Limamou Laye, an Islamic leader from present-day Senegal, has proclaimed himself the reincarnation of Muhammad, with his son later proclaiming himself to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Limamou Laye established a tariqa, or Sufi organization, based upon his claims and the miracles attributed to him. This study analyzes Limamou Laye's goals for his community, his theology; as well as the various elements --- both local and global - that created him and helped him to emerge as a religious leader of significance. This book also explores how the growth of Islamic communities in Senegambia stems from an evolving conflict between the traditional governments and the emerging Islamic communities. Douglas H. Thomas demonstrates that Sufism was the obvious vehicle for the growth of Islam among West Africans, striking a chord with indigenous cultures through an engagement with the spirit world which pre-Islamic Senegambian religions were primarily concerned with.

Finding your soulmate and living happily together are at one and the same time one of life's greatest challenges and prospects. Together with its companion volume "The Mystery of Marriage," this book gives some of the deepest and particularly revealing insights into the nature of couplehood. This book approaches dating from the fresh perspective of a journey that both men and women enter in hope of uncovering their deepest creatives forces. With sensitivity to the essential differences between men and women, this book will help you appreciate the underlying motivations that move each to seek compansionship and matrimony. It also presents the first rigorous analysis of how the development of consciousness and the ability to make the right choices in life go hand-in-hand, stressing that your ability to appreciate the Divine nature of reality is a key factor in doing so. As such, the principles expounded can be applied to all areas of importance in life that involves difficult choices. Consciousness & Choice includes a detailed Kabbalistic study of the ancient courtship custom known as "the Dance of the Maindens." From this ancient ritual and its intricacies, Rabbi Ginsburgh uncovers the spiritual value of every motivating factor in searching for a spouse.

First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book offers a paradigm shift and fresh interpretation of Rumi's message. After being disentangled from the anachronistic connection with the Mevlevi order of Islamic Sufism, Rumi is instead placed in the world of philosophy.

Abu cAbd al-Rahman Muhammad b. al-Husayn al-Sulami (d.412/1021) lived in the 3rd and 4th century AH / 9th and 10th century CE. He was born in the city of Nishapur, one of the most renowned cities in the Islamic world. He was part of a line of earlier Sufi figures who attempted to defend the cardinal tenets of Sufism from accusations of heresy. However al-Sulami's surpassed his predecessors by amassing a corpus of antecedent mystical dicta from the architects of Islamic mysticism and substantiating them with transmission channels (isnad) or grounding them in a core teaching of the Prophet Muhammad. This study demonstrates that al-Sulami was an accomplished mystic. It outlines his life and times and surveys in full all his works as far as they can be identified. Moreover, the important sources that shaped the development and impression of his thinking and modality of transforming the ego-self (nafs) are presented in detail bringing together earlier and current academic scholarship on him.

Human enlightenment and liberation, mystics have long advised, require spiritual awakening from the hypnotic sleep of everyday life. This book explores the life and ideas of the enigmatic twentieth century philosopher, mystic, and teacher of esoteric dances George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1872?-1949), performing a hermeneutic textual analysis of all his published writings to illuminate the place of hypnosis in his teaching. The hermeneutic approach captures both the aim for an in-depth textual analysis, and the notion that the intent is to interpret the text using its own symbolic and meaning structures.

Systematically explored for the first time is Gurdjieff's "objective art" of literary hypnotism intended as a major conduit for the transmission of his teachings on the philosophy, theory, and practice of personal self-knowledge and harmonious human development. In the process, the nature and function of the 'mystical' shell hiding the rational kernel of Gurdjieff's teaching are explained--shedding new light on why his mysticism is "mystical," and Gurdjieff so "enigmatic," in the first place.

The book includes a Foreword by J. Walter Driscoll, a major bibliographer and scholar of Gurdjieff studies.

The body-mind connection is a well-documented fact in today's medical paradigm. Yet, long before recent scientific research uncovered this natural linkage, it was described in Kabbalistic healing manuals, with one important difference--there it was understood to be a link between the body, mind, and soul of kabbalah and healing.

This healing manual explains Kabbalah's centuries-old perception of human physiology, its view on how to maintain overall health, and how this is dependent on our spiritual well-being.

"The phenomenon of disease is one of spiritual] separation or estrangement," the rabbi writes pertaining to kabbalah and healing. When disconnected from our innermost self, and our spiritual Source, illness manifests. Were we to understand the true source of our ailments, and give full expression to our yearning to connect with our life Source, we would have no need for external remedies.

Whether you rely on today's holistic healing or on more traditional medicine, you'll benefit from the Kabbalistic prescriptions for healing and understanding of human physiology laid out in this valuable book.

Body, Mind, Soul: Kabbalah and Healing includes:
- A reference guide to the body-soul interaction
- A detailed description of Kabbalah's understanding of disease and its root causes
- Contemporary healing methods seen from a mystical point of view
- A discussion of the healing power of prayer and teshuvah (return to G-d)

Kabbalistic healing is a complete system of belief and practice. Of interest to anyone seeking true holism.

What is happening when someone has a mystical experience, such as "feeling at one with the universe" or "hearing God's voice?" Does philosophy provide tools for assessing such claims? Which claims can be dismissed as delusions and which ones convey genuine truths that might be universally meaningful? Valuable insights into such pressing questions can be found in the writings of Immanuel Kant, though few philosophical commentators have appreciated the implications beyond his famous "Copernican hypothesis." In Kant and Mysticism, Stephen R. Palmquist corrects this skewed view of Kant once and for all. Beginning with a detailed analysis of Kant's 1766 work Dreams of a Spirit-Seer, Palmquist demonstrates that in Dreams Kant first discovers and explains his plan to write a new, "critical" philosophy that will revolutionize metaphysics by laying bare the limits of human reason. Palmquist shows how the same metaphorical relationship-between reason's dreams (metaphysics) and sensibility's dreams (mysticism)-permeates Kant's mature writings. Clarifying how Kant's final (unfinished) book, Opus Postumum, completes this dual project, Palmquist explains how the "critical mysticism" entailed by Kant's position has profound implications for contemporary understandings of religious and mystical experience, both by religious individuals and by philosophers seeking to understand such experiences.

An accessible introduction to the concepts of Jewish mysticism, their religious
and spiritual significance, and how they relate to our lives.

"The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition" allows us to experience and understand mysticism s inexpressible reverence before the awe and mystery of creation, and celebrate this rich tradition s quest to transform our ordinary reality into holiness.

From Tiberias, With Love is a journey to rediscovering the magic and mystery, the intimacy and depth of a lost moment in the history of a remarkably relevant conscious community in the Galilee that still has much to teach us. In the year 1777, a group of spiritual seekers from Eastern Europe set sail in search of a promised land, far away from the internal and external conflicts plaguing those souls seeking the infinite within this finite world. Some who set sail identified with the burgeoning Jewish spiritual renewal movement of hasidism, while others seem to have just come along for the ride. Weathering challenges both socio-economic and geographic, this emigrating group sought to establish a center for a burgeoning hasidic ethos that would radiate to the Diaspora from its renewed center in the Holy Land in Palestine. Tiberian Hasidism provides a model of an intensive contemplative life that is particularly appealing to contemporary spiritual seekers for many reasons, including: its deep focus on mystical theology; devotional practice; and the ecstasy of deep friendship rather than allegiance to an institutionalized religion. This volume focuses on the teachings of R. Abraham haCohen of Kalisk ripe for excavation, offering an authentic roadmap to future contemplative pathways ripe for our age.

The Book of Judith has aroused a great deal of scholarly interest in the last few decades.This volume, the first full length commentary on Judith to appear in over 25 years, includes a new translation and a detailed verse-by-verse commentary, which touches upon philological, literary, and historical questions. The extensive introduction discusses the work's date and historical background, and looks closely at the controversial question of the book's original language. Biblical influences on the book's setting, characters, plot, and language are investigated, and the heroine, Judith is viewed against the background of biblical women (and men). The influence of classical Greek writers such as Herodotus and Ctesias on the work is noted, as are the interesting differences between the Septuagint and Vulgate versions of Judith.

This book delves into creative renditions of key aspects of Jewish Mysticism in Latin American literature, film, and art from the perspective of literary and cultural studies. It introduces the work of Latin American authors and artists who have been inspired by Jewish Mysticism from the 1960s to the present focusing on representations of dybbuks (transmigratory souls), the presence of Eros as part of the experience of mystical prayer, reformulations of Zoharic fables, and the search for Tikkun Olam (cosmic repair), among other key topics of Jewish Mysticism. The purpose of this book is to open up these aspects of their work to a broad audience who may or may not be familiar with Jewish Mysticism.