Jason Reza Jorjani, PhD, is a philosopher and author of Prometheus and Atlas, World State of Emergency, Lovers of Sophia, Novel Folklore: The Blind Owl of Sadegh Hedayat, and Iranian Leviathan: A Monumental History of Mithra’s Abode.

Here he discusses the process by which the earlier Mazdakite movement evolved, via Sufi mysticism, into Iranian Shiism. In fact, Shah Ismail Safavi, founder of the first Shiite Iranian dynasty, was himself the leader of a Sufi order. Under Safavi rule, Iranian art and architecture excelled. The great poets — Rumi and Hafez — wrote eloquently about the religion of love that superceded all of the established religions. These esoteric turns, while challenging religious orthodoxy, also became incorporated into Shiism.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is a past vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology; and is the recipient of the Pathfinder Award from that Association for his contributions to the field of human consciousness exploration.

(Recorded on July 8, 2019)

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