The Idries Shah Podcast | Practical Psychology for Today

Saira Shah hosted the first ISF Webinar on RISK, on the 11th of November, 2020. We think of ourselves as rational beings, but the way we perceive risk is rarely rational. When emotions run high, our judgement can go out the window. And as the current pandemic goes to show, there are some things that trigger our fear more than others. This event will investigate the ways we perceive danger and make decisions based on those perceptions. We'll be speaking to thinkers and experts in the field, and participants will get a chance to ask questions. Together, we'll try to understand whether we can get better at evaluating the increasingly complex risks we face. She was joined by: Paul Slovic. Founder and President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon, Paul studies human judgment, decision making, and risk analysis: arithmeticofcompassion.org; www.decisionresearch.org; The Perception of Risk (Risk, Society and Policy): Slovic, Paul. Tali Sharot. Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, where she directs the Affective Brain Lab. Her research combines Psychology, Behavioral Economics and Neuroscience to reveal the forces that shape our decisions and beliefs: www.affectivebrain.com Tali Sharot (Author of The Optimism Bias) Alice Morrison. A professional adventurer who takes risks for a living. Described as ‘Indiana Jones for girls’, she’s cycled from Cape Town to Cairo, run the Marathon of the Sands and the Everest Trail race and was the first woman to trek the 1500 kilometres of the Draa river in Morocco. She currently lives with an extended Moroccan family in a tiny village in the Atlas Mountains. https://www.alicemorrison.co.uk/ Saira Shah. Author, former reporter with Channel 4 News and a veteran documentary filmmaker whose films have garnered multiple awards, including five Emmys, two BAFTAs and three Royal Television Society awards. In her best-known film, Beneath the Veil (2001), Saira travelled undercover into Afghanistan to document life under the brutal Taliban regime.

Welcome to the Idries Shah Foundation podcast, practical psychology for today. This weekly podcast features selections from Idries Shah books, as well as original recordings. It has been made available by The Idries Shah Foundation, and is voiced by David Ault. This episode features selections of The Secret Lore of Magic, by Idries Shah. First published in 1957, The Secret Lore of Magic contains within it a series of major source-books of magical arts. Many of them translated into English for the first time, these works are annotated and fully illustrated. The book’s title in itself signalled the fact that the bulk of material in this bibliographical study had never been published openly before. Together with Oriental Magic which appeared in the preceding year, it provided a complete survey of fundamental magical literature, and thus a comprehensive reference system for psychologists, ethnologists and others interested in the rise and development of human beliefs.  Both books also introduced the general reader to dependable information about what was a shadowy and confusing subject.

On November 11, Saira Shah hosted our risk webinar. In advance of this insightful event on how our human senses assess complex, modern risks, Saira spoke to a man described as ‘probably the greatest living statistical communicator’. Professor, Sir David Spiegelhalter is Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge University. Crucially, he is also currently the Joint Chair of the Royal Statistical Society COVID-19 task force. Here, he explains the mathematical and real world underpinnings that inform his work on the pandemic and other statistical risks. He also illustrates why we need to use both our instinctive gut reactions in tandem with slow, methodical thinking to make sense of modern risks. 'I think humans are a wonderful combination between the two,” said Sir David. "People have said that you've got risks as analysis and you've got risk as feeling, and they're both terribly important. This interaction between the two - that's where I work quite a lot - is so riveting, particularly at this time of COVID.'

Welcome to the Idries Shah Foundation podcast, practical psychology for today. This weekly podcast features selections from Idries Shah books, as well as original recordings. It has been made available by The Idries Shah Foundation, and is voiced by David Ault. This episode features selections of Seeker After Truth, by Idries Shah. A treasure house of teaching materials, assembled in the Sufi manner. Seeker after Truth contains both traditional tales and stories gleaned from contemporary sources, and snippets of table talk, discussions and teachings, letters and lectures by Idries Shah. Taken together, it constitutes a handbook of materials designed to provoke a different kind of thought.

Welcome to the Idries Shah Foundation podcast, practical psychology for today. This weekly podcast features selections from Idries Shah books, as well as original recordings. It has been made available by The Idries Shah Foundation, and is voiced by David Ault. This episode features selections of Letters and Lectures of Idries Shah.

Welcome to the Idries Shah Foundation podcast, practical psychology for today. This weekly podcast features selections from Idries Shah books, as well as original recordings. It has been made available by The Idries Shah Foundation, and is voiced by David Ault. This episode features selections of Evenings with Idries Shah.

Welcome to the Idries Shah Foundation podcast, practical psychology for today. This weekly podcast features selections from Idries Shah books, as well as original recordings. It has been made available by The Idries Shah Foundation, and is voiced by David Ault. This episode features selections of Observations, by Idries Shah. According to the Sufis, human faculties, although perceptive, are limited: like a radio set, which can receive only certain electromagnetic waves and not other parts of this band. The inability to transcend the barrier of limited senses explains human subjectivity. The Sufis assert that through familiarisation with concepts, patterns of thought, and ideas that form part of their contemporary literature, one can learn to penetrate beyond this apparent reality. In this book, the reader will experience the unique quality of this material. Shah’s Observations is a fine example of the lucidity and humour prevalent throughout his more than thirty published works. Each observation is a gem of wisdom that can be returned to again and again for more insight.

Welcome to the Idries Shah Foundation podcast, practical psychology for today. This weekly podcast features selections from Idries Shah books, as well as original recordings. It has been made available by The Idries Shah Foundation, and is voiced by David Ault. This episode features selections of Destination Mecca, by Idries Shah. First published in 1957, Destination Mecca was both an ambitious travel book and a work of ethnographic and cultural research. Shah documents a wide range of fascinating journeys, from his quest for the Gold Mines of King Solomon on Sudan’s Red Sea Coast, to encounters in desert caravanserais and sojourns with Mediterranean contraband smugglers, to his time as a personal guest of the elderly King Ibn Saud. As readable now as it was more than fifty years ago, Destination Mecca acts as a beacon for young adventurers and for more sedate armchair travellers.

Welcome to the Idries Shah Foundation podcast, practical psychology for today. This weekly podcast features selections from Idries Shah books, as well as original recordings. It has been made available by The Idries Shah Foundation, and is voiced by David Ault. This episode features selections of The Hundred Tales of Wisdom, by Idries Shah. Traditionally known as The Hundred Tales of Wisdom, this collection comprises excerpts from the life, teachings and miracles of the Sufi teacher Jalaluddin Rumi, together with certain important stories from his works. As well as being part of the bedrock of classical Persian literature, these tales, anecdotes and narratives are believed, by Sufis, to aid in the development of insights beyond ordinary perceptions. Here, they are translated and presented by Idries Shah.

Welcome to the Idries Shah Foundation podcast, practical psychology for today. This weekly podcast features selections from Idries Shah books, as well as original recordings. It has been made available by The Idries Shah Foundation, and is voiced by David Ault. This episode features selections of The Idries Shah Anthology, by Idries Shah.