FREE LISTENING TO IDRIES SHAH: HOW UNDERSTANDING CAN GROW PDF

Ivan Tyrrell | 320 pages | 01 Jun 2016 | Human Givens Publishing Ltd | 9781899398089 | English | Worthing, United Kingdom Listening To Idries Shah - Book | Human Givens Publishing

I read the so-called abridged version first still long and packed with detail and was so drawn into your argument that I went on to read the unabridged version, Biohistory, which contains even more. It was built in the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and the acoustics were amazing. From my vantage point on the steps near the top, I could hear an English archaeologist far below explaining to a group of tourists why studying the stones showed how the arena had evolved. Originally the amphitheatre was a small, intimate place, where poetry and plays were performed and the audience on the lower steps were close to the actors. Gradually, as Roman civilisation decayed, the entertainments became more violent and many more levels of seating were added to cater for bigger crowds. I made a study of the rise and fall of Rome, as I describe in my books, and there are clear parallels. TYRRELL: I particularly wanted to talk with you because your work seems to add another dimension to our work, which is to do with the innate givens of human nature. TYRRELL: We have developed an effective biopsychosocial model of psychotherapy, built on the observation that we have innate physical and emotional needs that have to be met in the environment if we are to flourish. The drive to get our innate needs met is what motivates us. When we get our innate needs met in a balanced way we cannot be mentally unwell. But our culture is making it harder for us to do this, and so mental health problems are increasing, particularly among the young. What you have added, I think, is another dimension: the biological element of why temperaments in cultures change over timewhich, in turn, impacts on mental health and the ability of many individuals to get innate emotional needs met most fruitfully. Could you sum up for us what biohistory is. Biohistory is the study Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow the biological roots of human social behaviour, explaining the outbreak of wars, economic growth and decline, and different styles of government. It proposes that such Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow reflect changes in the prevailing temperament of the population, which, in turn, is rooted in epigenetics — which explains how the expression of genes is affected by environmental influences and how this expression can be passed on down the generations, influencing hormones and brain activity and how we think, feel and behave. I use the letter C standing for civilisation to refer to the array of behavioural and physiological traits that are triggered by chronic food shortage and which help people and animals adapt to such environments. For example, it makes them harder working and rather more impersonal. Human societies have learned to increase C artificially, thus adapting people to the needs of agriculture and civilisation. TYRRELL: Your approach is very different from the unstated assumption in most historical and economic writing that, at the basic emotional level, people are the same; and thus, if political and economic shifts take place, these must be because of environmental factors, such as changes in Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow institutions and relationships with neighbouring powers, and so forth. But, as we know, a great deal of recent work in the biological sciences suggests that people differ markedly in their basic emotional make-up as a result of early life experience. For example, animal and human studies show that experiencing maternal neglect or severe stress in childhood has profound effects on attitudes and behaviour. These effects are epigenetic in origin, which means they have a permanent impact on the activity of certain genes. We also know that parental behaviour in each culture Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow greatly over time. Roman parents in the early republic were strict, compared with their far more moderate and lax descendants in the late republic and early empire. And parents Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow are far more lenient, compared with our great, great grandparents, whose children were meant to be seen and not heard. Deep-rooted emotional differences have a profound impact on attitudes to politics. A change in temperament over time is not only plausible, but to be expected. TYRRELL: As I understand it, you are saying that civilisation, C, arises because of a physiological system in mammals that adjusts behaviour to conditions where food is limited. So, to survive, our ancestors evolved to delay breeding, live in cooperative groups, be monogamous, take good care of children and actively search for food, even when not actually hungry. These C tendencies are increased by chronic mild food shortage or ritualistic controls over Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow behaviours, especially sexual activity. TYRRELL: So these behavioural C characteristics that arise in such circumstances include the ability to work hard, be self-disciplined, and have a willingness to sacrifice present consumption for future benefit — delayed gratification. All necessary for civilisation to develop. For this to work, people do not even need to be hungry. Human societies, by a process of trial and error, developed cultural practices like periodic fasting that mimic the physiological effects of hunger. Thus we can act and think like hungry primates, even though we are not actually short of food. TYRRELL: You call factors such as food shortage and placing limits on sexual behaviour C promoters, and these have more lasting effects when adopted in childhood and adolescence, rather than in later life. PENMAN: Cross-cultural studies show that high C family patterns, where people are likely to restrict their sexual behaviour, form nuclear, monogamous families, delay breeding and control their children, are associated with larger states, more advanced economies, and greater technological and scientific innovation. This was the temperament characteristic of northern Europe during the Industrial Revolution, when control of infants was the tightest it has ever been. PENMAN: Vigour is another physiological system in mammals, and can best be described as a stress reaction system that is finely tuned and effective. The best animal example of high C is gibbons, because they are adapted to an environment where food is always scarce. For V the best example is baboons, where it adjusts behaviour to conditions where food is generally available but severe stress can ensue from sudden famine or predator attack. V behaviours include aggression, strong group cohesion, confidence and morale, intolerance of crowding and confidence to migrate, to escape dangers. Such cultures are strongly authoritarian. In humans, vigour is Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow by authority and especially punishment in late childhood, inclining children to accept traditional thinking, including sexual restraint, and authority from then on. I am not saying it is desirable, but patriarchal societies in which men dominate women are more aggressive, both internally and in competition with neighbours. Patriarchy and punishing older children promote V. Many people think that all stress is the same, but it is not. Chronic stress tends to weaken the stress reaction Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow and thus undermines V, but intermittent stress strengthens the stress reaction system and thus increases V. It is these links which help explain the rise and fall of civilisations. High V in turn causes C to rise, causing the society to become more unified and advanced. Eventually V reaches a peak, which in Europe and Japan came in the 16th century, when punishments were unusually harsh. Then rising C causes V to start falling, but C continues to rise — in Europe, until the 19th century. Eventually, falling V and increased wealth cause C to start dropping, which eventually destroys the civilisations. This is what happened to Rome, and is happening to us. Part of this process is the decline of traditional religions, which tend to be powerful C- and V-promoters. When falling V and C cause people to turn away from traditional religion, the decline in V and C accelerates. Once pacified, they could be conditioned and entertained enough to keep them from regressing to a more primitive state. That was the role and great value of religions: to establish cooperative, more peaceful and longer-lived societies. We tend Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow see success in terms of wealth and prosperity but, in the end, success is about survival and how many children you have. PENMAN: At the extreme, civilisation causes people to be more impersonal in their outlook, and thus more likely to support government by laws and institutions, such as a republic, rather than be ruled by a charismatic leader. PENMAN: I know it sounds complicated when you first hear about it but, in actual fact, biohistory is a straightforward theory that explains an enormous range of events in history. The key to understanding civilisation decline begins with the idea that the economic, political, military and cultural make-up of a country is largely determined by the underlying emotional and psychological nature of the population within it. My research suggests that this basic temperament changes over time and is linked to our response to stress, and this process can be understood as the primary reason for significant change within a society. About every four years, lemmings have a massive population boom that forces them to migrate en masse in a desperate search of food. Most of them die of starvation. Then the cycle repeats. In humans, these cycles normally last around years but lengthen in the dark ages that follow the collapse of a civilisation. They explain a whole lot of things like why the Black Death hit when it did. They explain the Wars of the Roses; the reasons Chinese dynasties collapsed; the Chinese warlord era; why people in the late Middle Ages became more conservative, and a whole stack more. All these events fit into a precise historical pattern that is absolutely universal. For example, periods of chaos like the Wars of the Roses occur almost exactly 90 years before the mid-point of periods of maximum population growth. Major wars such as the First World War break out almost exactly after a peak of population growth, such as occurred in Germany and Russia during the s. There is a whole stack of different patterns that you can see throughout history. Lemming cycles are just one example of them. There are different patterns to explain bursts of extraordinary creativity in ancient Greece, and in India and China at about the same time. We wrote about the Axial Age and how, although there is no evidence of any extensive intercommunication between ancient Greece, the Middle East, India and China, nevertheless, simultaneously, Greek philosophy, wisdom schools, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism and Taoism burst upon the scene. There was clearly a heightened quest for the meaning of human existence underway that gave rise to a tradition of travelling seekers, scholars and teachers, roaming from city to city, exchanging ideas. PENMAN: Yes, all that creativity happened — yet the societies that produced it and that were so creative early on soon degenerated, just as ours seems to be doing. Could you elaborate…? When any civilisation becomes wealthy, corruption and urban decline follow. In the West, the economy is stagnant, for example. Any businessman knows that many youngsters have less of a work ethic than we did even a few decades ago. You can also see the decline reflected in attitudes to politics. Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow result is that Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow is more and more cynicism about politicians and government. As people become more cynical about the government, they tend to follow any leader who promises to give them whatever they Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow. Even though it was illegal to do so, his soldiers followed him because of what he promised them. Once in power, he became a dictator and began a series of bloody purges. That will happen to western civilisation, possibly even in our lifetime. The civilised temperament actually gives us a certain degree of immunity to disease and we are losing that too. There is moral decay and corruption everywhere you look these days. Decline in the birth rate is another example. The C temperament fostered by scarcity is associated with liking children but, as people lose this temperament, there is less and less interest in having children. It is the refugees and immigrants from highly stressed countries that are breeding prolifically, not the native Europeans, Americans and Australians. We tend to see success in terms of wealth and prosperity, etc, but, in the end, success is about survival and about how many children you have. The welfare state, although necessary for looking after genuinely vulnerable people, could be seen as undermining that. But laws reflect the people. The welfare state is effect as much as cause. You Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow have to get to the core of a problem, which comes down to individual people. Governments have far less power than most of us think. idries shah | Jay Einhorn, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. As a young art student, on realising that there were serious flaws in humanity, Ivan Tyrrell asked his tutor a question that ultimately led to a long association with work of the Sufi, Idries Shah. This memoir describes the various childhood experiences that informed that question - and his travels and adventures after he asked it… With humour and insight he covers topics r Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow a young art student, on realising that there were serious flaws in humanity, Ivan Tyrrell asked his tutor a question that ultimately led to a long association with work of the Sufi, Idries Shah. This memoir describes the various childhood experiences that informed that question - and his travels and adventures after he asked it… With humour and insight he covers topics ranging from starting a psychedelic poster business in the s to the abuse of hypnosis by cults; from the shallowness of modern art to conversations Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow Doris Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow from civil defence and warfare to false memory syndrome and near death experiences. He describes how information culled from a perennial source of wisdom by Idries Shah was deliberately seeded into the modern world to await germination. Together, they created the human givens approach to psychotherapy that every year lifts thousands out of depression, anxiety disorders and addiction more speedily than any other form of therapy. This book was written for those interested in how ordinary life experiences interact with their mind to influence the quality of their personality and understanding. As such it may contain parallels with your own quest for Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. More Details Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Listening to Idries Shahplease sign up. Be the first to ask a question about Listening to Idries Shah. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Listening to Idries Shah: How understanding can grow. Aug 10, Leonard Robichaud rated it really liked it. A memoir written largely Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow a familiar, informal tone. This book will be of particular interest to anyone even remotely familiar with Idries Shah or the Human Givens. One life can yield many life-stories; this particular life-story illustrates the process of learning from the experiences of everyday life as well as those comparatively rare opportunities that might come our way. Above all it provides a wonderful example of a meaningful life, that is, a life full of meaning. Oct 25, Rick Dressler rated it it was amazing. Wish he would elaborate more on his refutation on climate change. I will read this book again although after I read Godhead again. Much food for thought in both books. Sep 28, Andrew Boden rated it really liked it. An absorbing account of Ivan Tyrrell's life as a student of Idries Shah. Fascinating, thought provoking and highly recommended. Joost Perreijn rated it it was amazing Sep 09, Sean rated it liked it Oct 19, Ulrika Eriksson rated it really liked it Aug 06, Asmith rated it really liked it Jul 18, Jayanthi rated it it was amazing Jan 27, Mark Hill rated it it was amazing Sep 03, Lee walter rated it really liked it Feb 26, Jasmine rated it really liked it Jan 17, Chris marked it as to-read Mar 11, Anna marked it as to-read Sep 03, Ben Wachtel added it Aug 24, Brad C marked it as to- read Aug 30, Priyanka is currently reading it Jan 09, Paul Westwood marked it as to-read May 29, Gerry Cullen marked it as to-read Jul 16, There are no discussion topics on this book yet. About Ivan Tyrrell. Ivan Tyrrell. Books by Ivan Tyrrell. Escape the Present with These 24 Historical Romances. You know the saying: There's no time like the present In that case, we can't Read more Trivia About Listening to Idri No trivia or quizzes yet. Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Idries Shah - Wikipedia

Born in Indiathe descendant of a family of Afghan nobles, Shah grew up mainly in England. His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. In his writings, Shah presented Sufism as a universal form of wisdom that predated Islam. Emphasizing that Sufism was not static but always adapted itself to the current time, place and people, he framed his teaching in Western psychological terms. Shah made extensive use of traditional teaching stories and parablestexts that contained multiple layers of meaning designed to trigger insight and self-reflection in the reader. He is perhaps best known for his collections of humorous Mulla Nasrudin stories. Shah was at times criticized by orientalists who questioned his credentials and background. His role in the controversy surrounding a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyampublished by his friend Robert Graves and his older brother Omar Ali-Shahcame in for particular scrutiny. However, he also had many notable defenders, chief among them the novelist Doris Lessing. Shah came to Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow recognized as a spokesman for Sufism in the West and lectured as a visiting professor at a number of Western universities. His works have played a significant part in presenting Sufism as a form of spiritual wisdom approachable by individuals and not necessarily attached to any specific religion. His family on the paternal side were Musavi Sayyids. Their ancestral home was near the Paghman Gardens of Kabul. Shah mainly grew up in the vicinity of London. Rushbrook WilliamsShah began accompanying his father Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow his travels from a very young age, and although they both travelled widely and often, they always returned to England where the family made their home for many years. Through these travels, which were often part of Ikbal Ali Shah's Sufi work, Shah was able to meet and spend time with prominent statesmen and distinguished personalities in both East and West. Williams writes. Such an upbringing presented to a young man of marked intelligence, such as Idries Shah soon proved himself to possess, many opportunities to acquire a truly international outlook, a broad vision, and an acquaintance with people and places that any professional diplomat of more advanced age and longer experience might well envy. But a career of diplomacy did not attract Idries Shah He described how his father Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow his Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow family and friends always tried to expose the children to a "multiplicity of impacts" and a wide range of contacts and experiences with the intention of producing a well- rounded person. Shah described this as "the Sufi approach" to education. He returned to England in Octoberfollowing allegations of improper business dealings. Shah married the Parsi Cynthia Kashfi Kabraji in ; they had a daughter, Sairainfollowed by twins — a son, Tahirand another daughter, Safia — in Towards the end of the s, Shah established contact with Wiccan circles in London and then acted as a secretary and companion to Gerald Gardnerthe founder of modern Wicca, for some time. The book was attributed to one Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow Gardner's followers, Jack L. Bracelinbut had in fact been written by Shah. According to Wiccan Frederic LamondBracelin's name was used because Shah "did not want to confuse his Sufi students by being seen to take an interest in another esoteric tradition. And yet I have it on good authority that this group will be the cornerstone of the religion of the coming age. But rationally, rationally I can't see it! Shah also told Graves that he was "intensely preoccupied at the moment with the carrying forward of ecstatic and intuitive knowledge. Shah managed to obtain a substantial advance on the book, resolving temporary financial difficulties. The book also employed a deliberately "scattered" style; Shah wrote to Graves that its aim was to "de-condition people, and prevent their reconditioning"; had it been otherwise, he might have used a more conventional form of exposition. The book sold poorly at first, and Shah invested a considerable amount of his own money in advertising it. Leave it to find its own readers who will hear your voice spreading, not those envisaged by Doubleday. In Junea couple of years prior to the publication of The SufisShah had also established contact with members of the movement that had formed around the mystical teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. One of Ouspensky's earliest pupils, Reggie Hoare, who had been part of the Gurdjieff work sincemade contact with Shah through that article. Hoare "attached special significance to what Shah had told him about the enneagram symbol and said that Shah had revealed secrets about it that went far beyond what we had heard from Ouspensky. Bennetta noted Gurdjieff student and founder of an "Institute for the Comparative Study of History, Philosophy and the Sciences" located Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow Coombe Springs, a 7-acre 2. At that time, Bennett had already investigated the Sufi origins of many of Gurdjieff's teachings, based on both Gurdjieff's own numerous statements, and on travels Bennett himself made in the East where he met various Sufi Sheikhs. At first, I was wary. I had just decided to go forward on my own and now another 'teacher' had appeared. One or two conversations with Reggie convinced me that I ought at least to see for myself. Elizabeth and I went to dinner with the Hoares to meet Shah, who turned out to be a young man in his early 40s. He spoke impeccable English and but for his beard and some of his gestures might well have been taken for an English public school type. Our first impressions were unfavourable. He was restless, smoked incessantly and seemed too intent on making a good impression. Halfway through the evening, our attitude completely changed. We recognized that he was not only an unusually gifted man, but that he had the indefinable something that marks the man who has worked seriously upon himself Knowing Reggie to be a very cautious man, trained moreover in assessing information by many years in the Intelligence Service, I accepted his assurances and also his belief that Shah had a very important mission in Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow West that we ought to help him to accomplish. Shah gave Bennett a "Declaration of the People of the Tradition" [26] and authorised him to share this with other Gurdjieffians. For the next few years, Bennett and Shah had weekly private talks that lasted for hours. Later, Shah also gave talks to the students at Coombe Springs. Bennett says that Shah's plans included "reaching people who occupied positions of authority and power who were already half-consciously aware that the problems of mankind could no longer be solved by economic, political or social action. Such people were touched, he said, by the new forces moving in the world to help mankind to survive the coming crisis. Bennett agreed with these ideas and also agreed that "people attracted by overtly spiritual or esoteric movements seldom possessed the qualities needed to reach and occupy positions of authority" and that "there were sufficient grounds for believing that throughout the world there were already people occupying important positions, who were capable of looking beyond the limitations of nationality and cultures and who could see for themselves that the only hope for mankind lies in the intervention of a Higher Source. Bennett wrote, "I had seen enough of Shah to know that he was no charlatan or idle boaster and that he was intensely serious about the task he had been given. Bennett says he did receive an invitation to the "Midsummer Revels", Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow party Shah held at Coombe Springs that lasted two days and two nights, primarily for the young people whom Shah was then attracting. I had only a few encounters with him but much enjoyed his irreverent attitude. Bennett once said to me, 'There are different styles in the work. Mine is like Gurdjieff's, around struggle with one's denial. But Shah's way is to treat the work as Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow joke. Along with the Coombe Springs property, Bennett also handed the care of his body of pupils to Shah, comprising some people. According to Bennett, Shah later also engaged in discussions with the heads of the Gurdjieff groups Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow New York. Something is preparing, but whether it will come to fruition I cannot tell. I refer to their connection with Idries Shah and his capacity for turning everything upside down. It is useless with such people to be passive, and it is useless to avoid the issue. For the time being, we can only hope that some good will come, and meanwhile continue our own work The author and clinical psychologist Kathleen Speeth later wrote. Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow the growing conservatism within the [Gurdjieff] Foundation, John Bennett hoped new blood and leadership would come from elsewhere Although there may have been flirtation with Shah, nothing came of it. The prevailing sense [among the leaders of the Gurdjieff work] that nothing must change, that a treasure in their safekeeping must at all costs be preserved in its original form, was stronger than any wish for a new wave of inspiration. Langton House at Langton Green became a place of gathering and discussion for poets, philosophers and statesmen from around the world, and an established part of the literary scene of the time. Shah was an early member and supporter of the Club of Rome[nb 2] and several presentations were given to the Institute by scientists like Alexander King. Other visitors, pupils, and would-be pupils included the poet Ted Hughesnovelists J. The interior of the house was decorated in a Middle-Eastern fashion, and buffet lunches were held every Sunday for Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow in a large dining room that was once the estate stable, nicknamed "The Elephant" a reference to the Eastern tale of the " Elephant in the Dark ". Over the following years, Shah developed Octagon Press as a means of publishing and distributing reprints of translations of numerous Sufi classics. In Shah's interpretation, the Mulla Nasruddin stories, previously considered a folkloric part of Muslim cultures, were presented as Sufi parables. Nasruddin was featured in Shah's television documentary Dreamwalkerswhich aired on the BBC in Segments included Richard Williams being interviewed about his unfinished animated film about Nasruddin, and scientist John Kermisch discussing the use of Nasruddin stories at the Rand Corporation Think Tank. Other guests included the British psychiatrist William Sargant discussing the hampering effects of brainwashing and social conditioning on creativity and problem-solving, and the comedian Marty Feldman talking with Shah about the role of humour and ritual in human life. The program ended with Shah asserting that humanity could further its own evolution by "breaking psychological limitations" but that there was a "constant accretion of pessimism which effectively prevents evolution in this form from going ahead Man is asleep — must he die before he wakes up? Shah also organised Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow study groups in the Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow States. Claudio Naranjoa Chilean psychiatrist who was teaching in California in the late s, says that, after being "disappointed in the extent to which Gurdjieff's school entailed a living lineage", he had turned towards Sufism and had "become part of a group under the guidance of Idries Shah. Both of them were associated with the University of Californiawhere Ornstein was a research psychologist at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute. Ornstein was also president and founder of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledgeestablished in ; seeing a need in the U. Another Shah associate, the scientist and professor Leonard Lewinwho was teaching telecommunications at the University of Colorado at the time, set up Sufi study groups and other enterprises for the promotion of Sufi ideas like the Institute for Research on the Dissemination of Human Knowledge IRDHKand also edited Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow anthology of writings by and about Shah entitled The Diffusion of Sufi Ideas in the West Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow planned animated feature film by Williams, provisionally titled The Amazing Nasruddinnever materialised, as the relationship between Williams and the Shah family soured in amid disputes about copyrights and funds; however, Williams later used some of the ideas for his film The Thief and the Cobbler. Shah wrote around two dozen more books over the following decades, many of them drawing on classical Sufi sources. In late spring ofabout a year after his final visit to Afghanistan, Shah suffered two successive and massive heart attacks. Idries Shah died in London on 23 Novemberat the age of 72 and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery. Shah's early books were studies of what he called "minority beliefs". His first book Oriental Magicpublished inwas originally intended to be titled Considerations in Eastern and African Minority Beliefs. Listening to Idries Shah: How Understanding Can Grow names of these books were, according to a contributor to a festschrift for Shah, changed before publication due to the "exigencies of commercial publishing practices. Before his death inShah's father asserted that the reason why he and his son had published books on the subject of magic and the occult was "to forestall a probable popular revival or belief among a significant number of people in this nonsense. My son In an interview in Psychology Today fromShah elaborated:. The main purpose of my books on magic was to make this material available to the general reader. For too long people believed that there were secret books, hidden places, and amazing things.