September 16, 2025
Dear Hossein,
Thank you for your latest communication. The demand for D. Sap continues to grow, which must keep you very busy keeping up with it. I always enjoy the videos and photos of you working at your farm.
Congratulations on your latest invitations to speak at conferences in the U.S. Such invitations confirm the growing international reputation of Congress 60 and your seminal research and writings on addiction treatment and recovery. All of this work confirms that there is a lighted exit from the dark entrapment of addiction and that recovery is far more than the removal of drugs from an otherwise unchanged life.
I know that much of your research now focuses on the neurobiology of recovery and I concur in the importance of that research. Yet, I find myself drawn once again to the psychosocial dimensions of Congress 60. There is a contagious quality to recovery within Congress 60 that comes from within the Congress 60 community, and I am working with Dr. David Best in an attempt to understand how the desire for and methods of recovery are transmitted from a person in recovery to a person in need of such recovery. We usually associate the word contagion with the transmission of disease, but I am interested in a parallel process of how recovery and health are spread contagiously within a recovery community. What are your views on such positive contagion in Congress 60? Is there a contagious spirit of recovery that new Congress 60 members “catch” (get caught up in) upon their entry to the Congress 60 community?
I am also working with Dr. John Kelly of Harvard’s Recovery Research Institute to publish the presentation I gave as part of our panel at the 17th International Congress on Addiction Science in Tehran last February. I will let you know if that paper is accepted for publication.
I hope that Dr. Sarapas and Candace Mouton will be able in the coming weeks to return to their work on the second paper in our current research study. The threats and disruptions to funding of research in the U.S. continues, which makes it very challenging at present on how best to allocate staff time within research institutes like those at Chestnut Health Systems.
My deepest congratulations to all the newcomer guides who will be receiving shawls this coming Sunday. Each new generation of guides dews the seeds for the future of Congress 60 and the future of each new member of Congress 60.
Congratulations are also due to the members of Congress 60’s rugby team for their recent tournament performance and to Amin and the Congress 60 orchestra for their continued development.
Please extend my warmest regards to your family and to all members of Congress 60. I continue to feel part of the Congress ۶۰ family and feel blessed by our prolonged friendship and collaborations.
Friends and Brothers Forever