There are several motivations for including the story given in Part One which is taken from the book: A Sufi Affair: Journal of a Renegade Shaykh - and none of these reasons are about advancing a conspiracy theory of any kind. For example, one intention was to relate a story which is striking - and this is so from several perspectives.

First, as just straight story telling, the material is very compelling. There is almost no one to whom we have told this story who has not been intrigued by it.

Secondly, the story raises some very important questions. If the story is not true, then, why did the shaykh tell the story as if it were? - what was he trying to accomplish? Was it a test in compliance? And, if the story is true, then, why weren't the authorities notified about it? - or, was the idea to create an atmosphere of fear, anxiety, panic, and paranoia in those to whom the story is told so that they would stay away from authorities or government figures - after all, generally speaking, people who enter into a state of dissociation as a result of such scare tactics, tend to be more vulnerable to suggestion and other forms of social influence?

Thirdly, and, perhaps, most importantly, is the manner in which the story may give expression to issues of symbolism. For instance, consider the following points.

To begin with, the victims in the story were not looking to engage in illegal or immoral activity. They were looking for something which was much needed - namely, a job.

That need was exploited by, and entangled within, an entirely different agenda. This theme has resonance with the manner in which many spiritual frauds operate - for, false shaykhs, and other charlatans, use the holy longing which is within all of us and, in and of itself, entirely God-given and innocent, and take advantage of our inherent, spiritual vulnerability in order to wed that holy longing to something which is very unholy and evil.

Secondly, the couple was drugged through a hospitality basket and induced into an altered state of consciousness. This, too, is what often happens among fraudulent Sufi teachers - that is, various techniques of seeming kindness, gift-giving, hospitality, love-bombing, and so on, are used to lower people's defenses and render them more pliable and compliant with respect to an agenda of abuse and exploitation which is to follow.

Thirdly, many people - and I am being contacted by more people all the time in this regard - are sexually assaulted, or exploited in other ways, while under the influence of the altered states of consciousness which are induced by techniques of 'hospitality'.

Forthly, just as in the story, people who are found by, or find their way to, fraudulent spiritual guides (without knowing that this is what has happened) are tested again and again. The tests are always re-framed as something other than what they are, and these tests can be very, very subtle, but, the series of tests are themselves a way of inducing a person to enter situations and circumstances which they might not otherwise do, if the reality to which the tests are leading were presented clearly in the beginning.

Fifthly, the purpose of the tests is to separate off the 'insiders' from the 'outsiders' - that is, to enable the spiritual fraud to differentiate between those who will do his or her bidding, and those who are not with the program. Those who have passed the tests, are, in turn, used by the charlatan to extend his or her sphere of influence over more and more people through the use of this 'proxy' army of committed workers.

Some of the people who are being used in this fashion are not aware of what is going on. Others among those who have passed various tests are aware, to varying degrees, about what is going on and use this awareness to better position themselves within the group's pecking order.

Sixthly, the person in the story who gets up on the stage and announces that 'we are the people who make and break governments' is really about people - namely, spiritual charlatans - whose business is the making and breaking of souls, and they take great pleasure in this facet of their activity.

They love influencing, controlling, exploiting, duping, manipulating, and abusing people. They derive pleasure from hurting people and destroying the legitimate spiritual aspirations of those with whom such so-called guides come in contact.

Seventhly, the people who do not past the appropropriate tests are, in one way or another cast out. Such individuals either get moved to the fringe - even as they suppose they are still part of things, or these individuals are disposed of in one way or another, or they are intentionally abused to such an extent that, just as in the story, they find themselves walking about life in a dazed, dissociated state - not knowing quite what has hit them.

Finally, when such abused people try to return to their 'normal' lives, they often encounter tremendous difficulty in making the transition or adjustment. The poisoning which has taken place at the hands of a spiritual fraud linger in a person's system, long after one has discountinued associating with such abusive people.

Sometimes, as with the story, the people end up engaged in recriminations against one another. Sometimes, the people who have exited such groups are left with values, beliefs, behaviors, and ideas which were implanted during the periods of trance which were induced through the spiritual charlatan.

Often times, when people who exit abusive groups, try to tell their story to others, the nature of the story is so alien to someone who has not, himself or herself, gone through such experiences, that they are not believed. Or, when such people try to 'save' others in the group by trying to make those still captive group aware of what is going on, the spiritual charlatan has already arranged things so that the ones who exit are considered to be the ones who are misguided, abusive, uncaring, lying, mentally disturbed, under the influence of Satan, or the like - and, consequently, the ones who have managed, through one means or another, to extricate themselves, or be extricated, from an abusive group/teacher, the former people are perceived as being unreliable, without credibility, operating from vested interests, or trying to steal spirituality away from those who are still being held hostage by the abusive group and/or fraudulent teacher.

Sometimes, someone may even say that such people are merely serving as publicists for, yet, another theory of conspiracy. Or, such individuals are judged to be individuals who brought on their own misery and deserve whatever happenes to them at the hands of unscrupulous people.

People can say whatever they like. However, anyone who has not been raped, does not really have any understanding of the horrors of such an experience. The former individuals tend to lack insight into the phenomenology of: betrayal, vulnerability, fragileness, guilt, loss of self-esteem, humiliation, trauma, doubt, anxiety, confusion, stress, conflict, alienation, anger, outrage, violation, and feelings of having been degraded - physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually, which are associated with physical rape. To be spiritually raped is to be dragged into dark spaces of dissociation which are similar to those that are experienced by someone who has been sexually assaulted.

Society has taken a very long time to even begin to learn that no one asks to be raped - in fact, many people are still of the opinion that anyone who gets raped must have been doing something to 'cause' or bring on the sexual assault - but no matter what one does, no one wishes to be placed in a situation where their wishes and will count for less than nothing. One's behavior may be careless or imprudent or risky or foolish, but no one does so with the intention of wanting to be abused, degraded, humiliated, lied to, and/or exploited.

Society, in general, is still in denial about the extensive nature of spiritual abuse which is being perpetrated. This abuse is so intimately intertwined with the lives of many people that the vast majority of these individuals do not even recognize they are being abused through lies, misinformation, re-framing, hidden agendas, problematic guidance, manipulation, exploitation, or techniques of social influence, compliance, and obedience.

People suppose they understand the nature of trances and altered states of consciousness. Yet, many of these same individuals fail to appreciate the fact that they live their lives in a trance state - there is a reason why the great mystics have said that we are in a state of sleep and when we die, we wake up.

Many people call themselves mystics or Sufis, or whatever. Many of these people are in a state of sleep and get annoyed whenever anyone comes along and says something which may disturb their sleep or which suggests that, perhaps, they are not as aware of the reality of things - especially with respect to themselves - as they suppose.

The story which was excerpted from A Sufi Affair: Journal of a Renegade Shaykh is a wake-up call - not to a conspiracy theory of some kind, but as a reminder that many of us are fast asleep and dreaming that we are awake.