About The Dervish Project

The purpose this 40-minute DVD movie is to help people to understand the evolution of the stages of a spiritual journey, as it transforms the personality of a mystic.

This is an illustrated diary of Rabia Clark's spiritual journey, from 1976-2003. Instead of keeping a written diary about the stages of her transformation, she did paintings and sculptures. From studying these over many months, she began to understand what was happening in each stage. She was able to find earlier mystics who had similar experiences, who wrote about them. A few mystics, including Hildegard de Bingen, made paintings of them. This DVD movie is a unique collection of paintings about an individual's visionary experiences during their spiritual studies. They came from visions in dreams, regression and, hypnosis sessions, retreats and workshops with Sufi teachers. Other paintings and sculptures are not shown here. The journey continues.

A dervish is a mystic in the Sufi tradition. Sufism is an ancient school of spiritual transformation. It is a journey of the heart to its true home. Although most Sufis are Muslims, there are also influences from other religions. Rabia's journey was through the Sufi Order International (SOI). It is inter-religious in its outlook, and was founded by Hazrat Inayat Khan in 1910. He was a Chishti Sufi and musician from India. Rabia's primary teacher was Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, his son. The current head of the SOI is Pir Zia Inayat Khan. Books are available by all three teachers.

The transformational process of Sufi practices, given to the student by their teacher, was one of the earliest psychological methods of transforming the ego. The Sufi motto, "Die Before Death," becomes clear in this experience. It is as if one is on the stage of life, playing a series of roles, and when each role is finished, it is another death. It may feel like the end, but then another role is assumed.

Some of Rabia's experiences were quite extreme, and several lasted for over a year. She became a Sufi teacher in 1977, only a year after joining the group. Her training as a teacher helped her understand that her experiences were a normal part of the stages (maqam) and states (hal) which are created by doing practices using visualizations, breath work, chanting, contemplation, and control over the body, mind, and emotions. The goal of this is to realize one's unity with the Divine Beloved, by whatever name God is called. Then the task is to "be in the world, but not of it."

Rabia has extensive training in healing techniques and hypnosis, as well as psychology. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, with a Ph.D. in Human Development, a Certified Hypnotherapist, and a Certified Past-Life Therapist. This training helped her enter altered states of consciousness easily. Many experiences involved kundalini (opening the energy centers in the body), which were quite painful and extreme). They too kept evolving, and still continue.

This visionary diary has been private. In finally revealing it, Rabia's wish is to help others go through similar experiences easier than she did, as she often had no one to talk to about it. It was just too strange and secret to share until now.

These types of experiences often happen to intuitive people who have a temperament to dive into the inner world with abandon, and who have great trust in protection by God, guides, angels, and one's teachers. What is inside? Is it scary, bad, devilish, evil? Is the inner-self frightening? Not for Rabia. There were a series of beautiful heavenly places and feelings of light, love, and extreme energy, which were sometimes overwhelming. She experienced the difficult Sufi retreat process repeatedly, which also brought about rapid personality transformation, often requiring adjustment to what seemed to be a new self.

Rabia describes each painting as they are shown on the DVD. Quotations at the beginning of each one are from the works of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and Jelaluddin Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks).

For more information about Sufism: Contact the Sufi Order International at: (518) 794-7834, http://www.sufiorder.org. or P.O. Box 480, New Lebanon, NY 12125. There are SOI groups in many states of the U.S.A., Europe, and Canada. Spiritual training, conferences, books and tapes are available. Many other Sufi groups are listed on the Internet, and there are many books available about Sufism. However, mystical traditions, like Sufism, cannot be understood from books, which are like reading recipes, when what one wants is to taste the meal! Visiting various meditation groups will reveal which one feels like home. The teacher and the practices open the doors to the inner world.