Spiritual Inception

Could this be some sort of spiritual inception? The inceptor, in this case God, plants the idea in the subject (Musa’s(A) mother) to go against common sense and the motherly instinct of protection and instead cast her baby in the river despite all the dangers it would result in. Ordinary people would probably see this as madness but this idea was planned inside her and ultimately lead her to do it and we know the rest of the story.

Another example is the sacrifice of Prophet Ibrahim(A) (Abraham):

And when he attained to working with him, he said: O my son! surely I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice you; consider then what you see. He said: O my father! do what you are commanded; if Allah please, you will find me of the patient ones. (Quran 37:102)

Here God plants the idea in the dream of Prophet Ibrahim(A) to sacrifice his long awaited and beloved son. Common sense says that this is plain madness but the Abrahamic idea says that this is the way of ultimate love.

Can it be concluded that revelation is some sort of spiritual inception? Maybe if the subject isn’t aware that the origin is divine, but it wouldn’t be something strange that the Creator can plant whatever ideas He would like in the heart of His creation. How that goes together with free will is another discussion for another time.

But what about the saints? They are elected humans by God and intermediates. There are numerous occasions narrated where a Prophet or Imam appears in the dreams of someone and enlightens them in a certain issue. But this is very similar to revelation and the dreamer usually knows that the origin of the enlightenment is coming from the holy man in the dream and not himself.

So the last step in the hierarchy would be if it’s possible for an ordinary man with a very strong spirituality to plant an idea using spiritual means?

From the Holy Quran we can understand that the soul is somewhat separated from the body when man falls asleep:

“And He it is Who takes your souls at night (in sleep), and He knows what you acquire in the day, then He raises you up therein that certain conditions may be fulfilled….” (Qur’an 6:60)

The Prophet(S) used to call sleep minor death. The difference between sleep and death could roughly be translated as at the time of death the bond between the soul and the body is completely broken, while in a sleeping state is is still maintained:

“God takes the souls (al-anfus) at the time of their death, and those that die not during their sleep; then He withholds those on whom He has passed the decree of death and sends the others back till an appointed term; most surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect.” (Qur’an 39:42)

So the soul is in some way and to a certain extent out “outside” of the body and connected to the spiritual realm, thus making it easier for pure believers to catch glimpses and have “true” dreams.

But this state can also be achieved in a waking state. Consider for example the following story:

It is reported that Mirza Jawad Malaki Tabrizi passed full fourteen years in Akhund Mulla Husayn Quli Hamdani’s company and took from him lessons in gnosis. He says:

“One day my teacher told me about one of his pupils that thence forward his training was my responsibility. This pupil was very pains-taking and diligent. For six years he kept himself busy with meditation and self-mortification. At last he reached the stage of knowing his self and having been stripped of his evil self (passion and lust). I deemed it proper that the teacher himself should tell that fact to this pupil. So I took him to the house of the teacher whom I told what I wanted. The teacher said: “That’s nothing.” At the same time he waved his hand and said: “This is stripping.” That pupil used to say: “I saw myself being stripped of my body and at the same time felt as if another person just like me was standing beside me.”

(Allamah Tabatabai(RA), Light Within Me, Stages of Spiritual Journey)

A friend of mine with a Buddhist life view experienced something similar when he was meditating in the mountains. There are many stories similar to this where the soul of a person has become so strong that it can “leave” the body to a certain degree.

Now what if it would be possible for the soul of a strong mystic (arif) to actually visit someone else’s soul in her dream and somehow communicate with her?

If the souls enter some spiritual realm at the time of sleep, could there be a theoretical possibility that two souls could meet in that realm? If so could an inceptor with a very strong will and spiritual power be able to actually communicate with the subject? If he would be able to do so he would he could easily perform spiritual perception! And how is that so? Because most people would never know or even think that it would be possible to communicate with another human being in a dreaming state. So they would probably believe that it was all a dream which gave some realizations and ideas. They would probably not think that an inceptor knowingly had come to them in the spiritual realm and planted the idea inside them! They would believe that the idea was a genuine product of their own subconsciousness and imagination! And if they found the idea appealing they would probably try to realize it and act accordingly as well.

Et voilà: spiritual inception.

An idea is like a virus. Resilient… highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define, or destroy you

(Inception, Cobb (DiCaprio))

So this was a theoretical suggestion of how spiritual inception could be performed. The next step would be to put forth the question to a scholar or two who are well versed in theoretical and practical mysticism (irfan) and let them examine the question from an Islamic perspective in the light of the Holy Quran and hadith.

If it would be established that there indeed is a possibility of spiritual inception this possibility could be established scientifically as well. How you might ask. But the procedure is quite simple. A renown scholar who has reached high in the theoretical and practical fields of mysticism (irfan) is told to plant the idea of X in the person Y. It should be made sure that the person Y doesn’t know the scholar nor is familiar with the proposed idea. So if within for example 3 days the person Y indeed has thought of the idea (after the inception in the state of dream by the scholar) the experiment should be considered successful. If the experiment is successful numerous times on numerous test persons it could be concluded scientifically that spiritual inception is possible.

Now the question you might ask yourself is why? Suppose spiritual inception would be possible, why is it interesting? Why do we need to find out? And what can we do with such a knowledge?

First off man is a curious creature and it is her curiosity which drives her to develop and learn. This fact is in itself enough. Just because we can found out, we should find out. There is no dumb question except the one which you don’t dare ask as a proverb says.

Further from a humanistic point of view spiritual inception could be of vital usage. It could be used to hinder a lot of evil around the world. Let’s say for example that Obama would decide to attack Iran. Now if someone could perform spiritual inception that planted idea could prevent an entire war from breaking out and killing millions of people. Someone might object, “But God might do that inception as well and put him on other thoughts”. Yes of course God can do anything but God wants man to use her free will and choice what is right by herself. If she chooses wrong He usually don’t stop her as that would go against the free will and the system and purpose of man’s creation. Thus you can see that God has allowed a number of wars to break out due to the wrong decision of some people. But man can stop man. And in this case a good man who knows the metaphysical laws and have attained a high level of spiritual power would be able to perform spiritual inception and stop another man from making a decision that could ruin the life of a great mass.

Especially today when the superpowers of the world have a great propaganda machine to intercept ideas into the minds of the masses and shape their way of thinking it would only fair out the odds if the holy men of the oppressed could spiritually plant ideas into the mind of the despotic elite.

Finally from a religious point of view it would be rather cool to plant the seed of Tawheed into the mind of certain people thus making them live up to the purpose of their creation and by doing so guide others to the same noble goal.

A valid objection here is that why would God allow such a thing as spiritual inception to take place? Couldn’t it be abused?

Yes of course it can be abused, but it can also be used in a sound way such as everything else. Internet is a very mighty tool which gives the small individual the power to reach a large mass in a short time. The responsibility lays on the individual, he could abuse Internet to spread bad ideas or use it to spread good ideas. Spiritual inception would be the same, it could be abused to plant bad ideas or used to spread good ideas. The question of whether God would allow it or not is invalid since God has arranged this world according to a set of physical and metaphysical laws. Flying was for long considered impossible until The Wright brothers came along, the two Americans who are generally credited with inventing and building the world’s first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903. It was considered impossible because man was not acquainted with all laws governing nature and how to use them to overcome gravity. Similarly for us who are not familiar with metaphysical laws walking on water is impossible and we consider it a miracle that Prophet Jesus(A) could do it. But for him and the rest of the Prophets who knew the metaphysical laws inside out it was not biggie. To quote Imam Ali(A): “I know the ways of the heavens better then the ways of the earth”. So why would God hinder a person from acting according to the set of laws of principle which He Himself has dictated that the universe should be governed by? That would seem rather odd and it could be concluded that if the metaphysical laws would allow spiritual inception and man knew how to act according to these laws then spiritual inception would take place in a natural sense without it being some sort of divine unique miracle. It would be really interesting to know what great thinkers such as Muhayaddin ibn Arabi and Mullah Sadra who have dwelled deep into mysticism and metaphysics has to say about the subject. It wouldn’t be surprising if they have touched the topic somewhere in their magnificent texts.

Anyhow this post is getting rather long by now and there has been a sufficient amount of speculation and theoretical reasoning about the possibility of spiritual inception to start a discussion. A lot more can be said and the argument could be tweaked and modified, but the definite answers should be left to the scholars. In the meanwhile it would be very interesting to find out what you as a reader think so please do contribute to the discussion by leaving a comment with your thoughts and don’t forget to mention if you have seen the movie or not!