In the Name of God, the Almighty
The second session of the 84th series of Congress 60 educational workshops, dedicated to travelers and companions, started at 10:00 AM on Wednesday, February 6, 2025. The session was led by Mr. Hossein Dezhakam as the guest speaker and master of ceremony, and with traveler Mohsen serving as the secretary. The agenda was "The Thirteenth Valley and Its Impact on Me.
Mr. Dezhakam Speech:
I kindly ask you to take 14 seconds of silence and seek refuge in God so that we may free ourselves from our most powerful enemy—our own ignorance and lack of awareness.
I hope you are all doing well. By the grace of God, I am also doing well.
Today is Wednesday, February 6, 2025, and the time is 10:05 AM. We are at the Academy Building in Tehran.
I arrived early this morning, and ever since, I’ve been continuously announcing the liberations left and right, without a moment to spare. The moment I finished, I rushed down like a bullet—only to suddenly freeze, completely blanking on what I was supposed to say in the middle of everything! (laughs) Anyway, my apologies for that.
Now, there are a few key points I’d like to share…
*First of all, I’ve been informed that the Wednesday guardian’s remarks and decisions are being repeated in full during all sessions, sometimes taking up to 7, 9, or even 10 minutes. This is not how it should be! This summary should take no more than one or two minutes, highlighting only the key points.
It shouldn’t be treated like the secretary’s report, where everything is read word for word. Instead, it should briefly state essential updates, such as: “The park is closed this week,” “The guide exam is on a specific day,” “A particular branch has closed or opened,”—all in a quick, numbered format (1, 2, 3, 4…).
There’s no need to read all the details and take up valuable session time. From now on, I am assigning Mr. Khodami, the deputy guardian, the responsibility of preparing this concise summary in a clear, numbered format. This way, others will learn the correct approach, and the summary can be sent to all guardians for them to read without unnecessary delays in the sessions.
*In the branches, the digital display boards are not meant for advertisements—this isn’t a space to announce where to buy Coca-Cola, sandwiches, or pharmacy locations! If you turn them into rotating ad boards, it will only distract everyone.
When the guest speaker is speaking and sharing their experiences, unrelated text is flashing across the screen. This practice needs to stop. The digital board should only display the workshop topic or birthday announcements. The whole point of having this board was to avoid repeatedly spending money on banners, putting them up, taking them down, and creating unnecessary waste.
During workshops, some branches also display slides and various images, which should not happen. These visuals distract members when they should be focused on the guest speaker and their participation in the discussion.
Additionally, in some branches, they display full travel declarations on the board, such as: “Hello friends, I am Hossein, a traveler.” This is unnecessary. If this is being done, it must stop. The whole idea is for individuals to engage their own minds in participation. At first, they might make mistakes—saying something like “Hossein, hello, I’m a traveler”—but over time, they will improve.
Please ensure these guidelines are followed. Now, a few more points…
*Hookah is worse than cigarettes—it’s even worse than heroin, crack, crystal meth, or amphetamines. If a cigarette is like a simple pen that produces some smoke, then a hookah is like the exhaust pipe of an old “Paykan 48”, pumping out thick clouds of smoke.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ve accomplished something just because you quit smoking but now use hookah—or that you quit both cigarettes and hookah but switched to a pipe instead. This is nonsense! Hookah is a hundred times worse than cigarettes or pipes.
The real issue is all forms of smoking and tobacco use. If you quit smoking but then sit in cafés and smoke hookah, you’re not solving anything. And the funniest part? Some people who quit cigarettes and even became smoking cessation guides still go and smoke hookah with their students! (laughs) Imagine that!
This is a very serious point that we must pay close attention to.
*In Congress 60, a guide is a guide in one place only—they cannot be both a guide in Congress 60 and, for example, in NA. This is not about saying that NA is bad and Congress 60 is good—that’s not the point. The point is that a guide must be committed to one path.
You can’t go to the mosque on Fridays and then to the church on Sundays—you have to choose one. The same rule applies here: whether you’re a guide or a traveler, whether in the family groups or any other setting, you must commit to one program and follow it fully.
*When the qualification forms for guides are submitted to the sports director, no one has the right to sign off on them if the individual has not been present in the park and actively participated in sports.
A guide who doesn’t exercise will not encourage their students to exercise either—it’s as simple as that. So, this cannot just be a formality where forms are brought in and casually signed.
If someone doesn’t participate in sports at the park, the sports director must not sign the form under any circumstances.
* During Guide Week, which is two weeks from now, the masters of ceremonies and secretaries of the session will not change. Whoever is the master of ceremony and secretary in any session will remain the same—they will not be swapped out.
For example, just because it’s "Guide Week," we cannot say, "Let’s make the agent the master of ceremony" or make any other changes. No, the same secretary and master of ceremony will stay. It’s their chance to lead.
The guest speaker of the session is always the guardian of the guides. Whoever is the guardian of the guides in a branch must be the master if the ceremony of that session.
The guardian of the guides should always be chosen by a lottery for the session—it’s not for the agent to just appoint someone. Whoever becomes the guardian of the guides must go through the lottery process to be selected. Sometimes, it may even be the agent themselves who is the guardian of the guides.
During Guide Week, guides are given flowers by the agent and the border guards, but no certificates, awards, or trophies are given. You can give flowers, but don’t turn it into a competition where one guide is given a certificate, another is given a trophy, and so on. Don’t engage in that kind of behavior.
Another thing to avoid: Don’t invite ex guides to the session if they haven’t been part of Congress 60 recently. Their pupils may have someone else as their guide now, and their role isn’t clear—so what should they do?
These are the points raised by the Companion Group that I’m sharing, as they were discussed in our meeting on Saturday. When you officially invite someone to join, if someone hasn’t been around for two or three years, and you call them to come for Guide Week, there’s a problem. If they come, that’s great. Whether they’ve been part of Congress 60 for a long time or not, we don’t make distinctions. But when you call them, the pupils’ guide may have changed, their pupils might be in a different legion now—should they give the gift to their previous guide, or the new one?
Guides of different kinds (like the smoking guide, Jones guide, and newcomer guide) can suddenly multiply, creating confusion. It’s like they are now seven guides at once—each having to thank different people in various areas, like the music guide. (laughs)
Without beating around the bush, I’ll say it clearly—some of these actions cause confusion. It’s been three years, and then you suddenly call someone back. Meanwhile, their pupils may face problems because of this. These were the concerns of the assistants of the Companion Group that were discussed in the Saturday meeting. The topic of hookah also came up in the meeting..
Well, this was a summary of the discussions from other sessions. Now, I hope all of you are doing well and in good spirits.
From March 5th onwards, we generally don’t accept new pupils, and admissions are limited. There’s also the two-week holiday break during the New Year, and then around ten more days afterward, which adds up to almost 40 days of limited intake. During this period, we don’t have many new pupils joining.
This creates a bit of a gap in Congress 60, and in February, the number of liberations tends to decrease slightly. Right now, the session feels a bit emptier because of this gap we’ve had since last April, which means it’s been around 10 or 11 months since that peak. This pattern starts from late January and continues through February.
For instance, in recent weeks, our liberations have been a bit lower, like around 50, 40, or 60 people. Today, we had 64, with about 20-30 related to smoking. Still, the number was slightly lower compared to our usual rate of 100-110 liberations per week. It’s a recurring pattern that we experience every year.
This week’s topic is "The Thirteenth Valley or Path". Let me give you a brief summary. It’s interesting to start by reading the opening lines from the book to bring back memories of the past:
"It is through the pen that its grand steps flow and spread throughout the world."
The pen is truly a valuable tool. Even in the Qur’an, God swears by the pen. Wherever the pen moves, it leaves an eternal mark—just like the Qur'an, which remains eternal because it started and was written with a pen. All the mystics, scholars, poets, and anyone who had a pen, who wrote, and created books have left an everlasting legacy; but not everyone has had that same impact.
"It is through the pen that its grand steps flow throughout the world, as if streams converge to form a river, or several roaring rivers, delivering that message to all humanity."
The words are written down, passed along, and eventually reach every person.
These are the forces that shape human goals and desires. They take us from imagination to image, and from image to the construction of truth. This structure, however, is one that the ignorant seek to destroy, while the wise strive to build.
It’s always been the case that ignorant people tear down structures, while wise individuals rebuild and nurture them.
"But always, the end of each point has been and will always be the beginning of another line, and now, we are at the beginning of another line. The streams have started flowing, and all will converge at one point, forming a fruitful foundation that will eventually lead to the vast ocean. Then, with divine grace, they will be dispatched to places where commands emanate, and once again, the glory of the army will be displayed in a new form, by the Absolute Power. The command, however, will not be for war, but rather for spreading love to anyone who carries the light of wave within them. This has no beginning or end—it will flow from the heavens to the earth, and from the earth to the infinite."
This means, it descends from the heavens to the earth, and from the earth, it returns to the infinite.
Overall, Congress 60 is in a very good position, and those three foundations that I’ve talked about many times are key: first, knowledge; second, specialized manpower; and third, money. Every organization, entity, country, city, village, family, store, and even every NGO must have these three parameters: knowledge, specialized manpower, and money.
The key thing is that knowledge is incredibly powerful. If it’s true knowledge, it will convert into money. Right now, we are strong and advanced in terms of knowledge, thank God. I don’t believe there is anyone in the field of addiction who has a higher level of expertise than Congress 60, according to specialists.
I even said last time that we are so weak on the global level in terms of addiction treatment that it’s hard to believe. For example, universities like Harvard, Stanford, and NIDA are a part of this global system, and yet, we are still ahead in terms of addiction treatment with our unique knowledge and methodology.
Last time, I also shared with you that they don’t even know how to make someone addicted. If we wanted to conduct an experiment on mice, for example, to make them heroin addicts or alcoholics, they still don’t know how to do it properly. We wonder, how could they not know? I think I mentioned this before—if they make 200 mice alcoholic or heroin-addicted, only 75 of them will survive. The rest will die.
The reason for this is simple: from the very first day, they administer a fixed dose of heroin or alcohol to the mice. This causes them to overdose. They give a fixed dose of 65% or 40% alcohol, or the same amount of heroin, and it’s a method developed by Anderson and Jackerson (AJ). They used this approach 25 years ago, and it has remained the same. I told you, it’s all about overdosing and the way they handle it.
Have you ever seen someone inject 5 grams of heroin on the first day? Or a person who smokes 3 grams of opium on the first day? It doesn’t happen that way. Addiction doesn’t occur overnight; it happens gradually, bit by bit. In today’s world, even the process of making someone addicted is misunderstood. They kill the person instead, let alone guiding them toward recovery. This is an extremely important issue, and we hope our message will reach everyone.
"At the end of every point, the beginning of another line emerges." This statement tells us that nothing in this world is truly finished. From one form to another, from one kind to another, everything keeps evolving. Nothing is destroyed, and our task never ends. We can’t say that something is “done,” because once we finish one task, another begins.
Even when we die, life continues. You finish high school, and then you need to get a bachelor’s degree. Once you have a bachelor’s degree, you move on to a master’s degree. After that, you go for a doctorate, and it continues endlessly... What is being said?
With every end, a new beginning starts. Don’t always be focused on just ending things. Life itself is about living, and sometimes, people are so caught up in trying to reach the end—Or they work nonstop to earn money and live. But then they may reach the end of their life. So with every end, a new beginning starts.
When you come to Congress 60 and leave behind addiction, that’s an end to a chapter. But once that chapter closes, what happens? Another chapter begins.
In life, existence, and the cosmos, we can’t truly pinpoint any beginning or end. We can’t say the beginning of the universe is from the Big Bang. We still don’t have complete knowledge about it. No one can say for sure when it started, and no one can say how many Big Bangs there were before the one we know. Everything in the universe seems to start from a single point, expands, contracts, and forms a new cycle. It’s beyond our understanding because we exist within time, while the concept of timelessness intertwines with it.
The key point to remember is that when we finish one task, another begins. This cycle never truly ends. We are constantly evolving, learning, and changing through each of these stages, all leading us toward an ideal state—a utopia.
I had the team look into the financial reserves of Harvard University. Do you know how much their financial reserves are? Harvard's financial reserves are 50 billion dollars! That’s about the same as the budget of our country (laughs). That’s what made Harvard what it is! Congress 60 is the same; it needs to be financially strong and powerful. Don’t be too attached to your branches. Just because you’ve collected some money doesn’t mean you should rush to buy land, open a branch, or do this or that. We’ll get there when the time is right. It doesn’t matter for Congress 60—maybe the Tehran branch will pay some money, and we’ll open a branch even in the deepest corners, or the funds might be gathered for a university, and the journey starts for thousands of people. Those who are financially capable will wake up and help, and the money will be gathered for all. Our financial foundation and that of the entire Congress must be strong so we can do research, own land, buildings, and educational spaces. The university we are building in Qeshm has 10,000 square meters of land, and its building is 4 stories tall with 2,500 square meters of floor space. If we calculate it very cheaply, the cost in Qeshm Island would be 500 billion tomans, not 300 billion, and definitely not 200 billion! That's nothing for an educational center.
So, does Harvard University, which has reserves worth 500 billion dollars, not receive contributions from its members? Yes, it still receives a lot of help, and in large amounts. Last year, I personally donated 2 billion to Congress for research purposes, and that’s just one example! A few individuals reached that amount, and the rest contributed much smaller amounts. Some people come to Congress and see great results; we don’t have an issue with those who can’t contribute, but those who can, should continue to help. Don’t be attached to your city or branch. We are all one, we are all part of the same center, and we are on the path to recovery. We need to make sure that the treatment reaches all areas, and we can expand and focus more on financial matters, because no matter how much we have, it’s never enough. So, those who are financially able, should aim for higher contributions. Don’t be afraid. In the next world, I will have an answer for you, don’t worry (laughs). Thank you, thank you.
Typed by: Companion Nasrin, Sohreverdi Branch
Translated by: Companion Marjan
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2/10/2025
