Lineage & Who We Are
LINEAGE
The Healing Order is a network of people worldwide who are inspired to help transform illness and suffering into wholeness and greater unity – for individuals, groups and the planet.
We work through prayer, circles of prayer and energy healing, and sharing how the simple beauty of healing is a gift that everyone can offer in various ways in all aspects of daily and sacred life – the spark of divine healing is in every being.
The Healing Order is part of the Sufi vision of love, harmony and beauty brought by Hazrat Inayat Khan: an inclusive path, honoring all sacred traditions, and open to everyone.
There are local groups and we run courses and retreats. Many activities are available remotely online and through Zoom conferencing. We join with all healers in unveiling the capacity for healing that is in the heart of humanity.
'The purpose of the Sufi Healing Order is to awaken humanity to a greater realization of the power of the Divine Spirit to heal, and thus to bring about a better state of physical, mental and spiritual health, and so to fulfill the law of God. The basic principle of the Order is that the soul is Divine Breath. It purifies, revivifies and heals the instrument through which it functions.'
- Hazrat Inayat Khan
HISTORY
The Healing Order started as part of the Sufi movement that Pir Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan brought from India to the western world in 1910.
Today it is one of the six Activities of the Inayati Order, and its purpose is to develop the natural human capacity of healing through spiritual dimensions.
The Healing Service was developed to provide a process through which a group of people offer distance healing to others through prayer and concentration.
The Healing Service is a core activity of the Healing Order, and includes the ordination of Healing Conductors who are then authorized to conduct the Service and to give classes and teachings concerning healing.
Over the last thirty years, the Healing Order has developed trainings, workshops, manuals and books on various aspects of spiritual healing, including reaching out to mainstream health care professionals and institutions.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
We consider the art of healing a gracious act of solidarity with human suffering, inspired by an attunement with the divine which allows one to become a clear channel for the divine healing power.
While the capacity for spiritual healing is a natural human attribute, study, training and experience can further develop and enhance this potential.
The Healing Order provides a framework for the development of those interested in growing in healing capacity.
It is an organization that allows you to train without commitment, or offers initiation, which establishes a connection between the developing individual and the lineage of healers across time and cultures.
As you do further training, and develop an interest, members have an opportunity to be ordained as Healing Conductors, which authorizes them to perform the Healing Service and teach classes in healing; or you can train to take a healing presence out into your work and life.
The Shafayat is one who has worked with the teachings and practices over time and developed a responsibility for a particular aspect of the teachings or a geographical area.
Shafayats may initiate members and offer teaching, training and retreats.
The North American Kefayat takes responsibility for the overall organization in North America, giving seminars and training programs and retreats, and working with the Shafayats and members.
Pir-O-Murshid Inayat Khan
Hazrat Pir-O-Murshid Inayat Khan (1882-1927), founder of the Sufi Order and Movement, came to the West as a representative of the musical and spiritual traditions of his native India.
He brought a message of Love, Harmony, and Beauty, the essence of Sufi thought and a groundbreaking contribution to the harmonizing of East and West in the realm of applied spirituality.
As a vocalist, musicologist, and virtuoso master of the vina, Inayat Khan dedicated his early life to mastering the intricacies of classical Indian music, and won the title of Tansen from the Nizam of Hyderabad.
While in Hyderabad he was initiated and trained by Qutb al-Aqtab Sayyid Abu Hashim Madani. Madani was a teacher in the Chishti lineage who additionally maintained and transmitted the traditions of the Suhrwardi, Qadiri, and Naqshbandi orders. At the end of Inayat Khan’s apprenticeship, Madani enjoined him to travel to the West on a mission of spiritual harmony.
On September 13, 1910, Hazrat Inayat Khan began an odyssey which would encompass three continents and transform the lives of thousands. He eventually settled in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris.
During his sixteen years in the West he created a school of spiritual training based on traditional Sufism and infused with a vital vision of the unity of religious ideals-and the awakening of humanity to the divinity within.
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (1916-2004) is internationally recognized among leaders of all faiths as a master of meditation and spiritual teacher.
As head of the Sufi Order International, he was the spiritual successor of his father, Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan. His teaching derived from both the rich mystical tradition of the East and the esoteric heritage and scholarship of the West, and from music, science, and psychology.
Pir Vilayat initiated dozens of international gatherings of religious, spiritual, and scientific leaders, and participated in many international and interfaith conferences promoting understanding and world peace.
He received the Hollister Prize for creating interfaith understanding in 2004. He wrote many books and left as a legacy a body of mystical teachings as well as the Universal Temple in Suresnes, France, the Abode of the Message in upstate New York, and the Hope Project in New Delhi.
Current Leaders of the Sufi Healing Order
Pir Zia Inayat Khan
Pir Zia is a scholar and teacher of Sufism in the lineage of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan.
He received his B.A. (Hons) in Persian Literature from the London School of Oriental and African Studies, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Religion from Duke University.
Pir Zia is president of the Inayati Sufi Order, founder of Suluk Academy, a school of contemplative study with branches in the United States and Europe, and President of the Healing Order, as well as of the other Activities of the Inayati Order.
He is also founder of the interspiritual institute Seven Pillars House of Wisdom. He lives with his wife and two children in Richmond, Virginia, where he has established the headquarters of the Inayati Order at the Astana. .
Devi Tide
Devi Tide is the Kefayat (Head) and Vice President of the Healing Order in North America, New Zealand and Australia.
She has over thirty years experience as a teacher of healing and the esoteric sciences, bringing the qualities of wisdom, heart, subtlety, humor, and intelligence to her role.
Devi has contributed to programs in India, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America, participating in programs in places such as the United Nations and the Harvard Mind Body Institute. As a teacher of yoga and ancient healing practices, and as a guide of Healing retreats, Devi serves medical professionals, educators, sociologists, and laypeople.
As a worldwide speaker, Devi represents the inner vitality and harmony of the body, mind and spirit. She also offers personal transformation through her seminars, public speaking and individual sessions.