Dermis Probe Book

A collection of tales, narratives, aphoristic-like expressions, and a space-fiction film script by Afghan traveller and authority on the Sufis, Idries Shah. The title piece, an animated film, derives from Sanai's and Rumi's stories of the blind men (or men in the dark) trying to understand an elephant by touching parts of it -- and among its messages is that, in approaching Sufism, it is not possible to get an idea of the whole of it from such disparate parts as may have come to an inquirer's attention. (Shah's endnotes show that conventional scholastic workers appear to have little clear idea about what Sufism is.) There are many lessons in this book. One famous story, "Pomegranates" (which Shah also retells elsewhere in his writings), shows in one of its senses how an unexpected element may be the decisive one in situations -- and how our assumptions can blind us to it. The book can help us to increase our perceptions and reduce some of our foolishness. And it's very entertaining as well.