The Persian Influence on Western Civilization with Jason Reza Jorjani

Jason Reza Jorjani, PhD, is a philosopher and faculty member at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is author of Prometheus and Atlas.

Here he points out that the pre-Socratic, Greek philosophers came from portions of Greece that were then ruled by the Persian empire. This connection, he maintains, is not accidental – as the Persian Zoroastrian culture fostered the ideal of “truth” that was fundamental to the development of philosophy. Jorjani also points out that the Persian empire was the only one in the ancient world to outlaw slavery. In addition to exerting an enormous influence on Greeks and Egyptians, the ancient Persians also interacted extensively with and influenced the Jewish people.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). His master's degree is in criminology. He teaches parapsychology for ministers in training with the Centers for Spiritual Living through the Holmes Institute. He has served as vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and is the recipient of its Pathfinder Award for outstanding contributions to the field of human consciousness. He is also past-president of the non-profit Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to creating a world in which all people are encouraged to cultivate and apply their inner, intuitive abilities. His American Indian name, chosen at age eight, is Soaring Eagle.

(Recorded on June 24, 2015)