Every week, we have a "Forest Call" to share insights and inspiration from various corners of the ServiceSpace ecosystem.  Typically, the call opens with a circle of sharing, then features a guest speaker and is followed by dynamic Q&A around the emergent themes.

Our guests this week will be: Hakim Ilyas al-Kashani (a.k.a. Kourosh Kashani)! Born in Iran in 1971, Ilyas started learning Islamic-Sufi healing practices at the age of six. He is a hakim (pronounced “hakeem”) or practitioner of Traditional Islamic Healing & Medicine (TIHM), of which there are only a few in the West. Since 1990, Ilyas has formally studied related disciplines, including Meditation, Yoga, Qigong, Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Tui Na, Homeopathy, Japanese and Tibetan Reiki, and Osteopathic manipulation. In 2000, he started the Circle of One, a 501c3 non-profit Center of Traditional Medicine, where he treated patients regardless of their ability to pay. He ran the clinic – located just outside of Washington DC – for ten years before moving to Oakland, CA in 2010.

His current project, Hakim Wellness, aims to revive the study and practice of TIHM; this initiative includes building a health-education-retreat center in the Bay area, filming a documentary on TIHM (from Morocco to China), and forming a global network of Traditional Medicine for mutual support in preserving, developing, and sharing ancient medical knowledge.
 
On this call, Ilyas will share insights from his journey – near-death experiences, understanding healing through his own experiences of illness, witnessing the power of traditional medicine, studying with masters, and supporting others on their own healing journeys. Ilyas says that the soul is the central consideration in life experience, so that heart-opening and self-knowledge is the basis for healing. He adds that restoring the sense of the sacred in medical training is the key to bringing the heart and soul back to the practice of medicine.

If you'd like to join the call, please RSVP below and you'll be emailed the call-in information as we get closer to the date of the call.  

Bit of history about these calls:  last summer, we started a weekly call to support our two interns.  They were so meaningful, that we continued them!  Recent calls have included James O'dea social healing, Chaz's "holy play", Jayesh Patel's lessons from his father, Richard's journey of operating a gift-economy magazine, Pancho's commitment to aligning with the law of love, Ragu's and Nisha decision to become farmers, Yoo-mi's experiments with service, and Birju's insights around doing small acts of kindness.  The basic idea is really to share, hold space and learn from each other; and we'd love for you to join this week and co-create the call!