Kubrawi visionary photism

1. Introduction

Version followed: Najm al-Din Kubra (d. 1221), Fawa'ih al-jamal wa-fawatih al-jalal ("Scents of Beauty and Openings of Majesty"; critical edition F. Meier, Wiesbaden 1957; French translation P. Ballanfat, as listed by Algar and Crespo), read through Hamid Algar's Encyclopaedia Iranica entries "Kobrawiya i. The Eponym" and "Kobrawiya", with later Kubrawi developments by Najm al-Din Daya Razi (Mirsad al-'ibad) and 'Ala' al-Dawla Simnani (the seven subtle centres) as summarised by Iranian art-historical scholarship. Clinical material follows Lindahl, Kaplan, Winget and Britton (2014) on meditation-induced light experiences, Cheetah House, ICHD-3 and Panayiotopoulos on occipital seizures. [source: Algar, Iranica 2009/2021; Lindahl et al. 2014]

What it is. "Kubrawi visionary photism" is a scholarly label for the doctrine, founded by Najm al-Din Kubra of Khwarazm and developed by his school (the Kubrawiyya), that coloured lights and visions seen by the seeker during remembrance of God (dhikr) and spiritual retreat (khalwa, the forty-day chilla) are meaningful signs of the state of the seeker's heart, soul (nafs) and spiritual progress. It is not a stand-alone technique that is "done"; in the tradition the lights arise within a disciplined path under a shaykh, and the teaching concerns how to read them. [source: Algar, Iranica "Kobrawiya i"]

Core idea of change, as the tradition holds it. In Kubra's account, lights are of two kinds: those that rise from the human heart and those that descend from the divine throne; when the veil between them lifts, they meet and merge, which Kubra links to the Qur'anic "light upon light" (Q 24:35). Colours carry meaning: green, for example, signals the life of the heart, and Algar renders Kubra as saying "when you witness greenness, you sense a freeing of the heart". The seeker's struggle (mujahada) against the lower soul and Satan is understood to purify inner being from darkness towards light, and the coloured lights register where the seeker stands. These are religious claims, described here as the tradition and its scholars state them, neither affirmed nor dismissed. [source: Algar, Iranica "Kobrawiya"; Persian-language study of Kubra's colour theory, Tehran University of Art]

Status today. The Kubrawiyya is largely a historical order. Algar reports that it died out in its Central Asian homeland after the fifteenth century, leaving a pilgrimage tradition at Kubra's tomb (continued on a small scale in the Soviet period); its lines continued in the Hamadaniyya (Badakhshan, Kashmir), the Nurbakhshiyya and the Dhahabiyya, the last now "found mostly in western regions of Persia"; 'Ali Hamadani's litany Awrad-i fathiyya is still recited, mostly by Naqshbandis, as far west as Bosnia. Kubra's light doctrine also reached a wide readership through Henry Corbin's The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. A client is therefore more likely to meet this material through a Dhahabi or other Sufi teacher, through Kashmiri or Central Asian heritage, or through reading (Corbin, Razi) than through a living Kubrawi lineage. [source: Algar, Iranica "Kobrawiya"; Suluk Press listing of Corbin] Which living teachers transmit Kubrawi khalwa practice today is [uncertain: not verified].

For the therapist. Clients bring three kinds of question: (a) "I am seeing coloured lights in dhikr or retreat; what do they mean?" (a question for the client's shaykh, with the therapist supporting reflection); (b) "Is this a sign of illness?" (a differential question: contemplative photism, migraine aura, occipital seizure, psychosis or other medical causes); and (c) distress, fear, scrupulosity or pride around the lights. The guide covers all three, without pathologising religious experience and without missing illness. [synthesis]

2. Framework

No source gives a session count or format for therapy with this practice; the phases below are a clinical framework built around the tradition's own structure. [synthesis]

2a. The tradition's own frame (public outline)

• The path. Kubra's "ten principles" (al-Usul al-'ashara) are repentance, ascetic restraint, reliance on God, contentment, isolation, constant remembrance (mudawamat al-dhikr), orientation to God, patient endurance, vigilance and satisfaction. His letter to the disciple lists continuous silence, continuous fasting, continuous remembrance and repelling stray thoughts among the disciple's duties. [source: Algar, Iranica "Kobrawiya i"] These are described, not prescribed: no fasting length, sleep or austerity target is given here.
• Retreat. Forty-day retreats (chilla) are central; Kubra undertook several under Ruzbihan al-Misri. Kubra wrote a treatise on retreat (Risala fi'l-khalwa, tr. G. Böwering 2006 [uncertain: not verified]). Retreat is entered with a shaykh's permission and supervision. [source: Algar, Iranica]
• Dhikr. Remembrance is the engine of the path. Later Kubrawis described their own dhikr methods (for example Najm al-Din Gurpani's silent dhikr with a movement of the head from right to left, as Algar reports). The formulae, breath and body components of Kubrawi dhikr are transmitted by a shaykh and are not set out here. [source: Algar, Iranica "Kobrawiya"]
• Two registers of vision. Kubra divides visions into "supernal" (heavenly bodies: sky, sun, moons, stars) and "earthly" (forms, seas, wells, fire). What a seen object means depends on exactly how it is seen; Algar's example is that a dream of sinking in an ocean signifies being stripped of water, one of the four elements of the human microcosm. [source: Algar, Iranica "Kobrawiya i"; Persian study]
• Three sources of coloured vision. A Persian scholarly reading of Kubra presents three factors: existence (wujud), which begins as darkness and with some purification appears as a white cloud; the soul (nafs), whose lights belong to its commanding (ammara), reproaching (lawwama) or tranquil (mutma'inna) states; and Satan, seen as a fiery light without purity, with darkness. [source: Persian study, jis.uk.ac.ir]
• Colour meanings. As reported by scholars (versions differ):
  • Green: life or vitality of the heart (Kubra, per Algar and the Persian study). For Kubra and Simnani green is read as a final stage; for Razi it belongs to the middle of the journey. [source: Algar; Alzahra University study]
  • Red: when clear, the life of effort and power; when turbid, struggle with the soul and Satan (Persian study); wisdom, courage and a soul at peace (Alzahra study).
  • Blue: the colour of life (Persian study); azure, movement beyond heedlessness through penance before the heart is pure (Alzahra study).
  • Yellow: weakness (Persian study); one stage before spiritual excellence and linked to the spirit-centre (latifa ruhiyya) (Alzahra study).
  • White: the cloud of purified existence (Persian study); linked to divine light through prayer, with disagreement among authors (Alzahra study).
  • Black: initial darkness and the material world for Kubra and Simnani; for Razi the final stage, equivalent to divine light; Simnani adds a "transparent" or luminous black. [source: Alzahra study]
  • The sequence of colours is [uncertain: sources conflict]: one Persian reading has black, then dark red and dark blue (seen as green), then light red, light blue and yellow, with green finally spreading from the "mouth of the well" of the seeker's being.
• Simnani's subtle centres. Simnani devised seven lata'if (subtle centres) corresponding to seven levels of Qur'anic meaning and seven prophets (Algar). A secondary listing gives white for the "secret" (Moses of one's being), yellow for the spirit (David), luminous black for the "hidden" (Jesus) and green for the innermost (the Prophet Muhammad of one's being) [uncertain: secondary, unverified]. This is a doctrinal map, not an exercise.
• The shaykh. Kubra's own training shows shaykhs judging his readiness and correcting his pride; one teacher objected when he began writing down his experiences, and another told him that counting the days left in retreat was already leaving it. Later Kubrawis (Daya Razi, Simnani, Bakharzi's account of his retreat visions) recorded and analysed visions within a teacher-disciple relationship. [source: Algar, Iranica] Reading the lights is the shaykh's office, not the therapist's.

2b. Clinical phases [synthesis]

1. Engagement and cultural assessment. Goal: understand the client's tradition, teacher, practice load and what the lights mean to them. Move on when you can describe the experience in the client's own terms and know whether a teacher is involved.
2. Phenomenological description and safety screen. Goal: a precise description (form, colour, movement, duration, timing, eyes open or closed, inside or outside practice, other symptoms) and a screen for medical red flags and psychiatric features. Move on when red flags are absent or have been routed to a doctor.
3. Differential and collaboration. Goal: decide, with the client, whether the picture fits a contemplative experience, a medical condition (migraine, seizure, eye disease), a psychiatric condition, or a mix; arrange medical or psychiatric assessment where indicated, and teacher contact if the client wishes.
4. Regulation and dose. Goal: if the experiences are distressing or spill into daily life, stabilise (grounding, sleep, reduced practice intensity) in agreement with the teacher.
5. Client-led integration. Goal: help the client relate the experiences to their values, faith and life, in their own tradition's language, and handle fear, pride, scrupulosity or loss.
6. Review. Goal: agree how new experiences will be noticed, who will be consulted (teacher, doctor, therapist) and what would prompt urgent help.

Movement is not strictly linear: any new red flag returns the work to phase 2.

3. Guiding principles

• Attribute, do not adjudicate. Describe lights as the client and tradition understand them; never tell the client they are "only" neurological or "really" divine. Practical meaning: use phrases such as "in your tradition this is understood as…". [synthesis]
• The shaykh interprets; the therapist explores. Practical meaning: do not assign meanings to colours; ask what the client's teacher or texts say and how it lands for the client. [synthesis, grounded in the shaykh's role in Algar]
• Experiences are common, not proof of pathology. Light experiences are reported by many meditators, usually neutral or positive, and clinicians who do not know these trajectories may misread them as disorder. Practical meaning: normalise before you investigate, but still investigate. [source: Lindahl et al. 2014]
• Do not miss illness. Coloured circles also occur in occipital seizures, and visual disturbance is the commonest migraine aura. Practical meaning: always take a full description and ask about features outside practice. [source: Panayiotopoulos; ICHD-3]
• Context is a key discriminator. Contemplative visions in Cheetah House data were brief and confined to formal practice. Practical meaning: ask when, where and under what conditions they occur. [source: Cheetah House]
• No technique teaching. Practical meaning: never instruct dhikr formulae, breath methods, retreat schedules, fasting or austerities; refer to a qualified teacher. [synthesis]
• Restricted content stays restricted. Practical meaning: do not ask the client to disclose what their shaykh has given them in confidence; work with the experience, not the formula. [synthesis]
• Pride and fear are both therapeutic targets the tradition itself recognises. Kubra's teachers checked his arrogance; Buddhist traditions name enticing lights "imperfections of insight". Practical meaning: explore attachment to, or dread of, the lights without moralising. [source: Algar; Lindahl et al. 2014]
• Dose matters. Perceptual hypersensitivity can become distressing when moving from intensive practice back into daily life. Practical meaning: plan transitions out of retreat and reduce intensity when symptoms spill over. [source: Cheetah House]
• Health questions go to the doctor. Practical meaning: fasting, sleep loss and visual symptoms are discussed with the client's physician; the therapist gives no medical or medication advice. [synthesis]
• Consent and client lead. Practical meaning: bring religious material into therapy only at the client's invitation and in their language. [synthesis]
• Role clarity. Practical meaning: you are not the client's shaykh, confessor or spiritual director; avoid dual roles and be mindful of your own religious commitments and self-disclosure. Professional spiritual competencies (Vieten et al. 2013) [uncertain: not verified]; ethics-code alignment [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

The tradition's own practices (dhikr, khalwa, the shaykh's reading of visions) are not therapist interventions and are not taught here. The inventory below is the psychotherapist's work alongside them. No published secular or clinical adaptation of Kubrawi practice appears in the sources consulted; for general contemplative adaptations see Domain II (MBSR, MBCT, MSC, CFT), Domain VII (contemplative psychotherapy, spiritually integrated psychotherapy) and Domain IV (trauma-sensitive yoga). [synthesis]

4.1 Phenomenological enquiry into the light experience

• Purpose / when: First step whenever a client reports lights, colours or visions. It gives the description needed both for the client's own reflection and for any differential. [synthesis, using the descriptive categories of Lindahl et al. 2014]
• Steps:
  1. Invite the client to describe one recent episode in their own words before you ask questions.
  2. Ask about form: points, globes or "little stars"; diffuse brightening or shimmering; a "curtain of light"; light in or from the body; figures or scenes. (These are the categories meditators reported in Lindahl et al. 2014.)
  3. Ask about colour, and whether colour changed over time.
  4. Ask about movement and location: one side of the visual field, centre, everywhere; moving across or flashing in place.
  5. Ask about timing: how long it lasts (seconds, minutes, longer), how it starts (gradually spreading or sudden), how it ends.
  6. Ask about conditions: eyes closed or open; during dhikr or retreat only, or also at work, driving, falling asleep, waking.
  7. Ask about anything accompanying it: headache, nausea, tingling, weakness, speech difficulty, loss of vision, loss of awareness, jerking, confusion afterwards.
  8. Ask about meaning and feeling: what it was like, what the client made of it, whether the teacher has been told.
  9. Summarise back in the client's words and check accuracy.
• Example language (illustrative): "Before I ask anything, tell me what you saw last time, as if I were there with you." "Was it there with your eyes open, or only when they were closed during dhikr?" "How long did it last, a few seconds, or several minutes?"
• Watch for: the client feeling tested or disbelieved (slow down, name your purpose); detail suggesting a medical cause (go to 4.4). It is working when the client describes freely and you have a clear picture of form, timing and context.

4.2 Cultural and religious formulation

• Purpose / when: Early in therapy, to understand the client's tradition, teacher, practice load and the place of these experiences in their identity. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its spirituality, religion and moral traditions supplementary module as a guide to topics [uncertain: not verified].
  2. Ask which path the client follows (Kubrawi, Dhahabi, Naqshbandi, another order, or reading on their own), whether they have a shaykh, and what permission they have for retreat.
  3. Ask what texts or teachings frame the lights for them (for example Kubra, Razi, Simnani, Corbin), and what the community says about them.
  4. Map practice load: frequency and intensity of dhikr, recent or planned retreat, fasting, night vigil and sleep (qualitatively; do not prescribe).
  5. Ask how family and community regard the experiences and whether disclosure is safe.
• Example language (illustrative): "Help me understand your path: who guides you, and how does your tradition talk about what you have been seeing?"
• Watch for: reluctance to name teachers or practices (respect it; restricted content need not be shared); signs the client is practising intensively without a guide (relevant to 4.7 and 4.11).

4.3 Differential mapping without pathologising

• Purpose / when: When lights are new, changing, distressing, occur outside practice, or come with other symptoms; or when the client asks "Is something wrong with me?" The aim is to hold two possibilities at once: a contemplative experience and a medical or psychiatric one, which can also coexist. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Compare the description from 4.1 with the features below. The table is [synthesis]: it sets side by side features that the sources named in each cell report separately; no single cited source makes this comparison, and it is an aid to referral, not a diagnostic tool.
  2. Share the comparison openly and in neutral language; agree next steps together.
  3. Where the picture is unclear, refer for medical assessment while continuing to respect the religious frame.

• Additional notes:
  • Panayiotopoulos reports that most patients with occipital seizures in his series had first been misdiagnosed with migraine variants, delaying treatment for years. Coloured circles are therefore a reason for medical assessment, not reassurance, when they occur outside practice or are stereotyped. [source: Panayiotopoulos]
  • ICHD-3 notes that people often misreport aura as affecting one eye rather than one side of both eyes, and onset as sudden rather than gradual; it recommends an aura diary. [source: ICHD-3]
  • Lindahl et al. (2014) compare meditation lights with Charles Bonnet syndrome (visual hallucinations with visual impairment in older adults) and with hypnagogic imagery at sleep onset; both are part of the differential, especially in older clients or during sleep loss. [source: Lindahl et al. 2014]
  • The tradition already distinguishes kinds of vision (supernal and earthly; lights of the soul, of existence and of Satan). Respect that the client may use this map; a medical assessment does not replace it. [source: Algar; Persian study]
• Example language (illustrative): "Many people who meditate or do dhikr report lights like these, and your tradition has a lot to say about them. Some of what you describe, the circles that also come at work and the headache after, is something I would like a doctor to look at too, so we can rule out anything physical. That does not change what the experience means for you."
• Watch for: the client hearing "you are ill" or "your experience is fake"; offer both frames explicitly. It is working when the client agrees to any assessment needed and still feels their religious experience is taken seriously.

4.4 Medical red-flag screen and referral

• Purpose / when: Whenever visual phenomena have features that may indicate a neurological, eye or general medical cause. [synthesis, drawing on ICHD-3 and Panayiotopoulos]
• Steps:
  1. Screen for: lights occurring outside practice; stereotyped brief coloured circles; any loss of vision; visual change affecting one eye only; sudden-onset symptoms; weakness, numbness, speech or language change; loss of awareness, jerking or confusion; first-ever episode at older age; headache that is new or different; symptoms during fasting, dehydration or sleep loss. ICHD-3 notes aura can mimic carotid dissection, arteriovenous malformation and epileptic seizures. [source: ICHD-3; Panayiotopoulos; remaining items synthesis]
  2. For sudden visual loss, weakness, speech disturbance, a seizure or confusion: urge emergency medical care the same day. [synthesis]
  3. Otherwise: refer to the client's doctor, with consent, with a written description (form, colour, side, duration, frequency, triggers, accompanying symptoms). Suggest the client keep a diary of episodes to take to the appointment. [ICHD-3 recommends an aura diary]
  4. Do not give medical or medication advice; ask the client to raise fasting, sleep and practice-related questions with the doctor. [synthesis]
  5. Continue therapy alongside assessment; revisit meaning once results are known.
• Example language (illustrative): "Because these circles also come while you are at work, I would like you to see your doctor this week. Could we write down together exactly what happens, so you can show them?"
• Watch for: reluctance driven by fear that a diagnosis will discredit the spiritual experience, or that the shaykh will disapprove; explore both. It is working when the client attends assessment and returns with information.

4.5 Psychosis and mania screen without pathologising

• Purpose / when: When visions are accompanied by fixed unusual beliefs, voices, disorganisation, reduced sleep without tiredness, grandiosity, or functional decline; or when family or community are worried. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Ask whether experiences stay within practice or invade daily life; Cheetah House found contemplative visions brief and confined to formal sessions, while hallucinations sometimes occurred with delusional beliefs. [source: Cheetah House]
  2. Ask about sleep, energy, speech speed, spending, risk-taking and conviction of special mission, gently and without implying the faith itself is a symptom. [synthesis]
  3. Ask whether the client can step back from the experience, discuss alternative views and accept their teacher's counsel; flexibility and preserved functioning point away from psychosis. [synthesis]
  4. Check family and personal history of psychosis or bipolar disorder and any substance use. [synthesis]
  5. If features suggest psychosis or mania, arrange psychiatric assessment promptly; follow local crisis pathways for risk. [synthesis]
  6. If the picture fits a spiritual problem without disorder, consider the DSM-5-TR category "religious or spiritual problem", code Z65.8, rather than a psychiatric diagnosis.
• Example language (illustrative): "Some of what you describe sounds like it belongs to your practice. I also want to check how you are sleeping and managing day to day, because intensive practice can sometimes tip people into exhaustion or something more serious, and I would rather we catch that early."
• Watch for: pride or a sense of election that will not yield to any counsel; note that Kubra's own teachers corrected his arrogance, so the tradition itself values humility and checking (Algar), which can be an ally in conversation. It is working when the client engages with the screen and you have enough information to decide on referral.

4.6 Grounding and dose-reduction

• Purpose / when: When lights, hypersensitivity or derealisation become distressing or spill into daily life, especially after retreat. Cheetah House reports perceptual hypersensitivity was often distressing on moving from intensive practice into daily life, and describes fear and disorientation. [source: Cheetah House] The specific grounding steps below are [synthesis].
• Steps:
  1. Orient: eyes open, name objects in the room, feel feet on the floor, normal room lighting.
  2. Shift to ordinary activity: walking, light household tasks, conversation, regular meals as the client's faith and doctor allow.
  3. Protect sleep; discuss night vigils with teacher and doctor.
  4. With the client's consent, ask them to discuss reducing the intensity or length of practice with their shaykh (for example ordinary daily remembrance rather than retreat), rather than stopping abruptly on the therapist's say-so.
  5. Reduce eyes-closed, dim, prolonged sitting where lights are distressing, since reduced sensory input is linked to light experiences. [source: Lindahl et al. 2014 for the mechanism]
  6. Review within days; escalate to 4.4 or 4.5 if symptoms persist.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's bring you back into the room: look around and tell me three things you can see." "Would you be willing to talk to your shaykh about a lighter pattern of practice until this settles?"
• Watch for: the client experiencing dose-reduction as spiritual failure (see 5.4). It is working when distress drops and daily functioning returns.

4.7 Retreat screening and re-entry planning

• Purpose / when: Before a client enters khalwa or any intensive retreat, and on return. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Ask about the planned retreat: supervision, duration, contact with the shaykh, fasting and sleep arrangements (qualitatively).
  2. Screen for current or past psychosis, bipolar disorder, seizures, migraine with aura, eye disease, severe trauma symptoms, eating disorder or diabetes, and recent major stress. [synthesis]
  3. Where these are present, encourage the client to inform the shaykh and their doctor before retreat; health exemptions from fasting and austerity should come from the client's own religious authorities and doctor. [synthesis]
  4. Agree an emergency contact and what would trigger leaving retreat early (for example seizures, confusion, sleeplessness, inability to set visions aside). [synthesis]
  5. Plan re-entry: a few days of reduced demands, sleep, ordinary contact, and a therapy appointment soon after return. [synthesis, informed by Cheetah House on the transition back]
• Example language (illustrative): "Your retreat matters to you, and I want it to go well. Can we think together about what support you will have and what would tell you, or your shaykh, that it is time to pause?"
• Watch for: the client concealing health conditions from the teacher out of fear of exclusion. It is working when a safety plan is agreed and shared as the client chooses.

4.8 Working with attachment, pride and fear

• Purpose / when: When the client clings to the lights as proof of progress, competes with others over visions, or dreads seeing "bad" colours. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Explore what the lights have come to mean for the client's sense of worth or standing.
  2. Invite the client to consider what their own tradition says about seeking experiences, for example Kubra's teachers checking his pride, and a teacher's warning that counting the days left in retreat is already leaving it. [source: Algar]
  3. Where helpful and acceptable to the client, note that other contemplative traditions also warn against attachment to lights (for example Theravada "imperfections of insight" and Zen makyo). [source: Lindahl et al. 2014] Only offer cross-tradition material if the client welcomes it.
  4. Encourage the client to bring the question to their shaykh.
• Example language (illustrative): "It sounds as if the colours have become a kind of scorecard. What would your teacher say about that?"
• Watch for: shame at being "caught" in pride; keep the tone curious. It is working when the client can hold the lights more lightly and focus on the path rather than the signs.

4.9 Client-led integration of meaning

• Purpose / when: Once safety is established, to help the client relate experiences to faith, values and daily life, within spiritually integrated psychotherapy and with consent. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Ask what the experience has changed: prayer, relationships, conduct, sense of God.
  2. Use the client's own vocabulary (heart, nafs, light, veil, remembrance) rather than therapy jargon.
  3. Link the experience to the tradition's stated aims as the client understands them (for example Kubra's ten principles: repentance, reliance on God, contentment, patience). [source: Algar]
  4. Ask what the client wants to carry into ordinary life and what supports it.
  5. Leave interpretation of specific colours to the client and teacher.
• Example language (illustrative): "You said the green light left your heart feeling freer. Where else in your life would you like that freedom to show up?"
• Watch for: the therapist drifting into acting as a spiritual guide; spiritual bypassing of ordinary problems. It is working when the experiences support the client's life and relationships rather than replacing them.

4.10 Scrupulosity around "dark" or "fiery" lights

• Purpose / when: When a client fears that certain colours (black, turbid red, fiery light) prove domination by the lower soul or Satan, and responds with compulsive checking, repeated repentance, extra dhikr to "cancel" the vision, or constant reassurance-seeking. The tradition does describe a fiery light of Satan and lights of the commanding soul (Persian study of Kubra), so the fear has a doctrinal anchor; the clinical question is whether it has become obsessional. [source: Persian study; clinical framing synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Distinguish ordinary religious concern (proportionate, answered by the teacher's counsel, then settled) from scrupulosity (intrusive doubt, rituals to neutralise it, little relief from reassurance, growing time and distress). [synthesis]
  2. If scrupulosity is likely, offer ERP adapted to religious life, with the client's consent and in consultation with their shaykh or another religious authority they trust, as clinical sources such as the IOCDF describe [uncertain: not verified].
  3. Agree with the client (and, if they wish, the teacher) which practices are required by the tradition and which have become compulsions; target only the latter.
  4. Build gradual exposure to uncertainty about the meaning of a colour, with response prevention for extra rituals or reassurance-seeking; do not ask the client to act against their religious obligations. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Your shaykh has told you what the tradition says about that colour. The extra repentance you do afterwards seems to bring relief for a few minutes, then the doubt comes back. Shall we look at that loop together?"
• Watch for: the therapist arguing theology; the client experiencing ERP as an attack on faith. It is working when rituals and checking fall and religious life feels more like devotion than fear.

4.11 Referral to and collaboration with a shaykh or teacher

• Purpose / when: When the client asks what the lights mean, wants guidance on practice, is practising intensively without a guide, or when dose-reduction or retreat planning needs the teacher's agreement. In the Kubrawi tradition reading visions belongs to the teacher-disciple relationship. [source: Algar]
• Steps:
  1. Ask whether the client has a recognised teacher and how authority is established in their order.
  2. If the client has no teacher and is practising from books (for example Corbin or translations of Razi), encourage them to seek a qualified teacher in their own tradition rather than intensifying practice alone. [synthesis]
  3. With written consent, offer to speak with the teacher about shared aims (safety, sleep, health checks); keep to what the client has agreed may be shared. [synthesis]
  4. Do not encourage the client to bypass legitimate teachers or to seek restricted practices elsewhere. [synthesis]
  5. Where a client wants pastoral support beyond a Sufi teacher, consider an imam, Muslim chaplain or spiritual director acceptable to them. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "What the colours mean is really a question for your shaykh. What I can help with is how you are coping, and making sure your health is looked after. Would you like me to speak with them, or would you rather take it to them yourself?"
• Watch for: confidentiality breaches; triangulation between teacher and therapist. It is working when client, teacher and therapist (and doctor if needed) are not giving conflicting messages.

4.12 Trauma-sensitive adaptation

• Purpose / when: For clients with trauma histories in whom intense inner focus, darkness, isolation or vivid imagery may trigger flashbacks or dissociation. Trauma-sensitive mindfulness (Treleaven 2018) is a published adaptation for meditation generally [uncertain: not verified]; its application here is [synthesis].
• Steps:
  1. Ask whether retreat isolation, darkness or closed eyes bring up trauma memories.
  2. Help the client notice the earliest signs of overwhelm (racing heart, numbness, losing track of time).
  3. Agree choices the client can bring to the teacher: eyes partly open, practising in daylight or with others, shorter periods, movement breaks.
  4. Teach a reliable return-to-the-present routine (see 4.6).
  5. Process trauma material in therapy, not by intensifying practice.
• Example language (illustrative): "You have every right to adjust how you practise so that it stays safe for your body. Which options feel acceptable within your path?"
• Watch for: dissociation presented as spiritual absorption; the client feeling that adapting practice is disobedience. It is working when the client can practise without flashbacks or prolonged numbness.

4.13 The teacher relationship, power and coercive control

• Purpose / when: Whenever the client depends heavily on a teacher's reading of their inner experiences, since this gives the teacher considerable power. Independent investigations of misconduct specific to Kubrawi teachers: none found in the sources consulted. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Explore how the teacher relationship works: freedom to ask questions, to take a break, to see a doctor or therapist.
  2. Listen for signs of coercive control: discouraging medical care, isolating the client from family, demanding money or sexual contact, punishing doubt, controlling sleep or food beyond what the client freely accepts. [synthesis]
  3. If such signs appear, support the client's own judgement, safety planning and, where relevant, safeguarding or reporting duties.
  4. If the client leaves a group, attend to grief, identity loss and religious trauma. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "In your path, what happens if someone disagrees with the shaykh or decides to see a doctor?"
• Watch for: your own bias for or against Sufi orders. It is working when the client can describe the relationship freely and make independent decisions.

4.14 Documentation and diagnosis

• Purpose / when: At assessment and review. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Record the experience descriptively, in the client's terms, attributed ("client describes coloured lights during dhikr, understood in their tradition as signs of the heart's state").
  2. Record red-flag screen results and referrals.
  3. Where distress centres on spiritual experience without a mental disorder, consider the DSM-5-TR "religious or spiritual problem" code, Z65.8.
  4. Avoid diagnostic labels for experiences that meet no disorder criteria.
• Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to write in your notes how you describe this, in your words. Is that alright?"
• Watch for: records that could stigmatise the client if shared. It is working when notes are accurate and the client would recognise themselves in them.

4.15 Adverse-effects awareness and psychoeducation

• Purpose / when: With any client doing intensive dhikr or retreat. [synthesis]
• Steps:
  1. Share, if helpful, that challenging experiences in meditation are not rare: a systematic review of 83 studies (Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica) found adverse events in 8.3% of participants overall (3.7% in experimental and 33.2% in observational studies), most often anxiety, depression and cognitive anomalies, and in people without prior mental-health history. [source: PubMed record of Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica]
  2. Explain that perceptual changes (hypersensitivity, brightening, visual lights, derealisation) are among those documented, and that help exists (Cheetah House). [source: Cheetah House; Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE [uncertain: not verified]]
  3. Clarify that this research is about meditation generally, not specifically about Kubrawi practice, and does not judge the religious value of experiences.
• Example language (illustrative): "Researchers have found that strong experiences during contemplative practice are fairly common, and most people find their way through them with support. It doesn't mean your path is wrong."
• Watch for: the client hearing research as an attack on their faith. It is working when the client feels informed, not alarmed.

5. Handling problems

5.1 The client wants you to interpret the colours

Decline the shaykh's role warmly, reflect what the experience means to the client, and refer the question to their teacher or texts. You may say what scholars report (section 2a) as information, attributed and with the disagreements named, if the client asks. [synthesis] Illustrative: "Scholars report different readings of green in different Kubrawi authors. What does your own teacher say?"

5.2 The client refuses medical assessment

Explore the fear (that illness will "explain away" the experience; that the teacher will disapprove; cost or access). Restate that medical checks and spiritual meaning can coexist. If red flags of emergency severity are present, follow duty-of-care and emergency procedures. Otherwise keep the door open, document advice given, and revisit. [synthesis]

5.3 Medical findings arrive (for example migraine or epilepsy)

Help the client hold both: a diagnosis does not, in itself, settle the religious meaning for the client, and many will want to discuss it with their teacher. Support adherence to medical advice without advising on medicines, and help the client and teacher adjust practice and retreat with the doctor's input. [synthesis]

5.4 Dose-reduction feels like spiritual failure

Frame it as the client's own tradition does where possible: Kubra himself left his first retreat after eleven days, and his training was shaped by teachers judging readiness. [source: Algar] Invite the client to ask their teacher. [synthesis]

5.5 Spiritual pride, special-mission beliefs or escalating claims

Distinguish humble wonder from conviction that resists all counsel. If grandiosity coincides with reduced sleep, pressured speech or risk-taking, screen for mania (4.5) promptly. Otherwise work with pride as the tradition does, through humility and the teacher's counsel. [synthesis; Algar for the tradition's correction of pride]

5.6 Fear of demonic or "dark" lights

Respect the doctrine; avoid reassuring theological pronouncements. Assess for scrupulosity (4.10) and anxiety; refer to the teacher for the religious question; consider culturally adapted ERP or anxiety treatment for the clinical one. [synthesis]

5.7 Ruptures over religion

If the client feels you dismissed or exoticised their experience, name the rupture, take responsibility, and ask how to proceed. If your own beliefs (religious or secular) are colouring your responses, seek supervision; consider referral to a clinician with relevant cultural competence if the client prefers. [synthesis]

5.8 Non-adherence to agreed safety steps

If the client keeps practising intensively despite distressing symptoms, review the agreement, involve the teacher with consent, and identify what the practice is giving them that is hard to give up. Escalate if safety deteriorates. [synthesis]

5.9 The client is practising alone from books

Clients reading Corbin, Razi or Kubra without a teacher may attempt retreats or practices meant to be supervised. Encourage connection with a qualified teacher in their tradition; do not supply missing techniques. [synthesis; restricted transmission per Algar's account of teacher-led training]

5.10 Family or community conflict

Relatives may see the visions as illness or as possession; community members may see them as sainthood. Offer family sessions if the client wishes, give balanced psychoeducation, and avoid taking sides on religious meaning. Where possession or ruqya is raised, see entry 261, which points to Domain XI 049 (Prophetic medicine, ruqya and hijama). [synthesis]

5.11 Experiences persist after stopping practice

Persistence outside practice weakens the case for a purely contemplative explanation; repeat the medical and psychiatric screen (4.4, 4.5). Cheetah House offers specialised support for meditation-related difficulties. [source: Cheetah House; synthesis]

Sources

• Kobrawiya i. The Eponym (Hamid Algar), Encyclopaedia Iranica
• Kobrawiya (Hamid Algar), Encyclopaedia Iranica
• Phenomenological reading of the colors of a Persian painting from Samak Ayyar of the Injuid period, relying on the theories of Najmuddin Kubra (Persian; Tehran University of Art)
• A Comparative Study on the Theories of Illuminationism Scholars Regarding the Visual Element of Color (Alzahra University journal)
• A Phenomenology of Inner Light: Najm al-Din Kubra and the Metaphysics of Phosphenes (PhilArchive abstract)
• Stations of consciousness according to Simnani, Union of International Associations encyclopedia [uncertain: secondary, unverified]
• The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism, Suluk Press listing
• Crespo, A. (2022). La cualidad develadora de la imaginación: en busca de los tesoros de los colores. El Azufre Rojo, 10
• Lindahl, J. R., Kaplan, C. T., Winget, E. M., & Britton, W. B. (2014). A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional Buddhist and neurobiological perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 973
• Perceptual Domain Summary, Cheetah House
• Panayiotopoulos, C. P. Elementary visual hallucinations, blindness, and headache in idiopathic occipital epilepsy: differentiation from migraine. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 66(4):536
• ICHD-3, 1.2 Migraine with aura
• Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica: Adverse events in meditation practices and meditation-based therapies: a systematic review, 142(5):374-393 (PubMed)

Books and works cited (details as listed by the sources above):

• Najm al-Din Kubra. Fawa'ih al-jamal wa-fawatih al-jalal. Ed. F. Meier, Wiesbaden, 1957; French tr. P. Ballanfat (as listed by Algar).
• Corbin, H. The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. Tr. N. Pearson. Suluk Press edition, foreword by Pir Zia Inayat Khan.
• Böwering, G. (2006). Kubra's treatise on spiritual retreat. al-Abhath 54 (as listed by Algar) [uncertain: not verified].
• Najm al-Din Daya Razi. Mirsad al-'ibad; English tr. H. Algar, The Path of God's Bondsmen from Origin to Return [uncertain: not verified].
• Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE: The varieties of contemplative experience, 12(5): e0176239 (as cited by Cheetah House).
• Treleaven, D. (2018). Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness [uncertain: not verified].
• Vieten, C., et al. (2013). Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists [uncertain: not verified].
• American Psychiatric Association. DSM-5-TR, Cultural Formulation Interview and "religious or spiritual problem", code Z65.8.
• ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances