The Foundations of Healing – Part I
An Introduction to the Teachings of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan
Second Saturdays, February-May, 2026
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm (New York) / 9:00–10:30 pm CET (Paris) / 9:00 – 10:30 am (Auckland)
The Foundations of Healing is a doorway into Hazrat Inayat Khan’s Sufi teachings on healing. Presented in three semesters, it is not sequential and the semesters can be taken in any order. We will delve into practices of Divine healing and transformation that live within each of us. By developing one’s capacity through the exploration of the heart and the breath, transformation can be found within the body, mind, heart, and soul.
The course is based on the newly developed Essential Healing Manual, an introduction to the foundations of healing upon which the Inayatiyya Healing Activity is based. Our gift to you will be a digital copy of the Essential Healing Manual, which will include the teachings from the topics introduced and much more.
DATES & THEMES
February 14: Sacred Instrument of the Body and its Relationship with the Divine
Presenters: Kafayat Sitara Mitten-Lewis, Kafayat Sarmad Tide, Kafayat Ushi Darana Burgess
The human body is a vehicle of the spirit, a finished vehicle which experiences all the different aspects of creation…. There are faculties of the soul which express themselves through certain centers in the body of the human being. As there are parts of lands to which water never reaches — and therefore they never become fertile soil — so it is with these centers when the breath never reaches them. They are intuitive, they are full of peace and balance, they are the centers of illumination, yet never have they been awakened, for we have breathed only in those parts of the body by which we can eat, and live, and perform action. One is only half alive, if one’s existence is compared with the fullness of life that can be obtained by spiritual development. One is interested in all that brings beauty and joy, and yet [one] does not know the source of all such things in oneself. – Hazrat Inayat Khan.
March 14: Breath and Divine Power
Presenters: Kafayat Jalila Chris Botsford, Kafayat Avalon Gallien, Kafayat Samuel Vilayat
One is never separated from God; … with every breath man touches God. One is linked with God by the current of breath…In so far as our soul is in the spirit of God, it is the ray of the divine sun, while the other end of it is what we call breath… The action of breath in our body is limited; but in reality this current, this breath, connects the body with the divine Spirit, connecting God and man in one current.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan
April 11: The Heart that Heals
Presenters: Kafayat Devi Tide; Shafayat and Co-VP of the Healing Activity, Nur Alima Smith; Shafayat and Co-VP of the Healing Activity, Dr. Raqib Kogan
If the doors of the heart are open, the heart proves to be larger than the whole cosmos.”– Hazrat Inayat Khan
A Flexible Heart:
As long as the heart is closed, one cannot show that nobleness, that goodness which is hidden in one’s heart. The psychology of the heart is such that once one begins to know it, one realizes that life is a continual phenomenon. Then every moment of life becomes a miracle; a searchlight is thrown upon human nature and all things become so clear that one does not ask for any greater phenomenon or miracle; it is a miracle in itself.– Hazrat Inayat Khan
May 9: Healing Retreat
This retreat will be led by Kafayat Devi Tide. It will tie together the teachings and practices of the Spring Foundations of Healing Sessions.
DETAILS
Classes are on Saturdays, February 14, March 14, April 11, and May 9 from 3-4:30 pm Eastern time 9-10:30 pm Central European Time.
This course is open to ashiqs, murids, and all with a sincere interest. Come to all or any part of the series.
The Foundations of Healing series requires advanced registration and provides video recordings if you are unable to attend every class. A suggested tuition of $48 ($12 per class) is recommended for the whole course. There is also a limited income/student tuition rate of $32 ($8/class). Please see the sidebar to register.
If you have questions about the content of the course, please email healing@inayatiyya.org. Questions about registration, payments, and logistical details may be sent to astana@inayatiyya.org.
Speakers
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Raqib Misha Kogan M.D.Raqib Misha Kogan, M.D. received his medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine. He’s the medical director of the GW Center for Integrative Medicine and associate professor of medicine in the division of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at George Washington University. Raqib has been on the Sufi path since 2001 and is a Conductor in the Inayatiyya Healing Activity. Together with his wife Rafia, he completed Suluk training in 2007. Raqib has been working closely with Devi Tide and other Healing Activity leaders for over 10 years and has assisted in organizing and running many annual Leadership Retreats. Raqib’s goal is to bring healing wisdom and practices of the Inayatiyya to more people, especially those who are vulnerable. To achieve this goal, Raqib founded AIM Health Institute, a non-profit organization in the Washington, D.C. area that provides integrative medicine services to low-income and terminally ill patients regardless of their ability to pay.
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Nur Alima SmithNur Alima Smith is a Shefayat, a Cherag, a Healing Conductor and a Raphaelite Healer in the Inayatiyya Healing Activity. She is adept with various breathing techniques, having studied this for over 40 years. Nur Alima brings the Inayyati philosophy and practices to community groups. She has run many trainings for staff and volunteers at Hospice and multiple Veteran Organizations, focusing on these techniques and how to heal oneself with the breath. Since 2015, Nur Alima has also led a weekly meditation group at the VA for Veterans who have PTSD. Her additional work with the Veteran Community includes teaching meditation and relaxation techniques to those on active duty about to be deployed and to those who have just returned from combat. She serves on the Inayatiyya Healing Senior Teacher Committee and lives in Syracuse, New York. Currently, Nur Alima is serving as the co-Vice President, the Bayt-ul-Haram, of the Inayatiyya Healing Activity.
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Sitara Mitten-LewisSitara Mitten-Lewis founded the first Sufi Order center in Sydney, Australia in the 1990’s and served as Regional Representative for Australia until 2010. As a Senior Teacher, she also serves as a Shafayat in the Healing Activity and a Mentor in the Dances of Universal Peace. She coordinated the Inayati Order Leaders Training Committee from 2010-15 and helped develop the training module on Sacred Sound. She guides murids and offers retreats and workshops on meditation, music and movement in the US, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
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Ushi Darena BurgessUshi Darena Burgess is a long-time murid in the Inayatiyya. She grew up in small towns in the forests of the rural Pacific Northwest.
A deep longing brought her to this spiritual path and the Inayatiyya. She is a Shafayat in the Healing Activity, a Cherag in the Universal Worship, and served on the national Board for five years. She brings spirituality into the world in a very real way, with clarity, acts of kindness, compassion and heart.
Her career spanned decades of public service. Currently, she co-leads Wings of the Message Sufi Center in Seattle, Washington and facilitates a weekly Healing Service for the World. She acknowledges the interconnectedness of all humanity with the biosphere, and includes a global perspective in all her work. -
Jalila Chris BotsfordJalila Chris Botsford has been a student, facilitator and teacher of many forms of holistic healing for over 25 years. As a holistic health practitioner, working both in person and long-distance, she utilizes energy healing, cranial sacral and the foundational Sufi practices of presence, breath, light and guided meditation in her Spiritual Energy Sessions. She also leads individual sessions, workshops and retreats based on Carolyn Myss’s Archetypal Sacred Contracts course. Jalila’s passion for healing and service has led her to Africa, Haiti and Guatemala working in hospitals and clinics in impoverished communities.
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Devi TideDevi Tide is the Kefayat (Head) and Vice President of the Sufi Healing Order in North America, New Zealand and Australia. She has over thirty years of experience as a teacher of healing and the esoteric sciences, bringing the qualities of wisdom, heart, subtlety, humor, and intelligence to her role. Devi has contributed to and offered programs in India, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America. In her seminars, public speaking, and individual sessions and retreats, Devi represents the inner vitality and harmony of the body, mind and spirit, the vitality of our interconnected world, as well as personal transformation.
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Sarmad Michael Tide
Sarmad Michael Tide, an initiate since 1982, is a senior teacher, representative, retreat guide in the Inner School. He is a Cherag, a Ziraat farmer, and a Shafayat and healing retreat guide. in the Healing Activity. He has been a center leader in Seattle and at the Abode. He was employed by the Sufi Order (now Inayatiyya), editing and publishing twelve booklets of Pir Vilayat’s teaching, editing and publishing the Heart and Wings newsletter, producing promotional materials, and was the Creative director for Elixir magazine. He served as activities director for Pir Vilayat’s camps and seminars, and was chairperson of the Jamiat Am from 1991 to 2006. He is also a certified Dances of Universal Peace leader. He is graced with barakat connections with the Ruhaniat, Mevlevi and Rifai orders. He is currently active in online teaching and mentoring, guiding retreats, and training Healing Retreat guides. He resides with his wife, Devi Tide, in Seattle.
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Avalon GallienAvalon Gallien is a Senior Teacher in the Inayatiyya, a Shefayat and Conductor in the Healing Order, Retreat Guide, and a dedicated student of the Divine Light found in life, in healing, in the world, and as an integral, dynamic, component of our own beings. Avalon and her husband Wajid founded Wings of the Message Center – Inayatiyya/Seattle over 30 years ago and continue to offer and sponsor online classes, personal and group spiritual/alchemical retreats, Zikr gatherings, and community gatherings in the Puget Sound area of Washington. Avalon is a retired Hospice Social Worker/MSW, and is now a busy volunteer, sings in a choir, and has recently discovered her artist within.
