Reshad Feild

Biographical Information
"Reshad Feild (born Richard Timothy Feild. 15th April 1934) is an English mystic, author, spiritual teacher, and musician. He is the author of more than a dozen books about Sufism and spirituality and has exercised a huge influence amongst western seekers over the last 40 years.

"As a young Englishman he was educated at boarding schools from an early age, and was then at Eton College. He then went straight into the Navy to serve two years of his National Service. Soon afterwards he learnt to play the guitar, and became a folk singer, singing his way half way round the world. Perhaps he would have been called a "Spiritual Hippy" at that time. On the journey he became ill in the Northern Provinces of Pakistan, close to the borders of Afghanistan, and had to return to England. However he had already met up with a Dervish Brotherhood, the mystical branch of Islam. This meeting was to bring about a beginning of a complete change in his life.

"After he returned to England, and had recovered from the illness he had contracted in Pakistan, he became involved with the teachings of G.I.Gurdjieff and P.D.Ouspensky whilst performing as a "singing waiter" in a famous London restaurant called Luba's Bistro, owned and run by Gurdjieff's niece. At that time he was called Tim Feild, the name used by his family, and his singing career changed from folk singing to cabaret, radio and TV when he met Tom Springfield, the brother of the famous singer Dusty Springfield. Together the three of them went on to form the vocal group, The Springfields, which went on to be presented with a National Award of "Vocal group of the year" in l962. Tim then resigned from The Springfields, and although he was replaced by another singer called Mike Hurst, the group finally disbanded when Dusty pursued a solo career. Tim became an antique dealer in London.

"It was during that time that Tim met Pir Vilayat Khan, the Head of the Sufi Order International, and was then initiated by Pir Vilayat when his name was changed from Tim to Reshad Feild. He left the antique business and went on to help organise and run a Spiritual Teaching Centre in Gloucestershire, which was called Beshara by a man who was to become Reshad's spiritual teacher. His name was Bulent Rauf, a Turkish author and translator who himself stemmed from a long line of Sufism going back to the Andalusian mystic Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165-1240), and whom Reshad called Hamid in his first book The Last Barrier. The book was eventually translated into many languages, and remains one of the classics of modern, spiritual literature. The book tells the story of Reshad meeting Bulent in a London antique shop, and the start of a journey which was to change the whole of his life. A description of events at the Beshara Centre is given in the book "I,Wabenzi." by Rafi Zabor.

"In December, 1971, he and a group of students went to Konya (Turkey) to meet Bulent and see the Sacred Ceremony of the Mevlevi Order of Dervishes, sometimes known as the Whirling dervishes. While there, he met a former Sheikh of the Mevlevi dervishes, Sheikh Suleyman Dede, who initiated Reshad as a Sheikh of that Order. In l973 Reshad resigned his role leading the Beshara Centre, and was instructed by his teacher (read Bulent's letter to Reshad) to go to Vancouver, Canada, where he started a teaching Centre. Later further Centres were set up in California, Boulder, Colorado, and Mexico. In all these Centres Reshad assisted in introducing the Sema Ceremony, the sacred ceremony of the whirling dervishes which was declared a cultural world heritage by UNESCO in 2004. In the early eighties Reshad moved to Europe where he established a large teaching Centre in Switzerland, called Johanneshof which he supervised for some years. Johanneshof became internationally known, receiving people from many nationalities. This Centre continued for some years before it was disbanded."