International Bahá’í Conference on Marriage and Family
May 30 – Jun. 1, 1980
5th Annual Conference, University of Ottawa, ON
Attendance: 325
Tahirih
This submission was the winning paper from the student essay challenge and was presented at the Association for Baha'i Studies. The story of Tahirih, the 17th Letter of the Living. In 1817—the same year in which Baha'u'llah was born—a girl named Fatimah Baraghani came into the world in Qazvín, Persia. She was called Zarrin Taj ("Crown of Gold") because of her outstanding intelligence.
Manekji Limji Hataria and the Bahá'í Faith
The life of Manekji Sáheb and his great contributions to the Zoroastrian Cause in Persia. He was a famous Indian Zoroastrian who travelled extensively in Persia. He attained the presence of Baha’u’llah in Baghdad and received several Tablets.
The Second Century
A review of the events that transpired worldwide during the initial portion of the second 100 years since the Declaration of the Báb in 1844.
Hasan M. Balyuzi : Memorial Lecture
A brief explanation about the families of the uncles of the Báb – the Afnan - their business transactions, and their great contributions to the Faith – including the construction of the first Baha’i Tample in Ishqabad. A brief information is also provided concerning the marriage of the Báb, the initial opposition He faced, and the joining of the Afnan family with Baha’u’llah’s.
Hasan M. Balyuzi
Mr. John Robarts
Hand of the Cause of God
Hand of the Cause of God John Robarts shares a few memories of his association with Mr. Balyuzi and the significant role that Hand of the Cause Balyuzi played during the first Conclave of the Hands of the Cause at Bahji right after the passing of Shoghi Effendi in 1957.
The Founding of the Men of the Trees
Dr. Richard St. Barbe Baker explains how he became a Baha’i in 1921 and met Shoghi Effendi in 1929. His involvement with trees also started in 1921 while he was in Cambridge, England. He was instrumental in the creation of the British Forestry Commission in 1922. He presents interesting data on our scientific needs for trees, their utilization in paper industry, and our need for re-forestation. Drawing on his worldwide experience he provides an example a tree-planting educational program that he initiated in 1920’s in Haifa and Akka areas of the present day Israel.
Health - A Global Persepective
A review of the Baha'i Writings pertaining to health and healing and the role of the Manifestation of God as the Divine Physician. Comparisons are made between humanity's general view towards healing and those explained in the Baha'i Writings. Shares passages from the Writings concerning the need to utlize both material and spiritual healing. Victor DeAraujo also delves deepen into various passages from the Writings with respect to God, His Manifestations and humanity's process of growth, maturation and healing.
Intercultural Communication: Recovering from Malnutrition
Linda Gershuny draws from her experience in Haiti dealing with nutrition and education, specifically the relarionship between nutrition and related diseases in childrem and mental development. She encourages broadening one's vision to see the health in world-terms as well as in individual-terms.
Spiritual Dimensions of Health Sciences
Dr. Danesh reviews four concepts that dominate the spritual dimensions of the health sciences. He castigates so-called 'modern medicine' for viewing the human organism as an object or machine. He calls for a new perspective, a Bahá'í perspective to create a truly spiritual dimensions within the health sciences.
Mind, Body, and Soul
Is the brain the seat of the soul? Faraneh contrasts the views of Pythagoras with those of Aristotle regarding the seat of consciousness and the guardian of the soul. Can the current scientific method which relies on the tangible, the measurable and the observable be relied upon to study the soul?
The Baha'i Revelation and Lifestyle Alteration
The dramatic power that revelation has in of itself to effect changes in the life of man, whether those effects are direct or indirect they still create a change nonetheless.
Adolescent Quest for Tranquility
Adolescent Quest Tranquility Though Drugs
"Never before in history has man advanced so dramatically in discovering ways and means to appease his psycho-social needs and to ease his pain and anxiety." Dr. Ghaderian reviews the powers of the rational soul as composed of intelligence, imagination, knowledge and wisdom, comprehension and memory which all emerge from the mind and consciousness. He addressed the effect of drugs on the consciousnesses.
Scientific Method and Search for Truth
Albert Einstein said that, “the quintessence of science is the eternally problematical connection between the world of ideas and of experience…” The scientific method is a bridge between observations…it is a logical bridge, a conceptual bridge, a verbal bridge between two observations.
Hypothesis formation is not the same thing as the perceived reality. The model is not the reality, however, this is the way the human mind works. Keys to understanding the Scientific Method are as follows:
Music Therapy
What is Music Therapy? Music Therapy is defined as the use of music activities conducted by qualified personnel to achieve a definite therapeutic goal. In society today Spiritual, Mental and Physical illness afflict many people.
Healing Relationships in Marriage
Ms. Ruth Eyford
Wearing Red Jacket in Center
Ruth Eyford works with Couples that are interested in improving their marital relationship. She uses commonly practiced therapies as well as the Baha'i Writings. She says that her use of the Baha'i Writings in improving the relationship of these couples does work. Her goal in writing the paper that is being presented at this conference was to transition our understanding from the philosphical to the practical in assessing and improving relationships.
The Importance for Physicians to Turn to God
At the time of this recording Dr. Agnes Ghaznavi is a praticing psychiatrist in Switzerland as well as the secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Switzerland. She works with couples, groups and individuals, and she says she is eclectic in all her psychiatry work and approaches.
Sexuality Panel Statements
Dr. Ghazvani speaks as a Bahá'í and not one versed in the theory of sexuality. Her advice to Bahá'ís is to read the introduction of The Universal House of Justice to this topic. She reviews the negative view of sex going back to the dogma of Original Sin.
Dr. Danesh asks, "How come we are so preoccupied with sexual matters?" He then gives two reasons for this.