An Advanced Psychology of the East (playlist)

From The Estate of Idries Shah:

A lecture delivered by Idries Shah before a live audience in 1977, along with selections from The Way of the Sufi and The Magic Monastery read by members of The London College of Storytellers. Originally released in 1984 in the audio collection,  An Advanced Psychology. 

In this lecture Shah talks about the correct approach the student needs to take in order to learn, as well as the characteristics that aid the student in his study of Sufism and those which are detrimental to it. He also outlines the duties, qualities, and attributes of the Sufi teacher and describes the 'Five Subtleties,' or centers of spiritual perception, the student has to experience in his development.


"People read stories and they ransack books for Sufi exercises and psychological or spiritual techniques and, then, remarkably often to our way of thinking, they set about trying to employ these things. Well, of course, it does surprise us because if I were to find a textbook on surgery, I wouldn't try to take out my own appendix, just because I'd read it and there were diagrams." --From An Advanced Psychology of the East © 1977, 1982 by The Estate of Idries Shah