Mohammad Ali Taheri (Persian: محمد علی طاهری; born 1956, in Kermanshah, Iran) is an alternative medicine practitioner who is the founder of Erfan-e-Halgheh, also called Interuniversal Mysticism, a version of Iranian mysticism Irfan. He is also the founder of the Erfan Halghe Cultural Institute. Taheri has founded two pseudo-scientific complementary medicine treatments Faradarmani and Psymentology and, according to him, has been honored with doctorate degrees by alternative medicine universities for his research. He is currently based in Canada after the grant of asylum by the Government of Canada.
Life
Early years Mohammad Ali Taheri was born in 1956 in Kermanshah, Iran and received his primary education from his hometown. Later, they moved to Tehran for better opportunities. Later, he went to Turkey where he studied briefly at the Middle East Technical University but did not get any degree. Upon his return to Iran, he founded an engineering firm, Tiva Kian Engineering and Design Company, and designed small machines for use in mushroom production and flour factories.
Erfan-e-Halgheh
According to Taheri, he has never followed any specific Sufi path or particular religion. He used to find answers to his questions through books and documents. He also used to meditate deeply. During his self-study of cosmology, he began to believe that science and spirituality can converge in a single quest. Therefore, he proposed two ways to heal exclusively based on a path of "self-understanding" called Faradarmani and Psymentology. In the 2000s, he founded Erfan-e-Halgheh (Circle of Mysticism), an arts and culture institute located in Tehran, which promotes spiritual healing concepts. It is part of Inter-universal Mysticism, a spiritual movement or school of thought, which he started about forty years ago to promote mental wellness and physical health. though new-age practices The movement became wildly popular in urban centers of Iran. At its peak, the movement had more than two million followers.
Teachings Taheri initially started teaching about his knowledge to his friends and family in private. Later, after developing Erfan-e-Halgheh, he publicized his knowledge by teaching it with structured lessons. Initially, classes were small with few students. In 2001, classes were transferred to the official institution and later at University of Tehran, a top-ranked university in Iran. Meanwhile, Taheri was also giving interviews to further dissipate his knowledge. In the start, Erfan-e-Halgheh was designed by him to be studied in six levels, but later two more levels were added to teach the subject in detail. Each level lasted six weeks with one four-hour each week. In level one, students were taught about Faradarmani which is used to heal different diseases and its purpose is to get acquaintance with divine intelligence in practical form. In Erfan-e-Halgheh, it is a first step on the spiritual development path. Later, Taheri also started to teach Faradarmani and Psymentology at the institute he founded in 2006. Classes overwhelmed by students were held where everything was videotaped. He also wrote manuals and guides which were released with the official license of the Iranian Government. They won dozens of awards and acknowledgments in their field. He has also taught alternative medicine and alternative therapies at the University of Tehran. In 2010, he has to stop his teachings, when his popularity was at the peak, due to his arrest by the government.
Imprisonment, trial and release, 2010–2019 In 2009, a group linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) alarmed by his rising popularity and called it a threat to the national security. Classes filled with thousand of students were not considered safe. A dissident spiritualist, Taheri was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Service in 2010 on charges of acting against national security. He was held in solitary confinement for 67 days. Before his arrest, he was free to deliver public lectures held at the Tehran University and publish books without any restrictions. On May 4, 2011, Taheri was again arrested and tried under charges of “touching the wrists of female patients,” “blasphemy,” “producing and distributing audio-visual material,” “interfering in medical science,” “earning illegitimate funds,” and “distribution of audio-visual products and use of academic titles.” On October 30, 2011, he was sentenced to 74 lashes, a fine, and imprisonment. Taheri was interrogated again in the summer of 2014 on charges of corruption on earth, and was eventually sentenced to death in court in May 2015. The UN high commissioner for Human Rights called this death sentence an “absolute outrage”. His sentence was annulled later the same year. He was due to be released on February 7, 2016, after serving a full five-year sentence and paying the fine, but was prevented from being released on new charges being brought. In August 2017, Islamic Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Ahmadzadeh, convicted Taheri on charges of corruption on earth; this conviction was overturned by Branch 33 of the Supreme Court for the second time. In September 2017, this second sentence and related arrests of his followers was condemned by the US Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert. Nauert said that the alleged charges are against Iran's commitment to human rights and urged Iranian authorities to reverse the conviction and death sentence. In August 2018, he was charged with corruption on earth for the third time by Judge Abolqasim Salavati in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court on a charge of five years' imprisonment; this charge should have been re-examined by the appeals court, but this never took place. In September 2018, Taheri was charged again with apostasy. In a letter to Ahmad Shahid, a former UN human rights rapporteur for Iran, Taheri reported that he had been forced to fabricate confessions through psychological pressure and torture by IRGC interrogators.
Prisoner of conscience In October 2018, Vice-Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gayle Conelly Manchin, adopted Mohammad Ali Taheri as a religious prisoner of conscience which is part of USCIRF's Religious Prisoners of Conscience Project.
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