a critical Sufi art - but many cults
came to believe the outside as inside.  Sufis focused on cultural
pursuits which in authoritian societies allows certain freedoms
and contacts with different people. The Per sian-speaking Sufi's
domi nated the classics, which became convert Sufi text books.  
The public forms of Sufism are imitations. The desire for
fantasies led to groups and activities that are popular and
acceptable to the dog matic climate. Imitation Sufis abounded.
Scholars and the public are naturally confused on what is true
Sufism and what is mystic popular imita tions. The Christians
have the same problem - the unreal imitations of Christ and
popular but weaken practices. People want to believe that their
"cult" has a special and secret way. 
Spain became a Sufi center in the Middle Ages, and still in the
south reverberates in songs and stories.  The spread of Culture
from Spain and the Renascence brought Sufi practice to Europe.
The Freemasons were partly based on these traditions.  
The Sufi have a special science in psychology and the study of
man. All Sufi activity in the West until after WWI was private.
Sir Richard Burton (1001 Nights) only saw imitation cults and did
not know of the small private non-cultist Sufis.  
The Russo-Armenian philos opher Gurdjief published the first
western text about a origin in Central Asia with links to the
distant past, early forms of Christianity and the monasteries in
the Hindu Kirsh. Ouspensky, a disciple, transmitted these ideas
in lectures, demonstra tions, and books. This became popular with
the Kennedy crowd and actors. 
Dr. Maurice Nicholl and Dr. Kenneth Walker used the
psychologically-oriented to attempt a system of practice. The
authors of the Blooms bury group brought Sufi ideas to literature
which continues today by many writers - Borges, Lesing, Kipling
and many more. 
The true Sufi potential was largely untouched. Sufi does not have
authority figures, a or a set of customs or hab its. It is more
open than Zen and even more difficult to fix in place. Hadrat
Sayed Idries Shah in the major book "The Sifis" brought light to
the confused situation. His work has brought the Sufi tradi tion
back into focus for the West. The all too human desire to have a
talisman, a messianic figure who would transform the world is not
true Sufi but many cults still seek such a ideal. Idries Shah
would not confine himself to closed groups who thought they had
key to wisdom. The desire to feel special, to have secrets,
ceremonies and special knowledge is not unique to these Sufi
cults. It is tribal. 
Poets, scientist, professors of literature and physics,
anthropologist claimed something of value in Idries Shah's work. 
Serious socio logical journal found the ideas of prime importance
in solving current human prob lems in advanced societies. It's
vital importance to education and learning became more widely 
WELLNESS SEMINAR: THE BODY - Summary: Stage one: 
The practice is to work directly on the stoppages - the blocks -  
then rational thought can begin to solve problems - not before. 
People didn't talk their way into blocks and can't talk them
selves out of their problems.  The words such as; centered,
balance, grounded, mean some thing in practice.  You do it, not
talk about it.  The Way to Vibrant Health by Alex and Leslie
Lowen is based on the process of increasing the life force.  New
energy is released by proper respiration and metabolism.  The new
energy is great for lasting weight control.  The mind and body
are identi cal, one is a reflection of the other.  How you feel
effects how you think and how you think effects how you feel.  (
Norman Cousins interesting book on Health - Bill Moyers series on
public T.V.  Benison on Stress are good examples.) 
Level One (Steps 1 to 9) Each session contains a warm up, a
lesson from a 350-page work book, individual and group exercises.
1.) Getting in touch - breath
2.) Getting in Touch - metabo lism - (great for weigh control)
3.) Bioenergetics - (Alexander Lowen) grounding - charging   4.)
Self-possession and self- expression - being in touch
5.) The Exercises - getting loose - getting the energy flows     
unblocked.
6.) The expressive Exercises and Gestalt - Feelings (mind - the
body) 
7.) Sexual exercises (optional) massage and setting up a regu lar
schedule. 
8.) Autogenic - relaxation tech niques
9.) Meditation and Imagination

* Alexander Lowen, Bioenerget ics - (Harper & Row) a form of
Gestalt - Autogenic and other names (Mind as Healer, Mind as
Slayer by Pelletier, Kenneth) and Wilhelm Reich -  Every "Shaman"
I know  has a simple and direct approach.  Emotions are feeling -
feelings are NOT thoughts - they are physical.  (Thoughts exist
in the brain but I am talking about the fight/flight syndrome,  a
series of body reaction to emotions, This has been called the
Stress syndrome - ) 
THE MIND - Stage two: IN TOUCH WITH FEELINGS - 
INDEPENDENT TO INTERDE PENDENT
Out of touch means not only with our feeling but with reality.  
We are not conscious of how uptight we are, how afraid, how
uncertain.  As in a popular ad with the kid inside who wants the
frosted side, we are out of touch with the "child within ," we
fail to communi cate with our spouses, our kids, our students, or
communities.
    Our behavior is established in the "dream world" - the sub or
un-awareness - most of the forces that controls our lives are out
of sight and out of mind.   
The "real" world is an illusion created by social norms,
language, advertising, political interests, etc.  The real world
is in our dreams.   For those who don't know, this is hard to
believe but when known is obvious.    Did you ever have a
tightness that you only identified when it let go? You say, I
didn't know it was so tight.  You get used to being in knots, off
balance, out of tune. 
Stress and  THOUGHT control: Level two - getting control of your
thoughts - 
10.) Thought stopping - assertiveness training
11.) More effective - listening - parent - teacher - person 12.)
Dealing with Irrational ideas and passions
13.) Coping skills - proactive
14.) The seven habits of Effective People (Stephen Covey)
15.) Biofeedback - nutrition - advanced exercises (Yoga)
16.) Getting unstuck - independence - freedom from reactions 
17.) Yoga (Shalom) Love - cloud - visualiza tions and breath 
18.) No Fatigue, no sore muscles, perfect posture, the sounds
19.) Introduction to Zen and the art of paying attention

Stage Three: BEYOND SELF - four - DREAMS and UNION
Magic is real - real is magic.   THE SOUL -
Magic is the perception of forces AND REALITIES that we may not
be aware of today.  Life is full of tricks - things are different
from what they appear to be.  For example physical matter - the
stars - other people often give false impressions  - The
President - social conven tions - et al.  How do I know?  I
don't.  You have to practice - gain body knowledge - and feel
what you feel. How do we treat the problems and the world - by
practice - by example - by doing - not talking?  We will work
directly on the emotional base of behavior and the nature of
being. 
STUDIES ON THE WAY - the path of knowing
Level three - The path to knowl edge
20.) The world of illusions and images
21.) The Aesop fables and Sufi tales - the three levels of knowl
edge.  Reading and meditations 
22.) Morals, character, indepen dence - beyond self - loves  
23.) Total experience - peak experiences
Discovering Values: To learn new values you will experiences new
feelings or remember feeling you have forgotten. 
24.) See twice - Peter Weir's "The Last Wave" - Rhino-Home  25.)
Wallace's "The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca," (In paper
reprint from Random House about $10) read it, twice? This will be
our introduction to the dream world. 
26.) Steven Halpern - Music  Halpern Sounds, Visualization of the
perfect self - 
27.) Relaxation tape - to take home
28.) Yogi Shalom - Charles Schoelen,  a set of tapes.  The first
one is on LOVE, then the rock, the cloud and other meditations.
29.) Herrigel, Eugen ZEN (Zen in the Art of Archery).  The Method
of ZEN (McGraw-Hill)- and/or  OM Creative Meditations - by Alan
Watts - (Celestial Arts, MillBrae, CA) Electronic      Education
Program P.O.  Box, Mill Valley, CA 94941
A couple of Sufi books - THE ANSWER IS MAGIC:

Level four: THE DREAM TIME -
30.) Out of touch - The dream world - reality - 
illusions
When people have profound psychological problems - the general
belief is that you need to deal with the emotional basis as the
cause.   While there are many theories of Psychological practice,
we focus on direct experience - by exercises and psychodrama, 
rather than analysis, talking or running away.  To help someone
with a stutter you practice the stutter until it is under
control.  We are going to learn mind control. 
Certainty for our Time:
31.) LAWS OF PHYSICS:
Imagine the atom; the core of particles held together by great
force, the fields of electrons vibrating in their courses.  The
electrons can only operate in certain fixed Quantum, they can be
in only certain ways in rela tionship to each other and the
nucleus.  These fixed ways allow for chemistry.  The ele ments
can combine with Cer tainty depending on the fixed nature of
physics.  God cannot do things against his nature.  The laws of
nature are not imposed from outside but re side within the nature
of things. 
32.) SCIENCE:
The ways the elements com bine, the very order of the Cosmos
itself defines the possible.  Science and technol ogy are doing
the possible.  The difference between alchemy and chemistry,
astronomy and astrology, is the knowledge of the possible. 
Knowing, some thing of the ways of nature is knowledge.    33.)
IDEOLOGY:
The evil and false pride that people have when they think their
ideas are equal to the ways of nature.  The ways of the universes
exist in a grain of sand.  The natural processes in a drop of
water are infinitely more powerful than any human belief. 
Science endeavors to put our beliefs in tune with reality.  The
electrons change their quanta in fixed patterns.  They do not
move through the intermediate space.  We cannot go from here to
there without passing through the intermedi ate space.  Particles
do not conform to our concepts but we try to understand the
reality as best we can.   
34.) FALSE PRIDE:
It is a source of evil and false pride to foolishly believe our
ideas of nature are just relative.  The " anything goes approach"
and "do you own thing," encour ages the belief that anything is
possible.  We must live with the really possible not in illusions
and fancy.  The covenant is the fixed law of nature where possi
ble becomes real.  Reality is the wisdom of Gods' creation, his
own presence.  Human wisdom shrinks before the infinite.  The
unity of all things appears in the billions of stars and atoms,
the Eternal essence.  I am God, you are Gods also is a rather spe
cial way.  We are perfect in harmony with the universe and
nothing,  a small spark outside the rules of nature.  Is there a
contradiction here - our ideas are not reality - so how can we
know God?   

RE: Arrogant and foolish:

I have false pride and am immensely stupid. I believe that my
pathetic ideas are a authentic representation of reality. How
could my shallow thoughts reflect the order of nature
itself. How could my thoughts comprehend the true nature of life,
physics, the cosmos, time, and even my own being. To think my
ideas are reality,  is indeed most arrogant and
foolish.

It is said that the beginning of wisdom is awareness of ones
ignorance. I am worse than rocks, than beasts and savages
because I try to impose my foolishness on the world. I come to
believe that what I think is - it is indeed a "grand
Illusion" of false power and fake glory. I even believe that -
that is all there is - nothing more!

I could try to allow my being, mind, body and spirit rest in its
own existence. I could come to terms with myself but I am too
busy with needs and desires. I could come into some kind of
meaningful relationship with creation if... I could  feel the
proper respect for the other but I am too afraid of letting go of
my false faces, defenses, passions, and hidden doubts. 

Sophist are those who adjust, subconsciously perhaps, their ideas
to their interests. They reflect the popular beliefs and glow in
reflected self-admiration. They think they are smart because of
the praise of fools. I am a sophist, and
bask in the false light of praise. I think the thoughts that will
be rewarded and reject hard truths that will get me
into trouble.  I am devious, untrue to my self or others,
can not be trusted, I forget the little wisdom,  I once
knew, I flounder in new and fashionable theories. 

I could be more than a beast and less than an angel but am afraid
of what others might think. I am caught up in angers, prejudices,
tricks, and overwhelming greed. I want things my way are refuse
to listen to advice. I will do anything to
get what I want, first my self deception then by fooling
others. I subdue or seduce the unwary and fool myself. I am
indeed arrogant and foolish - I am humanity.
35.) REMEMBER - 
The particles of corporal exis tence do not have a personality. 
Reality is not confined to man.  If we are transformed into van
quished space and are no lon ger self but a new being, we can
come close to looking into the face of God.  If this is not clear
it is because it is very difficult to express.  The truth is said 
often and many different ways but while many hear only a few,
listen.   
36.) It is difficult to explain to the Bat who lives only at
night and avoids the bright sun what shadows are like.  Maybe
some time in your life you knew you were in tune - had certain
know ledge of being - Being just what you are, MASLOW in the
Further Reaches of Human Behavior explored this aptitude.  He
called it transcendence, beyond self to being or B values.  He
said it gave life meaning and purpose.  Effective people knew the
meaning of B-values and therefore had focus and energy that
created a successful life.  Beyond self.  So simple and so hard. 
Can you explain to the blind about the colors of the world? The
drunken, desire their drunkenness and do not desire the truth. 
If is not this or that: then what is it?  
37.) The Perfect Truth:
To go from the possible (the ways of nature ) to the essential is
the spring of reason.  First we gain true perception and then a
sense of being and passing through and beyond personality to real
character.  We can be worse than beasts, fiends, stones or storms
- we have the avarice, envy, pride opposes knowledge.  We do not
overcome these by an act of will but by rites of passage.   In
Joseph Campbell's hero with 1000 Faces, these "all too hu man"
passions and monsters are passed in the mythical jour neys in the
underworld (clearly a representation of our reptile unconscious
minds).  The Hero emerges from thinking and feeling to being and
knowing.   
38.) BEING READY:
There are few shortcuts.  If you love God, God will love you. 
You are beloved, the union with all exists in you and all around
you.  In pure obedience, there is true freedom.  When you are
master then you are slave.  You are the sweet fruit in the shell,
ready to ripen, the suns warm beams has put us into the right
stage of life.  Our estate is prepared and we are ready.    39.)
If this is obscure to you, it is meant to be clear.  The vail of
metempsychosis passes and you sees clearly the obvious - AH HA!
The circle is complete, I am what I am, and feel good about it. 
(Union) The seal is broken and the secret reveled - it was here
all the time but you weren't looking, you did not listen, I guess
you were too busy with more important busi ness.  Faith and
peace, and eternal wisdom are not so im portant?  They require
truth and justice and cannot be used for personal gain.  They
have no market value. 
40.) The dream that becomes reality is in the union of mystic
lore and the way.  The doors are open, are you ready for
no-existence.  If you give up existence you will find it.  If you
cling to the things of life, you cannot pass this way.  That is
the myth of the "grateful dead." To win you must surrender, to
triumph, give up.  You all know that.  The phantoms pass away,
nothing but the truth remains.   
THE UNION
Comes when the possible have passed its ordered limits and become
the essential - science has become knowledge and certainty. 
(This is beyond 40 and me at the moment).  Who firmly grasps the
mystic mean ing of the union of possible and the promise of the
essential has a higher wisdom than plain mortals.  More is less,
far is near, we are no longer afraid of our own shadows, the fire
has no terror and the book of chan ges.   
 (To be continued - Mahmud Shabistri "The Secret Gar den,"  only
57 pages - A Dutton Paperback)  
"Mankind's moral sense is not a strong beacon light, radiating
outward to illumi nate in sharp outline all that it touches.  It
is, rather, a small candle flame, casting vague and multiple
shadows, flickering and sputtering in the strong winds of power
and passion, greed and ide ology.  But brought close to the heart
and cupped it one's hands, it dispels the darkness and warms the
soul."  James Q.  Wilson 
known. *****************************************************  
************************************************************
Peter E. Pflaum Ph.D.                 * THE_SUFI_METHODS
               pepflaum@bellsouth.net
"Mankinds' moral sense is not a strong beacon light,
radiating outward to illuminate in sharp outline all that it
touches. It is, rather, a small candle flame, casting vague and
multiple shadows, flickering and sputtering in the
strong winds of power and passion, greed and ideology. But
brought close to the heart and cupped it one's hands, it
dispels the darkness and warms the soul."  James Q. Wilson
************************************************************