In Daheshism, there are no “secrets” or hidden meanings. These teachings are perfectly logical for any open-minded individual to newly discovered truths—an individual that seeks to harmonize religion, philosophy, and all sciences.
Content of Daheshism Concepts:
3- Christ, the Prophets, and the Guides
4- The Intrinsic Unity of Religions
6- Cosmic Civilizations (Paradise and Hell)
13 - The Sayyals’ Tendencies and the Psychological Equilibrium
14- The Motivation Behind Deeds Determines their Worthiness
18- Preserving Forms, Recording Thoughts and Photographing Deeds
19- Human Beings and the Universe
20- Cycles of Creation and Spiritual Messages
21- Human Beings and other Earthly Creatures
22- Man’s Freedom and the Divine Will
1- God
Daheshism believes that God is the Creating Force of the Universe—the known and unknown. That He is the beginning and the end; possesses the secrets of life; Lord of reward and punishment; and the source of all knowledge, power, and love. To Him, Dr. Dahesh and Daheshists raise their prayers, ask for His forgiveness and assistance, and view Him as the compassionate father of all creation.
Daheshists refrain from researching the nature of Divinity because they are certain that it is beyond the comprehension of human beings, and in do so, will only lead to confusion.
2- Spiritual Realm
This realm is the origin and destiny of all creation, where the Divine intellect controls the universe and formulates its laws. It is eternal and beyond the constraints of matter and time-space. The heaven is its abode, and its inhabitants are the divine, pure, glorified, perfect Mother-Spirits devoid of any material presence or desecration. Therefore, no entity can enter this realm unless it reaches the level of spiritual perfection.
For this reason, Daheshism believes that the ultimate goal of every creature is to continuously elevate itself spiritually, and in every way possible, in order to escape the lure of materialistic desires in order to reach this Divine Realm—home of absolute and true happiness.
3- Christ, the Prophets, and the Guides
Daheshism distinguishes between “Christ” and Jesus of Nazareth. The word “Christ”, in Daheshism, does not refer to the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who has been known throughout history by the name of Jesus Christ; rather it refers to a Spiritual Divine Force that constitutes the highest degrees of Heavens. This Heavenly Power is the spring of the infinite pure love, and it is the only living eternal way leading to the Creator.
To this Heavenly Divine power there are spiritual extensions in all the material worlds, including the Earth. These extensions, that Daheshism calls “Spiritual Sayyals”, are incarnated into the prophets, among who are Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus of Nazareth known historically by the name of Jesus Christ; they are incarnated as well, into the Guides, among whom are Lao Tzu, Confucius, Buddha, Socrates, and Gandhi. Accordingly, Daheshism believes that the Prophetic and Guiding Sayyals of all the Prophets and Guides are derived from one Divine Being, who is the “Christ”.
By this concept, the fundamental conflict between Christianity and Islam is dissipated. Jesus of Nazareth (the Issa of the Koran) is a human Prophet. As for the “Christ” (the Heavenly Spiritual Power), of whom Jesus is a part, as well as every other prophet, he is a god, for he is the image of God.
4- The Intrinsic Unity of Religions
Through this conception unifying the prophets and the Guides, Daheshism looks at all religions, and sees them as chapters in one book - the book of Spiritual Guidance. And among these chapters there is integration not contradiction. Each one contains a part of the Spiritual Truth, not the whole Absolute Truth, and each one is true as far as the believers in it are concerned.
This intrinsic religious unity, according to Daheshism, does not only embrace the greatest monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but also includes all the other religions in their origins, and before their distortion by worldly interests and unfounded speculations.
The international religious brotherhood, preached by Daheshism, has become a human need. Mankind cannot escape it if nations were to avoid tragic wars and conflicts. Confessions, in many parts of the world, are trying to avoid these historic strives, or hide them by calling the people to co-existence on the basis of mutual respect of beliefs, or on the basis of religious accommodations made by pointing out similarities between them, while disregarding the essential differences. Those points of disagreements remain the determining factor in rekindling the embers, because these differences have not been dissipated by means of a unifying faith.
The belief in the intrinsic unity of religions, as well as in the unity of the Prophets, is a way that leads to the unity of humanity, and through which alone the love of each believer broadens to encompass believers of all faiths.
5- The Truth and Religions
Daheshism believes that the whole Absolute Truth is the Creator-Power Himself, and His image does not exist except in the Heavenly Spiritual World, which is the image of God. In vain do scientists, theologians, and philosophers search for the whole absolute truth, because it is beyond the reach of men.
Therefore, Truth on Earth is partial and relative, in all religions as well as in science. Religions should not then pretend a monopoly over the whole spiritual truth, because that is impossible even to the inhabitants of Paradise themselves, who belong to the most advanced cosmic civilizations.
6- Cosmic Civilizations (Paradise and Hell)
Daheshism distinguishes between Heaven (a realm of pure spiritual existence of divine glory and infinite happiness) and Paradise. Paradisiacal worlds are comprised of glorified physical worlds of highly advanced civilizations, each with its own religions, arts, and sciences that human beings cannot imagine, and where the inhabitants experience great happiness and joy--physical and psychological.
The paradisiacal worlds are comprised of 150 spiritual levels, each containing billions of stars and planets. Likewise, the infernal worlds (hell) are also comprised of 150 spiritual levels, each containing billions of stars and planets, except that civilizations are primitive and where ignorance, low intellect levels, and inhabitants experience physical and psychological suffering. Earth is at the threshold between paradise and hell.
Life on the worlds of paradise or hell is not mandated to be eternal, for each inhabitant is subjected to temptations and trials specific to that world and relative to a system of divine justice. If an inhabitant of any world succeeds in conquering those temptations, desires, and, behavior, then spiritual elevation takes place and the inhabitant transfers to a loftier world, otherwise, the result is spiritual degradation and transfers to a more degraded world.
7- The Concept of Sayyals
The Sayyal is an everlasting vital energy, of relativistic capacity of conception, driving will, different tendencies, and functional properties. Its substance is a spiritual radiating essence, that is impossible to be perceived by the senses because it is characterized by an extremely high frequency, and because the human being is limited by a network of senses that range between two thresholds: a maximum and a minimum, which he cannot trespass.
The substances of the entire cosmos, and of its beings, from atoms to galaxies, are spiritual Sayyals of relativistic structural material forms.
These Sayyals, whether they are on Earth - in man, animal, plants, or inorganic bodies - or whether they are in the stars, planets, and all heavenly bodies, do not differ from each other except in the degree of their spiritual elevation, and in the functions they are allowed to exercise within the confines of their material existence, and the spiritual laws that govern it.
On the other hand, the substance of matter - in all its forms, one of which is the human body - is a condensed Sayyal made up of constitutive elements, some of which have been discovered by science. However, the spiritual Sayyals are made up of constitutive elements immensely less condensed, which science has not been able to discover, because they do not fall within the range of perception of the senses, nor within reach of the apparatuses of observation, because all of these are restricted by material elements and ruled by their laws.
8- Spirit and Soul
Sayyals—regardless of being in human beings or in any physical form throughout the paradisiacal or infernal worlds—are not Spirits. The Spirits are divine entities devoid of any material existence because matter is a consequence of imperfection and desecration, while the abode of the Spirits is the realm of perfection. Every Spirit is a Mother-Spirit to many Sayyals that originate from it and extend to the physical worlds —paradisiacal or infernal— in the form of an invisible radiant energy and depending on their spiritual elevation or degradation.
The degree of the Spirit in its world is affected by the degrees of its Sayyals that are scattered in the expanses of the universe. The more purified Sayyals it can regain, the higher the degree of elevation it would reach.
The Greatest aim of the Spirit is to be reunited with its divine origin (The Creator-Power). However, it can never achieve that unless it has already regained all its Sayyals and has reached the highest degree of the Heavens. And as every Spirit longs to return to its Father-Creator, so too every elevated Sayyal, whether in humans or in any other beings, cannot escape feeling the longing to return to its Mother-Spirit; for solely through this return is its true salvation and happiness.
As for the soul of the human, it is nothing else than the ensemble of his vital Sayyals.
9- The Spiritual Causation
Daheshism believes that what is called “Coincidence” does not exist at all. For there are causes to every happening, or condition, or existence. But behind the material causation there is a spiritual causation hidden from humans, and it rules individuals and societies as well as all other beings.
All of our physical, social, economic and psychological conditions, wealth and destitution, intelligence and ignorance, diseases and infirmities, peace and war, gain and loss, mutual attraction or repulsion, traffic accidents on land, sea, and in the air, natural catastrophes, etc... all of them have spiritual causes hidden from us, and that is why we assign them to “coincidence.” Their general rule, however, is one, and that is the merit and the just deserts.
Spiritual causation occurs according to divine laws and takes place on Earth through the natural laws reigning over it.
10- Reincarnation
The concept of reincarnation in Daheshism differs from its concept in all the other beliefs that confess it. For, based on the fact that the soul of the human being is not a whole unit, but rather an ensemble of Sayyals of different spiritual levels, and based on the principle of just deserts, every Sayyal that leaves the human body, whether during his lifetime, or at the time of death, is reincarnated into the material body which it deserves, and accordingly the bad Sayyal receives its punishment, and the good its reward.
This spiritual system is undoubtedly a mercy to man. If we subtract from the life span of the individual the time spent on sleep (more than one third of a lifetime), illness, food, and earning a living, plus fifteen years which is the non- responsible childhood period, all that would be left out is no more than a few years, and perhaps a few months. That is not adequate time for man to immerse himself in spiritual meditation, and achieve the purification of his soul, and the overcoming of his many obdurate base tendencies. Consequently, man would be imperatively condemned to damnation. The mercy of reincarnation lies then, in giving the human beings thousands of opportunities to reform themselves. Therefore, at the end of these cycles, if no elevation of the soul has been achieved, condemnation to Hell would, then, be a just punishment.
Reincarnation explains then, why people are born with infirmities, hereditary or natural diseases, bad conditions of ignorance or destitution. For, the present incarnation of the human being is but the result of his acts, tendencies, and thoughts in his previous life, or lives. It is in man’s power, through will and effort to improve his conditions from bad to better.
Each life cycle of man is a ring in a chain of connected rings, but man cannot remember his past lives, because his Sayyals which were congregated together in his previous incarnations would now be scattered, and only one or some of them would be left in his present incarnation. Thus, an individual’s entity in one reincarnation may be compared to a sheet of paper upon which a life story had been written and then was torn to tiny pieces and scattered. If you happen to find one of the torn off pieces bearing a letter or a word, you will never be able there from, to know the whole story.
13 - The Sayyals’ Tendencies and the Psychological Equilibrium
In general, the Sayyals of every individual tend to have three kinds of tendencies: Spiritual, Earthly, or Evil. The relative psychological equilibrium would not be realized within oneself unless there occurs among one’s Sayyals a hierarchy in which the group of spiritual tendency controls the two other groups.
The Sayyals of spiritual tendencies, (such as pure love, mercy, humbleness, chastity, contentment, renunciation, self-sacrifice, generosity, and courage) are the only ones that may leave the Earth to the paradisiacal worlds; whereas the Sayyals of Earthly tendencies (such as gluttony, cowardice, ostentatiousness, and indolence of the Spirit) remain within the spiritual attraction of the Earth. As for the Sayyals of evil tendencies (such as the tendency to kill or steal or harm, or such as envy, hatred, arrogance, debauchery, falsehood, drunkenness, stinginess, and greed), put themselves, by their evil and perversion, within the attraction of the infernal lower worlds.
14- The Motivation Behind Deeds Determines their Worthiness
Good deeds, such as providing for the poor, spreading the belief in God among people, prayers, fasting, and others, all tend to elevate the Sayyals of the individual, provided that the motivation behind them is noble. However, if the motivation behind the deeds is for prominence, achieving mundane glory, or less than honorable, then they will lose their noble meaning and spiritual rewards.
15- Mercy and Grace
Justice is the main principle that God uses in dealing with human beings, for you reap what you sow. However, God is merciful, and the extent of His mercy is infinite, and for this reason reincarnation was instituted as a universal system. Divine mercy is manifested in many ways, for it may delay the implementation of punishment on a particular sinner in order to provide him/her the opportunity to repent; moderating the punishment by proportionately distributing it over several periods; substituting it instead with another form of punishment; or some other way. However, according to Daheshism, mercy does not imply that the sin is completely absolved, and the corresponding punishment eliminated, for in doing so the scales of justice are disturbed.
As to grace, it is a special divine assistance bestowed only on those that merited it. The merit to deserve divine assistance does not take place unless the individual exerts a tremendous effort to reform himself/herself through involvement in noble deeds and causes, or through long-term spiritual progression.
16- Birth and Death
Death takes place when the Main Sayyal (responsible for life) leaves the body. However, in most cases, death takes place gradually as the human being ages. When a Sayyal leaves the body of an individual, a noticeable physical or intellectual energy level decreases. The moment of death is determined since birth by a divine system that is based on prior reincarnations and the level of his/her Sayyals. However, it is possible for the human being to hasten or delay the moment of death in this lifetime depending on the free will activities that degraded or elevated the Sayyals. Death is not an extinction, but rather a transformation of the Sayyals from one form to another.
A spiritual awakening takes place when the Sayyal is liberated from the shackles of the human body. Dr. Dahesh says: “Death is a beautiful awakening that is welcomed by anyone of a cleansed soul and elevated spirit, yet feared by anyone of confused thoughts and many sins…”
The way death takes place on other worlds varies depending on the system set for each world. In some, death take the form of immediate vanishing, a gradual shrinking until completely vanishing, or in some other way.
As to birth, no human being can be born on earth unless one of his parents possessed a Sayyal of a spiritual level matching that of earth, or a Sayyal that was permitted to descend to earth.
The way birth takes place on other worlds also varies depending on the system set for each world. In some, birth takes place as a sudden materialization, relocating from one planet to another, or in some other way.
18- Preserving Forms, Recording Thoughts and Photographing Deeds
One of the truths that Daheshism calls for is that upon the release of the Main Sayyal (Sayyal responsible for life) and the disintegration of its form, every living entity and every form is replicated and preserved in special spiritual worlds. Also, every deed is photographed, and every thought, desire, or dream are recorded and preserved in those special spiritual worlds as a testimonial on the life, behavior, conduct, and deeds of that form, for nothing is lost, no matter how trivial it is.
19- Human Beings and the Universe
Daheshism believes that the Sayyals of human beings trace back to the first human named Adam. Before Divine Will decreed that Adam descend to earth, a large group of angelic Sayyals residing in various paradisaical worlds disobeyed Divine rules, and as a result, they collectively were mandated to descend to earth in the form of human being, namely, Adam. Eve was formed from the Sayyals of Adam, and from both, a new line of human beings came into being…
In order to advance civilization, Divine Will decreed that the Sayyals of prophets, guides, intellectuals, and true reformers to deliver messages of righteousness to humanity, and permitted beings from other advanced civilizations in the universe to occasionally visit earth, and through marriage, to inoculate humanity with certain Sayyals that help advance the human civilization.
At this point the first mythological legends came into being. Although these legends are based on certain realities, human beings interpreted them according to their comprehension and enhanced them with their imagination.
Over thousands of years, some cosmic visitations left this world with major ancient cultural ruins that remain standing to this day. An example would be the temples of Baalbek in Lebanon.
In the Old Testament, there are references to interference from cosmic civilizations. Genesis (6:1-4) “It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, that God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose”… And “The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and after that, when God’s sons came into men’s daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
Another reference is from Chapter 1 of Ezekiel, where a spaceship lands in front of the Prophet. According to Daheshism, what Lot perceived as angels, were actually space aliens that were sent to earth on a spaceship by the governor of their planet, who is under a direct Divine order to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their moral transgressions and despite the many warnings they received to change their ways.
Based on this, human logic dictates that we realize that we are part of cosmic civilizations and refrain from arrogant behavior and behaving as gods.
20- Cycles of Creation and Spiritual Messages
Daheshism believes that earth has gone through many cycles of creation, where life faces extinction and then restarts. In Daheshism, according to spiritually inspired writings, these cycles of creation are spread over millions, if not billions of years, and prior to the current cycle that began with Noah, they number 760 cycles.
Each cycle ends usually by reaching a high degree of technological and scientific advancement, and the appearance of a new Spiritual Mission that begins the next cycle. The Adam mentioned in the book of Genesis had been preceded by dozens of his reincarnations in the previous creation cycles.
Furthermore, Daheshists believe that the end of the present cycle is near; and nothing could be more indicative than the piling up of the weapons of total extermination. However, so long as our planet is fit for life, and has not been annihilated, the life cycles will keep going on upon it, and Spiritual Missions will keep reappearing pursuant to a Divine system; for, there is no ending to the Missions on Earth except when life itself ends, and Planet Earth is no more.
21- Human Beings and other Earthly Creatures
In the cosmic life cycle, each creature, no matter how trivial it may seem in the eyes of human beings, has a particular role to play and would not have existed with no purpose in mind. Human beings get nourishment from animals and vegetation, yet some microbes feed on living human beings and reproduce at his/her expense, while earth warms feed on human beings after they die.
The Founder of Daheshism, by emphasizing communion with these beings in his writings, prompts us to learn interrelating with them as people interrelate with each other; in other words, to be good to them, and benefit from them.
22- Man’s Freedom and the Divine Will
Daheshism does not believe in the existence of an extrinsic fate subjugating man to its unjust rules, and playing arbitrarily with his destiny, as every man’s fate is carried over by his Sayyals from one life cycle into another. In vain then, man tries to assign the liability of what befalls him to God, or to the fates; for nothing befalls him unless justly deserved by him; and he reaps nothing save what he had sown knowingly and freely.
But man’s freedom is limited by the spiritual system controlling the Earth and its beings. For man may strive, for example, on the plane of knowledge, to discover medicines and ways to fight various kinds of illnesses. However, if certain people should die or suffer by a certain illness, then the Divine Will would not permit the discovery of the effective drug for its treatment.
And on the plane of conduct, a criminal, for example, has absolute freedom to make up his mind to kill his neighbor; but if his neighbor’s hour of death has not struck, then, the Divine Providence, inescapably, will save him in one way or the other.
In this light, the consequences of earthquakes, natural catastrophes, and wars, should be understood, for they afflict certain individuals but not others. Merit, finally, is what explains each situation.
This does not preclude the intervention of the Divine Will in people’s affairs, when necessary, without breach of the principle of merit.
23- Virtue and Intelligence
Virtue is a fundamental condition to the Sayyals’ salvation from the attraction of the infernal worlds. However, if it were combined with idiocy, it cannot get salvaged from Earth.
The Paradisiacal world would never be entered by an unintelligent Sayyal even if it were of virtuous conduct. For, the true spiritual improvement must combine both the tendency and the intellect together. Yet a Sayyal of poor intellect has the chance to improve itself through several cycles of reincarnation to deserve reaching the paradisiacal worlds.
For the first time in the history of religions, a Spiritual Mission asserts the importance of combining virtue with intelligence to attain salvation. The inhabitants of Paradise are beings of superior spiritual tendencies as well as intellects.
Virtue is a living conscious practice; if it were not accompanied by a conscious perception it would have no meaning. Therefore, the mumbling of prayers in a mechanical way is worthless, and every religious practice that does not lead to the real spiritual elevation of the essence of the Sayyal is a profitless practice.
24 - Liberty and Justice
Daheshism believes in the absolute freedom of individuals against all sorts of oppression and terror, and does not accept any restrictions upon liberty save the moral restriction in its broad sense; that is, the restriction upon harming the physical and spiritual interests of others; because moral licentiousness if protected by the State would undermine both virtue and intellect altogether. In other words, it would do away with any likelihood of a true advancement of civilization.
And justice is a divine prerequisite, like liberty, about which every honest noble-spirited person must never be silent if it was undermined. For, if some people have been afflicted with injustice, Daheshism would call upon them to resist the unjust, armed with the weapons of truth, spiritual courage, and struggle; for he who is on the side of right, God is his helper.
Furthermore, Daheshism goes beyond the narrow bounds of nationalism, because of its belief that the life cycle is not limited by the physical frontiers of countries. For the metamorphoses through life cycles, in their continuity and inclusiveness, melt together all the nations and peoples, and shuffle societies and nationalities. Daheshism calls for social justice, cooperation among nations, and universal brotherhood.