Witnessing a "sema" (religious ceremony) of the Mevlana Order was important to me to gain an insight on the communion with the spirit world that dervishes say they achieve by their ritual whirling.

Like the vast majority of people, I was brought up to believe in ghosts, spirits and gods but, after a considerable inner struggle, I managed to rid myself of such beliefs which, as I now see it, are obstacles to the discovery of what we humans really are and how we fit into the universe. I finally came to think in terms of probabilities concluding that the existence of ghosts, spirits, gods and other immaterial entities was vastly unlikely.

It was not easy to exclude myself from the mainstream of believers who find solace in the thought of a life after death in some form of spiritual world. The abandon of all reasonable hope for an eternal life and the acceptance of my definitive mortality were nevertheless dictated by the absence of the slightest shred of objective and verifiable evidence of such a spiritual world. That step would have been an easy one to take had it not been the numerous allegations of so called "mystical experiences" transcendental to the material universe.

Many alleged mystical experiences can be discarded as outright fabrications used as sources of power by the priestly classes since man first trembled before thunder and lighning. A great number of legends, myths and dogma concocted by the clerical classes to establish and maintain their power can also be readily discarded as self serving.

Some allegations of transcendental experience must however be recognised as being the sincere testimony of honest individuals who faithfully report on the subjective perception of events they describe as "illumination", "enlightenment", "being born again", "living in the spiritual plane" or "communion with God"

I found these honest subjective testimonies most troubling because they give meaning to the lives of believers. I could not accept them as evidence of the existence of a spiritual universe because the events they report cannot be reproduced nor proven false. They did however make me hesitate before finding extremely unlikely the existence of the immaterial entities that most people believe in. These honest reports of mystical experiences call for material explanations because less honest individuals present them as proof and use them to manipulate their followers into doing their bidding.

Explanations are forthcoming for there is a growing accumulation of indications that "mystical experiences" are artefacts of the human brain. This new insight does not disprove the existence of "ghosts, spirits and gods" but it does irrevocably disqualify reports of "communication with God" as proofs if His existence and as indications of the ultimate meaning of life.

I wanted to see Sufi Dervishes in action for myself to get a direct impression of the meaning of the "loss of one's ego" and of the "feeling of oneness" they report achieving by their whirling. I went to see them at the Galata Mevlevihanesi in the Museum of Divan Literature on Galip Desi Caddesi near Tunel Square.

Sufis seek mystical union with God through various means. Dervishes are the followers of Jalaluddin Rumi, a 13th century poet and mystic now called Mevlana who developed a ritual of chants, prayers and whirling to sacred music that produces a state of trance that is said to be perceived as communion with God by well trained disciples. The Mevlana Order is nominally Muslim but it is open to anyone who seeks mystical union with God as expresses this Rumi verse:

Whoever you may be, come
Even though you may be
An infidel, a pagan or a fire-worshipper, come
Our brotherhood is not one of despair
Even though you may have broken
Your vows of repentance a hundred times, come.

Dervishes had a profound influence on the political, social and economic life during the Ottoman Empire as several sultans were Sufis of the Mevlana Order. This may explain the relative tolerance of the Ottomans towards the religions of their subjects, tolerance that contrasted sharply with the intense proselytising efforts of the preceding Muslim hegemonies and also with those of the Christian states of that time. Their importance has waned now in secular Turkey but they still survive as "cultural associations" and manu of them have migrated to the US west coast where half a dozen "tekke" (dervish lodges) can be found.