Murshid Murad Finkelstein
Eugene, Oregon
Murad was initiated into the Ruhaniat in 1978 and the Dervish Healing Order in 1981. He is a Shafayat (senior teacher) in the DHO and a Murshid (senior teacher) in the Ruhaniat. For more than forty years he has been teaching Sufi healing while exploring ways of integrating its principles and practices with Taoism and Qigong.
Out of this exploration Murad developed Turning Sound Qigong — Qigong with a Sufi influence — and the Healing Zikr — a Sufi practice with a Qigong influence.
Since early 2020, Murad has offered weekly Zoom healing classes and healing rituals, each preceded by an hour of Sufi healing practices. A central element of these gatherings is the “Practice of the Day,” which is also shared by email and has become an important teaching component of his Sufi healing training.
Murad has organized and helped guide DHO camps for many years and created the DHO Classes website as a resource for DHO initiates, both new and experienced. At DHO camps and other retreats he leads zikr, the Healing Zikr, and classes on topics such as developing intuition, cultivating magnetism and the integrity of the energy field, and expanding the capacity of the breath.
He also led an online Healing Ritual Conductor Training series, which is now available online. Contact Murad for more information.
Murad is also a licensed acupuncturist and has maintained a clinical practice for many years, bringing his experience in energetic healing into both his clinical and spiritual work. He currently serves as Hakim Saul-uddin’s acupuncturist and, in recent years, as Hakim Saul-uddin’s secretary.
Murad lives in Eugene, Oregon with his wife of 33 years, Rosie, whose loving support and companionship have been an important part of his healing and spiritual path, and their dog. Their married daughter, Dara, also lives in Eugene with her daughter.
Murad’s exploration of spirituality and healing began in his early twenties in the San Francisco Bay Area. During this time he attended classes at one of Yogi Bhajan’s Sikh ashrams and later discovered Sufism through Dances with Wali Ali Meyer and Universal Worship with Moineddin Jablonski.
While flying home from a stressful trip, Murad experienced disabling back pain. Through a serendipitous connection with David of the Hog Farm community founded by Wavy Gravy, he was directed to receive acupuncture treatments from Yvonne Caranoff. At the time Murad had no knowledge of acupuncture, as it was largely unknown and still illegal in California, though it was beginning to circulate quietly through alternative healing communities. After receiving treatment he experienced tremendous relief of his symptoms. This experience became a turning point, leading to a lifelong interest in energetic healing and acupuncture.
During this same period Murad began to recognize that many of his physical symptoms were a form of inner guidance, prompting dietary and lifestyle changes and marking the beginning of a lifelong practice of developing and following intuition.
Murad then moved to the East Coast to attend the New England School of Acupuncture, the first acupuncture school in the United States, which at the time was in its second year of operation.
After graduating in 1978, Murad moved to Eugene, Oregon, where he joined Ishaq and Mariam’s Smiling Forehead Sufi community. His interest in healing led him to explore the healing dimension of Sufism and to travel to the San Francisco Bay Area to receive initiation into the Dervish Healing Order from Abdul Aziz Bartley. A few years later he returned to the Bay Area to receive initiation as a Healing Conductor.
In 1983 Murad met Saul Barodofsky at a Mendocino Camp, who became his DHO teacher and mentor from that point forward. At the same camp he also met and formed a lifelong friendship with Aslan Scott Sattler.
Murad has been leading the Absent Healing Ritual in Eugene since 1982. He taught classes at the Northwest Sufi Camp regularly from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, and periodically afterward. He has also served as a member, and periodically as chair, of the Eugene Sufi Council since its creation in 1990.
Murad has led zikr since the 1990s and has taught Sufi healing workshops throughout Oregon by request. In 2008 he began developing Turning Sound Qigong — Qigong with a Sufi influence, and in 2014 the Healing Zikr — a Sufi practice with a Qigong influence.
Murad also co-created and led a two-year zikr leader training program for the Eugene Sufi community.
Murad continues to explore the integration of Sufi healing, movement practices, and energetic awareness through teaching, healing work, and ongoing spiritual practice.
Murshid Murad Finkelstein
Eugene, Oregon
Murad was initiated into the Ruhaniat in 1978 and the Dervish Healing Order in 1981. He is a Shafayat (senior teacher) in the DHO and a Murshid (senior teacher) in the Ruhaniat. For more than forty years he has been teaching Sufi healing while exploring ways of integrating its principles and practices with Taoism and Qigong.
Out of this exploration Murad developed Turning Sound Qigong — Qigong with a Sufi influence — and the Healing Zikr — a Sufi practice with a Qigong influence.
Since early 2020, Murad has offered weekly Zoom healing classes and healing rituals, each preceded by an hour of Sufi healing practices. A central element of these gatherings is the “Practice of the Day,” which is also shared by email and has become an important teaching component of his Sufi healing training.
Murad has organized and helped guide DHO camps for many years and created the DHO Classes website as a resource for DHO initiates, both new and experienced. At DHO camps and other retreats he leads zikr, the Healing Zikr, and classes on topics such as developing intuition, cultivating magnetism and the integrity of the energy field, and expanding the capacity of the breath.
He also led an online Healing Ritual Conductor Training series, which is now available online. Contact Murad for more information.
Murad is also a licensed acupuncturist and has maintained a clinical practice for many years, bringing his experience in energetic healing into both his clinical and spiritual work. He currently serves as Hakim Saul-uddin’s acupuncturist and, in recent years, as Hakim Saul-uddin’s secretary.
Murad lives in Eugene, Oregon with his wife of 33 years, Rosie, whose loving support and companionship have been an important part of his healing and spiritual path, and their dog. Their married daughter, Dara, also lives in Eugene with her daughter.
Murad’s exploration of spirituality and healing began in his early twenties in the San Francisco Bay Area. During this time he attended classes at one of Yogi Bhajan’s Sikh ashrams and later discovered Sufism through Dances with Wali Ali Meyer and Universal Worship with Moineddin Jablonski.
While flying home from a stressful trip, Murad experienced disabling back pain. Through a serendipitous connection with David of the Hog Farm community founded by Wavy Gravy, he was directed to receive acupuncture treatments from Yvonne Caranoff. At the time Murad had no knowledge of acupuncture, as it was largely unknown and still illegal in California, though it was beginning to circulate quietly through alternative healing communities. After receiving treatment he experienced tremendous relief of his symptoms. This experience became a turning point, leading to a lifelong interest in energetic healing and acupuncture.
During this same period Murad began to recognize that many of his physical symptoms were a form of inner guidance, prompting dietary and lifestyle changes and marking the beginning of a lifelong practice of developing and following intuition.
Murad then moved to the East Coast to attend the New England School of Acupuncture, the first acupuncture school in the United States, which at the time was in its second year of operation.
After graduating in 1978, Murad moved to Eugene, Oregon, where he joined Ishaq and Mariam’s Smiling Forehead Sufi community. His interest in healing led him to explore the healing dimension of Sufism and to travel to the San Francisco Bay Area to receive initiation into the Dervish Healing Order from Abdul Aziz Bartley. A few years later he returned to the Bay Area to receive initiation as a Healing Conductor.
In 1983 Murad met Saul Barodofsky at a Mendocino Camp, who became his DHO teacher and mentor from that point forward. At the same camp he also met and formed a lifelong friendship with Aslan Scott Sattler.
Murad has been leading the Absent Healing Ritual in Eugene since 1982. He taught classes at the Northwest Sufi Camp regularly from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, and periodically afterward. He has also served as a member, and periodically as chair, of the Eugene Sufi Council since its creation in 1990.
Murad has led zikr since the 1990s and has taught Sufi healing workshops throughout Oregon by request. In 2008 he began developing Turning Sound Qigong — Qigong with a Sufi influence, and in 2014 the Healing Zikr — a Sufi practice with a Qigong influence.
Murad also co-created and led a two-year zikr leader training program for the Eugene Sufi community.
Murad continues to explore the integration of Sufi healing, movement practices, and energetic awareness through teaching, healing work, and ongoing spiritual practice.