The Iranian Metaphysicals: Explorations In Science, Islam, And The Uncanny, by Alireza Doostdar

This book was not quite what I expected it to be. That does not make it a bad book by any means; I happen to think it is a decent book, albeit one that left me with a lot of questions. This particular book is an expansion/popularization (?) of the author’s doctoral thesis from an American school of divinity on the different occult figures that exist in Iranian society in the present day. The author maintains a deeply skeptical attitude towards the reality of spirits and jinn but seems to feign a willingness to go along with what others say because it allows her to get more honest accounts from those who are true believers–many of whom, at least in the author’s perspective, seem to similarly feign skepticism in the sorts of metaphysical realities that they describe as witnesses or participants. Besides the essential mendacity of the author’s approach in seeking to win over those whose beliefs she holds in some degree of contempt, the other issue with this book is that the author combines three groups of people who may not think of themselves as being connected to each other and who may strongly resent the author’s categorization of all of them as being a part of the same occult practice, although it certainly has some degree of justice in terms of its views of the uncanny, though not as much as the author thinks.

This book is about 240 pages long and it is divided into three parts and 24 chapters, along with other material not in numbered chapters. After beginning with notes on transliteration, acknowledgements, and a lengthy introduction where the author explores her intents and writing, the first part of the book examines rammals. This section includes chapters about crossing the line (1), being labeled as popular nonsense (2), dealing with the legal censure of Iranian authorities (3), questioning the existence of the jinn (4), examining the principle of virtuous caution in matters of the spiritual (5), discussing the existence of scholar-rammals (6), a discussion of a hesitant officer who has dealt with such figures in investigating crimes (7), metaphysical pleasures (8), the fantastic (9), as well as the refashioning of the profession (10), along with a discussion of the attitude of the government to alternatively suppress, accommodate, and sublimate the interest in the uncanny. The second part of the book examines those who consider themselves to be metaphysical scientists, with chapters on quantum understanding (11), empirical spirits (12), scientific virtues (13), the wings of imagination (14), cosmic mystics (15), specters of doubt (16) among those who believe, becoming witness to metaphysical phenomena (17), the authority of personal experience (18), along with experiments in synthesis. The third and final part of the book examines those who are viewed as friends of God, with chapters on the death of an ayatollah (19), whips for the wayfarers (20), discretion and publicity of thoughts on the spirit world (21), the politics of veneration of spiritual leaders (22), the metaphysics of vision (23), technospiritual reflexivity (24), along with a discussion of hagiographies, and a brief conclusion. The book then ends with a note on the cover image, notes, references, and an index.

Ultimately, this book is about the issues of truth and authority. The author lumps together seances and demon (or jinn) possession as well as spells and the search for power through sympathetic magic and other related matters as if they were all the same thing. The author views all of these phenomena as being scientifically disreputable and her view of science as opposed to what she labels as metaphysics is rather notable throughout the book as she seems to ridicule those who seek to justify their explorations into matters that are not material as being scientific, or at least as being conducted with scientific principles. The author treads on even more dangerous ground, when it comes to Iran, when she lumps in religious figures like respected ayatollahs as being involved in the same sort of business, especially given the high degree of religious interest across the ethical monotheist religions in the matter of demon possession and the problems that result from the search for power. This reader, in particular, has witnessed the discussion of demonic possession in a matter of fact manner from very credible witnesses, and has even been a witness to what would appear like such matters personally, and this book goes on dangerous territory in considering the spirit world to be something that is deserving of mockery, even if it is not nearly the sort of clearly mapped out world as our physical existence, and even if the search for power and domination, as well as manipulating others for wealth, is deeply unwise.