The Dermis Probe

by Idries Shah

A serious, yet entertaining, look at the impediments in current thought which prevent certain forms of understanding between people.

The title story was made into an award-winning film with script by Idries Shah, and chosen as an Outstanding Film of the Year.

The Dermis Probe comprises a collection of extracts from the written and oral tradition of Eastern thinkers.

In his preface, Shah notes, ‘In this book you can find illustrated some of the peculiarities of thought in the country which is today’s world, seen by its inhabitants and by those who call themselves visitors.’

Genres: Islam

202 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1979

About the author

Idries Shah (Persian: ادریس شاه), also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد إدريس هاشمي), was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.

Born in India, the descendant of a family of Afghan nobles, Shah grew up mainly in England. His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. In 1960 he established a publishing house, Octagon Press, producing translations of Sufi classics as well as titles of his own. His most seminal work was The Sufis, which appeared in 1964 and was well received internationally. In 1965, Shah founded the Institute for Cultural Research, a London-based educational charity devoted to the study of human behaviour and culture. A similar organisation, the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), exists in the United States, under the directorship of Stanford University psychology professor Robert Ornstein, whom Shah appointed as his deputy in the U.S.

In his writings, Shah presented Sufism as a universal form of wisdom that predated Islam. Emphasising that Sufism was not static but always adapted itself to the current time, place and people, he framed his teaching in Western psychological terms. Shah made extensive use of traditional teaching stories and parables, texts that contained multiple layers of meaning designed to trigger insight and self-reflection in the reader. He is perhaps best known for his collections of humorous Mulla Nasrudin stories.

Shah was at times criticised by orientalists who questioned his credentials and background. His role in the controversy surrounding a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published by his friend Robert Graves and his older brother Omar Ali-Shah, came in for particular scrutiny. However, he also had many notable defenders, chief among them the novelist Doris Lessing. Shah came to be recognised as a spokesman for Sufism in the West and lectured as a visiting professor at a number of Western universities. His works have played a significant part in presenting Sufism as a secular, individualistic form of spiritual wisdom.

Idries Shah's books on Sufism achieved considerable critical acclaim. He was the subject of a BBC documentary ("One Pair of Eyes") in 1969, and two of his works (The Way of the Sufi and Reflections) were chosen as "Outstanding Book of the Year" by the BBC's "The Critics" programme. Among other honours, Shah won six first prizes at the UNESCO World Book Year in 1973, and the Islamic scholar James Kritzeck, commenting on Shah's Tales of the Dervishes, said that it was "beautifully translated".
The reception of Shah's movement was also marked by much controversy. Some orientalists were hostile, in part because Shah presented classical Sufi writings as tools for self-development to be used by contemporary people, rather than as objects of historical study. L. P. Elwell-Sutton from Edinburgh University, Shah's fiercest critic, described his books as "trivial", replete with errors of fact, slovenly and inaccurate translations and even misspellings of Oriental names and words – "a muddle of platitudes, irrelevancies and plain mumbo-jumbo", adding for good measure that Shah had "a remarkable opinion of his own importance". Expressing amusement and amazement at the "sycophantic manner" of Shah's interlocutors in a BBC radio interview, Elwell-Sutton concluded that some Western intellectuals were "so desperate to find answers to the questions that baffle them, that, confronted with wisdom from 'the mysterious East,' they abandon their critical faculties and submit to brainwashing of the crudest kind". To Elwell-Sutton, Shah's Sufism belonged to the realm of "Pseudo-Sufism", "centred not on God but on man."

Doris Lessing, one of Shah's greatest defenders,stated in a 1981 interview: "I found Sufism as taught by Idries Shah, which claim

Reviews

[Aubrey Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dermis Probe is named after Idries Shah’s award-winning film based on Sanai’s and Rumi’s ancient tale: The Blind Men and the Elephant. I’ve read this book many times. Often I’ve had a strange feeling that this exotic mind-bending hodgepodge of tales and aphorisms formed a comprehensive expression of Sufi thought and action. It’s all there. It is an “Elephant” of a book. Like a blind man I’ve used “touch” to try to understand it: making assumptions, associating it to what I think I know. From time to time, I realize I can't "see", something the sightless men in the tale never do. Yet this book also has useable bits that have helped me find balance, perspective & effectiveness from time to time. Here are a few examples:
The barren branches may appear inelegant: They are, to the cook, the means to make his fire.
Patience is a garment which has never worn out.
If you have no troubles – buy a goat.
Call yourself unlucky only if you take up coffin-making and people stop dying.
The Dermis Probe is unique, unexpected and bracing. It seems to come from another world and yet speaks to us here. The bulk of it is hidden but it beckons us to search for the eyes to see.

[Kevan Bowkett · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Ita Marquess · Rating 5 out of 5]

In ‘The Dermis Probe’ the emphasis is on education. A Sufi school has many features which we recognise from our familiar education systems. There is a timetable. There may be lectures. A teacher may provide illustration and demonstration, supervise the use of practical techniques and design experiments. Drawing on his resources, (I will refer to the teacher as ‘he’ for simplicity) he
strives to make learning as interesting, entertaining and effective as possible, but unhappily for many of his students he has to assign exercises and conduct tests.

Sufi education resembles conventional education, but there are profound differences between the two. Our most prestigious institutions reward extreme specialisation, whereas Sufis advocate polymathy. The whole elephant will not be made visible by looking down a microscope at a single skin cell. Our higher education concentrates on developing either the left or right cerebral hemisphere of the brain, but Sufi teaching materials give equal emphasis to both, as ‘The Dermis Probe’ illustrates.

Sufi schools do not motivate students by offering certificates, degrees and honours. The qualification required by a Sufi teacher is to provide everything needed by a student to allow her to arrive at the inner Mecca. Spiritual qualities of the highest degree enable the teacher to use his psychological intuition to see the character and potentialities of others, and to diagnose and prescribe. Knowledge of when to use his remarkable powers, when to be ‘awake' and when to be ‘asleep’ accompanies this intuition. Sufi teachers can transfer knowledge in the ordinary verbal way, but also through simply being with people. Indeed, they insist on the relatively greater power of subtle communication. The teacher is the exemplar without whom the teaching would be empty. His life contains not only work for the present, but also for the future. He is the guardian of the knowledge of the inner government.

From those aspiring to follow him along the Sufi Way he requires sincerity. Sincerity, we are told, consists in being straightforward and having a liking for balance.

Sufi books exercise functions not recognised in our societies as functions of books at all. They are not just for committed students. Idries Shah’s books can be challenging, but with their humour and teaching stories, sometimes hauntingly beautiful, they can be enjoyed by any reader.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new century, and the world appears to be in critical transition. This collection of Wisdom in the form of stories helps light the dark of the elephant in the dark. The more the stories are read the more interesting and helpful they become.
'The Heavens.'
'To the mallet of the Highest Mind
The heavens are the smallet possible ball.
(Aklaq-i-Mohsini)'
18th Aug 2019. It might be fairly common information now that we see only parts of the elephant. That doesn't mean we can see the whole elephant or even know what a whole elephant is. The Dermis Probe helps towards that end. Page sixty three, Conviction... last paragraph.
'I am here to demonstate that a change of opinion is in itself not a change of understanding. Opinion is built upon sand. Knowledge is built upon rock. If a man is only convinced that I am good, he may be as stupid as one who is only convinced that I am bad.'Conviction, far from being based upon reason, is the enemy of reason; because rationality does not change, while convictions do all the time.' Another story from this collection. Reading P64
A Sufi went to the Court of a certain king. The scholars
who surrounded the throne said, ‘Your Majesty, this man
must not be allowed to speak until he has satisfied us that
he knows in detail the classical books and commentaries,
because otherwise he might harbour thoughts which could
be harmful to the kingdom.’
But the Sufi could not recite any classics, and his manner
of speaking was foreign to the scholars, who called him a
charlatan and had him turned away.
Six months later, the Sufi appeared again and presented
him self to the master of ceremonies.
‘You are not allowed into the Court as a learned man, Sufi,’
said the master, ‘since you have failed the test.’
‘But I am not here as a learned man,’ said the Sufi. ‘I come
as one who brings a present for his Majesty.’ He indicated a
horse which was following him.
When he was admitted into the royal presence, the Sufi
said:‘I have dared to bring this horse to Your Majesty because
it has characteristics which I think worthy of a sovereign’s
attention.’‘And what are those?’ said the king.
‘Cause any volume of the classics to be brought,’ said the
Sufi.As soon as the book was produced and put before the
horse, it started to turn over the leaves with its hooves. From
time to time it paused, looked at the Sufi, and neighed.
I D R I E S S H A H 64
‘Good Heavens!’ said the king, ‘this horse is reading the
book and remarking upon passages from it.’
‘Is this not even more wonderful than the capacities of the
scholars, who, after all, are human beings and better equipped
than a horse to read books?’ asked the Sufi.
‘Yes, indeed,’ said the king. ‘But I must know how this wonder came about.’
‘If I tell you, Your Majesty may be tempted to dismiss all
scholars from positions of importance,’ said the Sufi.
‘Even at that risk, tell me,’ said the king.
‘Well, I trained the horse for six months by putting some
oats between the pages of books,’ said the Sufi, ‘and that was
his incentive – to earn a little for each piece that he knew. He
supplied the neighing part himself.’
‘But that is just the way that scholars are themselves
trained,’ said the king, ‘so we can do without them.’
And that is the story behind the happy tale of Sufistan, the
history of the future. You have heard of it, the time and place
where real scholars were able to come into being because the
horse-like ones and their way of training their successors and
sycophants were put to flight by the king who became a Sufi.
* * * The fruit of timidity is neither gain nor loss. Proverb

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new century, and the world appears to be in critical transition. This collection of Wisdom in the form of stories helps light the dark of THE ELEPHANT IN THE DARK. The more the stories are read the more INTERESTING and helpful they become.
'THE HEAVENS
'To the mallet of the Highest Mind
The heavens are the smallet possible ball.
(Aklaq-i-Mohsini)'
18th Aug 2019. It might be fairly common information now that we see only parts of the elephant. That doesn't mean we CAN see the whole ELEPHANT or even know what a whole elephant is. The Dermis Probe helps towards that end.
Page sixty three... Conviction... last paragraph.
'I am here to demonstate that a change of opinion is in itself not a change of understanding. Opinion is built upon sand. Knowledge is built upon rock. If a man is only convinced that I am good, he may be as stupid as one who is only convinced that I am bad.
'Conviction, far from being based upon reason, is the enemy of reason; because rationality does not change, while convictions do all the time. 'Another story from this collection.
Reading P64. A Sufi went to the Court of a certain king. The scholars
who surrounded the throne said, ‘Your Majesty, this man
must not be allowed to speak until he has satisfied us that
he knows in detail the classical books and commentaries,
because otherwise he might harbour thoughts which could
be harmful to the kingdom.’
But the Sufi could not recite any classics, and his manner
of speaking was foreign to the scholars, who called him a
charlatan and had him turned away.
Six months later, the Sufi appeared again and presented
him self to the master of ceremonies.
‘You are not allowed into the Court as a learned man, Sufi,’
said the master, ‘since you have failed the test.’
‘But I am not here as a learned man,’ said the Sufi. ‘I come
as one who brings a present for his Majesty.’ He indicated a
horse which was following him.
When he was admitted into the royal presence, the Sufi
said: ‘I have dared to bring this horse to Your Majesty because
it has characteristics which I think worthy of a sovereign’s
attention.’‘And what are those?’ said the king.
‘Cause any volume of the classics to be brought,’ said the
Sufi. As soon as the book was produced and put before the
horse, it started to turn over the leaves with its hooves. From
time to time it paused, looked at the Sufi, and neighed.
I D R I E S S H A H 64
‘Good Heavens!’ said the king, ‘this horse is reading the
book and remarking upon passages from it.’
‘Is this not even more wonderful than the capacities of the
scholars, who, after all, are human beings and better equipped
than a horse to read books?’ asked the Sufi.
‘Yes, indeed,’ said the king. ‘But I must know how this wonder came about.’
‘If I tell you, Your Majesty may be tempted to dismiss all
scholars from positions of importance,’ said the Sufi.
‘Even at that risk, tell me,’ said the king.
‘Well, I trained the horse for six months by putting some
oats between the pages of books,’ said the Sufi, ‘and that was
his incentive – to earn a little for each piece that he knew. He
supplied the neighing part himself.’
‘But that is just the way that scholars are themselves
trained,’ said the king, ‘so we can do without them.’
And that is the story behind the happy tale of Sufistan, the
history of the future. You have heard of it, the time and place
where real scholars were able to come into being because the
horse-like ones and their way of training their successors and
sycophants were put to flight by the king who became a Sufi.
* * * The fruit of timidity is neither gain nor loss. Proverb

[John Zada · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a punchy and tightly woven collection of stories, anecdotes, proverbs, sayings, and commentaries relating to the peculiarities of thought and behaviour that prevent people from reaching greater heights in understanding. The deeper meanings of each story, almost always manifold, are never revealed outright. They tend to come slowly, and often unexpectedly, as you turn them over and over in the mind. There is a little addendum at the back that with notes on the stories, providing just a little bit more information and insight without lifting the veil completely. It's the only Shah book with such a section.

[Ronald Tailor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of a number of volumes of teaching stories collected by Idries Shah. I've read it a few times over the years and each time I read it, I feel as though I learn many new things, although I don't know how many of these things are actually new, given how bad my memory is. :-)

The most valuable things I learn from a book like this have to do with myself: my thoughts, my habitual attitudes and behaviors, my inner contradictions. But aside from the intellectual realizations, I sense that books like this feed a little inner part of me that is starved and kind of desperate. Sometimes I learn things from a book like this that have absolute nothing to do with content of the text. I just start to experience things in different ways.

The ancient folk tales in a book like this can be slow to yield their content. To yield the most benefit, I suspect they require the reader have certain attitudes in place first, attitudes that help them absorb the stories, and sometimes it takes decades of experience before those attitudes start to grow in a person. But that's no reason to put off reading the book. It isn't experience alone that contributes to one's ability to learn from the tales: it's the ongoing and years-long dialectic between your experiences and the books' contents that causes their fruit to ripen in your mind and heart.

There is a Sufi tale, it may have been in this book itself (naturally, I don't remember, lol), about how to read _The Dermis Probe_. I found it extremely useful--particularly when I actually applied it! I'll paraphrase it here, from what I can remember.

A Sufi teacher once gave an eager prospective student who wanted to sit at his feet and engage in his exercises a huge book he'd written and insisted he first read that book. When the student returned several months later, the teacher asked. Did you read my book? The student affirmed that he had. "Did you read the table of contents and other front material?" "No," answered the student. "Did you read the chapter notes?" "Well, I skimmed over a few but they seemed beside the point, plus it was hard to relate them to the original citations--I was reading an e-book you know, and it's really hard to shuffle back an forth in one of those!" "How about the bibliography at the end?" "I didn't really think that essential." The Sufi teacher dismissed him, telling him to come back after he'd actually read the book.

[Ita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over eight-hundred years ago, Hakim Sanai gave us the fable of ‘The Elephant in the Dark’. In ‘The Dermis Probe’ Idries Shah gives us a modern version. We are observers being shown the hide of the Elephant through the lens of a TV camera. Accompanying the film is a commentary, where scientists describe what has been discovered about the grey fissured mass they have been investigating, using all the techniques and technology available to them. Diverse specialists put forward the theories they have developed, but no-one has any conception of a whole to which their part might belong. As the camera pans out at the end of the programme the whole beast is clearly visible to viewers, albeit obscured by lettering on the TV screen. The Elephant is not in the dark.

The remainder of the book seems, at first, to be completely disconnected from this, the title story. There are many examples of the teaching of Sufis, interspersed with proverbs, extracts from ‘Anwar-i-Suhaili’ (the Persian ‘Lights of Canopus’), teaching stories, and jokes from The Land of Fools.’ – all seemingly disconnected from one another. We may feel like echoing the words of one disgruntled disciple, ‘Why do you not teach in a coherent manner?’ But, something draws us forward. Then we see that Shah has been showing us how it is possible to remove the obstacles which prevent us from seeing the Elephant, and to see, from different angles, an animal with senses, a digestive system, a heart, an immune system, and a brain under its skin. The Elephant is Reality, and each of us is a part of it, with a contribution, however small, to make to the welfare of the whole.

‘The Dermis Probe’ is not the most popular of Shah’s books, but popularity is no indication of importance. ‘That portion of learning which people prize is precisely that part which is not doing them any good,’ one of the Wise tells us. It may not always be comfortable reading, and I cannot claim that everything in it is completely clear to me, but I found it to be often enjoyable, and I found myself laughing out loud on a few occasions. ‘The Dermis Probe’ is also part of a corpus of work, that needs to be read in its entirety for people to benefit as fully as possible.

[Robs · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many tales in this book, from 'Salute to the Thief' to 'When a Man Comes to Visit' they all invoke varying responses and interpretations in the mind of the reader. Interestingly, although Shah makes much of how relying on an 'authority' figure to explain the inner meaning of a story can detract from its nutritious impact, explanatory notes, for many of them, are appended to the main body of the work.

[Carol M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book can accompany you for a life time without in any way inculcating you in a simplistic manner. The words will repeatedly show you to yourself and show the world to you. The perspective is not single. There is no confusion. Words will pop into your mind long after you've "forgotten" them, and at such an appropriate moment you will stop and think. Always an effect I welcome. Invigorating. Remarkable. Consult the notes at the back of the book- an unusual feature in an Idries Shah book.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Succinct, thoughtful stories interspersed with short sayings that in a few words can start years of thought:
"If he is a good man, death will be a release;
If he is a bad one, it will release others from him."

"A solved problem is as useful to a man's mind as a broken sword on a battlefield."

The new printed edition is a delight to hold and read, but you can also download a kindle version, or read it online for free on the author's website,

[John Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story that started with the lesser known, but eminently worthwhile, Hakim Sani, then passed on to his pupil Rumi, to Idries Shah inspiring a film in 1965. This book is the adaptation and expression by Shah, through a series of tales and anecdotes, that we can move from the error that the parts are greater than the whole, back to the idea that the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts.

[Daniel Barrows · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like stories. These are well told and concise. It's the meaning that I'm not sure about.

Many of these stories seem to endorse following a spiritual master with crazy wisdom. The master sometimes behaves very oddly and unexpectedly in ways that don't seem virtuous, but are actually catered precisely to the disciples' needs. I don't think this is a good idea. First, this leaves seekers unsure how to judge potential teachers, rendering them more likely to rely on reputation or posturing. Second, it can excuse terrible behavior by teachers, increasing potential for abuse.

Third, I don't think it's actually feasible for teachers to predict how students would respond to the kinds of bizarre behavior presented here. I suspect scolding a student and sending them away would hurt virtually all people, and any later growth on their part would be highly unpredictable. I appreciate the focus of the teacher on the particular needs of the students, but I don't think this should override the general virtue of kindness. The disregard here for general virtue in favor of situation-specific needs could lead the reader to interpret some stories here endorsing "revelry" as encouraging drunkenness and sexual activities.

One potential benefit to readers is that perhaps it can prepare us to consider that seemingly negative events that happen to us may be beneficial to us. However these stories really only encourage such a perspective in the scope of interactions with a teacher, not in life in general.

For a similar genre, but a different set of messages, try the desert fathers and mothers.

[Leonard Robichaud · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book many times over the past three decades. Like all of Shah's books, it never gets stale, it repays repeated reading and careful attention. Each time I read it, I always come away with just a little more appreciation of the many layers of meaning contained in the material. Also, the enjoyment of reading it never seems to lessen either. The Dermis Probe script itself, adapted by Shah from the original story told by Sanai and Rumi, is on one level a valuable critique of the prevailing materialist perspective of modern science.

[Toni]

The Dermis Probe.
Page sixty three, Conviction... last paragraph.
'I am here to demonstrate that a change of opinion is in itself not a change of understanding. Opinion is built upon sand. Knowledge is built upon rock. If a man is only convinced that I am good, he may be as stupid as one who is only convinced that I am bad. Conviction, far from being based upon reason, is the enemy of reason; because rationality does not change, while convictions do all the time.'

[Bria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used to be charmed by Idries Shah's books, so I don't know if it's just that I've changed, or if it's this particular one. But these little parables and teaching stories all are one or more of the following:
1) clubbing you over the head with some painfully overt and not particularly insightful moral
2) attempting to spew profundity in a manner that makes me think somebody read some zen koans and tried to imitate the sense without really getting it
3) overly hateful and judgmental of how stupid and dense most people are
4) avidly averring the immense wisdom and genius and talent and insight and so forth of some godlike sufi, or the sufis or sufiism in general.

I think a lot of the stories or teaching lessons here might be good in practice, if actually implemented in a real situation, but just reading this straightforward accounting of it is boring and ineffectual. Which may be something a Sufi would agree with, but that doesn't make this book any better.

[Dan Sperling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Idries Shah’s terrific and thought-provoking book THE DERMIS PROBE seems to be written expressly for those who aren’t satisfied by the kind of superficial assessment that so often passes for serious thinking nowadays. It contains more than 100 short selections from Sufi lore, one of which – the title-piece – was made into an award-winning film. True to its title, the book can help the discerning reader penetrate beneath the surface and achieve a greater understanding. I recommend it to anyone who’s interested in achieving that goal.