Hazrat Inayat Khan continues to speak of the ways in which the power of the word may help and heal. The previous post in the series is here.
Even more difficult and more responsible is the work of using the repetition of certain psychological words or phrases. It is the physician’s responsibility to give a certain person a proper medicine for his condition, for his purpose. In the East one searches for a Guru, or a Murshid as the Sufis call him, who has the experience of psychological prescription, and one takes what the Murshid has prescribed as an instruction. First the Murshid makes a diagnosis of the person’s condition, and according to that he prescribes a word or phrase by the repetition of which that person may arrive at the desired goal. Those, who have some experience of voice production will know that in the beginning the teacher does not give any songs; he gives certain words and notes, and a special way of practicing by which the voice is developed.
In Sufism there are certain words, which are considered sacred, and a person of simple faith will only know them as such. But besides being sacred, they have psychological significance, and by repeating them, a certain effect is produced.
It is very interesting to note that science shows every inclination of awakening to the significance of vibrations and their phenomena. The modern systems are not yet very much developed, but the aim is the same, to find out the conditions of the vibrations in the physical body, in order to treat the body in a scientific way.
When we see that similar systems were developed by the ancient mystics and occultists, and tried for thousands of years by numberless people all their life, it is clear that those systems must bring about satisfactory results, and give to many a treasure which has always been kept sacred by the seekers after truth.
The Sufi Movement therefore has made a facility for the people of the West, for those who wish to reach that treasure, that source, to obtain by a serious study and practice of Sufism some glimpses of the truth which the ancient mystics possessed.