WE Blake:
What deceiving? What
deception? Apparently you have not
done even a little research on us, internet or
otherwise, prior to this
interview. We stated what we were about from the first moment of our existence, which is
information
that is captured, for example, in many of the directories or
websites that reference us.
Doris L:
I’m sorry that I have never encountered those sites.
(Professor Longrood shifted uneasily in her chair)
I must apologize.
But if I may, let me ask you, now…what do those
websites say?
WEB:
Well, it says that we are an investigation into the manner in which cults
are formed and maintained. The
Blaketashis
are our extended, hopefully amusing example, an organization built
on the Idries Shah mold.
DL:
On the Idries Shah mold?
WEB:
Yes, in the manner of Idries Shah. Hopefully,
the Blaketashis have provided a good deal of useful spiritual wisdom,
that has
been enclosed beneath a wrapper of pseudo-mythic, well… pseudo-mythic
bullshit.
DL:
Are you asserting that Idries Shah enclosed his teaching in, what was
your term? Pseudo-mythic BS?
WEB:
Well, of course he did. He
made use of the Gurdieffian and Blavatsky veins of pseudo-mythic BS, and made
them his
own. And of course, added
to the canon. Did you ever read
‘People of the Secret’? Sheesh.
DL:
I didn’t know Shah resorted to such maneuvers.
WEB:
Well, Shah was not above praising his own work, writing as a third party,
under a pseudonym, in order to legitimize
himself.
He wasn’t above stirring a little BS into the mix. He was appealing to people’s imagination in order to get
their
attention. So the Blaketashis
can be understood as the conducting of an experiment designed by Idries Shah.
DL:
Did your readers understand that the Blaketashis were an experiment? Or did some of them conclude that the
Blaketashis were a
legitimate branch of Sufism with a distinguished past?
WEB:
Well, I take umbrage with your assertion that we are not a legitimate
branch of Sufism. Just because we
are made up
does not make us illegitimate.
But if you mean by your question, how many people understood that the
Blaketashis were a
spiritual experiment, and how many people believed Wikipedia,
I would say it was about half and half. Of
the thousands of
messages we have received over the years, about forty-percent
of the people who got in contact with us believed in the
shallow narrative,
another forty-percent understood it immediately to be a spiritual joke; and the
balance wandered between
these poles.
Doris L:
So some people truly believed that the Blaketashis were a venerable
branch of Sufism?
WE Blake:
Well, we were invited by UNECSO to speak at a conference in Warsaw on
‘A Dialogue Amongst Civilisations’ or
something like that, some years
ago.’ So, legitimate enough.
DL:
You were invited to address the UN?
WEB:
Yes. A hoot, isn’t it?
DL:
If the Blaketashi Darwishes were not in fact started by Oxford
Professors, who in fact founded the Blaketashi Darwishes?
WEB:
The Blaketashi Darwishes were, in fact, founded by Khidr.
DL:
Mr. Blake. Or Mr. Widmer. You have pledged that during this interview you would tell
the complete and factual truth
about matters.
Are you going back on your word?
WEB:
I have told you that I would tell you the complete and factual truth
about the Blaketashis, and I will, I promise, do that.
DL:
Thank you. So let me ask you
again, who was the real founder of the Blaketashi Darwishes?
WEB:
The real, factual and true founder of the Blaketashi Darwishes is Khidr.
DL:
Please, Mr. Blake. You have
just confessed to us that the Blaketashi Darwishes is an experiment in
pseudo-mythic
bullshit, your term, not mine... and you expect us to believe that
you were somehow founded by Khidr?