The seventh session of the 86th round of Congress 60’s educational workshops—held for travelers and companions—commenced at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 18, 2025, with Mr. Hossein Dezhakam serving as the session’s master and guardian, and Traveler Farhad as the secretary. The agenda topic was “The Relationship Between Learning and Creating a Scene and Grandstanding.”
Hello friends, I am Hossein, a traveler.
I hope all of you are well, energetic, and in good spirits. I too am, thank God, doing well. Today is the 28th of Aban 1404 [November 18, 2025], and it is about five minutes to 10 a.m. We are at the Academy building in Tehran. Let us pray for good rainfall so that God willing, the country may be saved from its current situation, and may we be granted success.
There are a few points I will talk about today regarding the relationship between learning and creating a grandstanding and commotion. I also want to share some news and updates. First, the colors of the Shawls [scarves] for level assistants and agents have changed. The agents’ shawl will now be olive-colored, because the previous cream or white color was too similar to that of the watchers. They would fade to white after washing, and distinguishing a Dideban and an Agent became difficult, so the color of agent’s shawl was changed to olive. The assistants’ shawl have been changed to sky blue. These two shawl colors have been updated and are now in use. Everything else is progressing well and successfully.
The Golrizan Week (Money Donation Week) was excellent; the members did very well, God bless them. In general, we do not want to create noise or showmanship at any level. We do not want to be overly active on social media in a way that makes us widely recognized. We do not want to advertise Congress 60, nor do we want to promote me, Congress 60, or my family—none of that matters. We can only work effectively if we stay quiet, away from advertising, noise, arrogance, and self-promotion. We do not need any of that. We simply want to stay focused on our work so that we can help more people. There is no need for trumpeting and fanfare.
And regarding social media—I asked you not to constantly promote me, constantly post my photos and videos—I ask you to avoid this. In the past, people made video clips about me and posted many photos. I told them not to do it and prohibited it, and thank God things improved greatly. Even now I say that I am not seeking any of that, because fame and public attention ultimately pull a person away from work, goals, and life itself. The calmer we are, the more we can progress in our work, achieve results, and bring research to strong conclusions.
At this point, our scientific research has reached a level where we are now being recognized, especially abroad. We are seen and acknowledged at all conferences and congresses. Our articles and participation in conferences—at this stage, we are not pursuing journals or we are not trying to find a scientific journal to submit to and we are not deciding which conference to attend; the conferences and journals themselves invite us to participate. Scientific journals write to us requesting that we submit our material to their publications.
We are receiving invitations everywhere. Most of the organizers are American, but because obtaining a U.S. visa has become difficult, some events are held in places like Spain or [France] Paris. The most recent conference on Overall Disease Policy, held in Paris on Sunday and the days following, also invited me to speak, and again we attended by invitation. This shows that our scientific work is gradually becoming recognized.
Mr. William L. White and a team of other researchers have conducted extensive studies on Congress 60. We translated, scanned, and sent them several thousand pages of follow-up documents—more than three, four, or five thousand pages. A major article on Congress 60 will soon be published in American journals, analyzing how Congress 60 is able to function with such high efficiency. The fact is that Congress 60 is, in addiction treatment, several years ahead of even the most advanced countries in the world. Because, in reality, the concept of “treatment” in the true sense hardly exists anywhere. No specialist or scientist in America—or anywhere else in the world, as far as I know—dares to speak of a “cure,” meaning complete and definitive recovery. They simply do not dare. They use the word “treatment” in the sense of improvement, remission. They rely on maintenance therapies. The idea that a person can become completely drug-free and fully treated does not even cross their minds.
And because this work takes time, I insist that we must remain calm and quietly present our work within scientific institutions. Our own universities are now welcoming us. Some medical universities in various cities want to hold conferences on addiction and they approach us, asking Congress 60 to collaborate and participate so that we may present our scientific achievements. This progress has begun internally [within our own country] as well, and all of this is happening within scientific forums—not in ordinary advertisements, newspapers, or regular media. So, this process is advancing well, and Congress 60 is increasingly demonstrating its capabilities across all medical fields.
Another matter we need to address is the issue of Jones’s Legions. Look, the protocol I have provided must be followed exactly as it is. Nothing should be added or removed based on personal judgment. No guide has the right to make such changes. What we must understand is this: do we know more, or does our body? I am now posing a new question—who understands more, me or the components of my body’s cells? Which one has greater knowledge? There is a significant difference.
We must recognize that the body is an extremely intelligent system—far more intelligent than we are. You have 36 trillion cells, and each cell is like a city. It has its own power plant and numerous internal structures. A single cell is composed of billions of parts. When we say “billions”: if you want to count from one to one million, it takes 11 days. If you want to count from one to one billion, it takes 33 years—33 full years of counting day and night just to reach one billion. This is how enormous the number is. So, in any system we design—whether for addiction, illness, obesity, or weight loss—we must pay attention to the intelligence of the body. The body is intelligent; we must learn its language. Once we understand its language, the problem is solved.
What we are doing—what we are implementing—has not been written in any book anywhere. You cannot find true weight-loss methods anywhere. Do not take weight loss lightly. One of today’s major human problems is weight-related issues. In fact, nearly all modern human problems remain unsolved. Weight loss, obesity, and extreme thinness are among the most complex human challenges.
Society has reached a point where fat is surgically suctioned out of the body—and many die from it. Tubes are inserted into the stomach, balloons are placed in the stomach, intestines are shortened. On one side, someone says: “Read fortunes with coffee.” Another says: “Follow this diet.” One says: “Only eat fruit.” Another says: “Only eat meat.” Someone else says: “Don’t eat protein at all.” Another recommends something else entirely. One says: “Exercise.” The person exercises, loses 30 kilograms, and then all their skin hangs loose. What should they do then? “Go have surgery.” Just like what some women do, turning themselves into something extremely unattractive. I have truly seen women who were very beautiful but, after cosmetic procedures, became disfigured: cheek implants end up here, eyes become tiny; you honestly cannot bear to look at them anymore—God is my witness. Then the person says: “Now what should I do?” They are told: “Well, now we must lift your eyebrows.” They go and lift their eyebrows; then the sides of the forehead wrinkle. They are told: “You need injections here too.” And so they fall into a cycle from which they can no longer return to their original state.
The same disaster occurs in the weight-loss system: remove the stomach, remove part of the intestine, remove this, remove that—and people bring calamity upon themselves. And once these procedures are done, there is no way back. You do something from which there is no return.
Beauty and attractiveness are things people naturally possess, but with these procedures they become far worse. The excitement around such things has also flourished among people; however, when you look at these people now, you feel sick. I swear to God, I feel sick when I see what they have done to their faces and bodies, thinking they have improved themselves. And everyone who meets them says, “Wow, you’ve become so beautiful!”. The doctors and practitioners who perform these procedures also keep encouraging them: “Yes, it looks great, it’s wonderful, it’s perfect.” But no—none of that is true.
There was once a fox who had no tail, and all the other foxes mocked him for it. He then began promoting the idea that “You don’t know how light and comfortable it is to be tailless—how great it feels, how excellent it is!” He started advertising it. A few other foxes listened to him, went and cut off their own tails. Afterward, they realized how painful and miserable it was and went back to him complaining: “What nonsense were you saying? Cutting off your tail is unbearable.” He told them, “Don’t say a word, don’t say anything, do not complain—to prevent foxes with tail from mocking us, let them do the same thing so that we won’t be the only ones.” Eventually, all the foxes became tailless, and those with tails became the minority. The same thing is happening now—both for cosmetic facial surgeries and weight-loss surgeries.
So this is what I was saying: the body is extremely intelligent, very aware, highly conscious. Do not assume that you can instruct the body through force. The moment you switch to protein-counting methods, everything collapses. Existing methods either reduce food intake or rely on intense physical activity—there are only these two paths. Even when they cut the stomach, it still follows one of these models: they place a balloon in the stomach to reduce space so the person eats less; they stitch part of the stomach to shrink it so the person eats less. In my opinion, all these methods stem from ignorance—perhaps not ignorance, but rather undiscovered knowledge.
We, however, teach people how to eat properly, and they lose weight. We apply the same project to thin individuals, and their weight increases. This is the language of the body: teaching proper eating. In Congress 60, someone loses 40 kilograms, someone else gains 12 or 15 kilograms by learning the same thing. Isn’t it astonishing? Can a person even imagine something like this—that the same method makes one person lose weight and another gain weight? This is the intelligence of the body.
Why does the body store fat? A very important question. For body, it is a very ordinary question, it does so in case of emergency—fat is stored as fuel when food is not available. Fat is energy. But if you convince the body that food is consistently available and there is no need to store energy, then the body releases the fat on its own. It sheds it naturally. But we want to force the body with a whip, and that leads us to invent nonsensical ideas: “At night, eat beets and turnips,” “At night, eat walnuts and milk,” “Don’t eat rice for two days a week,” “Don’t eat bread with eggs,” “If you want breakfast, eat only eggs.” No—these things should not be done. Every one of these actions becomes a deviation. After six months, it turns into a rigid program: “You must not eat rice,” “You must eat this amount of beet at night,” “You must avoid this or that salad.” All of this destroys the program, destroys the project, destroys everything.
We do not prescribe any specific dietary pattern for weight loss. We do not tell anyone, “You must not eat bread.” We do not tell anyone, “Eat only eggs.” We do not tell anyone what to eat at night or what to avoid. People must figure it out themselves, because in this project, everything is allowed. You can eat anything; you can do anything. Although this wasn’t part of today’s agenda, I spoke about it anyway—it does not matter.
When you start telling others to do this or that, it becomes making a scene or grandstanding. You create uproar by finding something on the internet, picking up something someone has said. For thousands of years—from the beginning of humanity until now—there has been no true method for weight loss. Nothing exists on the internet, and no artificial intelligence knows how to solve the issue of obesity and thinness. Artificial intelligence only knows what humans have taught it. It also knows nothing about addiction treatment. None of the works we do in Congress 60 exist anywhere else, and no artificial intelligence can do what we do.
Therefore, if you become a [weight-loss] guide, you are not allowed to create even the smallest plan [and alternation] of your own. You may not instruct someone on what to eat or not eat, how much of this, how much of that. Because if the first brick is laid crooked, the wall will remain crooked all the way to the heavens. Something may seem effective at first, but later everything will collapse, i.e. the legion and Dezhakam Method will turn into all those other methods: “Eat this at night, eat that during the day, eat this in the morning, eat rice three times a week, don’t eat bread,” and so on. No—this ruins everything. You must apply the method exactly as it is.
Now, another issue is the relationship between learning and making a scene and grandstanding. When a person wants to learn, they must accept three conditions:
First, they must know that they do not know. The very first condition of learning is admitting, “I don’t know.” If someone claims, “I know,” they cannot learn. Whatever you want to learn, you must begin by saying, “I do not know.” That is the first condition. If you say, “I know,” you cannot reach any result.
Second, you must believe—accept—that someone else knows more than you. You must believe that your guide knows more than you. You must believe that your father knows more than you, your mother knows more than you, your teacher knows more than you. You must acknowledge that someone above you has greater knowledge.
Third, once you know you don’t know, and acknowledge that someone else knows more, then you must surrender to that person—in the specific topic of learning, not in all aspects of life. For example, if you say, “I don’t know English,” and your teacher knows more English than you, then in the process of learning, you must submit to your teacher. You cannot offer your own opinions. Whatever the teacher tells you, you must accept, in order to learn.
When a pupil enters the legion, they must know that they do not know. If they say, “I know,” then nothing can be achieved. If pupils start searching the internet about addiction treatment and bring those nonsensical ideas into the legion to lecture the guide—teaching the guide what this is or that is—then nothing will be achieved.
Therefore, the pupil must believe that they do not know, must believe that their guide knows more than they do, and must submit completely to the addiction-treatment program as instructed by the guide. If the guide says, “Reduce this amount,” the pupil must not respond, “My opinion is that I shouldn’t reduce it now,” or “I think I should stay on this step for another week or another cycle.” These things cannot be allowed.
If the pupil does not accept these three conditions: 1) I do not know; 2) someone else knows more; and 3) I must surrender to the path—they will never reach a result. When they fail to achieve results, they either abandon the program and leave, or they start making a scene: talking behind the guide’s back, causing conflicts, and creating disruption.
This “creating a scene and uproar” is a trait that all human beings possess, each at different levels. A father tells his child, “Why aren’t you studying?” The child replies, “Why didn’t you buy me shoes?” The father says, “Why didn’t you study?” and the child answers, “Why didn’t you buy me shoes?” He asks, “Why don’t you go to school?” and the child replies, “You never changed my phone; you promised to buy me that other model.” Or the man says, “The food you made is terrible—too salty,” and the wife retorts, “Do you really think your mother used to cook better than me?” Whatever you say, they respond with something completely different. This is what we call creating uproar—when someone refuses to accept what is being said to them and instead talks about something else entirely. That is what creating uproar means.
Originally, making a scene and grandstanding, in Persian—ma’rekeh-giri (معرکهگیری)—referred to an action used on the battlefield. In close combat, when someone was surrounded by the enemy wielding swords and such, he would move in a certain way—fighting in such a manner that he could either save himself or injure more opponents. Later, this term found its way into the world of dervishes and street performers. In the past, these scenes were very common, but now, thanks to television and the internet, such things barely exist. There were strongmen, snake charmers, dervishes, storytellers—altogether, they were referred to as ma’rekeh-gir, someone who performed an act that gathered people around him.
In the early days of Congress 60, we clearly had plenty of ma’rekeh-giri and grandstanding. When Congress 60 was first established, we had guides, but not like today at all. A workshop session would be held, lasting about an hour or an hour and a half. After the workshop ended, everyone gathered around and talked freely. Then you would see someone who had supposedly quit drugs using the “cold turkey” method gathering people and giving them opium extract so they could quit with opium extract. Another person would take a group to the north of Iran to help them quit. Someone else would say: “Come on, let’s go, I’ll help you quit. Instead of drugs, drink alcohol—it’s great, you’ll be fine, I’ll detox you.” We had many such grandstanding and commotions. Congress 60 had multiple people like this—each of them a ma’rekeh-gir, gathering members around themselves, like hooligans, bullies, or strongmen, or whatever you want to call them—they were all negative forces. And whatever we built, they would destroy and undo, naturally. It was something natural.
We used to have Thanksgiving nights right here in this same hall. Every other Thursday, we would cook upstairs—making Abgoosht [or Dizi, a delicious Iranian food]—then come downstairs for the Thanksgiving night. Everyone would sit together; there would be some rhythmic movements, some talking, and then participation. After that, they would have the Abgoosht. But then we would see that after they ate Abgoosht here, outside—right at the door—there was a Nissan truck with a big jug of alcohol in the back (laughter). They would sneak out, take a cup, drink from the jug in the truck, then come back into the session—or go elsewhere. These were the kinds of things that happened in those days. We lived through conditions—God knows—more than enough.
It was through this very creating grandstanding and uproar—these same stories—that we realized something had to be done. We asked ourselves: What should we do to put an end to all this? Some suggested dismissing such individuals from Congress 60. I said, “No, expelling them is not an option.” First of all, removing them is not so simple; it takes a great deal of energy, time, and effort. It is not easy at all. If you remove one, another will appear. You remove that one, yet another will take their place. What we needed was a solution that would eliminate the problem entirely—so that such behavior simply could not arise. Otherwise, if you remove one troublemaker, another will immediately fill that role, just as pickpockets replace one another in any crowded place.
I said, “We must do something that prevents anyone from being able to do such a thing in the first place.” So I told them, “We need to think about this problem.” When a problem arises, don’t try to solve it instantly. Many ideas may occur to you right away. Back then, the first idea the members had was: “Let’s throw them out, confront them, block them from the meetings, tell others not to follow them,” and so on. I said, “No, that won’t work.” These raw ideas are just the ones that pop into your mind immediately. We needed to think things through—perhaps for a month, perhaps for a year.
After some time thinking, I said, “I believe I’ve found the solution.” They asked what it was. I said, “They created uproar in a negative direction; we will create uproar in a positive direction—in the direction of goodness.” They asked, “How?” I said, “By forming Legions.”
Only someone who has passed the required exams and has been approved by us can become a guide and is then permitted to form a Legion—meaning they can gather people, but toward good, not harm. And we give this gathering the name Legion. No one is allowed to be outside a Legion. If someone wishes to join Congress 60, they must participate in a Legion—whether they belong to the family group, the sports group, or the men’s travelers’ group, all must attend the related legions.
Based on that principle, the Legions were established. Those who wished to become guides had to pass exams; their ethics, behavior, and conditions were evaluated; they were interviewed—just like today. Their guide had to approve them; the Marzbans (border-guards) had to give them disciplinary scores; everything was reviewed before they could become guides. As a result of that decision, in Congress 60 every member has a guide—no exceptions. This became a kind of ma’rekeh-giri or grandstanding as well, but in the direction of learning and goodness. After all, a class is also a gathering of people—just like a traditional ma’rekeh but with a positive purpose.
Once the Legions formed, there was no longer any place for those other individuals. They knew where to go after the workshop ended. Formerly, when the meeting ended, everyone simply scattered. But back then, when the workshop ended, each person would go to their own Legion with their guide. When the Legion was dismissed, they would go home. There was no longer any room for that old behavior.
Within the Legions, members began supporting one another—even from the beginning. How? If someone in a Legion tried to stray outside the program—say, suggesting they go drink alcohol or take a trip to the north—others would immediately confront them: “Where are you going? What do you think you’re doing?” They protected one another like brothers and sisters, like family.
So although we no longer see that same kind of grandstanding and uproar in Congress 60, it may still occur within a Legion—for example, when a guide criticizes a pupil [because of their faulty behavior] and that person begins speaking behind their guide’s back or stirring conflict. A person must accept the situation when there is an issue. If someone says, “You come home too late at night,” he should accept it and say, “Alright.”
For this very reason, I even prohibited the members from going out to gyms to exercise. I said, “You are in Congress 60 three evenings a week until eight or nine o’clock. If you spend the other three evenings exercising, what happens to your family? What about your family and home?” At the very least, if you spend three nights at Congress 60, then three nights must be spent at home—do not go pursuing extra activities.
This all teaches us that learning and creating grandstanding and uproar have a direct relationship. We must recognize this: when we do not know something or when something goes against our expectations, we must not start creating uproar or engaging in negative talk.
That is enough for now. Thank you very much for listening to me. I truly appreciate it.
After Mr. Dezhakam’s speech, male travelers and female companions participated around the agenda, while one of the companions complained that she could not visit Master Dezhakam, when she was in his room, while Mr. Dezhakam was giving the Liberation Order. Then Master Dezhakam retorted:
As they used to say in the old days: “One raisin, forty dervishes.” Meaning there is only one piece of food—a single raisin—while forty hungry dervishes are waiting for it. That is exactly my situation: I am absorbed in my own work and have no idea what is going on around me.
Then a traveler, who used to be very skinny, participated in the discussion, stating that he has gained weight using Dezhakam Method. Then, Master Dezhakam mentioned:
This is one of those cases where a person’s weight was low at first, and then it increased. Their weight had been low, they followed the same program, and they gained weight [this is astonishing that the same method—the Dezhakam Method—works for those who want to gain or lose weight in the simplest possible way].
https://congress60.org/News/461951/%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%B1%DA%AF%D8%A7%D9%87-%D8%A2%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%B4%DB%8C-%D8%AC%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%86%E2%80%8C%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B7%D9%87-%DB%8C-%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%AF%DA%AF%DB%8C%D8%B1%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%B1%DA%A9%D9%87-%DA%AF%DB%8C%D8%B1%DB%8C
Translated by Elahe