نشریه مطالعات معنوی
پیاپی 28 (پاییز و زمستان 1398)

In addition to social and security dangers, superstition can obsolete the original religious traditions. Studies show that almost every Iranian is involved in one of the instances of superstition, and this is evident in the religious community, especially in the case of religious beliefs, which shows the need to study. It seems that the weakness in informing the people of the society and consequently the low level of knowledge of people about religious issues and heresies, is the most important factor in the tendency to superstition. The research method in this research with a qualitative approach, in addition to studying library and documentary sources, is to conduct semi-structured interviews with 10 experts in the field of religious studies, using the method of "comparative content analysis". This article, examining the origin of superstition and the focal points of its formation, concluded that the following strategies can be used to combat superstition: Returning religion to the center of society, reducing emotionalism and strengthening scientism and moderate rationalism in society, reforming cultural policies and presenting clear intellectual and religious foundations, and separating superstition from religion by removing doubts.

Christianity is essentially an evangelical religion and uses variety of methods to spread its beliefs around the world. In the field of tourism, Christianity has made great efforts in recent decades and has used effective methods to attract audiences and tourists to visit churches and related religious sites such as museums of Christian history. Familiarity with these evangelistic activities will be useful for the missionaries of the seminaries as well as for the Muslims who seek to spread Islamic teachings in the field of tourism. Using library resources and interviews with expert professors as well as church portals, this study describes the evangelistic techniques of Christian churches in attracting tourists. In this study, the evangelistic techniques of St. Peter's Church in Vatican City State, Point church in the United States, Catch de Fire Church in Canada, and some other churches in the United Kingdom have been surveyed. Tourist attraction techniques in these churches include several cases, more than 30 of which are described in this article. Including; setting up a museum near the church, online registration, age segregation of evangelistic programs, using happy and youth-friendly programs, traffic restrictions, allocation of special church tour buses and cooperation with the government and local officials.

The relationship between disciple and sheikh is the main foundations of Sufi conduct. One of the most important features of the Sufi tradition is the sacred and spiritual face depicted from the Sheikhs. Miracles of Sheikh put him in a divine position in Sufi tradition. These miracles, which are abundantly reported in writing and orally by the followers of the Sufi sect about their Sheikhs, have also found their way into popular culture. The critics of Sufism have so far considered these miracles to be fake and false constructions of the followers of these groups, or as the product of unconventional and illegitimate methods, such as magic, juggle, communication with jinn and the like. In this article, the author first raises the issue of devotion and tries to draw the position and mental state of the disciple by examining its various aspects. The author then explores that the important part of Sufi sect's reports on the merits of their Sheikhs is produced by their minds, which are devoted to the Sheikh and automatically interpret any phenomenon or event as a dignity of the Sheikh subconsciously. In this research, a combination of two library and empirical methods has been used.

Experiencing the cultural identity of Gonabadi dervishes in Chaharmahal Bakhtiari province, as a social phenomenon in order to clarify some ambiguities and questions related to this sect, using various techniques such as: observation, Public and private interviews with members and elites of this sect and participation in their meetings, is the subject of this article. According to this research, the identity characteristics of the dervishes of Chaharmahal Bakhtiari province can be summarized in cases such as: province, remembrance, allegiance, meetings with poor people, hijab and keeping secrets. This sect sees the election of a successor as an inspiration from the unseen, and believes that only the family of Mullah Sultan Muhammad is eligible for the governorship. Another characteristic of the Dervish sect is the poor meetings, which are subject to conditions such as not renting a place, a specific time, observing the full religious hijab among women, and indoctrination. The issue of hijab is not only for general meetings, and in any case, even among incestuous ones, it should be observed. The ceremony of the House of Need and the Boiler of Boils is associated with complex secrets and it seems that despite its importance by the Sheikh and the old dervishes, there is no complete knowledge and awareness of it among the dervishes themselves.

Spiritual places have always been of interest to human beings and it seems that gaining spiritual experience is one of the most important needs of the immaterial dimension of human beings. The shrine of Imamzadeh Saleh PBUH, located in Tajrish Square in north of Tehran, is one of the most important places of pilgrimage in Tehran and a large number of people travel to this place every year from different places. The spiritual components of the shrine of Imamzadeh Saleh PBUH are among the most important elements that affect the spiritual understanding of pilgrims and tourists of this holy place. In this research, the spiritual perspective of Imamzadeh Saleh PBUH has been analyzed identifying and explaining its spiritual components. This research was conducted in the spring of 2015 based on a case study strategy, qualitatively and using library studies, observation and interviews. Initially, based on library documents and observations, spiritual components were identified in two main and sub-groups. Then, by interviewing merchants, servants and old residents of Tajrish Square, these components are interpreted and the relationships between them are explained.

Before we know what eligible spirituality is from a person's point of view, we need to know kinds of spiritualism from his point of view. Eligible spirituality is eligible by comparison. Therefore, in the present article, an attempt has been made to identify types of spirituality based on the statements of Ayatollah Khamenei (leadership) as well as the desired type of spirituality from the view point of Philip Sheldrake by the method of qualitative content analysis. Types of spiritualism from Ayatollah Khamenei’s point of view can be considered in four types: spirituality by leaving the world, mystical spirituality, applied spirituality and revolutionary spirituality. After identifying these types, the present article has done a comparison between them with this conceptual model: 1. Central type; 2. similar type; 3. Neutral type; 4. Rival type. Findings show that the central type of Ayatollah Khamenei’s expression is revolutionary spirituality. The comparison of other types of spirituality with the eligible type from the perspective of Ayatollah Khamenei’s has been done within this framework of this conceptual model.